Ed Walters, CEO and co-founder of Fastcase, opened the Above The Law Academy for Private Practice conference in New York City with a pragmatic and inspiring keynote about how to improve law firm marketing. His smart advice can help anyone in our legal community, from start-ups to the largest global firms.

Titled “To Be a Better Lawyer, Don’t Think (Only) Like a Lawyer,” Walters offered concrete tips to avoid the stale, cookie-cutter approach that too many law firms adapt for websites and other marketing. You’ve seen them: the long, self-promoting resumes with trite images—white men shaking hands, a scale of justice, a gavel, a courtroom and “someone with a laptop to show that the firm is tech-savvy.”

Firms should focus on providing potential clients with the information they want and need, urged Walters, who earned his J.D. at the University of Chicago School of Law. Walters spent two years practicing law at Covington & Burling, where he advised Microsoft Corp., the National Football League, among other clients while being based in Washington, D.C. and Brussels.

Changing Perspectives

Walters told the audience how he was tremendously influenced by Beverly Wilson, his high school art teacher. “I’ll never forget my first day in her art class. She said, ‘Many of you think that I’m going to teach you how to draw or paint in this class. And you will certainly learn how to do those things better. But what I want to teach you is this: Saper Videre—to learn to see. After taking my class, you will sculpt better and paint better, perhaps. But I guarantee you that the world will open up to you differently. You will learn to see the world differently. You will see negative space, shadows, hues, angles, curves and contours where you never saw them before.’  And she was right—in art, I learned to see, and it opened my world,” said Walters.

“Law school isn’t like that,” he observed at the day-long conference held on Oct. 2 at the Westin Times Square hotel. A big part of the problem is that lawyers are inculcated during law school to be negative. “We become risk adverse and see threats everywhere,” said Walters. “As a profession, we’re almost obsessed with what you can’t do.”

But potential clients need to know what lawyers can do. “Law is a business and clients are the customers,” said Walters. “Good marketing tells people about a product—but great marketing tells the people about themselves,” he said, citing the famous Apple Inc. advertisements from the 1980s, featuring the “Think Different” tag line and a wide range of people, such as puppeteer Jim Henson and boxer Mohammad Ali.

But law school training can be a formidable wall to effective marketing. Walters cited his own dramatic experience. Before turning to law, he had strong writing creds—as a journalist and at the Office of Presidential Speechwriting at The White House, where he wrote speeches for President George H.W. Bush. He recalled how during law school, his research and writing professor wrote on his final paper, ‘The value of original thought is highly overrated. Legal writing should not be eloquent.”

The key is to strike a balance, said Walters.  “You have to know your customer and you have to know yourself.” Focus on what you do really well, he said.  For example, if you are an expert re: New York City zoning regulations, that’s going to be a draw to someone who needs help with those regulations.

“The first rule of consumer marketing is empathy—you have to know your client or potential client,” he said.Effective websites show you the person, not just the lawyer. An example is The Van Winkle Law Firm, where you can click on the “work” page or “meet” page of a lawyer’s bio, such as attorney Vincent Borden, (whose favorite book is Perfume, by Patrick Suskind).

The Basics, Please

Too many websites fail to include basic, pragmatic information that a potential client would want to know, said Walters, who recommends that firms address these questions:
• Directions to your office, nearby parking and public transportation.
• Is child care availiable during our meeting?
• Can we meet after normal work hours so that I don’t have to leave work early?
• “Do you have experience doing exactly what I need?”
• “What do clients say about you?”
• “Will you return my calls?
• Does the firm have relationships with bankers who can help me with my business?

The bottom line? “Remember, you are in a service business,” said Walters.  “It’s not about you or your pedigree, it’s about your client.” Be yourself, your whole self, said Walters, “unless you are a total jerk.”

Monica Bay is a CodeX Fellow and a freelance reporter for Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business. She is a member of the California bar. Twitter: @MonicaBay. Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu.