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The Topography of a Strong Attorney Biography

By John Buchanan

Bios. The bane of every law firm marketer's existence. How can something so seemingly simple be so hard to handle? There are probably as many answers to that question as there are types of bios — but the basic issue is that attorneys are generally not great salespeople (caveat: some are great salespeople, aka rainmakers) and they are often introverts. While lawyers may like to speak about themselves, many are not effective in how to speak about themselves and their work in a way that is appealing to clients.

Survey Says …

So, why are bios so important? Survey results and research routinely show that clients check out attorney website bios a lot. For example:

  • 90% of in-house counsel rely upon attorney bios when researching and retaining outside counsel.
  • Attorney bios account for 80% of all law firm website traffic.
  • 65% of all law firm website traffic begins with a Google search.
  • General counsel rank lawyer bios number two in terms of influence in the retention selection. (The number one spot belongs to personal recommendations.)

With clients so focused on bios, it is critically important that attorney bios be concise, updated and speak to clients.

A Strong Bio

There are many elements that contribute to crafting a robust attorney bio, though there are three over-arching elements that all professional bios include:

  1. They present the primary information in a manner that is quick and easy to read.
  2. They focus on an attorney's representative matters/cases, for whom he/she has provided these legal services and what the result was.
  3. They don't include everything an attorney has done or achieved.

Get to the point, quickly. If you take nothing else away, remember this: attorneys should not include everything about themselves and their experience in their bio. Instead, lawyers should focus on what they do well, what they are experienced with and — almost most important — what they enjoy and want to do.

Stay on point. Leave out laundry lists; if an attorney must include a list, bullet it and only include matter details from no more than the last five years — unless the attorney has a Supreme Court win or a multi-billion-dollar deal in her past.

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