Law Firm 4.0 Blog

Year-end website bio housekeeping for lawyers in 30 minutes or less

People don't like to start on new projects the last few days of December.  The pre-holiday bustle that focuses around family, food, faith, fa-la-la and folly has subsided, and we look ahead to the first full week of January to really start work.  This year, these last December days are "lost" days if we don't seize them and dedicate them to simple, yet constructive things. 

Like not letting one more minute pass before you update your website biographies.  Face it - it's long overdue.  Don't wait to make it a New Year's resolution (along with "I will lose 10 lbs, stop eating M&Ms, observe highway speed postings and call my brother more often"). Here are some things you can do in 30 minutes or less -- and a few other things you can do during your next website refresh.

Each year, Content Pilot publishes “Ten Foundational Best Practices” for law firm websites, and Lawyer Biographies is one of them. The company analyzes AmLaw 100 firms based on the Ten FBPs and will release the research findings in late January 2013. The housekeeping items below are the attributes of the Lawyer Biography Foundational Best Practice.  If you invest this bio update time during these lost December days, you'll start the year with a best practices bio to boot.

Things you can do in 30 minutes or less (You will need the help of your marketing team, but I know they'll be happy to help you.):

1. Rewrite the first 150 characters (not words, characters, which include punctuation and spaces) of your bio so that it is compelling and relevant to your practice.  Google and other search engines will pick up the first 100-150 characters - arguably the most valuable professional real estate you can own. What do you want potential clients to see when they Google your name?  Focus on that. 
   
   You know your practice. You know for what you want to be known.  This shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to write.
2. Rewrite the rest of your overview paragraph. Don't tell who you are (Partner in the labor and employment section of XYZ law firm, Board Certified, blah blah blah), tell what you do and for whom you do it. Here is a good example:
   
   John Smith represents trademark, brand and copyright owners around the world in disputes, enforcement efforts, trademark acquisitions and stopping counterfeits. His clients include consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, software companies, real estate developers, and service providers.
   
   It is loaded with keywords that are critical to John's practice.
   
   Again, you know what you do.  This shouldn't take longer than 12 minutes to write - you already have the first 150 characters done.
3. Do not use Mr. or Ms. throughout your bio.  It's so old-fashioned and impersonal.  If you want to get hired over your competitor across the country or down the street, humanize your bio.  Be approachable.
   
   This will take your webmaster 3 minutes to do.
4. Update your LinkedIn profile and keep your Twitter feed active. Then add your social media icons to your website bio. 
   
   Your webmaster and maybe your developer will need a few minutes to add these links/icons.  But updating your LinkedIn profile will only take about 10 minutes.
5. Study and be critical of your practice and industry lists to which you link on your bio. Too many lawyers have a long list of 10 or more links.  This does not add credibility to your profile. To pare this down, answer the questions:  what do I want to be known for?  What will I be known for in 3 years?  5 years?  Ignore the practices that occupied you 10 years ago unless those are still critical to your livelihood (and your firm's strategy) today.
   
   If you are comfortable self-analyzing, this won't take more than 5 minutes. If you don't like to self-analyze, get over it - at least for this.  Your marketing team can help you.
6. Visitors to every law firm website want to know 3 things: What you've done, for whom you've done it and what, specifcally, you can do for them.  So - update the experience on your bio and be as specific as your state bar association allows.
   
   If you haven't been keeping it current, this could take awhile.  This is the most important bio commitment you can make.
7. Finally, add your latest news articles, publications, e-alerts, etc. to your website and cross-link to them.  Your marketing team is most likely doing this already.  But confirm that they have everything that's relevant to your practice.
   
   Take a few minutes and delete links that are no longer relevant to what you are doing.  Including a long list of 30 articles that were written 20-30 years ago doesn't add credibility, either (unless they are seminal articles in important publications).
   
   All this will only take 10 minutes if you've been keeping it fairly current.

Now, if you have a website refresh on the horizon, you can work with your marketing team to ensure that your firm's bio pages are exemplary. Create "personal portals" or mini-sites for each lawyer, so the uniqueness of each professional can be highlighted.  Organize your content more elegantly using the latest technology tools, such as ajax, jquery and javascript.  Take new photos that are more "environmental" or as I like to say, "magazine-style." They are larger, more inviting and not your typical headshot. 

Please use these lost days of December.  When we roll around to January 2nd, you'll feel so much better about starting this new year.

 

 

 

2013 advice for law firms to ensure a bright future

My friend and colleague Leigh Dance published a terrific article in AmLaw Daily structured as advice for global law firms.  But most of it applies to law firms of any size.  I've linked to the article here, but I have also pulled the key points so you can scan them.

Leigh's advice comes from more than 20 years consulting to corporate legal departments in multinational companies and global law firms.  In addition, she recently conducted a major study for World Law Group with survey respondents from more than 30 countries.  Her "to-do's" are designed for law firms with international offices and how they can best serve domestic clients abroad and foreign clients at home.  For firms with local, regional and national practices, take this advice and extrapolate to find the nuggets that will work best for you.

1. Inhabit your client's world; they want you there.  "Your clients in corporations around the world are busy rethinking and reworking every aspect of making and delivering legal services. While they’ll proceed with or without you, they’d like to have their preferred firms at their side. Unfortunately many of you are simply not involved enough in their world. Their focus is not just the legal part—it’s how legal advice is sourced and delivered in the company."
   
   Spend the time and money to meet your clients on their turf.
2. Build project management tools, including financial accounting ones.  "Your clients want more certainty. Clients still love what you do for them, but many want to manage smarter so they can use you less. To nourish the relationship, your numbers must show you can deliver on your promises. Most of your firm’s financial and account management exists to give you (and The American Lawyer and the banks), productivity and profitability info. What’s in it for the client?"
   
   Clients want to know how you will ensure that you won't under- or over-deliver.  And they want to know this on the front end of a matter or engagement.
3. Use knowledge management and IT across borders to reinforce client relationships.  "Trust is a relationship thing, and your clients long ago stopped thinking of relationships as one-to-one. In multipolar business, relationships between international law firms and corporate clients are inevitably multipersonal. Across the time zones, organizational structures, legal systems, and compliance frameworks, trust is a network constructed with information and project continuity that supports good personal relationships."
   
   Law firms of all sizes struggle with client relationship and experience data.  Many are paralyzed because of inefficient processes - or even knowing what to do with the data when they capture it.  I'll write much more about this in 2013, but here are two recent blog posts that will further the discussion in your firms.  http://lawfirm4-0.typepad.com/law_firm_40_blog/2012/11/experience-management-and-databases-the-results-of-a-survey-of-cmos.html and http://lawfirm4-0.typepad.com/law_firm_40_blog/2012/02/experience-management-its-been-elevated-to-mission-critical.html 
4.  Demonstrate international know-how.  "Your firm should provide specific and compelling proof of your knowledge of laws and regulations across the diverse places where your clients are selling, buying, sourcing, or investing.  It seems so basic, but global clients say their most pressing concern in high-growth markets is: understanding local and regional laws and regulations. Hello? Big Law, step up to the plate."
   
   If your lawyers are effectively collaborating across practices and geographies, then you are heads and shoulders above your competitor firms.  This is what it takes to make your global clients happy with you and your firm. 
5. Show off your multicultural strengths.  "Since many of your clients are worldly, they can quickly discern your lawyers’ and your firm’s ability (or failure) to get things done with a diverse cultural mix of stakeholders, executives, employees, and regulators (many of whom have not mastered your language). Clients active in multiple new markets recognize that service styles and practices vary across cultures. They also know that great short- and long-distance service can be as important as technical legal skill in giving valuable counsel."
   
   Brilliant legal technicians who don't care about the human side of the relationship are not a good fit for many clients - domestic or abroad.  The human and cultural understanding are what causes firms and lawyers to get hired - and without it, fired.
   
6. Figure out what you do that's better or different and emphasize it.  "Big Law has aced the task of providing expert lawyers who speak brilliantly on their subject matter. It’s far harder, yet more important now, for lawyers to present the firm’s advantages in a way that resonates with the particular client. To do that, you need to understand better what your key clients worry most about, for the issue at hand. Is it meeting a deadline, managing a far-flung legal team, compliance monitoring, reducing costs, cross-border coordination, getting along with a prickly regulator? Only then can you present a differentiated offering that addresses the client’s specific needs."
   
   Your marketing and business development department can be a great asset here.  But, in addition to people who understand positioning and messaging, it requires effective processes and the right technology, such as experience management and proposal generation tools. 
7. Make your global brand real by aligning it with how you serve clients. "Given point Number 6, it frustrates me that many firm marketing efforts travel poorly to clients (and the firm’s own lawyers) around the world.  Global law firm branding tends to overemphasize visual identity and underemphasize how specific services and the firm’s resources are discussed with and delivered to clients. Many firms send promotional messages that don’t make sense across cultures and thus mean little to the clients you are trying to win." 
   
   Clients will see through "brand" messages that are distinctly different than lawyers' service delivery.  Ensure that your key messages resonate with buyers of legal services across all borders.  While your messaging might be aspirational, it surely won't ring true.

Here is Leigh's byline and a link to the World Law Group summary of the study. 

E. Leigh Dance is president and founder of legal services management consultancy ELD International, based in New York and Brussels. She speaks three languages fluently, and for more than 20 years has worked with global corporate law departments and law firms. The study referred to is the World Law Group Global Agenda 2012: Issues & Priorities for Senior In-house Counsel Worldwide, conducted in conjunction with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell and ELD International. Download the study report on home page of www.TheWorldLawGroup.com.