Branding in Law: Building a Strong Identity for Legal Practices
Have you ever wondered what makes clients prefer one lawyer or law firm over another?
It’s all about branding that sets a law business apart. But if you still think that branding ends up with generating a law firm name and designing a logo that makes a brand iconic and unbeatable, we have red-flag news for you.
It’s 2024 — big time with game-changing strategies and tactics for law firm branding. Today, a memorable logo is not enough to pin your brand to the hearts of your potential and existing clients.
But don’t get alarmed and panicky. This article is your ultimate guide to developing a strong brand identity for your legal practice.
Ready? Good. Here we go, then.
What Is Law Firm Branding?
Branding for legal business involves shaping the audience’s perception of the unique law brand identity, a combination of elements that portray the firm’s image.
It can be done visually and verbally through:
- Brand name
- Design (logo, shapes, colors)
- Mission and vision
- Unique value proposition (UVP)
- Values
- Marketing and advertising messages
- Communication style, etc.
Axiomatically, the logo and the name are the utmost brand differentiators in any business sphere. Whenever you see the “bitten apple” logo, you recognize it as the Apple brand. Likewise, whenever you hear about Twitter, one of the social media business names, the blue bird logo comes to mind instantly.
But let’s take another brand differentiator, UVP, and view it through an example below.
Laner Muchin’s UVP is a two-hour commitment. The employment law firm returns clients’ emails and phone calls within two hours or less without exceptions. The brand’s UVP is also strengthened by the slogan, “Clients should never have to wait.”
Why Is Branding Critical for Law Business?
“Branding is the singular thing that grows anything.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
Vaynerchuk’s wise words truly home in on the importance of branding generally and for legal professionals specifically.
Three other marketing and sales gurus, Mike Schultz, John Doerr, and Lee Frederiksen, explain why and how branding helps businesses grow in their book Professional Services Marketing. In fact, they spotlight a huge difference when comparing the median hourly rates of well-branded law firms and those without proper branding. Law companies with stronger identities typically charge 50% more than their rivals with weaker branding strategies.
In turn, a strong brand identity is tightly related to profitability in the law business. Potent law firm brands bring 38% higher revenues. They also overshadow the competition and gain a loyal client base for their legal practices.
Aren’t these advantages worth pursuing?
Undoubtedly, they are! So, let’s cut right to it.
How to Build a Solid Brand for Your Legal Practice
Here are seven effective methods to cultivate a stronger law firm brand.
- Make your website accessible
77% of people looking for attorneys start their search online, which may explain why website optimization is the biggest marketing and branding strategy for legal businesses.
And accessibility is one of its vital aspects.
An accessible website greatly contributes to law firm branding because it positions your brand as inclusive and caring. It can help you fully meet the accessibility needs of older adults. However, even if you target a young audience, you must maintain WCAG and ADA website compliance and embrace inclusivity for people with disabilities.
For example:
Website visitors can adjust fonts and colors with accessibility tools on The Elder Law Firm’s site.
Alternatively, you may embed an accessibility widget to elevate user experience on your website, similar to the one at Law Offices of James Scott Farrin.
- Speak your audience’s language
Literally.
You can translate your website into several languages to target multilingual clients from your region and brand your law practice successfully while speaking the same language as your audience.
It’s worth knowing that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US. The buying power of US Hispanic consumers is projected to go beyond $2.76 trillion by 2026. There’s another fact: Hispanics will account for 28.6% of the US population by 2060.
Many law brands use this knowledge to their benefit. For example, Cairns Law Offices has a two-language website with a Spanish version.
In case you work internationally, you may need to reach a global audience with more than one foreign language. For instance, the Latham & Watkins law firm offers a multilingual site in Chinese, German, Italian, and other languages.
- Stand out with visible values
When building a brand identity for your legal practice, there’s a simple yet revealing question to ask yourself: What values does my law brand embody?
These can be:
- Authenticity
- Compassion and care
- Justice
- Client-centricity
- Diversity and inclusion
- Eco-friendliness, etc.
Social values like these reshape the shopping preferences of two out of three consumers. DEI and sustainability, in particular, have come to the forefront of brand stories. See how different law firms highlight them on their websites.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
People expect businesses to address societal challenges like racism or other discriminatory behaviors. They are four times more likely to convert into clients if a company speaks out against racial discrimination.
That is why DEI is integral to numerous legal practices. Look at the DEI contribution of Hogan Lovells, a global law practice.
