ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference 2009, 1 Year Later

In November 2009, the American Bar Association put together its Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference. The conference featured AboveTheLaw founder David Lat, and included interviews and presentations by several law firm marketing professionals including:

• Mark Britton, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Avvo, Inc.
• Micah Buchdahl, President, HTMLawyers, Inc.
• Trevor Delaney, Personal Finance Editor, The Associated Press
• Jamie Diaferia, Founder, Infinite Public Relations
• David Lat, Founding Editor, Above the Law
• Tom Mighell, Senior Manager, Fios
• John Osborn, President and Chief Executive Officer, BBDO New York
• Tim Stanley, Computer Programmer, Lawyer, and Chief Executive Officer, Justia.com
• Elizabeth Clark Tarbert, Ethics Counsel, The Florida Bar

While there is a wealth of information from these presentations and interviews, I was particularly impressed by Avvo’s Mark Britton’s presentation:

Ranking the Raters/Rating the Rankers, Avvo from THELAW.TV on Vimeo.

While I’m not taking a position on Avvo’s lawyer rating model, Mark’s understanding of the evolution of consumers’ use of the web, and specifically legal consumers’ use of the web, is on the leading-edge.

As the web, and more specifically search engines, move in the direction of trust, localization, and real-time, the value of participation in platforms like Avvo will continue to grow rapidly. Claiming, optimizing, and participating on Avvo, LawFirms.com, and other profile-based online-legal-social sites is a proven way to market law firm online.

While a year can sometimes be an eternity when it comes to web technology, the information presented at the ABA’s 2009 Strategy Conference is even more relevant today than it was a year ago. The key messages of:

• Professionalism
• Participation
• Trust
• Information sharing

Are more and more important to developing a successful web presence for yourself as a legal professional. Unfortunately, many legal professionals are still behind when it comes to growing their practices through web strategy. Whether it be a lack of understanding, a resistance to change, or merely a lack of time, there really is no legitimate excuse for not taking advantage of the benefits that law firm Internet marketing strategies provide.