Dos and Don’ts of Bios
A version of this article was originally published in For The Defense l Vol. 9, Issue 1 on March 2024, here.
As a legal marketing professional who works with lawyers and firms on content marketing strategy, it pains me greatly to see clients work so hard on their business development and marketing efforts, while at the same time ignoring one of the most essential and powerful tools in their marketing toolkit—lawyer bios. Time and again, research shows that lawyer bios rank as the second most important factor in legal services hiring, just behind—and often in combination with—referrals from trusted sources. As clients rely more and more on technology-enabled research and vetting of legal service providers, bios function as a digital-first—and often only— impression a prospective client has of you. For firms, bios are also the largest driver of traffic to law firm websites—whether directly from search engines like Google, clicking through practice group bios on the website, or following author links in branded content or published thought leadership.
Prospective clients are not the only users of lawyer bios. Existing clients regularly view the profiles of the lawyers they work with, even those with whom they have a long-standing relationship, when reviewing bills, making referrals, or hiring for new or different work, among other reasons. Referral sources—your clients, colleagues, and other lawyers from both inside and outside your firm—are also frequent viewers of lawyer bios. Don’t let a skimpy, outdated, or poorly written bio hamper their efforts on your behalf.
Many younger lawyers mistakenly believe that they don’t need to worry too much about their bios until later in their careers when they are more focused on business development. I’ve also been told that many associates fear that paying too much attention to their bios or asking for frequent revisions will be taken as an indication that they are looking to switch firms. Of course, your bio should be in tip-top shape if you are looking to make a job move, but neglecting your bio in the meantime can be a costly career mistake. Associate bios are essential for both external and internal audiences. Even if you are not yet engaged in your own marketing and business development efforts, your bio is an essential part of the materials needed by the firm, practice leads, and other partners who are both actively marketing to clients and prospects. If your name appears in a pitch—or on a client bill—your bio needs to communicate that you’re a valuable member of the team.
Bios are also an important source of information for partners making decisions about staffing and assignments. If you want more responsibility, better work, or work of a specific type, make sure your bio details your skills and work experience, in particular those that match the needs of partners staffing those matters. Compensation, promotion, and partnership decisions are also frequently made by partners who may not be directly familiar with you and your work. Your bio can help you—and those who are advocating for you—sway those decision-makers. The multiple use-cases for bios are clear, but crafting and maintaining effective bios often can be a source of confusion and frustration for lawyers and firms. Here are some dos and don’ts that can help.
DO: Follow Your Firm’s Template and Best Practices For Bios
DON’T: Do Your Own Thing
Cookie-cutter bios are at one end of the “don’t” spectrum for law firms. The other end involves wildly divergent bios across a firm website, lacking consistency in format, structure, or style. Ideally, your firm should have a bio template that lists all of the required and optional elements, as well as a style guide that includes best practices for bios in terms of tone (more formal, using Mr./Ms. with last names, or informal, using first names, for example), firm brand/practice group messaging that should be woven into every bio, and guidance for practitioners at different career levels if appropriate (new, midlevel and senior associates, senior counsel and partners should all have slightly different bios). Your bio shouldn’t be exactly the same as other lawyers in your firm (see, “no cookie-cutter bios,” above and “show your personality,” below), but it should feel consistent with the others on your firm’s website.
DO: Write Your Bio With a Focus on Your Clients
DON’T: Write Your Bio Like an Annotated Version of Your Resume
It sounds funny to say, your bio shouldn’t be focused on you when it’s literally about you. Sure, bios should be, well, biographical. But clients don’t really care that much about what you “focus” your practice on, your career accomplishments or your awards. Rather, they care (intensely) about whether you’re the right person to help them solve some of the most pressing problems they are likely to encounter in their lives and businesses. While it’s important to detail your specific legal skills and areas of expertise, highlight representations and legal victories, and even mention your recognitions, your bio should be written with your target client or clients in mind, and focus on how you help those clients.
Consider this example, adapted from a bio we wrote for a client who is a nationally known white collar defense lawyer: Barry is a nationally renowned trial lawyer and white-collar criminal defense attorney who represents individuals and corporations in sensitive and high-profile trials, investigations, complex litigation, and internal investigations. He is widely recognized for his success and creativity as a trial lawyer and strategist, his ability to connect with and persuade juries, and his skills in protecting his clients.
While this narrative is still very much about Barry, it’s written from the perspective of the clients he represents, the work he does for them, and how his legal skills and acumen as a trial lawyer benefit his clients.
This is very different from a bio that talks about the lawyer’s “focus” or “practice”—which brings us to the next do and don’t.
DO: Start With a Compelling Opening Paragraph
DON’T: Waste Precious Real Estate Repeating What Readers Can Find Elsewhere on Your Bio
So many lawyer profiles start out with a variation on this statement: “Susan Q. Lawyer is a partner in the Philadelphia office who focuses her practice on white collar defense.” I understand that attorney bios have used this formula for a long time. It’s familiar and safe, and you’re not alone if your bio starts this way. But you’re wasting precious bio real estate repeating what readers likely can find elsewhere on the page. This is especially true if the bios on your firm’s website are set up, as many firm sites are, so that only the first paragraph displays, with the rest under a “read more” button.
