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Small law firms need to exude online professionalism

October 5, 2008

law blog design lawyer law firmSunday morning and Scott Greenfield is kicking out another gem. Today it’s applying the adage, anything worth doing is worth doing right, to professionalism and the solo lawyer.

The dilemma per Greenfield.

One of the first observations one has of Biglaw is that they look professional.  They look good.  From their yellow pads to their redwelds with their firm name on the top, they exude professionalism.  They always have pristine looking exhibit tabs at the bottom of their papers, and even their 32 file copies of papers use original bluebacks.  They look good.

For the solo, these things can present issues.  Everything costs money, and somebody has to pay that money to get the good stuff.  For the solo, there’s no diffusion of expense, spread around 3000 partners and associates so that no one feels like it comes out of their personal pocket.  They can spend like drunken sailors without the slightest concern that it will reduce their take-home at all.  Solos feel differently.

Every expense comes straight off the bottom line.  We pay it.  We feel it.  It’s our net revenue that pays the price of some fancy legal pad.  And as every solo knows, the name on the top of the legal pad doesn’t make the writing on the page any more insightful.  We follow the sage advice of Benjamin Franklin that a penny saved is a penny earned.

But to misconstrue frugality ‘to mean that [you] can present [yourself] as a low rent operation’ is a grievous mistake per Greenfield.

Being solo has no correlation with being unprofessional.  I’ve seen many friends slide down that slippery slope of trying to save money at the expense of maintaining as professional a practice as any Biglaw firm in Manhattan.  The two are not mutually exclusive.

Much of the appearance of professionalism comes at a relatively high cost (such as redwelds with your name on them) relative to their benefit.  But that doesn’t mean that you should walk into court with a plain manila folder with ragtag papers hanging out of both sides and scribbles covering the front and back.  Save the worthless cost of vanity printing, but get the tools necessary to walk into the courtroom with the same professional appearance as any big firm lawyer.  This isn’t frivolous, but a critical piece of the providing the representation your clients rightfully expect. 

While there is truth to the proposition that appearances have no inherent correlation with competence or quality of representation, appearances do impact perception, including the judge and adversary, as well as the client and his family and friends.  If you go to court in a shabby, tattered, ill-fitting poly-blend suit, with black Nike referee-sneakers where shoes ought to be, you will be treated as you deserve.  You may be sufficiently well-known despite your sartorial challenges to overcome the deficit, but you will most assuredly not receive the same immediate respect given a lawyer walking into a courtroom who looks like a million bucks.  If you think this false, you’re deluding

Sam applies with blogs and other marketing you’re doing. Championing that you’re able to practice law for minimal expense while having a blog that exudes ‘I did this myself’ is penny wise and pound foolish. Let alone shouting to the world ‘I don’t know what I am doing using a blog.’

Ask yourself a few questions.

  • Do potential clients look at professionalism when they hire professional services people to which they pay hundreds of dollars an hour?
  • Do some potential clients know more than you about how blogs are used to enter into an online conversation or as an effective networking tool?
  • Do some potential clients read more blogs than you?
  • Do lawyers on the other side of a transaction or law suit you’re involved in look at your online appearance?
  • Does the other lawyer’s perception of you effect how they respond to positions you take thus impacting your client?
  • Does a judge or jury member look at your online presence when you’re in front of them in court?
  • Does your online appearance impact how a judge or jury views you and your client?
  • Does your online business appearance effect how local business associates and civic groups view you?
  • Does your online appearance effect how reporters view you?

I was in a small law firm for 17 years in rural Wisconsin. Didn’t take me a week to realize some lawyers looked like ‘hobbyists.’ They weren’t as concerned as I with how they dressed, the staff they hired, the quality of their advertising, their office, the briefcase they carried, the car they drove, or even the house they lived in.

Right or wrong, growing up in a small town I always equated some of those things with professionalism. I realized if I acted like a professional while doing some good ‘lawyering,’ I would succeed as a lawyer. Success being defined in part as reasonable standard of living for my family and I, doing the legal work I liked, and representing clients I enjoyed.

Because of the low cost of professional Internet related work, you have an edge on those of us who practiced before the Internet became such a great equalizer. Take advantage of it.

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