Law Marketing

Published on: October 8, 2024

LP Magazine – Ethical Issues When Incorporating AI Into Law Firm Marketing

ethics-regulations-ai-artificial-intelligence-hammer-gavel-judgement-legal_1162612-1423-300x200 A few months ago, I was asked to provide the ethics attorney perspective for a Legal Marketing Association (LMA) program, AI for Communications and PR: What You Need to Know Now. At that point, I had not put a lot of thought into the ethical considerations. As with most business development professionals, I had already incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) into my day-to-day. But as is often the case for many lawyer speaking gigs, I delved into the topic and learned it–quickly. And because I believe strongly in taking a presentation and turning it into an article (or vice-versa), my marketing column addresses the issues in the September/October 2024 issue of Law Practice, Ethical Issues When Incorporating AI Into Law Firm Marketing.

Where I come from, when you say “A.I.” it can only mean one thing—Allen Iverson. But in most parts, AI has become a part of our everyday lives—whether we’re talkin’ about practice, not a game, or almost every aspect of business operations (IYKYK). The bottom line is that AI is integrated into almost everything. Thus, the need to understand where the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) and other ethical issues in law practice come into play. As I note in my column, no less than 15 different RPCs were noted in one state’s AI task force report, as it relates to potential ethics issues that overlap with law firm marketing concepts.

If you are blocked from reading the column behind the ABA paywall, it is provided below in its entirety.

Published on: May 29, 2024

LP Magazine — TikTok Is Gospel to Generation Z

by Micah Buchdahl

TikTok In recently reviewing a law advertising campaign, I found myself saying that we need to run this on TikTok. I looked at the matter and the target audience, and it seemed quite clear that this was the best way to engage. My growing fascination with one of the newer online tools—from something I considered a ridiculous kiddie timewaster—to an app that someone sends a link with useful (and/or entertaining) information nearly every day. When it comes to effective law marketing in 2024, you need to know TikTok—and that is why I wrote TikTok Is Gospel to Generation Z in the May/June 2024 issue of Law Practice.

If you are blocked from reading the column behind the ABA paywall, it is provided below in its entirety.

Summary

Published on: January 19, 2024

LP Magazine — The Morgan & Morgan Effect

by Micah Buchdahl

Phillies Scoreboard at Citizens Bank Park

Sometimes the subject matter for my marketing column just hits me…like when I’m driving down I-95 in Philadelphia and see one law firm billboard after another, after another, after another. It’s the Morgan & Morgan Effect—and I write about it in the January/February 2024 issue of Law Practice, entitled, of course, The Morgan & Morgan Effect.

If you are blocked from reading the column behind the ABA paywall, it is provided below in its entirety.

Published on: November 17, 2023

LP Magazine — At the Intersection of Leadership & Marketing

by Micah Buchdahl

Is law firm leadership and law firm marketing synonymous? Or better yet, should they be? I try to answer that very question in the November/December 2023 issue of Law Practice, At the Intersection of Leadership & Marketing.

Please note that if the ABA paywall prevents you from accessing this column, send me an email and I’ll forward you a copy.

The leaders of most law firms—sometimes a managing partner, other times a management or executive committee—are often going to have first and final say on marketing and business development decisions. If not the strategies themselves, then often the dollars approved to staff and finance them. The problem lies in that not all great law firm leaders are great marketing minds.

Published on: August 1, 2023

Law360: How Law Firms Can Capitalize On Marketing As Demand Lags

by Micah Buchdahl

law360 In the July 25, 2023 edition of Law360, reporter Aebra Coe writes on How Law Firms Can Capitalize On Marketing As Demand Lags. In my interview with her, we discussed what to do with lags in demand, and the best ways to guard against it.

“As many law firms see business decline amid a sluggish economy, some may cut back their marketing budgets to save on costs, however marketing experts say now is actually an important time to double down and create new business opportunities,” writes Coe.

Summer is also a good time for lawyers and their firms to focus on marketing and business development, as business naturally slows in the summer months, according to Micah Buchdahl, president of law firm marketing company HTMLawyers.

Published on: July 11, 2023

LP Magazine — Market Share Competition Among Diverse Law Firms Heats Up, and Gets Heated

by Micah Buchdahl

The cover of the final hard copy issue of Law Practice There seemed to be some irony in receiving the final, hard copy, mailed issue of Law Practice magazine in the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ended race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country. I won’t get overly political here except to say that I’m not a fan of SCOTUS these days, between these harmful rulings and ridiculously unethical behavior by appointed Justices that I would not welcome at my dinner table. It’s quite sad.

In Market Share Competition Among Diverse Law Firms Heats Up, and Gets Heated, my marketing column in the July/August 2023 issue of Law Practice, I address the state of doling out work to diverse lawyers and law firms—for the first time since my March/April 2017 column—a lot had changed. The first section of the recent column subtitled “Diversity in Reverse,” seemed so apropos after the SCOTUS decision. It already felt like progress that took decades to implement now saw courts turning back the clock. Again, quite sad.

Writing about competing for work in the diversity space was triggered by a joint report last year from the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) and the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (IILP), “Understanding and Assessing the Use of Minority- and Women-Owned Law Firms by Corporate Clients.” Blend the George Floyd murder in with the COVID world of Zoom and Teams…and you get a picture of the modern landscape of the legal industry. There isn’t even a clear definition anymore of what diversity is, when contemplating the distribution of work.

Published on: April 25, 2023

Temple ESQ. — 10 Tips for Attorney Marketing and Business Development

by Micah Buchdahl

The magazine for Temple Law School Alumni

Thanks to Patrick Plunkett and Dean Rachel Rebouché at the Temple University Beasley School of Law for thinking of me in contributing the “Top 10 Tips” segment of the Spring 2023 issue of Temple ESQ. In Top 10 Tips for Attorney Marketing and Business Development, I try to boil down a lot of what I do into 10 pithy things totaling around 500 words—not an easy task.

My tips are not rocket science. But as I often like to say, something is better than nothing. And if lawyers struggling to figure out how to market walk away with one thing for a to-do list, then that is something better than nothing.

Published on: March 16, 2023

ABA Law Practice Today — Marketing Your Practice in 60 Minutes or Less

by Micah Buchdahl

60 Minutes In serving as an issue editor for the Marketing-themed March 2023 edition of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today webzine, together with my co-issue editor Jason Marsh, we tried to put together a collection of articles that would prove both timely and informative.

My article contribution, Marketing Your Practice in 60 Minutes or Less, is not rocket science. But people read this stuff (click bait? Perhaps?). And it is designed more to encourage doing something, rather than simply doing nothing. Sometimes I too should follow my own advice. We’re all busy. But if we can just carve out a little time for business development each week, we’ll be the better for it. My wife keeps asking me when I’m going to get around to updating my own website and writing some fresh content. Soon. Soon. Maybe I should do it one hour at a time.

Paula Zirinsky writes on Marketing Opportunities in a Slow Market. And there is nothing more timely than Abbey Block of the Ifrah Law Firm in Washington, DC, writing on Can My Lawyer Be a Robot? We’re reading about issues surrounding artificial intelligence every day now, and the impact that it has, and will have, on the legal profession. Addressing some similar themes but from a total different angle—law marketing and AI—is Chat GPT, Your AI Friend in Content Marketing? For Lawyers, It Depends, by Marina Wilson of Justia.

Published on: March 1, 2023

LP Magazine – Guilt by Associations

by Micah Buchdahl

ABA Law Practice Magazine In my March/April 2023 marketing column in the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Magazine, I address the pros and cons of organizational involvement in Guilt by Associations.

It should come as no surprise that I tout my ABA involvement as a core component of my own business development strategy. At some point, I decided I was going to go “all in” on ABA activity—and it has been beneficial on so many fronts. For me, as an attorney, I wanted to network with other lawyers. And because my own business and practice is national in scope, a broader-based organization made more sense. As a bonus, many of my closest friends today are people I met through ABA activity.

Now my home for most of the last 20+ years of ABA membership has been the Law Practice Division. But choosing the right places to hang your hat have a lot of variables—geography, practice type, cost, ability to travel, ability to meet on nights or weekends, ability to build a referral network, exposure through writing or speaking, and opportunities to be a leader. Are you an introvert or extrovert? Who else is active in the organization? The thinking should go well beyond, “I live in Chicago. I should join the Chicago Bar Association.” Or “I’m an IP lawyer, I should go to INTA.” It might involve a women’s initiative, or something outside the scope of legal, like a House of Worship or Museum group. Some of the wisest moves in organizational involvement is to sit on a board with huge potential clients on the left and right of you—but in a completely non-work, non-legal setting.

Published on: November 10, 2022

LP Magazine – Marketing Ethics Compliance Continues to Confound

by Micah Buchdahl

Marketing Column

In the November/December 2022 marketing column in the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Magazine, Marketing Ethics Compliance Continues to Confound, I combine a number of business development topics into one.

When writing my column, I often start by thinking about what “hot” areas I’m working on at the moment. In the 21 years-plus since launching HTMLawyers, I’d say most years that the bulk of law firm clients have been on the marketing and business development guidance side; a slight amount dedicated to my related but separate ethics practice. However, in recent years, it has flipped. I find myself spending a lot of time behind the desk reviewing a vast variety of marketing campaigns for law firms around the nation—not to give my two cents on the marketing aspects, but to review for ethics compliance. I help law firm managing partners and GCs sleep better at night. They don’t want to be at the helm when that disciplinary letter rolls in, or worse. It is a practice area loaded with inconsistencies, confusion and varied levels of enforcement. All of which makes it a super fun area to practice.