Work(shop) It:  30 Minutes To A Better Bio

Work(shop) It: 30 Minutes To A Better Bio

Work(shop) It: 30 Minutes to a Better Bio

As I do a few times each year, I’m headed to NYC next month for a client on-site workshop. While I’m there, I will sit in a cozy conference room and meet, one-on-one, with lawyers — about a baker’s dozen in all. I’ll talk to junior associates and senior partners, new hires, and lawyers who have been at the firm for a decade or more. We’ll chat for about 30 minutes or so.

At the end of those 30-minute sessions, my goal is that those lawyers will have (or be well on their way to having ) an effective and engaging professional bio.

Some of those lawyers will have eagerly signed up for a time slot; some will have been “voluntold” to come to visit me. Some I’ve worked with repeatedly over the past few years (my favorite folks!) and some I won’t have met until they walk through the door of my “office” for the day.

The lawyers are each unique, but the questions and themes I’ll deal with over the course of my workshop day will be similar.

Here are some good workshop questions I’ve been asked and some of my answers — to help the lawyers (and you) craft the best and most effective bio.

Q: No one really reads lawyer bios, do they?

Sub-genres of this question—which really means why do I have to spend time on my bio— include:

·?????Everyone in the industry/my practice area knows me.

·?????I have plenty of work already.

·?????I’m too busy to worry about this right now.

·?????I don’t want to put too much in my bio because I don’t want my opponents to know about me. (Yes, I have heard that last one a number of times.)

A: The most visited pages — by far — on law firm websites are lawyer bios because they serve as an information source for many people and many different reasons.

In a technology-driven world where people increasingly rely on the internet as their main source of information, your web bio stands in for you. Increasingly, it’s the single information source that people look at when they’re looking to find out who you are. Clients and referral sources are vetting you online often before you’re even aware that they’re considering hiring or referring you. And if they don’t find the information they’re seeking, they don’t like what they see, or your bio doesn’t match up with what they’ve been told about you, you’ll never hear from or about them.

Clients use your bio for a number of other reasons, including as a source of valuable information — which is why your publications and events should be linked to your bio and updated regularly. Your specific client contacts may also have to justify to higher-ups or a board of directors why they hired you (and why you’re worth your rates), so help them by making sure your bio is up to snuff. In fact, if your name appears on a client bill anywhere, your bio should communicate to that client why you’re a valuable member of the legal team.

Clients and referral sources are not the only ones looking at your bio. Associates should be aware that partners often look at bios when putting together teams for matters. If you want more and better work or work of a specific type, your bio should be written to showcase the experience and skill set that matches the needs of partners staffing those teams.

?Some firms also look at bios as part of compensation decisions. Make sure your bio reflects your best and most recent work when that time of year rolls around.

?Q: I don’t know what should be in my bio. How do I start?

?A: Whatever your experience level, four sets of guidelines govern what you can and can’t put in your bio:

?1.????Your firm’s bio template, style, and best practices

2.????Professional ethics rules that apply in the state in which you practice and/or your firm has offices

3.????Basic marketing principles

4.????Common sense

Many firms have a written template and style guide for lawyer bios, and some firms will even help you get your bio started with a basic draft that you can then revise. Ask if either of these is available.

But don’t stop there. Go to your firm’s website and take a look at the bios of lawyers in your practice area — not just those at your level but a variety of bios — so you can get a sense of format, style, and tone. Keep in mind that some consistency in tone, style, and information across all the bios is good, but you don’t want your bio to look exactly like anyone else’s because the point of a bio is to differentiate you from other lawyers, including those in your own firm.

Pay attention to how the bio webpage is structured and how the bio appears on the page — this will impact how you write your bio. For example, some websites only show the first paragraph of a bio, requiring visitors to click on a link or “read more” button to view the rest. In this case, the first paragraph should be a solid overview of what you practice so that if a visitor never read more, they still would have a full understanding of what you do.

The rules of professional ethics governing attorney advertising also apply to lawyer bios. While these rules vary from state to state, some general requirements are fairly universal.

Every state prohibits false or misleading statements, so the information in your bio must be accurate and supported by objective facts (not opinions). Comparative statements — you’re the “best” lawyer in your practice area or favorable comparisons of your skills and successes with those of other lawyers — and terms like “leading,” “unique,” “unparalleled” or “unmatched” should also be avoided.

Most states also prohibit lawyers from claiming that they specialize or are experts in specific areas of the law, with very limited exceptions, so terms like “expert” and “specialist,” and related words like “expertise” and “specialize,” should be avoided too.

What can you say in your bio?

To market yourself most effectively, you can — and should — talk about the work you do, the kinds of clients you work with, and how you help them. “Show, don’t tell,” works best. Get specific about the work that you do — especially if you are a younger lawyer — and use examples of notable cases or matters.

Try to write from the client’s perspective. Clients want to know that you can help them solve the problems they are facing, so focus on what you do for clients, rather than your “practice” as a lawyer.

Q: I’m a junior associate and I’m struggling to fill the page. What should I say?

A: While you might not have a lot of law firm experience, you probably have more to put in your bio than you think.

Were you a summer associate at the firm or a government or nonprofit organization? Intern for a judge or an organization during law school? Do pro bono work or volunteer at a legal clinic? Assist a professor with research or serve as a teaching assistant for a class?

All of that information can help you fill out your bio.

If any nonlegal work you did — maybe between your undergraduate and legal — is relevant, add that. An unusual career trajectory or other work experience could enhance your bio.

Q:?I’m a fifth-year litigation associate. Can I lead with “Scott is a powerhouse courtroom advocate who successfully represents clients in bet-the-company litigation”?

A: That’s probably not going to make the impression you want — and it probably violates the ethics rules too.

By the way, if you think I’m making this question up, I’m not — although “Scott” is a pseudonym I’m using to protect the less-than-innocent in this case.

Remember that the rules governing attorney advertising require objective accuracy. In other words, can you back up that statement with facts? Let’s acknowledge that you have skills and experience as a fifth-year associate and that at least some of the cases you’ve worked on could be described as “bet the company.”?Even if some of the facts are technically accurate, this opener isn’t quite the whole truth.

Statements that create an expectation of a guaranteed outcome are also prohibited, which makes the “successfully represents” language problematic as well.

From a marketing standpoint, this kind of statement can also backfire on you. People who matter to your practice — clients, colleagues, and the partners who staff those bet-the-company cases you want to work on — could either discount the statement as overblown puffery or, worse, react adversely.

A solid and truthful message — that you’re a litigator who has served as a key member of trial teams, for example — is more effective. Back it up with some specifics on the work that you’ve done rather than with vague and overused descriptors like “experienced” and “skilled.”

?Q: I’ve been practicing for a long time and my bio is really long. How can I make it more effective?

A: As lawyers move through their careers, they often add to their bios but don’t think about pruning and shaping them. One way to make your bio more effective is to understand that, at a certain point in your career, you don’t need to describe everything in detail. For example, “lead trial counsel” or “first chair” is a shorthand indicating that you have knowledge and experience in every aspect of litigation, so you no longer have to describe in specific detail the work that you do. You can also highlight a handful of representative cases or matters to convey the depth of your experience, rather than include a laundry list of every matter from your career.

Reading this Q&A probably took you 10 minutes max. If you were attending my workshop or bio day, we’d have 20 minutes left to work on your bio. So pull it out and give it a once-over. I’ll bet that in 20 minutes’ time you can make some changes that will make your bio a better and more effective marketing tool for you.

Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer, February 2020.

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