Niche Specialization for Lawyers By Steven M. Gursten March 2011 While lawyers might be tempted to take any work that comes their way in these tough times, the author makes a case for developing a focus on one area of expertise. Drilling Deep, not Wide Has Made all the Difference for One Michigan Personal Injury Law Firm We’ve all heard there are many advantages to niche specialization. Five years ago, my law firm made the leap of faith. We changed the name of the law firm from Gursten, Koltonow, Gursten, Christensen and Raitt, to “Michigan Auto Law ‐ Auto Accident Attorneys.” Letterhead and business cards were changed as well. When we recently bought a new building, the monument sign for passing traffic now reads “Michigan Auto Law ‐ Auto Accident Attorneys.” Five years later, this decision has turned out to be one of the most important decisions we have ever made. Here are some of the lessons we learned. What’s in a Name? Almost all law firm names are a series of last names of founding partners. It reflects a by‐gone era when most lawyer referrals were word of mouth. But your surname, or even worse, three to five strange sounding surnames, tells the public nothing about yourself or what areas of law you practice within. But unless you are one of the very few law firms in America spending a fortune on television, and perhaps to a much lesser extent, radio, and yellow pages, these names mean absolutely nothing to the average person on the street. These names, my own included, are basically very hard to remember, hard to pronounce, and susceptible to all sorts of interesting spelling permutations. Adding three or five more names after that first one, like most law firms do, does nothing but make your law firm almost impossible to remember. It also does nothing to distinguish or separate yourself from any other lawyer or law firm with a bunch of strange sounding names. Drill Deep, Not Wide, for Success Michigan Auto Law ‐ Auto Accident Attorneys was very different. Someone who glances at our letterhead or street sign or business card knows immediately what type of law we practice. And in that glance it immediately differentiates our lawyers from competitors. Perhaps most important, it conveys that our law firm has deep subject matter knowledge and expertise. www.lawpracticetoday.org
©American Bar Association 2011
“Michigan Auto Law ‐ Auto Accident Attorneys” persuades. It differentiates and distinguishes us from other law firms, even other law firms who practice personal injury law. This in turn leads to more clients. Some of my partners were at first very reluctant to make the leap to “Michigan Auto Law.” They were concerned that by embracing niche specialization and focusing solely on automobile accidents, they would lose the miscellaneous dogbite case or one of the few remaining viable slip and fall cases that exist in Michigan. But by focusing on one practice area we have found that these losses, to the extent that they have occurred, have been more than offset by signing far more cases of people who have been injured in auto accidents throughout the state. And one wonderful but unintended additional consequence has been much higher rankings in Google and the other internet search engines. Marketing in the 21st Century and the Google Age Like most lawyers, I never took a marketing class in college. And like most lawyers, I wished I had as soon as I began to practice law. Once I became a personal injury lawyer, I was faced with the challenge of competing for clients in an already crowded and hyper‐competitive field. One has only to open up the local phone book for proof. But the lessons I have learned over the past five years apply to all lawyers, and in all areas of practice. In the business of law, marketing yourself as a generalist does not persuade, distinguish, or differentiate yourself in a sea of lawyer advertising. You are just one more strange name, either competing with well‐
branded TV advertisers who would spend millions in advertising every year, or in a phone book packed with similar ads from other lawyers with strange and unfamiliar names as well. The decision to dig deep, not wide, so to speak, became easy when I realized that even branding myself as a personal injury lawyer was too general. Personal injury law encompasses people injured in my area of niche specialization, automobile accidents, but it includes many completely different and unrelated areas of law as well. Being a generalist, people won't remember you for any particular area of true expertise. On the other hand, by choosing to practice in one very narrow and niche‐specialized area of law, everyone ‐ your potential clients, potential referral sources and the general public will know immediately and exactly what you do. Your image is clear and precise. People will know immediately and exactly what you do because we practice law today in the internet age. Advertising legal services as a generalist isn’t only confusing to human beings. Being a generalist is also confusing for the search engines. In the internet age, niche specialization makes it easier for web crawlers and search engines that continuously spider the web for content to understand exactly what area of law you practice, just like it does for people. A clearly stated area of practice, well‐supported by content that is thematically relevant and consistent to this area of practice makes it easy for the search engines to understand and index your website. The mission of the search engines are to deliver the most relevant results to the user. A website focused on niche specialization makes this task easier for the search engines to deliver useful content. Unfortunately www.lawpracticetoday.org
