Tag: Law Offce Management

Yelp Wanted: For Law Firm Reviews

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If you are like most businesses, you consider word of mouth your most valuable marketing channel. Increasingly, online reviews are a critical component of Web word of mouth.

Frequently used lawyer review sites include Google+, Citysearch and Yelp. The rise of review sites, and Yelp in particular, has been of significant importance to business owners across the world. For example, Apple iPhone’s Siri application primarily uses Yelp for its reviews. This article will walk you through the basics of leveraging Yelp to improve your word-of-mouth marketing and grow your business.

Getting Started on Yelp

yelp law firm website internet marketingThe first step every law firm should take with Yelp is to activate its business page. The public can see and review your business profile whether or not you activate the page, so proactively filling out your business profile sends a clear message to previous and prospective clients that you care about your online and offline image. Be sure to complete all of the fields, including photos, descriptions, phone numbers and office hours, to create a solid profile. Including photos of co-workers and other employees will communicate a safe and inviting environment.

Many people are intimidated by law firms and research them online before calling or emailing a firm. Meeting those visitors on Yelp with appropriate photos and information will give them a positive impression that your firm is approachable.

Once your firm’s Yelp account is active, the real benefits can begin and you can start leveraging your online reviews.

Respond to Your Law Firm Reviews

At some point, if you haven’t already, you will start to receive reviews. Some will be glowing testimonials of your professionalism and competence. Others may ask questions or express concern. It is vital that you respond to your reviewers. If someone had a less-than-ideal experience, follow up with that individual and ensure that his or her concerns are addressed. In many cases, your follow-up will prompt your client to edit or add a new review, which may help your online image. Learn more about responding to existing online reviews here.

Leverage Yelp Offline

Post a sign or sticker in your office letting clients know they can find and review you on Yelp. Most law firms send out some sort of direct mail or newsletter. Add the Yelp logo to these mailings to encourage recipients to leave a review. You can also notify Yelp next time you host a community event or fundraiser. Posting these events online will spread your offline positive influence even further via the Web.

Display Your Positive Yelp Reviews

Framing awards, articles from local newspapers and other publicity items has long been a standard practice in law firm lobbies. Doing the same for recent positive online reviews is no different. Viewing positive reviews of your law firm will likely cause your clients to think of your firm in a warm light and will encourage them to also leave a glowing review online.

Refer Your Referrers

No advertising operates in a vacuum. Encourage clients to visit you on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other Social Media networks. Likewise, make sure those connected to your Social Media profiles know you are on Yelp. A simple “Check us out on Yelp” can encourage many clients to leave a review.

Live Up to Their Positive Reviews

Finally, and most importantly, you must continue providing excellent service. It is impossible to get away with sub-par service in today’s world. As you know, competition grows stronger every day. If you are not good at serving clients, the word will get out—through Yelp or other types of word-of-mouth. Positive reviews will follow naturally when you provide outstanding service.

Keep Your Review Practices Ethical

Never, ever, ever, under ANY circumstances, purchase positive reviews. Yelp is very strict with its review policies, and suspicious reviews are flagged and dealt with regularly. Just as spamming Google and other search engines can lead to major penalties or even blacklisting, paying for or offering bribes for reviews on Yelp can be detrimental to your business. As with all your marketing efforts, check with your state Bar Association to be sure you are operating within its guidelines when it comes to your online review strategy.

Why Tweeting Doesn't Make You A Twit

The Rainmaker Institute mini logo (1)recently presented at the American Bar Association annual conference in San Francisco on “Why Tweeting Doesn’t Make You a Twit!”
 I was shocked and amazed at the number of attorneys I spoke to who still don’t believe that using social media is an effective way to acquire more clients, establish credibility and get a steady stream of referrals.

More often than not I heard comments such as:

“Social media is for younger generations;”

“People don’t use the Internet to look for attorneys;”

“I know firms that spent money on social media and never saw a return;” or

“The type of people who I want to do business with aren’t on social media”

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These statements are categorically not true. In fact, believing these statements can be detrimental to the success of your law firm. Actively and appropriately engaging in social media is no longer a “nice to have” it is a “must have” if you truly want to build a successful firm.

