Dec

8

ABA Legal Ethics & Social Networking

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The American Bar Association has recently published an “Issues Paper Concerning Lawyers’ Use of Internet Based Client Development Tools” to examine the legal ethics issues of social networking on sites like twitter, Facebook and on blogs. The paper attempts to recruit comments on inadvertent attorney-client relationships, offering legal advice without disclosures via blogs and internet forums, and to establish a line between personal commentary and legal advertising (with the latter requiring attorney advertising disclosures) in blogs, tweets, and other means of electronic communication.

Inadvertent Attorney-Client Relationships

In social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, attorneys are often unable to post disclaimers warning prospective clients against posting information that could trigger ethical obligations. To maintain a safe distance from ABA ethics scrutiny, Consider the following recommendations;

  • Professional and personal contacts should remain under separate accounts.
  • Post ‘attorney advertising’ disclosures on blogs & websites.
  • Above any submit forms on your website, notify potential clients about what kind of information should not be submitted online. Contact forms should not solicit Social Security or other ID information if it is not secured by a SSL certificate and received by secure email – to be safe, it’s just best to avoid this information being transmitted online at all.
  • Be sure to review and certify that all information posted on your website and blog is factual and accurate. Any content written by non-attorneys, including assistants and marketing firms or writers, should be reviewed.
  • Do not respond to specific questions asked by individuals on the internet. Hypothetical or general questions may be answered so long as they avoid addressing a potential client’s specific situation, which could be construed as legal advice.
  • Be very careful when answering legal questions on sites like Yahoo Answers, LawGuru.com or even on your social media (Twitter / Facebook) account. While it can be tempting to use these services to enhance your reputation or gain new clients, it can be easy for a potential client to assume that you have offered legal advice or that you are or will be their attorney.

One point I would like to reiterate and stress; it is your responsibility to ensure the internet marketing firm or individual SEO specialist has your content reviewed by you before posting it online. At times e-marketers have found it easier to go ahead and post a ghost-written article on your website or blog – or a third party website such as HG.org – without your review and approval. It can be hard to get a moment to do this review, but make it a priority in order to ensure you are not offering incorrect information. Incorrect legal information has been widely disseminated in the name of internet marketing (or in the name of your law firm) due to non-lawyers writing legal articles with little or no factual basis.
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Nov

28

Converting Leads with “Bedside Manner”

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Throwing money at any kind of marketing or advertising is a completely worthless exercise when you cannot convert leads.

I recently had an experience with an client/attorney who closed his practice in a major metro area, but didn’t want to lose the many leads coming through his website. He decided to send these potential clients to another law firm, with the understanding that any leads converted would result in a referral fee for the client. This attorney had a thriving practice based on this somewhat generic website, and could not understand why the new law firm wasn’t getting any “decent leads”.

The problem was not with the leads, needless to say – it was with the firm. I personally called this firm and spoke with the receptionist, who served little more function than an answering service. The attorney at the new firm – who didn’t know me – took more than 24 hours to return my call. No wonder they weren’t converting leads!

Potential clients don’t care what law school you went to, or how many cases you have won. When a potential client calls, you have one chance to leave a good lasting impression on them. If you cannot personally answer calls, the second best solution is to train the person who answers calls to be empathetic, understanding, and to make the potential client feel like they made the right decision to call you.

It’s easy to forget these simple things. It’s hard to forget what you know about law and to put yourself in your client’s position. Your potential client may not “know the routine” and it may be their first time hiring an attorney. If you are a divorce attorney, a criminal lawyer, a personal injury law firm – chances are your client is under stress and this isn’t a fun process for them.

Even if your receptionist isn’t a lawyer or legal assistant, they can be trained to covert leads.

  • Most importantly, listen to the caller. Don’t interrupt.
  • Tell them you understand – if applicable, be sympathetic – and assure them they called the right firm and that your attorneys can help.
  • Take the client’s information. Give them an estimate of when they can expect to hear from the attorney.
  • Have an attorney call them back within the hour, whenever possible.

When potential clients call you without being specifically referred to you (ie, from the Yellow pages or internet), they are calling because they want to hire you. If they get a machine, or a receptionist who merely functions in place of a machine, they will call someone else.

Sep

21

Google Officially States: “We Don’t Use Meta Keywords When Ranking”

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Today Google officially stated they do not use keywords when ranking websites. What does this mean for legal SEO? Not much, actually. We still add keywords for smaller search engines who do still employ META keywords. Furthermore, Google likes to discourage certain habits  – like purchasing links – by claiming they have processes in place to rank sites without it. It’s not that I doubt they ignore META keywords…. I just prefer to let someone else be the “early adapter”.

May

15

Sales Vs. Clients – Never a Win-Win Situation

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I was recently reminded of a bad experience a client had with a sales rep when I was working at one of the top legal marketing firms (one of those fortune 500′s). The client was not tech savvy any could or would not understand the product he was sold. He only understood that the sales rep guaranteed him leads.

When there is a disconnect between the sales force and the service providers, one hand of the company makes promises that the other hand can’t keep. Unfortunately, this happened more often than I would’ve liked, which puts an additional burden on the service providers (in this case, the internet marketing dept). Read more

Feb

24

Bankruptcy Decreases; Bankruptcy Lawyers Increase

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So the economy is in the tank. Unemployment is up.  Foreclosures are a dime a dozen. NPR recently did a story on the success of a bankruptcy lawyer in California, who seems to be getting more calls than they can handle. Time to focus your practice on bankruptcy? Don’t jump in just yet. Read more