Morrison & Foerster this week launched a specific website, ScaleUp, for the firm's startup practice. The website features information about the firm's practice in this space, as well as a set of articles and resources authored by both firm attorneys and others in the startup community.

John Rafferty, a partner in Morrison & Foerster's San Francisco office, explained that the website aims to be both a landing page for the firm's work with startups and a hub for information startup entrepreneurs can use to bolster their work.

“We really wanted to devote a separate website to our startup practice that really focused on the type of work we do and the lawyers in that practice, but more importantly as a resource that could be used by founders looking to build up their ventures,” Rafferty said.

The website's “Guidance” section provides information broken up into five separate categories: formation, funding, expansion, intellectual property, and exits. Rafferty explained that these subcategories and the content therein are “designed to address or talk about issues that a startup founder might have or face as they are forming or expanding their companies.”

Law firm websites tend to have a few standard features, most of which center on a firm directory that clients can search to get in touch with attorneys. When law firms first began to publish websites for their firms and practices, they often included lots of educational resources, guides, and other online content, but many firms have scaled back that practice due to the cost of updating and maintaining those resources.

Some law firms, however, seem to be dipping a toe back into this practice. Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton this week launched a website, LitSmart E-discovery, as an accompanying online resource for its new LitSmart E-discovery Review Center. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton similarly launched its “Cleary Cybersecurity and Privacy Watch” blog last week, featuring articles from firm attorneys on global policy and legislation affecting data breach and cybersecurity law.

ScaleUp may differ in that its intended readers, startup founders, tend to be fairly accustomed to seeing and interacting with highly developed websites as a first point of contact. Rafferty noted that there is a strong likelihood that “their first touch point with the firm is going to be the website.”

Notably, the ScaleUp website differs in design from Morrison & Foerster's main website. While the main Morrison & Foerster site is set against a black and white color scheme with many of the same features of other Big Law websites, ScaleUp is designed around a colorful rock climbing motif.

In light of the role that websites now play in establishing a potential business relationship, especially in the technology community, ScaleUp's different look is a way for the firm's startup practice to set a tone with potential clients. “This is something we're going to point clients or potential clients to going forward as the research to start looking at as they're starting to move forward,” Rafferty said.