Think about your own experience. If you are considering buying a new product or service, and you go onto the Internet and can’t find information on a website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon or any other number of social media platforms, your enthusiasm and interest in that particular company or product begins to diminish.

You may even find you trust the company less, are more skeptical of the product or service and begin to seek out competitors who offer the same product or service.

When people search for legal help the process is no different. It’s human nature to want to avoid making bad decisions that cause us financial or emotional harm.

Our fears are calmed and our skepticism is lessened when we can read and learn about the product or service we are about to invest in. When we read or watch third-party reviews we feel safer. When we see that a company is actively offering valuable and powerful information to those who may need the product or service, we believe we are mitigating the risk of a bad decision.

You must always remember that people buy emotionally and justify logically.

That’s why Twitter is one of the fastest growing online social media platforms. When used correctly and ethically it is a powerful part of a firm’s overall online marketing strategy.

Some basic and impressive statistics about Twitter easily demonstrate why this platform must be utilized.

  • There are 200 million active users;
  • 20 percent of individuals who “follow” a company on Twitter do so to give feedback and share ideas;
  • 71 percent of individuals who positively review a company on Twitter (with a Tweet, Re-Tweet) go on to suggest the company to his/her peers;
  • 56 percent of consumers would be more likely to encourage friends and family to try new products from a social brand than in person or over the phone;
  • 63 percent of consumers agree that social experiences make them more interested in a brand’s product;
  • 64 percent of consumers have made a purchase decision based on social content;
  • 67 percent of 18-34 year old consumers prefer to do business with social companies;
  • 91 percent of 18-34 year olds using social media are talking about brands.

If the above reasons don’t compel you to jump on Twitter and actively use it to grow your firm, here are three additional reasons to use Twitter.

With Twitter, you can build a massive platform:

A platform helps you effectively grow the number of people who know who you are, know what type of people/companies you are qualified to assist and know how you are different than every other law firm out there.

Twitter helps you establish credibility:

People do business with people they know, like and trust.

Being active on Twitter helps you establish yourself as a thought leader.

You can effectively position yourself as the “go-to” attorney for your practice area and geographical region.

You offer followers powerful, relevant and helpful information that begins to build a relationship and positions you and or the firm as a valuable and credible source of information.

Drive traffic to your website:

You can engage people on Twitter with powerful information and then direct them to your website. It is your website’s job to educate, engage and compel the viewer to take action and call or email the firm and/or set up an appointment with an attorney.

On your website you can showcase who you are and how you are different from other firms. If you do not actively display how you are unique and different from all your competitors out there, people will begin to make decisions based on price. This is the single worst position you can find yourself if. You never want to get business because you are the “cheapest attorney out there.”

There you can also give viewers the opportunity to: Learn about you and the firm, hear about others’ interactions with you through testimonials (when permitted by state) and case studies (demonstrate expertise), and discover how you can help them navigate their pressing legal issue.

Twitter of course, must be used effectively and ethically. Marketing is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You must invest either the time or money into these strategies consistently so your efforts can gain traction and eventually give you a return on your investment.

This article originally ran in The Record Reporter, an Arizona newspaper and website that covers legal business news:

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What Works for Business to Business (B2B) Content Marketing

The Rainmaker Institute mini logo (1)he B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn has more than 50,000 members, making it one of the largest groups on the popular business social network. Recently, 815 members of the group responded to a survey about content marketing about what works and what doesn’t for B2B content marketing.

According to the survey results, content marketing is used primarily for lead generation; here are the tactics being employed and their effectiveness rankings:

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Not surprisingly, LinkedIn tops the list for the most effective social media platforms for content marketing, followed closely by YouTube. Video is becoming increasingly more popular since it is an easily digestible format:

 

social media, linkedin, business, marketing

In addition, the survey uncovered the following trends:

More than 82 percent of B2B marketers are increasing their content production over the next 12 months.

YouTube is gaining popularity as a social media platform to reach and engage B2B audiences – Facebook is losing ground.

Marketing automation is on the rise. 61 percent of marketers use marketing automation platforms, up from 43 percent last year.

You can click on the following link to see a slideshow of the entire survey results: B2B Content Marketing Report 2013.

