Hi. I’m Dave. I went to UCLA and Northwestern University School of Law. I have 16 years of complex commercial litigation experience, successfully handled scores of complex matters on behalf of individual and corporate clients, won several bench and jury trials, and am admitted to practice in multiple jurisdictions. I am active in many professional organizations and was recognized as a Super-Duper Lawyer by Super-Duper Lawyer Magazine three years in a row.
Who Am I?
Seriously, does anything above tell you what I am like as a lawyer or as a person? Does it clue you in as to how I work with clients and what they can expect when they meet with me? Does it say anything about how I approach the practice of law or what my values are as an attorney? Did I provide any information or insight beyond what you would see on my resumé or CV? Were you even remotely interested and engaged when I described myself in the same exact terms as 100,000 other lawyers?
Sadly, too many lawyers treat their website bios as nothing more than an opportunity to regurgitate the admittedly impressive credentials and accomplishments that have made them the successful attorneys they are today. Undoubtedly, these are things of which they should be proud and rightly want the world to know about.
But if you succumb to chronic “CV-itis” and limit your bio to resumé bullet points strung together as sentences, you deprive yourself of a critical marketing opportunity. Your website bio is your first chance to introduce yourself to potential clients in a way that creates a personal connection and enlightens them as to who you are, not just what you’ve done; how you practice, not just what you practice.
Clients Don’t Hire Resumés. They Hire People.
Creating a human connection in your website bio matters because the attorney-client relationship is a uniquely personal one. Folks will put a lot more time and scrutiny into who they hire as their lawyer than they will into choosing a plumber to fix their toilet, as crucial as that may be.
Yes, clients want their lawyer to know their stuff, and your bio should reflect that you know yours. But they also want to get a sense of the person with whom they may entrust a matter of utmost importance to them. Is this someone who speaks their language and gets where they are coming from? Is this a lawyer whose approach and values align with their own, or at least reflect what they want in their counsel? Is this a person who I want to deal with for months or years?
A CV likely says nothing about any of that, and a bio that is nothing more than a glorified CV doesn’t either.
You have a story to tell about yourself, and while it may not soon become a major motion picture, it nevertheless has interesting nuances and a perspective that is uniquely your own.
A Spoonful of Sugar to Go With Your Professional Medicine
A compelling attorney website bio integrates the nuts and bolts of your professional career into a descriptive narrative that conveys what makes you tick. You have a story to tell about yourself, and while it may not soon become a major motion picture, it nevertheless has interesting nuances and a perspective that is uniquely your own. Those humanizing details are the spoonfuls of sugar that complement the necessary medicine of your degrees, recognitions, achievements, and experience.
When crafting your bio, ask yourself some questions about how you roll; about why you do what you do, what matters to you as a lawyer, and what clients can expect from you. Answer some or all of these introspective queries:
What are three key things that define your approach to the practice of law?
What do you consider to be the most important aspects of client service?
What qualities do you possess that make you good at what you do?
Why did you decide to focus on your particular area of law?
What gives you the most satisfaction about the work you do?
These may seem like “touchy-feely” questions, and they may not be things you’ve given any thought to over the years. The answers may not even matter to you all that much. But they matter to potential clients. And that means they should matter to you.
When writing your website bio, craft it as you would a story. Make it engaging and readable. Mix up your language and structure; too many bios are simply sentence after sentence that begins with “He is….,” “She has…,” “He is a member of…,” “She was…” That repetitiveness is like linguistic Sominex. It will bore and exhaust the reader at the same time.
So take a look at your existing attorney bio and ask yourself whether it truly reflects the attributes that make you an attorney clients want to hire and have a relationship with. It may not and should not be the same as a bio on an online dating site, but an unimpressed potential client swiping or clicking away from your underwhelming page can be just as heartbreaking.
Sadly, too many lawyers treat their website bios as nothing more than an opportunity to regurgitate the admittedly impressive credentials and accomplishments that have made them the successful attorneys they are today. Undoubtedly, these are things of which they should be proud and rightly want the world to know about.
