Legal Writing

Down with Fuzzy Looking Attorneys — Part I

Have you ever seen a photograph that got fuzzier the closer you looked at it?

If you use the Internet, you have.

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Let’s play Make Believe: Make believe you’re an attorney who charges clients between $500 and $800 per hour. You take considerable pride in your appearance. You wear expensive clothes that look brand new.

And you’re smart. Before you meet someone who might consider paying you $600 or $700 an hour, you tend to your appearance. If you’re about to make a first impression before a very attractive client, you want it to be terrific. Right?

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Forget it!

The very attractive, potential client already has some impression of you.

How is that possible?

Curious about you, this potential client does some research. Before he contacts you, he wants a good idea of who you are, what your experience is, and who you know.

So . . . he does some research. He sees your firm’s home page, and that makes an impression. Then he looks at your bio page. He quickly focuses on your visage — a photo of you taken when the firm’s web site was revised a few years back.

And that — along with the info in your bio — makes his impression of you much more definite.

That’s how it works. (People form their initial impressions of others in the blink of an eye.)

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Let me ask you this (and remember, it’s still make believe) ? does your photo resemble any of these? I mean, in terms of quality.

If so, the potential client’s early impression of you just took a deep turn for the worse, because it seems you don’t pay attention to detail, or don’t bother to fix obvious errors. He figures, “This attorney can’t be worth $600 per hour.”

You might take great pride in your appearance, but your photo says you don’t. Just for that, you might not get the call; you might not get the opportunity to show the potential client just how sharp you are.

Don’t ever forget the potent power of first impressions.

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That’s it for now, and make believe is over.

Tune in next time, and learn how to make sure photos of your attorneys don’t portray them as fuzzy attorneys.
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Full post as published by Set in Style on March 30, 2010 (boomark / email).