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Consumer Financial Services Basics 2013 – September 30 – October 01, 2013

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the upcoming  Consumer Financial Services Basics 2013.

CFSB Sept 30 2013

When

September 30 – October 01, 2013

Where

  • University of Maryland
  • Francis King Carey School of Law
  • 500 W Baltimore St
  • Baltimore, MD 21201-1701
  • United States of America

Facing the most comprehensive revision of federal consumer financial services (CFS) law in 75 years, even experienced consumer finance lawyers might feel it is time to get back in the classroom. This live meeting is designed to expose practitioners to key areas of consumer financial services law, whether you need a primer or a refresher.

It is time to take a step back and think through some of these complex issues with a faculty that combines decades of practical experience with law school analysis. The classroom approach is used to review the background, assess the current policy factors, step into the shoes of regulators, and develop an approach that can be used to interpret and evaluate the scores of laws and regulations that affect your clients.

LinkedIn (or Left Out) for Lawyers

Until recently, very few lawyers and corporate counsel had even heard of the social media site LinkedIn.  In fact, it surprises many to learn that LinkedIn was launched ten years ago.  How quickly things have changed!

Ninety-five percent of ABA members indicate that they have posted their profiles on LinkedIn. Seventy percent of corporate counsel indicate that they use LinkedIn regularly as a tool to find and vet outside counsel.  These statistics come from a 2012 ABA survey.

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LinkedIn is now one of the world’s most popular websites.  If you would like to be found by potential clients, your LinkedIn profile has become even more important than your website biography.  If you are looking for networking opportunities, your LinkedIn presence and activity have become just as important as your face-to-face networking.

LinkedIn launched in May 2003.  “From the very start, LinkedIn differentiated itself as a site for business, business development and recruitment rather than a social site,” said Phil Nugent.

“In just ten years, LinkedIn has gained 225 million users around the world, including 80 million users in the United States,” said Nugent.  “More than 173,000 people join LinkedIn each day.  It is a great place for many attorneys, because the demographics of LinkedIn skew older, wealthier and more-educated than any of the other top social media sites.”

Nugent discussed effective use of LinkedIn by lawyers and law firms at the monthly educational meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, held July 9 at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in LoDo Denver.  Nugent is a non-practicing attorney and principal at NCG Strategic Marketing.

“Successful use of LinkedIn as a business development tool has three steps,” said Nugent.  “First, you must post a complete and compelling profile.  All too many lawyers and law firms leave it at that, however, and then wonder why LinkedIn is not working as well as they had hoped.

“To achieve success on LinkedIn, you must build a strong network of connections in terms of both quality and quantity,” said Nugent.  “With this accomplished, you can leverage LinkedIn as a business development tool to find others, to get found and to conduct market research.”

Getting Started on LinkedIn

The creation and posting of a good profile is step one of a solid LinkedIn presence.  However, it should not be the same as a lawyer’s website bio.  Instead, it should be designed to satisfy the unique needs of LinkedIn’s search algorithm.

“LinkedIn’s algorithm uses a metric to quantify profile strength, which has a huge effect on search results,” said Nugent.  “Different areas of your LinkedIn profile carry different weights.  You should aim for a profile-strength of “all-star,” or as close to 100 percent as possible.”

Nugent discussed and gave specific recommendations regarding the algorithm’s weights.

Name and title (25 percent) — Do not make the mistake of simply listing a generic job title in this very important space.  It should include carefully selected keywords – the keywords that those searching for someone like you are likely to use.  The title category can be as long as 120 characters, or about 18 words.

Photo (5 percent) – A profile that includes a photo is seven times more likely to be viewed than one without a photo. Be sure that the photo is both professional and recent.

Summary (10 percent) – Use your summary to tell a compelling story about how you help clients solve their legal problems.  This section should include plenty of keywords.  It can include up to 2,000 characters, or about 350 words.  Spell check is always recommended.

Education (15 percent)

Previous two jobs (30 percent)

Three recommendations (15 percent) 

Another smart tactic for promotion of your LinkedIn presence is to customize your profile’s URL.  LinkedIn automatically generates a random URL, but this easily can be changed to a much shorter version featuring your name.  Additionally, you should be sure to add links to your website and blog.

