Lawyers finding their own niche with internet.(Brief Article)

Jere Webb has seen trends ebb and flow when it comes to demand for legal services.

Over time, top law firms uniformly migrate to new niches that reflect changes in the economy--hazardous waste, employment law, intellectual property as it relates to software. But in his 30-year legal career, Webb, a partner at Portland's Stoel Rives LLP, said he's never seen anything like law firms' current gravitation toward internet law.

"It's an avalanche of business," he said. "We're forming the companies virtually on a week-by-week basis. We get them funded and they're off and running."

Just as internet businesses have become the darlings of Wall Street, so have they become the fastest-growing pot of gold for service providers, including law firms. Like their counterparts across the country, Portland's large law firms are forming new practice groups dedicated to serving the internet …