Instead of wasting space telling readers what they already know or can easily find, take the opportunity to engage the client or prospect and keep them reading with a message that resonates with their needs and that sets yourself apart from the competition. If you’re nervous about standing out too much (which is, after all, the point), you don’t have to diverge too much from the traditional formula to create a bio that does that.
Consider a first sentence such as: “Susan Q. Lawyer defends clients in sensitive and complex investigations and litigation.”
If you’re a little more adventurous, you can follow that up with a sentence or two that talks about your style or approach. Consider a variation on this: “A legal strategist with a well-earned reputation as an advocate who is not afraid to take the right case to trial, Susan knows how to achieve advantageous outcomes for her clients, whether it’s an early dismissal, a resolution on favorable terms or, where needed, a jury trial, bench trial or appeal.”
DO: Show Your Personality
DON’T: Focus Only on Your Legal Skills and Credentials
Regardless of whether your typical clients are individuals, companies or other organizations, the law is, at its most basic, a relationship business. Of course, your education, credentials, work experience and, yes, even your awards and recognitions, have a place in your bio—clients do look for and value those in their legal hiring decisions. But a great lawyer is much more than the sum of her credentials. The people who hire and work with you want to know more than just your technical legal skills and expertise; they want to know who you are as a person and what it’s like to work with you.
We often work with newly elevated partners to update their bios or with lawyers who have made lateral moves, and we ask questions that prompt them to think beyond “Who are your clients and what do you do for them?” and try to capture their style and approach in working with clients:
• How would you describe your “style” or strategy for working with clients?
• What do clients say about working with you? Why do they hire you or continue to work with you? What are you most known for among your clients?
• Why should a client hire you instead of one of your competitors?
• Do you love the work you do? What inspires you to do this work?
• What’s the key to your success both in terms of your practice and in terms of success for clients?
The answers to these can add depth to your bio, helping you stand out in a crowded and competitive market. Also consider incorporating community service and pro bono work, if you have any, into your bio. And, if your firm permits it, you can add unique personal interests and activities. But try to do it with a little style and perhaps a touch of tone-appropriate humor. For a partner in a litigation-focused firm we worked with, we concluded his bio with the following (names have been changed to protect the guilty!): Unfortunately for Bill, his track record of success for his clients does not always extend to sports. He and his family like to spend their free time at Citi Field cheering on the Mets and at Belmont Racetrack cheering for (usually the wrong) horses.
DO: View Your Bio as a Dynamic Representation of Your Evolving Career
DON’T: Set It and Forget It
As you move through your career, your bio should evolve with you, reflecting your legal skills and experience—past, present and future. I recommend revisiting your bio every six months to see whether you have updates you can make. Often, your focus will be on adding to your bio—representative matters, client successes, recognitions, new practice areas and the like—which at some point may result in an overgrown bio that needs a little pruning.
Career milestones, such as changes in status and title, are excellent opportunities for a comprehensive review and revision of your bio— by which I mean more than just changing your title. When you’re an early career associate, you may struggle to fill the page. Information about work you did in law school clinics or internships, teaching assistant positions and relevant non-legal work between college and law school, are all effective at distinguishing yourself from colleagues at your same level. As you ascend the associate ranks, you want to add more details about your work, skills and experience. Once you reach senior associate or junior partner level, however, you may no longer need to provide such specific details; rather, you can rely more on shorthand—“lead trial counsel” and “first chair” for example, to convey that you have the requisite knowledge and experience without needing to describe every aspect of your work. If you’ve been building a representative matters list and it’s become lengthy, it might be time to prune, highlighting a handful of emblematic cases to convey the depth of your experience, rather than including a laundry list of every matter you’ve handled. Changing firms—or even changing or adding new practice areas—are always good times to review and revise your bio, not just to conform to the style and best practices of your new firm or practice, but to consider whether there are other changes you want to make.
DO: Optimize Visual and Other Media Elements
DON’T: Rely on Words Alone
I really am in “people in glass houses should not throw stones” territory, considering that my hair is no longer the same color as it is in the photo on my web bio and LinkedIn. That said, a professional and up-to-date headshot is an essential element of your bio. Again, legal services is a person-to-person business, and clients want to be able to connect the lawyer or team they may entrusting their more pressing problems with to real people. In today’s multi-media digital world, headshots and static images are not the only media elements to consider for your bio. Audio and video elements are great enhancements that can make your bio stand out from the crowd, offering dynamic ways to demonstrate your skills and expertise, as well as introduce you and highlight your personal style and approach.
DO: Be Mindful of the Rules of Professional Conduct
DON’T: Misrepresent Your Work Experience or Qualifications
The rules of professional responsibility governing attorney advertising also apply to lawyer bios. While these rules vary from state to state, some general requirements are fairly universal. (In Pennsylvania, Rule 7 governs communications about a lawyer’s services.) Every state prohibits false or misleading statements, so your bio must be accurate, and all claims must be supportable by objective facts, not opinions. Take care with comparative statements, such as claiming to be the “best” lawyer in your practice area, making favorable comparisons of your skills and successes with those of other lawyers, and using terms like “unique,” “unparalleled” or “unmatched.” Many states, including Pennsylvania, also prohibit lawyers from claiming that they are specialists (or specialize) in specific areas of the law, with very limited exceptions. In some states, the terms like “expert” and “expertise” should likewise be avoided too. No matter where you are in your legal career, from new lawyer to senior partner, your bio—done right—can be an essential and effective tool for attracting clients, referrals and opportunities.
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