On the “Edit Profile” page you can add content modules that include projects, publications, honors and awards, patents, certifications and languages.

“Throughout your LinkedIn profile, remember that content is king,” said Nugent.  “The copy should be compelling and should include plain-English keywords that are the same words that will be used by your target market or your ideal clients.  These keywords should indicate who you are and what you do.  Avoid ‘legalese’ — unless your clients use it, too.”

Once you have prepared and posted a strong LinkedIn profile, you want to make sure that people can actually gain access to it.  Go to the “privacy controls” section of your profile and choose the settings that allow “everyone” to view your profile photo and visibility.

Creating a LinkedIn Network

To support a strong LinkedIn profile, you need a strong network.  When it comes to building a network, you can pitch as well as catch.  This means that you shouldn’t rely only upon the invitations that you receive; you should proactively send invitations to those with whom you would like to be connected.

A LinkedIn network works like a big circle, with you in the middle.  First-degree connections are direct connections.  These are the people you have accepted and who have accepted you.  Second-degree connections are friends of these friends.  Third-degree connections are friends of second-degree connections.  Your level of visibility into third-degree connections is limited, and a request to connect must be routed through the second-degree connection that controls the relationship.

“The quality of your network is important,” said Nugent.  “If you accept too many random invitations, your network, although large, may not be sufficiently useful.  If you accept (and send) too few invitations, you won’t be able to use the database as it was designed.

“Before accepting any invitation,” said Nugent, “ask yourself if this person is potentially a client or a source for the kind of work you really want to do. Strive for balance between the quantity and the quality of the invitations you accept.”

When vetting an invitation, check out the inviter’s profile.  Is the invitation from a real and (apparently) respectable individual?  Does the inviter have quality contacts that might prove valuable?  Does the inviter have a large number of contacts?  Did the inviter include a personal note with the invitation?  “Rely on these factors to determine if it makes good sense to connect,” said Nugent.

When sending out your own invitations, start with your existing contact list.  Include your firm’s partners, associates and staff; members of professional, business and industry groups that you belong to; and referral sources, clients and friends.

“Never allow your network to stagnate,” said Nugent.  “It should grow continuously.  When you meet a new contact, follow up within 48 hours with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn instead of (or in addition to) an email or a written note.  To facilitate this tactic among those you meet, consider including your LinkedIn address on your business card.”

Using LinkedIn for Research

“A well-crafted LinkedIn network is like a finely tuned sports car,” said Nugent.  “It’s really a waste if you just let it sit in the garage.  You should take it out for a spin as often as possible.  The more you ‘drive’ LinkedIn, the more you’ll discover its usefulness — and the more you’ll realize what a powerful tool it can be on a daily basis.”

Your LinkedIn network is essential when conducting pre-interaction due diligence.  “You can search your network in order to find out useful information about prospects, their companies, clients, competitors, consultants, referral partners, media sources and employees,” said Nugent.  “The quality of your results will be determined by the quality of your contacts and the size of your network.

“LinkedIn can help provide answers to many important questions,” said Nugent.  “These include who is the right person to talk to in a particular organization?  What can I discover about this person prior to our meeting?  Who else is on their team?  Who might be able to provide me with background or an introduction?”

LinkedIn’s “advanced search” capability allows you to refine a search by relationship, location, current company, industry, past company, school and language.  Search can be further narrowed by groups, years of experience, function, seniority level, interests, company size, Fortune ranking and date joined.

Lawyers who want expanded search capabilities and additional functionality can try a premium membership on a monthly basis rather than sticking with the basic free membership.  However, the free membership provides plenty of power for most LinkedIn users.

“In just ten years, LinkedIn has gone from being a novelty embraced by techies to a must-have marketing tool for all professionals who hope to compete in today’s marketplace,” said Nugent.  “By creating a strong profile and a robust network, and by being an active user, any lawyer can vastly enhance his or her online visibility and reputation.”

Determining Which Social Media Platforms Work Best for Your Law Firm [INFOGRAPHIC]

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When you consider the overwhelming number of people who are now using social media, the question you should be asking is not, are my prospects, clients, and referral sources using social media? The question you should be asking is, which network are they using most often?

