Best bios: Compelling case stories
Good biographies and profiles are more than a list of credentials. They can stand alone as persuasive marketing pieces. Their narrative sections have news value. They also use compelling case stories and personal quotes to persuade.
I am a big fan of the use of case studies (which I like to call case stories) in online biographies. In the courtroom, lawyers are great persuaders. They know that they need to use evidence to prove their cases. The same is true on an electronic biography. You can't just say what you do in generic terms; you need to tell stories that illustrate how you actually do what you say you do.
In addition, a case story is a good way to ndicate not only your skills, but also your values and contributions to the legal system as a professional services provider.
And when it comes to telling stories, the simple listing of a case citation does not cut it in a persuasive application like this. I have seen countless lawyer bios that include a long list of such citations -- which make a reader's eyes glaze over and do not tell a persuasive story.
A good case study should not be long and should tell a compelling story about how the lawyer solved a particular kind of legal problem for a client in a particular industry. Unless the representation is particularly complex, I try to limit the case study to three or four sentences.
When working with a lawyer to write these stories, I seek the answers to the following questions:
1 -- What was the problem giving rise to the legal action?
2 -- What was the solution provided by the lawyer/firm?
3 -- What was the legal result?
4 -- What was the positive business or personal outcome for the client (financially and to reputation)?
Here's an example:
Do universities have a legal obligation to supervise a student’s personal, off-campus recreational activities? In University of Denver v. Whitlock, the Colorado Supreme Court said “no.” When a student who had been jumping on a trampoline at night in his fraternity house was seriously injured, the lower courts awarded a multi-million dollar judgment to the plaintiff. The Colorado Supreme Court reversed this decision and absolved the University of any liability
Obviously, it is essential that a lawyer or law firm achieve, in writing, permission from any client before using the client's name and representation information in any case study. This is required by both confidentiality and publicity sections of the ABA and state codes of professional responsibility. Contrary to popular opinion, this is true even if information about a case is already public on a court database or has been covered in the media. This can be time-consuming -- but the use of actual cases as evidence is very powerful and well-worth the effort.
Failure to get permission can have dire consequences. Last week, the law firm Quinn Emmanual published the amount of a confidential settlement in in its business litigation newsletter. Facebook paid the firm's client, ConnectU, tens of millions to settle lawsuits accusing Facebook 's founder of stealing the idea for the successful social networking site. Within hours, the law firm's snafu has spread far and wide over the Internet.
If you cannot get permission, it is posible to make the case study more generic -- as long as you do not use enough detail that the unwilling client can be identified. Also, I have used hypothetical stories to demonstrate how a lawyer would approach a type of case -- but these must be clearly disclaimed as hypotheticals. Getting permission and using names is the better alternative.
It is a good idea to use just three case studies on the main page of a bio. I encourage my clients to use cases that are recent, newsworthy, and relevant to clients in the areas where they are actively seeking more business. Others can be accessed via a link to "More cases."
Once they are written, there are many additional uses for these case studies or case stories. They can appear in a lawyer's bio, but also in the practice area and community services sections of a Web site. There can be a "case study" section on the site, where all cases are aggregated and searchable. They can pulled for use in proposals and other marketing materials. They can be posted on outside egal content sites.
Research shows that a compelling story is much more persuasive and memorable to a client, potential client or reporter than any list of credentials. Be sure to tell stories in your bios.
