Introducing your insurance defense law firm to a prospective insurance client starts with a professional law firm resume, which serves the same purpose as a personal resume used by a jobseeker. Law firms that wants to attract new business should maintain a current, attractive firm resume for use as a basic part of their business development process.
A law firm resume is typically an electronic document in PDF format that introduces the law firm, key practice areas, the attorneys, and other information that prospective clients such as insurance carriers need to see in order to consider a law firm for a position as defense or panel counsel.
A practice group resume is also recommended in those cases where one practice area is taking the lead for their own business development. We see this most often with Labor & Employment practice groups that are feeling the pressure to get named as employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) panel counsel. Other specialized practice areas might include workers’ compensation, trucking and transportation, cybersecurity, or business law.
The job of the law firm resume is to make a favorable impression while also generating interest on the part of the reader; it does not have to provide every last bit of detail possible about the firm. Keep the firm resume to about 10 pages if possible. The goal is to give your prospect just enough information to encourage them to raise their hand and say, “Yes! I want more information.” Ideally, you want to schedule a telephone or Zoom call to start a conversation about the benefits of working with your law firm.
As you plan your firm resume, you can either choose to work with an experienced marketing consultant to accelerate the process, or you can handle the project internally. In any event, below are some important considerations to build into your marketing materials.
• Introduction to the law firm, which can be summarized on the first page of the document
• Description of the firm’s key practice areas, ideally with representative cases sprinkled in
• Brief biography for each attorney
• Current attorney head shots
• Information on operational considerations (cybersecurity, billing software, diversity, etc.)
• Attractive visual appearance using a professional graphic designer
• Branding consistency with your website
Attorney bio pages should be kept to one page or less. If the firm has many associates, you can either put 3-4 associates on one page, or use a yearbook style layout with 4-5 rows of photos, where each row can have 3-5 headshots. This is one impactful way to communicate the diversity within your law firm.
Identification of the firm’s associates also gives your prospective client an idea of the balance within your law firm between partners and associates. This is important because a law firm with a talented associate pool can push work down to a lower billing level, thereby bringing down legal fees by offering a more attractive “blended” rate that balances the time of partners and associates. A deep bench of associates also indicates that the law firm can handle a higher volume of work with some efficiency in terms of cost and time.
Investing in the services of a marketing consultant and/or a graphic designer to produce a visually-pleasing format for your firm resume can be money well spent. Try to avoid a firm resume that is a straight Word document with many pages of heavy text and no photos. At a minimum, it is important to include a photo for each attorney.
Once you have your law firm resume finished, give some consideration to producing a companion four-page law firm brochure. The firm resume is an ideal way to provide a detailed introduction to your law firm and attorneys. The brochure, printed in small quantities so that it can be updated as needed, is ideal for use in person-to-person meetings, as a hand-out at speaking engagements or educational seminars, and to make available in your office lobby.
As with all marketing materials, check with your state bar association for attorney advertising guidelines.
Insurance Defense Marketing Experts
If your law firm is asking how to become panel counsel for more insurers, give us a call. We have helped more than 250 defense law firms in 43 states pursue new client opportunities.
Legal Expert Connections, Inc. offers three key benefits to defense law firms nationwide:
1. We are the leading U.S. legal marketing agency specializing in the defense market. We make it our business to identify who you need to contact at an insurance company, corporation, or municipality to be considered as defense counsel. We accelerate your business development process by helping you focus on introducing your law firm to new prospective clients.
2. You get a structured business development process. We guide your law firm through a proven three-step campaign that brings discipline, focus, and productivity to your marketing efforts.
3. Increase revenue with professional, Bar-compliant legal marketing campaigns. We do the research to identify insurance panel managers, so you can focus your time on the business development process.
Contact Margaret Grisdela, an insurance defense marketing consultant, at 561-266-1030 or via email. Connect with Margaret Grisdela on LinkedIn.