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you are your client.  Just because you don’t actively participate on Facebook or other social media platforms don’t mean your clients and prospects aren’t.   Very few law firms are aggressively going after these platforms; it’s an opportunity to get ahead of the curve. Plus, search engines now rank social media pages, so it’s very important for SEO.

Depending on the demographic of your clientele, you may have more success with one social media platform compared to another. The infographic below, based on the latest social media usage data from the Pew Research Center, can help you determine which platforms can work better for you, depending on the profile of your ideal target market:

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A Modest Proposal: Mentorship and Associate Development in Law Firms, Part I

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In April 2012, a group of attorneys from the Meritas Leadership Institute (“Meritas”) discussed and identified recurring trends in the legal industry that affect law firms on a global scale. Among the trends was retention, with young attorneys leaving law firms before benefiting the firm by bringing in new clients or earning big wins. This relates to law firms applying considerable amount of time and resources in recruiting new talent who do not ultimately stay with the firm. In addition, a generational gap exists as the novice and seasoned practitioner work side by side, often with different perspectives on worth ethic, profession ambitions, communication styles, personal motivations, notions of professionalism and more. Is there a solution to all of these problems so as to drive efficiency and harmony in law firms? Meritas offers a modest proposal in its white paper entitled the “2012-2013 Model Mentorship and Associate Development Program.”

Trends in the Legal Industry Concerning Mentorship

The white paper takes the stance that the Model Mentorship and Associate Development Program (“Mentorship Program”) is considered key in solving all of the above issues because with proper instruction and individualized attention, new attorneys will “join the team.” In turn, these attorneys add value to their law firms and receive more personal satisfaction.

The white paper is the brainchild of young attorneys who have collaborated in Meritas and worked together to engage in thought leadership activities. Katie Lynch, a member of the cohort, worked with her colleagues for a year to produce the white paper, which develops the purpose, structure and goals of mentoring and associate development. She provides her insights into the project and research in this article.

As part of its methodology, Meritas conducted a survey of senior attorneys with twenty plus years in the legal industry and new attorneys with seven or less years of experiences. Meritas also interviewed attorneys from all over the world in order to obtain a global perspective of the legal industry. Their research showed across the board that firms with formal mentoring programs in place as well as young attorneys with mentors thrived as compared to their counterparts without mentorship programs and mentors, respectively. “The Mentoring Programs helped them get associated and accustomed [to the law firm], ” Ms. Lynch explained.

Indeed, this supports changes in the practice of law, with the advent of technology. With email and off-site remote access, attorneys are increasingly working more independently, resulting in less cultivation of their professional development. The ultimate purpose of this program is to facilitate face-to-face interaction between novice attorneys and seasoned practitioners in order to support the growth of the young associate at an earlier point in their careers.

New Attorneys Engaging in the Business of Law

It is a known fact that new attorneys coming out of law school are not taught the business of law. Yet a law firm is in the service industry. “It’s not just about what to put in a motion and other general practice issues,” Ms. Lynch said. The Mentorship Program places a greater emphasis on building a business of law skill set. Whereas before attorneys were handed cases, now they are expected to build their own book of business earlier in their careers, along with retaining clients, marketing, and other such functions. The Mentorship Program recognizes that new associates need to be educated in this area.

The other important component to the Mentorship Program is that associates start as soon as they join so that they can obtain support from day one. “Young attorneys with tools of success can bring law firms success,” Ms. Lynch said. In integrating into the law firm environment, they will develop their own practice and engage in business development, thereby affecting the bottom line of the law firm. From a general overview of the law firm to the day-to-day specifics, a formal mentoring program can acclimate attorneys and allow them to operate efficiently and blend into the law firm culture.

Part II of this article will discuss specific components of the Mentorship Program and provide advice to law firms on how to adopt the program.

Discovery from Data Storage Providers: Building a Silver Lining into Your Cloud Storage Contract

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Many companies use cloud technology, especially cloud storage providers, to reduce IT management costs and rid themselves of the headache of overseeing the software and hardware needed to perform certain services internally, while gaining the ability to expand quickly. Indeed, it is estimated that by 2014 cloud storage will be a $148.8 billion industry and people will process over 50 percent of computing workloads in the cloud constituting one third of all internet traffic.

