By bbr

by Sarah Warlick, content director

As longtime readers will know, bbr marketing has long advocated taking the proactive step of reserving the URL for any and all web addresses your firm might want to use in the future. It’s a smart way to be prepared for future expansions while preventing potential competitors or domain-squatters from grabbing them and causing you problems down the road.

What’s more, doing so has been something your firm could do for a very minimal cost, going through popular domain registrars. By registering the name or names you want to reserve and paying a low annual fee (usually less than $20), you could make sure your chosen name was available when and if you chose to build a site that used it.

If you’re an attorney, you may want to explore a brand new option slated to become available today. On October 19^th, 2015, a new type of address will join the .coms, .nets and .edus of the online world: Web addresses ending in .law will be added to the mix.

This twist may turn out to be the hottest thing since Atticus Finch in the legal world. Then again, it may not amount to much. One obvious drawback is the cost – while most domain registration and maintenance fees are minimal, .law names begin at $200. Prices do vary though; it costs $323 for a one-year .law domain registration at Marcaria.

Other domain codes that refer to the profession are also possible: .legal, .lawyer, .attorney and even some that are niche-specific, such as divorce.law. The more specific the name, the more registering one of these domains is likely to cost, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog.

All the newly available web address endings are the result of action by ICANN, the California non-profit organization in charge of establishing URL protocols. In 2011, this group decided to allow a host of new options for web domains, since the huge surge in sites had made it nearly impossible to find a .com or .net address that wasn’t already taken by another business.

The new .law URLs are available only to credentialed lawyers and law firms, so having one of these addresses may end up being seen as a mark of legitimacy. It’s too early to tell whether that happens, however, or to what degree as many or even most law firms may simply decide to stay with the addresses they have to avoid confusing their clients.

Is this a development your law firm is excited about? Are you chomping at the bit, anxious to grab your brand new .law domain name, or are you sanguine about the whole thing? We’re curious about whether you see it as a big deal that holds the potential of great benefit or a non-event, so please let us know your feelings in the comments.