In some professions, image is everything. Just look at all the people out there who aspire to make a living as influencers or lifestyle bloggers. Luckily for you, you are doing more than just promoting the products of anyone who gives you a free sample and pretending to have fun while doing it. You are a lawyer, and it would not have been possible for you to become one if you had not consistently demonstrated your knowledge of the law. The good news is that law schools do better than some other types of institutions in guiding their students in cultivating a professional image and building a professional reputation.
When you are a lawyer, you know that you cannot show up in sweatpants unless you are a big shot in every sense of the word; even your professors come to class dressed like they are about to appear before a judge, just to drive home the message that, if your law professors are not important enough to act like the rules do not apply to them, then neither are you. If there is a gap in law students’ education, it is how to build a brand identity in private practice when you establish your own law firm. It is important for family law attorneys to develop a brand identity to help ensure a steady stream of clients that the law firm is best equipped to represent.
Your Personal and Professional Background Informs Your Practice
In crafting the brand identity of your law firm, take a page from the playbook of those afterschool specials that used to be on TV when you were a latchkey kid in the 1980s; do not pretend to be someone you are not. Something must have made you decide to be a family law attorney out of all the career paths you have chosen. Maybe before you went to law school, you were a social worker, and you worked with children in the foster care system. Perhaps your parents got divorced when you were a child, and the family courts helped them have a harmonious co-parenting relationship, or, conversely, the conflict between your divorced parents was a constant source of stress for your family. Perhaps your parents adopted you and your children, and you want to help other families do the same.
You should describe your motivations briefly on your profile page on your law firm’s website. A little goes a long way, and a few sentences of truth are worth pages of posturing. Say just enough to show clients that you understand their perspective without being specific enough to give a sense of “us vs. them” that would repel some of your prospective clients.
Standing Out From the Crowd Without Resorting to Gimmicks
Your clients are in a better position to say what is special about you than you are. Invite clients to post reviews about you online, and if they send you appreciative emails, ask if you can post excerpts from these on the testimonials portion of your website.
Do not brand yourself as a lawyer who pits one group of people against each other. Many clients in divorce cases gravitate toward lawyers of the same sex but avoid branding your law firm as one that defends men against the tyranny of women or the other way around. Likewise, avoid marketing your services to middle-aged women who claim to have been blindsided by their husbands’ divorce petitions by vowing revenge on the glamorous young women their husbands left them for.
When Forming Your Brand Identity, Remember That What You Do is More Important Than Who You Say You are
The best way to establish a good reputation as a lawyer is to do the best job you can with your cases. Instead of spending time and money hiring marketing firms that have represented companies that went on to stardom, spend that time and money researching and hiring the most appropriate expert witnesses to prove the points that your clients need them to prove. Surround yourself with knowledgeable people, and you will become one and establish a reputation as such.
When clients seem unhappy with the attorney-client relationship, put your efforts into making amends with them before things get so bad that your clients post negative reviews about them online. You cannot fake being organized, responsive, and compassionate. These qualities count more toward your reputation than the fact that you were once a gymnast or that you are a fan of the same sports teams that your clients support. Do not ignore brand identity, but remember that, for law firms, it is just the icing on the cake.
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