I had my thinking on the above triggered by a couple things recently…one was a post by Chuck Newton regarding things he doesn’t like about attorney Websites (one thing in his list being family pictures) and the other being the registration and speaker bios. page for Ms. JD’s Women in Law Conference which I’m speaking at (okay, I don’t claim to know too much about women in the law but I do know a thing or two about starting and building a law firm which is my panel’s topic). Here’s the conference registration page, November 20-21, 2009 at Northwestern in Chicago.
I think you should have 2 professional biographies: 1 client focused & 1 focused on lawyers and other professionals.
The Client-Focused Biography
This is the one that should be on your firm’s Website and perhaps things like firm pamphlets or folders/handouts that you use at client-focused speaking engagements. I think the client-focused biography should do three things: a) List a very brief description of your schooling and the fact that you are actually a competent attorney; b) Describe the sort of work you do providing specific examples of the types of problems/issues that you can help solve for a client; c) Include a paragraph on totally non-legal things like hobbies, community and church memberships (create potential commonalities and connection points with clients and include a photo). Here’s my biography at my firm’s Website which although it does need a tad of an upgrade I do think includes the three parts described above. Potential clients are looking for someone who can help them solve a specific problem and likely aren’t going to be impressed by that law review article you wrote in law school. And to a lesser extent I’ve gotten positive feedback regarding non-legal, more personal items. Simply listing more information that might cause a potential client to feel more comfortable with you…such as oh I went to the same high school or I do the occasional triathlon too.
The “Professional” & Lawyer-Focused Biography
On this one I’d give myself a much lower grade. Here’s what I used for the above conference:
Peter R. Olson is an Illinois attorney and the founder of The Law Office of Peter R. Olson located in Chicago. He’s in his 8th year as an Illinois family law attorney, advocating on behalf of individuals, families, and children during dissolution of marriage and parentage cases involving child custody, child support, and intricate property issues. He blogs about law practice management issues at SoloinChicago.com. He’s a graduate of both Winona State (MN) and Southern Illinois universities.
It’s too short and doesn’t include nearly enough “professional fluff”…that’s a legal term of art for things articles I’ve written, past conference speaking engagements, courts I’m licensed to practice before, bar association offices held, and of course one’s all important status as Order of the Coif. I state those items a bit with my tongue-in-cheek, but not totally. Think about the purpose of the conference biography…it’s actually more important as a pre-conference marketing tool and less important actually at the event itself. With me I think I view it a lot like a flashy dresser, I don’t want to be that person, rather, I want to impress once I open my mouth. And that’s sort of okay once you’re at the seminar or speech or whatever. But, you’ve got to get people there in the first place and in the marketing materials your only shot is a nice photo and the accompanying biography. So for that next conference I’m going to drop the modesty and tell you all about my exalted time on the SIU law review.
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