Lights, Camera... Legal Advice?

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Video may have killed the radio star, but it could potentially help law firms to blend the wide reach of digital marketing with the interpersonal touch lawyers have long relied upon to help foster new client relationships.

However, the internet is a big place with a video lurking just around every corner, so law firms looking to stand out need to give substantial thought both to who winds up in front of the camera and the message they are trying to deliver, especially as more competition enters the fray.

According to Cynthia Voth, president of the Legal Marketing Association and director of client engagement and innovation at Miller Nash Graham & Dunn, nearly three quarters of Am Law 100 firms had YouTube channels during the last year.

"YouTube is also considered the second largest search engine when you consider users, searches and minutes spent on site. You can't deny the effective SEO [search engine optimization] that comes from having content on YouTube," Voth said.

While it's always nice to move a few rungs up the old search ladder, there are other reasons that firms may be embracing the video format. For some, it can be considered an extension of the interpersonal networks that firms have typically traded upon to build business, something that doesn't always resonate with the way people tend to think about the internet.

Case in point: Kevin Broyles, a managing partner at FisherBroyles, told Legaltech News in July that an assistant general counsel at a major company is unlikely to go online in order to find a lawyer, instead preferring to rely on preexisting connections.

"They're going to go on word of mouth, who they know and legal resources they have. Usually it's going to be the network they have," he said.

But Mark Miller, co-founder of Miller Friel, thinks that attitude might be changing with clients turning to Google to help identify specialists in a given area of practice. Still, that's not to say that a friendly face or a sense of personality becomes any less important online—and a video can help bring those across.

Lawyers at Miller Friel have been doing video blogs on various topics surrounding corporate insurance coverage since 2013. Individual episodes discuss everything from the role of an insurance broker to the top 10 insurance recovery issues for corporate policy holders.

Miller said the original goal was to get the firm's message out to clients or even other law firms who made referrals. People needed to get to know their attorneys.

"I think podcasts also do that, but video is good in way where they can see you, they can see your expressions, how you react, how excited you are about the situation and sort of assess your knowledge to a degree that is not as easily done in print," Miller said.

The magnetism of an attorney's personality and the face it's attached to might be critical to separating one law firm's video from the din in a digital ecosystem, where large firms like Goodwin, Baker McKenzie and White & Case are utilizing the medium.

While Miller Friel has opted to engage the services of a professional production company, enterprising lawyers—and almost anyone else in the world—could theoretically put together a video using a smart phone and some relatively inexpensive editing software.

Voth isn't sure there's a way for firms to truly pop against such a crowded backdrop, but there are considerations that can be made ahead of time—such as casting.

"The challenge for firms is finding topics, stories and personalities that play well into video. Not all make for 'good TV,' so as a firm, if you have an interesting area of practice, especially personable attorneys and/or a strong story to tell, that will help you stand out," she said.

At Miller Friel, for example, Miller and his lawyers typically devote a day to collectively generating five to ten video ideas that can all be shot across one big block "several times a year." While on camera, Miller said the attorneys try to go beyond facts that could be just as easily gleaned from a Google search or law textbook, instead attempting to provide some real insight and perspective on an issue.

So far, it seems to be working for them.

"For us, the only feedback that matters at the end of the day is clients interested in hiring us and we have gotten clients off of the blog, a series of them. So it is helpful," Miller said.