September 23, 2015 | less than a minute read

What lawyers put in their bios vs. what clients want

Passle

The majority of traffic on law websites goes to the lawyers' biographies - and yet, these are not always given the attention they should be.

How many times have you headed to that section, only to find the same drab, out-of-date biography?

Lee Feldman's article, linked to below, explains how you can convert clients through your bio in a few easy steps. These should also be applied to your Linkedin profile:

Add a summary

Be specific about your area of expertise

Add a video box

Link and leverage your social media presence

Be a person, not just a lawyer

avoid "high school yearbook" style headshots

To this, I'd add, link your profile to your blog, or any articles you've written, so that prospective clients can see you demonstrate your expertise.

But the fact remains that attorney bios are collectively the most-visited and most-viewed section of Big Law websites and a significant gap exists between what clients and prospects want to know and what they are currently being served. With few exceptions, most attorney bios fail to engage and connect with these audiences and that’s a lost opportunity. Survey statistics show that LinkedIn has reached parity with, or surpassed, law firm web bios as the primary stop for clients and others seeking background on attorneys. (Forget directories and rankings like Chambers, Super Lawyers and Martindale-Hubbell. They rank so far behind for Big Law that they don’t even make it on clients’ radar).