Proskauer Rose, LLP

Proskauer Rose was a joint project with design firm Ross, Culbert & Lavery. Proskauer viewed their Web site as a prime marketing and recruiting tool and needed to present a contemporary face as well as keep the site fresh and informative.

Proskauer's requirements included tools for content creation and maintenance that were easy to learn and easy to use; integration with a central database to populate attorney information; and improved site organization and navigation.

We were also asked to build the firm's Intranet to give them a single point for content management. This project included several custom management tools and advanced site functionality.

Key System Features:

• Extensible database driven system - additional functionality can be developed quickly and inexpensively
• Integrated with client's records management database for automated updates
• Automatically generated navigation based on the contents of the site
• Integrated with internal network authentication (LDAP)
• Combined content management for both Intranet and Public Site
• Distributed content management (50+ content managers throughout the Firm) means that content is easily updated and always timely

Public Site Highlights:

• Robust Search sitewide for attorneys and for specific types of news and publications content
• Automatically pushes latest client alerts to the home page
• Most list pages are sorted in reverse chronological order for timely relevance
• Easy to add new areas (such as offices or practice areas)
• The Proskauer Professionals database is updated nightly from their central records database - updates are made only once in a single database
• Online registration for seminars and events - including ability for managers to track and report on a per -company,-event, or -individual basis, to notify attendees of changes, and to export to their contact management database
• Ability to post and gather resumes for administrative and staff positions
• Extended attorney recruiting section - highly sucsessful in positioning the Firm as a destination for laterals and new first year associates
• Printable version of every page

Intranet Highlights:

As impressive as the public site is, Proskauer's Intranet dwarfs its public counterpart. For easy adoption, the Intranet was built upon the established brand and functionality of the Public Site. To quickly distinguish between the two, the page background color for the Intranet is gray (vs. beige for the public site). A partial list of features includes:

• Zoom in or out of any page
  
• Search both the Intranet and Public Site from any page
• Firm Calendar
  
  • Reminders of Upcoming Events
  • View daily, weekly, monthly or any custom range calendar
    
  • Firm calendar - aggregate of all events (including Practice and Office calendars)
    
  • Practice Department and Office calendars
    
  • Recruiting calendars
    
  • CLE and IT Training calendars
• Firm News (able to be associated with Office, Practice, Admin Area and Individual Attorney or Staff Member)
  
• Self administered Out of Office List
• Last five days of New Clients and Matters posted for easy reference
• Expanded facility for communicating schedules and news regarding all aspects of the Firm's Recruiting Program including, general recruiting items, the New Associate Program, the Proskauer Institute, and the Summer Associate Program.
• Up to the minute Attorney and Staff manuals as well as benefit and policy information. All manuals are searchable.
• Self managed Classified Ad postings
  
• Personal Interests and Hobbies bulletin board
  
• Discounts and promotions bulletin board
  
• Expanded Technology area with an extensive 'Tech Tips' section as well as a dedicated IT Training Calendar

"We first hired Animus Rex in the Fall of 2001 during the reconstruction of our public site, proskauer.com and have relied on their quality work ever since. Animus Rex was quick to understand our vision and objectives. They were able to understand and optimize existing firm processes and execute efficiencies, such as automating several sections of the site, on time and on budget. At the end of the process, they delivered a site that surpassed our expectations. It reflected our brand, properly positioned and promoted the depth and breadth of our expertise, and continues to be one of the Firm's key marketing and recruiting tools.

"We were so pleased with Animus Rex's work, that we hired them to redo our Intranet. Our internal site was a much larger challenge. It would need to accommodate tens of thousands of records ranging from Firm news to calendar items, to associate manuals, to templates, to the lunch menu. It would need to comprehensively bridge, for the very first time, our offices, practice groups, administrative departments and our existing knowledge base.

"Animus Rex worked tirelessly to keep things on-course and to help us keep track of the countless details that make or break a project of this magnitude. They helped us refine and prioritize the site features, worked through issues as they arose, and created solutions that seemed undoable at first glance. The new Intranet was successfully launched last Spring and has become an invaluable tool we use each day.

"Our sites have been extremely well received by discerning and disparate audiences. We believe that this is due, in no small part, to our ability to manage all of the content internally. Animus Rex's content management system enabled us to distribute maintenance responsibilities to each area's stakeholder. They worked with us to define the groups and processes by which this happened, and then trained over 50 content managers. Their training was informative and effective, and the materials were impeccable.

"Aside from being consummate professionals, the team at Animus Rex has the unique ability to see both detail and the big picture, plan for the future, and provide solutions that actually work in the real world."

Paul Webb
Former Director of Business Development
Proskauer Rose LLP
(Currently Director of Marketing at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP)