I have a friend who’s husband is a fairly new attorney. When I had a conflict on a matter recently, I decided to refer the work his way. So, I googled the guy to get his law office’s address/phone number to pass along to my client.
To my surprise, I couldn’t find him.
He didn’t have a website. He hadn’t claimed his Avvo profile. LinkedIn took me to a dentist in California. I found bunch of miscellaneous sites that mentioned him (when he passed the bar; about a case he had worked on; about a time he found a lost dog).
But, there wasn’t a website that included: his name; his address; and his legal practice areas.
Well, actually there was: After about ten minutes of digging, I found a directory of lawyers on the Tennessee Bar Association site. I finally found him. Frankly, it was hard work. I had to really, really want to find this particular lawyer.
My advice to any lawyer is: Get a website. They’re cheap. They’re easy. And, unless you want to get really fancy, once you have one, you’re good. (If your firm already has a website, then you’re fine.)
You never want it to be that hard for somebody to find you. It doesn’t have to complicated. Address. Phone Number. Practice Areas. If you’re unsure how much info to post, look at this great Venn Diagram on “What Lawyer’s Websites Have versus What Clients are Looking for.”
If you don’t have a lawyer website, you’re depending entirely on Avvo, Yellow Pages, or whatever other third party service to find your information (on its own) and provide it to your customers.
With your own website, a client, potential client, or adversary should be able to google search for “[name] lawyer [city/state]” and find you. If they can’t do that, you’re doing it wrong.
Creditors Rights 101 