Can You Pay Someone to Recommend Your Law Firm?

Legal advertising in the state of California can be tricky. Attorneys must learn about the laws and follow them explicitly to remain compliant. The State Bar of California sets the regulations and enforces them. A legal professional may be subject to disciplinary action if they violate these rules.

 

When You Can Pay for Someone to Recommend Your Law Firm

According to the State Bar of California rule 7.2 on advertising, there are specific situations where you can pay for someone to recommend your law firm and others where it is prohibited. Some cases where it is okay for you to pay to have someone recommend your law services include:

Legal Referral - Attorneys can pay standard charges to hire a firm that offers legal recommendations as part of their regular services. The legal referral service must operate within the State Bar of California’s Minimum Standards for a Lawyer Referral Service in California.

Paid Advertising - A lawyer can pay for legitimate advertising or...

Continue Reading...

California Rules on Misleading or False Information in Law Firm Ads

Lawyers and firms must be very careful when advertising in print ads, online, or other mediums. Each state has its own take on marketing for law firms, and California has some very interesting rules. One, in particular, applies to any misleading or false information in ads. 

Rule 7 - Misleading or False Information in Ads 

Advertising may apply to any public solicitation or private communication, such as email campaigns. Rule 7 of the California Bar rules on marketing state that any attorney or law firm's website must not contain any information that may be perceived as confusing, deceptive, or misleading. 

Absolute statements like "best," "lowest," "most," "highest," "will," and 

"better" should not be used in advertising or marketing as they imply assurances you cannot guarantee. Additionally, you cannot make false, misleading, or deceptive statements about your fees, services, or results.  

Honesty in Marketing 

The law also points out that the...

Continue Reading...

How The Florida Bar Marketing Review Process Works

Lawyer advertising can be a slippery slope, and you must be extra careful in the messaging and promotion of your legal services. Marketing for lawyers is subject to strict laws enforced by the Florida Bar. 

The Florida Bar Marketing Review Process

Before using an ad, you must send it into the Florida Bar along with the filing fee, the ad’s duration and usage, 20 days before publishing or using it. 

Once the Florida Bar receives it, they must review it within 15 days. The only exception is if they require additional information or determine that they need to examine the ad further. Either way, they will inform you of the need for more info or that it was rejected or accepted. If you do not receive any communication from the Florida Bar within 15 days of receiving it, you can use the ad and consider it approved. 

You must submit each advertisement separately, and the Florida Bar will open a new file for it and assign it a unique identification number. The Florida...

Continue Reading...

6 Times the Florida Bar Rules Don't Apply

Although the Florida bar is strict about rules applying to advertising and promotion for lawyers and law firms, there are some exceptions to the rules. Some of the times when the Florida bar rules don't apply are:

Running an Ad in Another State

If you are licensed to practice law in multiple states, Florida's advertising rules do not apply to you if you market your services in another state or jurisdiction. However, keep in mind you must comply with the laws of that area, but as long as the ad is not sent to Florida residents, then you are safe.

Marketing with Post Cards

You can promote your law services using postcards as long as the campaign is not a targeted direct mail advertisement. However, you must place the postcard in an envelope, or it must be converted to a self-mailing, fold-over style brochure. All information about the matter must be concealed when sending it through the mail. You must also mark the postcard with the word "advertisement" in a bright, easy-to-read...

Continue Reading...

Lawyers, Your Brand Needs Management Too! People Hire Lawyers, Not Law Firms

Believe it or not, just about everyone has a brand online. Whether you are aware or not, if you are in business, people are probably talking about your services either on social media, on blogs, or in reviews. That means you have an online reputation you must manage to keep it positive and working for you. Negative comments, regardless of their validity, can hurt your brand.

How Can I Find Out if My Brand/Reputation Needs Work?

Like most consumers, legal clients go online to do research before hiring a lawyer. While it's essential to have a legal marketing strategy, it must also include your brand management. The first step is to find out what people are saying about you and your law firm. 

The best way to start managing your online reputation is by Googling yourself to see what comes up. Open a private browsing page so your search engine won't feed you things that align with previous searches. Be sure to use search terms including your name and things like "lawyer" and "law...

Continue Reading...

If Your Law Firm is Online, So Should Your Marketing Efforts

If your law firm has a website, your legal marketing efforts should also be online.  Customers don't just use Google to find you. There are dozens of other ways you can conduct law firm internet marketing effectively using the tools already available to you.

What is Online Marketing for Lawyers?

To be successful in our modern world, most people live online. Much of our personal information is stored in the cloud, and business is conducted through email, communication channels, and video conferencing. Online marketing for lawyers is an essential piece of the puzzle. Online technologies offer law firms new opportunities to connect with clients. Historically, legal marketing was limited to phone book ads, magazine and newspaper ads, radio, TV, bench, bus, and billboard advertising. The internet and social media open up new avenues for a legal marketing strategy that is both successful and cost-effective.


Why Should Law Firms Have an Online Marketing Plan?

The goals of law firm...

Continue Reading...

Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent for Law Firms

 

Learn how to recruit and retain top talent during the Great Resignation with Katherine Doble, CEO of INGAGE,  a full-service legal and financial marketing firm. Chat with us at [email protected]

Continue Reading...

The Three Keys to a Successful Legal Marketing Campaign

In the field of law, chances are there are hundreds of attorneys who provide the same legal services you do. They may not have the same amount of experience, track record, practice the exact same way, or are not as well-versed as you are in a particular area however, to the average client not much of this will matter when making a decision on who to hire. The reality is that most clients chose to retain your firm because you had checked off three boxes for them - know, like, and trust and those three boxes are the keys to a successful legal marketing campaign.

Know, Like, and Trust Equation 

The know, like, trust, the principle is a common term amongst marketers and can be applied to all industries. In order to have a chance at retaining a client, they first need to know you. That seems simple - right? Brand awareness is the most often overlooked step in a law firm’s marketing.  

The second and most crucial step is “like.” As we learned when we were...

Continue Reading...

The #1 Rule of Legal Marketing: Collect Data

As a kid, my dad would regularly sit myself and my siblings down for one of his life lessons discussions. One of his favorite rules of life was to “never put all of your eggs into one basket.” During his lecture, he even went as far as to collect baskets for each one of us and use eggs from our refrigerator to illustrate what happens when you break this lesson. Needless to say, my mom was not pleased with the mess but his point was well taken. Diversification is important in almost all aspects of life and the same rule rings true in digital marketing. 

Earlier this month, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp crashed for several hours leaving businesses that were solely utilizing these platforms for marketing to rethink their strategy. Our legal marketing clients were relieved we guided them towards using a multi-channel marketing approach focused on data collection.   

What is a multi-channel legal marketing strategy?

In the most basic form, it’s...

Continue Reading...

DBR: Legal Marketing’s Next Digital Chapter Hinges on Numbers and Nimble Strategies

Attorneys are finally going digital. Social distancing measures brought about by COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of online tools for many organizations—even among notoriously "old school" lawyers.

By Katherine Doble | September 21, 2021

While vaccines are being rolled out and offices are slowly starting to reopen, many of the technological advancements law firms made last year seem to be here to stay. According to Clio’s 2020 Legal Trends Report, 83% of attorneys say they plan to continue using video conferencing software to meet with clients after the pandemic, and 96% will continue to store data in cloud-based servers.

The importance of digital marketing has also risen exponentially across all industries. Deloitte’s 2021 Global Marketing Report revealed that members of the C-suite think digital technology (68%) and marketing (63%) will be the most critical functional areas to their businesses over the next year. And according to...

Continue Reading...
Close

50% Complete

Two Step

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.