Saturday, October 22, 2005

PR for Lawyers - 10 Good Rules

The ABA Law Practice Management Section held their Technology and Marketing Conference in Philadelphia at the Loews Hotel yesterday. It was an excellent conference. There are a few points that I'd like to stress and or clarify for the readers of The PR Lawyer.

1. Search Engine Optimization is extremely important to your rankings. There was a great company there called Justia and their website www.justia.com has a ton of great information on the subject.

2. Get your attorneys media trained before you send them talking to the media. The media prefer it and it will make all your communications better and easier.

3. Understand your state's rules of professional conduct and promote your firm ethically.

4. Don't be afraid to work within a niche practice - there are "riches in niches."

5. Know what the media want and only send them news they can use in the format they want it. Most legal trade pubs are seeking news in the following categories: Events (time sensitive news), Court decisions, the business of law, and feature enterprise stories.

6. Have a crisis plan!

7. Have someone dedicated to your media outreach.

8. Don't go "off the record" or "on background" with a reporter unless you already have a relationship.

9. Marketing a law practice is NOTHING like marketing consumer products!!

And 10. Use technology to befenfit your firms communications.