Your attorney bio page is likely one of the most visited pages on your law firm’s website. Potential clients visit your bio page to learn more about you and to decide if you’re the right attorney to represent them.
Unfortunately, many attorney bio pages are little more than an uninspiring recitation of facts and accomplishments.
If your attorney bio only notes where you went to school, which bars you’re admitted to, and a bulleted list of publications and awards, it’s unlikely to provide the right information to inspire a potential client to hire you. That means you may be missing an opportunity to generate new business.
If you think your bio page needs a refresh, here are three ways to revamp it.
1. Tell a compelling story on your bio page.
Your attorney bio is an opportunity to show a potential client who you are and why you’re the right choice for them.
If your bio is just a dry, bulleted list, you’re missing an opportunity to help answer a question that’s often important to potential clients:
Will you care deeply about them and their case or problem?
To help demonstrate why you’re the right attorney to represent them, your bio should include more than just the basic facts about your legal experience and skills.
To transform your bio from a list of facts into a compelling narrative, consider including the following in your attorney bio:
- Your journey to the law. What inspired you to choose this profession? Was there something in your formative years that made you passionate about a particular practice area? Explaining this in your bio helps a potential client feel a personal connection with you. It can demonstrate that you care deeply about your work and their case or problem.
- Who you are outside of work. Are you involved in the community? Are you passionate about certain causes or issues? Including these interests and activities in your bio can help a potential client see that you care about more than just winning or making money.
- Who you have helped. Paint a picture of the kind of person you have helped and why you enjoy doing it. That way a potential client can see that you’ve helped people like them in the past and that you can help them as well.
- What you have accomplished. This isn’t just a list of awards and accolades. This is an opportunity to provide context for those accomplishments. For example, talk about what went into being selected for an award, why it matters, and what it meant to you to receive that award.
2. Write your bio for potential clients, not other attorneys.
A lot of attorney bios are written in a way that appeals to other attorneys. Your bio might include your education, bar admissions, publications, and awards.
That information is important, but it probably isn’t enough to inspire a website visitor to make the leap from potential client to actual client.
While that information — and what it means — may make sense to other attorneys, keep in mind that your potential clients may not interpret that information in the same way a fellow attorney would.
When talking about your accomplishments, ask yourself some questions:
- What does this accomplishment mean?
- How does this accomplishment make you the right choice for a potential client?
- Does everything on your bio page make sense to someone without a legal background? For example, a 10/10 score on Avvo sounds great, as long as the potential client knows what Avvo is. Provide context for anything that a potential client might not be familiar with.
A client-focused approach can transform a lackluster attorney bio page into a powerful business generator.
3. Set expectations on your bio page
Many potential clients will be anxious or embarrassed about their legal issues, and they may be nervous about contacting an attorney.
This may be the first time a potential client has ever interacted with an attorney. Legal matters can be confusing and intimidating, and a well-crafted bio page is one way to help potential clients feel more comfortable reaching out to you, as well as helping potential clients learn more about what they can expect if they choose to work with your firm.
For example, you might include information about how you’ll communicate with potential clients. Will you be communicating with the client directly? Do you have staff that interacts with clients?
If, for example, you love working with your clients and they’ll have direct access to you throughout their case, let them know that. Including this kind of information in your attorney bio can make you seem more approachable and it can help to build a bond of trust between you and the potential client.
Attorneys should be careful about how they frame certain things in their bios. For example, if an attorney writes something to the effect of, “I will take care of you,” but a potential client interacts only with your firm’s support staff, they may feel uneasy about the lack of transparency. They may expect that you’ll speak with them directly, only to discover that they interact with you, the attorney, very rarely.
For more suggestions on improving your bio, see 5 Things that Make Better Attorney Bios on Law Firm Websites.