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for most lawyer websites today, every area of law that is listed complicates this task, and dooms you to lower rankings, buried deep in search results never to be found. What is true for people is also true for search engines ‐ and niche specialization makes it easy for both people and internet search engines to understand who you are and what kind of law you specialize in. The mistake that too many lawyers make in offering a long list of legal services is that they don’t want to miss out on that one “big case.” More to the point, the more areas of law you offer legal services in, the less authoritative you become ‐ for people and for search engines. The more narrow your niche, the easier it is to establish yourself as the authority in that specialized area of law and for people and web crawlers to regard you as a more relevant choice in that area of law. Also, the easier it is for your clients, potential clients, and referral sources, including other lawyers, to know and more easily remember exactly what it is you do. Niche specialization works in the internet age. And our own decision to specialize was rewarded by increased traffic and clients coming to our website. Search engines were able to crawl our website and understand immediately what type of law we specialize in, and this, combined with very themed and focused content, led to higher rankings. What had at one time been just one more unremarkable personal injury lawyer website became almost overnight top in organic rankings for important keywords like auto accidents and truck accidents. As I said, the lessons I’ve learned apply to all lawyers, and to all areas of law. All lawyers can embrace these lessons. Other Advantages of Niche Specialization Additional benefits to niche specialization that I have found, in addition to search engine optimization, include: Persuasiveness and Credibility ‐The more narrow your niche, the easier it is to establish yourself as the authority in that specialized area of law and for people to perceive you immediately as an expert in that area of law. Recognition – Lawyers are more likely to refer cases to you if you specialize, and your better web ranking on the internet more likely to drive clients to your firm. Your chance of being contacted by media as a source for comments will significantly increase. You will more likely be asked to speak at legal seminars on your area of expertise. Increased Efficiency. By focusing on only one type of case ‐ in our case people injured in automobile accidents ‐ we have built an extensive document library and work product database that covers both auto accidents that are routine and not routine. www.lawpracticetoday.org
©American Bar Association 2011
With our document library, we are not starting from scratch with each new case. Our efforts focus on refinement to specific fact situations, not re‐creating the wheel each time. The more you specialize, the more you will develop in‐depth knowledge about your area of the law. Reduction of Costs ‐ Being all things to all people creates lots of stress. Every new case and new motion requires huge additional effort. Today, with only a few words typed in our document management system, our attorneys can quickly find work product on almost every conceivable issue related to Michigan’s automobile accident law ‐ from motions in limine filed in past trials to unusual lien situations. Better Use of Forms – Niche specialization allows attorneys and staff to create interrogatories, motions and form documents in a blink. For example, to a standard auto accident complaint, I can quickly insert new counts as appropriate (such as DUI, negligent entrustment in truck accidents and piercing the corporate veil, use of cell phones, etc…) for more unusual sets of facts. Better Division of Labor – Specializing allows lawyers to create systems and “go‐to” people to add increased efficiencies. With proper division of labor, complex tasks become easy to break down into simple tasks, which in turn become easy for staff to accomplish. By dividing the tasks in my office, and creating in house specialists, I can cater to the strengths of my employees. Better Division of Resources – When you specialize you no longer have to have every volume of all the books in your law library. You can allocate scarce resources in a more efficient manner. Focusing only in an area of niche specialization, you can have the top library in your area of expertise, one that is up to date and the one other lawyers want to use when they have a case in your area. As you consider your future, consider narrowing the range of services you offer. Target one or two areas in which you want to practice law. Obviously, this advice better serves lawyers in more dense (and more competitive) geographical areas. Choose carefully and make sure the geographical area you practice in can support a niche practice, or be prepared to travel. This advice on niche specialization may apply more to a lawyer practicing in a denser population area. But, without question, the more narrow your niche ‐‐ the more effective your marketing and internet advertising will become. www.lawpracticetoday.org
©American Bar Association 2011