See Cindy Pham, “E-Discovery in the Cloud Era: What’s a Litigant to do?” 5 Hastings Sci. & Tech. L.J. 139 (2013); David D. Cross and Emily Kuwahara, “E-Discovery and Cloud Computing: Control of ESI in the Cloud.”

But, handing your data over to a third-party does not come without a price. Savvy litigants are beginning to head straight to these third-party cloud providers to subpoena corporate records during discovery. This can pose serious problems for the data owners including:

  • Vendors can produce your records without reviewing and withholding for privileged, work product protected, trade secret, or otherwise confidential information and designations.
  • Vendors with no vested interest in the litigation will likely respond to all the requests without an eye toward what is relevant or required under the rules resulting in mass overproduction.
  • Vendors may charge you, their customer, a high price for collecting and producing the data they are storing for you.
  • Vendors may not have maintained the metadata for each set of data, exposing you to a claim of spoliation.
  • A vendor’s deletion or backup schedule may have erased responsive data, exposing you to a claim of spoliation.
  • Differences in the productions you and your vendor make in response to the same requests can lead to claims of spoliation or concealment.

See Ashish S. Prasad, “Cloud Computing and Social Media: Electronic Discovery Considerations and Best Practices,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, February 2012 Volume 20, No. 2.

The Silver Lining: The remedy, of course, for most of these potential problems is negotiating your contract with cloud computing providers with an eye toward discovery. First, make sure your contract contains express commitments regarding the storage and retention of your data. You and your provider should be on the same page regarding how long data is to be maintained and what types of associated file data should be preserved so that you avoid any untimely deletion.

Second, make sure your contract requires immediate notice (within 48 hours) to you of any subpoena or document request received by your provider targeting any of your data.

Third, the contract with a cloud services provider should set forth that you, through your attorneys, have the right to review all documents and data prior to production. Your agreement should also give you the right to require the provider to withhold any documents from production that you designate as either subject to a privilege or not-relevant or not responsive.

Fourth, the cost of collecting and assembling data for review and production from a cloud can be high because of the way in which the data is stored. Therefore, you will want to designate who bears the expense of the collection and production of your data so you aren’t surprised by a large bill later.

Finally, I would also caution you to think carefully about whether the cloud is really the cheaper alternative it appears to be. If your business involves frequent litigation or due-diligence necessitating the documents at issue, the cost of accessing and producing these documents from the cloud may override the initial savings. Similarly, think strategically about low-value data you can store cheaply in the cloud versus potentially privileged, trade secret, and confidential information you may want to designate for local, albeit more expensive, storage which is solely in your control.

What Clients Want from Your Law Firm’s Website

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When a client comes to your office, they are expecting to meet a lawyer they can trust who respects them and will represent their case well. The same guiding principle applies to what prospective clients want from your law firm’s website: a trusted resource that will provide information and guide them to a lawyer they can trust. There are several ways you can be responsive to client needs on your law firm’s site.

Descriptions of Legal Proceedings

Your prospective clients will likely have many questions about the events that are going to take place surrounding their case. How many times can they expect to meet with you or a partner attorney? How many court hearings will they need to attend? Is there any background work required on their part? What sort of emotions might they experience as their case reaches a trial? You could provide a resource webpage, or even a thorough blog post, on your site that walks clients through the process and provides answers to their concerns.

Clear Explanations of Laws

Your legal training and expertise gives you have the ability to understand complex rulings and, using your strong relational skills, you also have the ability to explain the details of those rulings in layman’s terms. Your law firm’s blog is an excellent place to write about recently passed laws or judicial rulings. Particularly, if a law will directly affect your client base, you should consider devoting the time to explain the information to your site visitors.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

As you have practiced law you have more than likely encountered the same questions, or type of questions, from your clients. Questions such as: Do I have a case? What is a personal injury? How much will my attorney fee be? How much can I get in my settlement? Consider creating a section on your site to address these most frequently asked questions in a FAQ section. Your firm will be seen as a legal authority and will simultaneously build trust with potential clients.

Practical Tools and Resources

In a world of smartphones and apps, Web users crave information that is interactive and engaging. Think about a complicated question or process you could streamline and create an effective tool to guide your clients through the nuances. Personal injury lawyers may choose to include an interactive questionnaire for clients to determine the severity of their injuries. A family lawyer may feature a child support cost calculator on their site. Be creative and find a quality marketing team of designers and programmers to bring your vision to life.

Introduce Your Firm’s Attorneys

An often overlooked, but necessary element of any law firm site is the attorney bio pages. Your clients will instantly get a sense of your attorneys when they meet face to face in your office, but what about beforehand? That first impression almost always happens online. It is important to make a good impression. Consider including bits of personal information to show that your attorneys are well rounded individuals or, better still, include a professional video highlighting each of your partners. Remember to be engaging; your clients want to know they can trust you. In the 21st century, building trust oftentimes begins online.

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Can You Hear Me Now? Tips for Communicating with Counsel

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Imagine that some circumstance arises that leads you to need an attorney. Perhaps you have a dispute with a neighbor, are considering adopting a child, or have been wrongfully terminated from your employment. No matter what your legal matter may be, you may find that a common question arises in your mind: How do I best communicate with my attorney? Today’s technology provides many options for communication, ranging from social media websites like LinkedIN and Twitter to increased modes of communication such as Skype video-conferencing, and texting. It can be confusing for a client to know what the most effective way is to communicate with an attorney (especially if he or she is represented for the first time). Here are a few tips you may want to consider:

1. Ask your Attorney. Many attorneys have the ability to use different modes of communication. Your attorney, however, may prefer you contact him or her using a particular mode. Some may prefer email, while others may be better able to respond to telephone calls. You may find that your attorney’s preference for how you get in touch is based on the circumstances. If you are running late to a settlement meeting, a call may be more effective than an email, for instance. Open a line of dialogue with your attorney about their specific suggestions as to how you can best communicate with them.

You should also remember that your attorney may be able to better communicate with you if he or she knows your preferences. Most attorneys request of their clients an email address, phone number, and mailing address. If you do not use a cellular phone or other mobile device, allow your mail to pile up, or do not have privacy in your home to review sensitive emails, you will want to share this information with your attorney.

2. Consider the Length and Frequency of Messages. We may all have had the experience of leaving a voicemail so long that the recording turns off, resulting in an incomplete message. And we may all have had the experience of writing lengthy emails, especially when those communications are about concerning or pressing matters. When communicating with your attorney, you’ll want to consider the length and frequency of your messages. Ask your attorney to share with you his or her typical response time by posing a question like: “How long do you suggest I wait for your response before reaching out again?” You may find that you can avoid unnecessary fees and costs by preventing duplicate messages. You may also want to ask your attorney to share with you a few months into the attorney-client relationship whether he or she has suggestions for managing emails or other communications that are particularly lengthy. For instance, before writing a lengthy email on a particular subject, you may want to just drop your attorney a line and ask whether a call or email will be more effective.

You may also wish to discuss with your attorney limiting each email to one issue, or to start a new “thread” or email conversation once your exchange reaches a particular length.

3. Format your Messages for Clarity. One suggestion I often share with clients is to use numbered lists or bullet-points when exchanging emails with me. This not only helps me to more easily digest lengthy emails, but it speeds up the process of responding, which can save the client time and money in return. I have also found that when a client sends a lengthy email with many questions interspersed, I can respond more quickly by typing my response into the body of the client’s original email. In those circumstances, I will use a bold and colored text to respond, and instruct the client to respond in all capital letters. While the formatting of your messages may not have an impact in a single instance, over the life of a case these kinds of strategies may be effective for you and your attorney.

4. Be Prepared. When you are planning to exchange email, teleconference, or otherwise speak with your attorney, attempt to reasonably anticipate what questions she or he may have for you. At times, you may want to reach your attorney’s legal assistant or office staff to ask whether your attorney suggests you review or provide documents. Being properly prepared can help you make the most of the time you and your attorney spend in discussion.

Whatever your legal needs may be, speaking with your attorney about how best to communicate can lay the foundation for a more pleasant and effective attorney-client relationship.

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