Law Firm Public Relations Has Come A Long Way

It wasn’t that long ago when law firms distained public relations in the belief that it was something that only merchants did. However, in this highly competitive environment in which long-standing relationships are no longer sacrosanct, law firm public relations has become a booming specialty. Law firm public relations enables attorneys to engage in a dialogue with their clients and potential clients and fostering dialogue is what public relations is all about unlike its sister discipline of advertising, which in essence, talks at you… There are quite a few ways in which law firm public relations can be put to use by attorneys – either singly or through their firms. One of which is for attorneys to comment on issues of the day – the things that the media is reporting on… Some years ago, an attorney commented on an issue regarding insurance for directors and officers at corporations during an interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter… Two of his quotes appeared in the story… The net result: his firm landed two clients (one for each quote – not bad). That clearly demonstrates the power of law firm public relations. In the past law firm public relations meant producing collateral materials – brochures and such – as a means to display intellectual capital. Given that law firms produce considerable amounts of intellectual capital, they are beginning to discover that content generation is replacing collateral materials. And, as a result, an emerging aspect of law firm public relations is the use of social media (isn’t that case for all industries?) in the form of blogs, LinkedIn, YouTube, among others. In theory social media is free… That’s true; however, an important part of any social media strategy is content and generating good content requires a tremendous commitment of time and resources (nothing is worse than a stale blog that hasn’t been updated frequently). Again, law firm public relations professionals understand this and will be able to design a program to yield the best content, identify the best social media targets and deliver that content in a manner that is usable to the audience. While social media is all the rage these days, traditional media continues to play a major role in law firm public relations efforts. After all people still read The Wall Street Journal and other such publications. In addition, reporters are writing about things all day long – either on media websites or their own blogs. Law firm public relations holds many benefits by enabling attorneys to engage their clients and potential clients in a discussion as well as enhance their standing (as well as their firm’s reputation) by putting their intellectual capital on display.