One of Scotland's oldest law firms has reinvented itself in advance of Clementi-style changes to the legal services market by introducing a multi-branded web-based strategy.

Bathgate-based Caesar & Howie has launched a string of specialist websites selling legal services to specific market niches - including Scotland's burgeoning Polish population, pensioners and members of sports clubs.

Founded in 1792, Caesar & Howie started the push into cyberspace last autumn with the launch of several targeted web-based services, and several more are in the pipeline. Each new service has been given a distinct brand identity, and they are not immediately identifiable as being provided by a traditional law firm.

Owing to the geographic reach of the internet, the launch of the new services has enabled Caesar & Howie to reach out to clients far beyond its Central Scotland heartland.

Services launched to date include Kupdom.co.uk (a Polish language site designed to assist Polish residents of the UK with house purchases), Sports Assist (which enables sports clubs to generate revenues by marketing professional services to their members), Senior Issues (which focuses on providing services to people aged over 55), and Central Scotland New Homes (marketing new homes across the central region).

A website targeting recently bereaved people - Bereavement Legal Services - is also about to be launched. David Borrowman, Caesar & Howie's managing partner, said: "What we're trying to do is move into niches where we believe there's an opportunity. We don't see any future for the small solicitors' office in a small town, just sitting around waiting for the next conveyancing client to walk in through the door. Over time, that sort of thing will atrophy, and probably quite fast."

He added: "When most young people are looking for services, the first thing they do is to look on the internet."

Borrowman believes that the possibility of a radical liberalisation of the legal services market following the Clementi review "made us wake up we thought we should try and do something different ahead of those changes."

Kupdom is targeting the estimated 80,000 Polish immigrants who now live in Scotland. It aims to demystify the house-buying process for the Polish community - and then to steer prospective house buyers into using Caesar & Howie for conveyancing. It is being widely promoted on Polish-language websites, as well as in Polish language newspapers across the UK.

Since its launch last October, Borrowman said 300 Polish people looking to purchase homes in Scotland have signed up for the service and that 30 have already bought houses. He added that Caesar & Howie employs three full-time Polish staff and has three paralegals currently learning Polish.

Borrowman, a former rugby player with Edinburgh Wanderers, said that Sports Assist, launched in April 2007, was introduced to fill a gap in the finances of amateur sports clubs across Scotland: "Effectively, most such clubs are broke. But Sports Assists enables them to make lots of money through the marketing of legal and other services to their members."

Clubs which sign up for the service are rewarded via a marketing fee based on volumes of services bought by members. Borrowman said Dollar Golf Club has already signed up and that nine other sports clubs are waiting in the wings - including hockey and football clubs. Since the service was launched in April, Borrowman has received 80 enquiries.

He does not believe Caesar & Howie's internet-based strategy is going to necessitate the closure of any of the firm's 15 offices.

Its principal offices are in Bathgate, Livingston, Alloa and Falkirk.