They say they want to stand out. But when they see what different might look like, they’re often resistant (they take a lot of comfort from sounding, well… like other law firms).
And, it has to be said, some lawyers just like sounding pompous and self-important. (I’ve worked in law firms for six years, and I was Head of PR in one for four years, so I feel like I can say).
But I’ve always believed there’s everything to win for a law firm that is really bold and steps out of the herd with its comms. Not only for the law firms – but for the people who take their advice.
When ‘bold’ goes bad
There are lots of examples of law firms doing ‘bold’ – but badly. It seems there’s a tendency to go a bit bananas if they move away from the corporate strait-jacket. A kind of ‘oh to hell with it’ moment of madness that swings the pendulum way too far in the other direction.
RollonFriday has been having a field day with this cringey, ‘krazee’ marketing stuff for years. They’ve spotted law firms going all out with jazz poetry, or turning their lawyers into lightning-shooting gods.
I’ve seen poor lawyers shamefully handing out business cards with their own caricatures on them. I’m going back about 10 years with that, but with law firms it all feels a bit plus ça change.
The solution: talk like a human
All it would take for lawyers to stand out (and I mean streets away from the competition) is to always write clearly, warmly and sound like empathetic humans. That’s it.
No weird gimmicks.
But I’ve yet to see a firm do that consistently.
Lawyers get a bad rap, but they do a lot of good with CSR work, pro bono and lots of policies and programmes for equal opportunities. But it can all sound a bit hollow if the firm’s still writing in a way that sounds elitist and reads as (almost deliberately) inaccessible.
Lawyers are smart. We all know that. No quibbles.
But the smartest ones know it takes longer to write a short email than a long one. That their most important clients are time-poor and they don’t want to get an email that’s full of pontification designed to make the lawyer feel important (not the client).
And that’s the bottom line. Which is why it’s my bottom line too.
If you want clear and warm communications, without the gimmicks, we’d love to help.
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Written by Sarah Webster, Senior Writer at Definition.