Sustainability
Have you heard it yet?
45% of people are interested in companies implementing environmentally responsible and sustainable practices.
Learn from Sidley Austin LLP, a multinational law firm that annually releases an Environmental Sustainability Report.
- Encourage your employees and clients to “brand you up”
Branding your law firm alone can be daunting and time-consuming.
Why not “unmute” the voices coming from your employees and clients?
Employee-driven law branding → advocacy
Albert Kim, VP of Talent at Checkr, advises law firms to turn attorneys into brand ambassadors through an employee advocacy program. He explains how to start: “Identify potential brand advocates from your team of attorneys who are passionate about the company’s mission and values and have good communication skills and reward them for their contributions to law firm branding. Your employees’ stories on social media can speak volumes about your professionalism and dedication.”
For example:
Take a glimpse of this social media post from Sandra Wilburn, a corporate law attorney from Robinson Bradshaw, advocating the law firm on LinkedIn.
Client-driven law branding strategy → reviews and testimonials
Another option is to enhance your law brand identity with clients’ reviews and testimonials.
The following statistics will definitely convince you: 99.9% of people read online reviews at least sometimes, and 61% always check reviews before choosing a brand.
For instance, the Diggs & Sadler team shares short-form videos with clients endorsing their law firm brand.
Don’t hesitate to drop clients’ testimonials and reviews over your social channels. For instance, here’s a client review posted by Bernsen Law Firm on Facebook.
- Deliver high-quality content
Your website, social accounts, and email are the top three places to do that.
On the website
Let’s take The Myers Law Group (MLG) as an example.
- Videos
The MLG lawyers created a web library of educational video content on wrongful termination, wage and hour claims, workplace harassment, and other relevant topics to help employees better understand their rights.
- Blog articles
In the legal industry, 59% of websites share law-related articles written by in-house attorneys.
MLG’s site is one of them. The law firm publishes informative articles about employment law on the blog.
- Downloadables
Here’s a downloadable guide prepared by MLG, which contains mistakes that ruin employment law cases.
You can share useful PDF documents such as case studies, whitepapers, and eBooks. Readers can download and make edits to PDFs, which enhances engagement, attracts repeat audiences, and builds credibility.
On social media channels
A massive cohort of legal practices — 91% of small and 86% of large — use social networks for marketing and branding.
Some law brands analyze real-life situations from a legal standpoint to demonstrate their expertise and provide high-value content. Observe how TopDog Law does it in this Instagram reel: Does he have a worker’s compensation claim?
Via email
Informative content constitutes the core of email marketing for lawyers.
For example, Parker Law Firm (real estate attorneys) enlists estate planning mistakes in the newsletter to add value to email and educate potential clients.
- Leverage innovation as a competitive differentiator
Modern law firms embrace technologies and demonstrate their commitment to innovation and modernization to stay ahead of the curve.
You can reinforce your reputation and build a distinctive brand identity as an innovative law firm by implementing AI (artificial intelligence) into your legal processes. For instance, it can be contract review software powered by AI. Automating your workflows with such a tool can increase document accuracy, speed up turnaround time, and improve client service overall, positioning your law firm as an industry leader and sharpening a competitive edge in the market.
Alternatively, it may be an AI-powered chatbot embedded on your website to answer questions about your legal services.
For example:
Jurisconsul revolutionized legal support with a cutting-edge AI assistant.
- Let hashtags help you
Hashtags will surely give you extra power to amplify your brand’s reach and visibility and attract more attention to your legal practice on social media. However, the main trick here is to select niche-relevant hashtags. They make content found by social media users interested in law topics and discussions.
In legal business, the most widespread hashtags are:
- #LawTok for TikTok
- #InstaLawyer for Instagram
- #LawyerLife for Pinterest
- #LawTwitter for X (formerly Twitter)
- #LawThreads for Threads, etc.
Let’s check some of them in action.
#LawTok
For example, @ugolord constantly uses the following hashtags for personal branding on TikTok: #lawyer, #attorneysoftiktok, #lawyertiktok, #lawyersoftiktok, #lawtok, and other similar ones.
#LawThreads
If you have already used #LawTwitter to brand your law firm on X, you can do it even more fiercely with #LawThreads on a new platform — Threads (Meta’s rival to X). Although the hashtag feature is still under development on Threads, you can already experiment with it.
Don’t forget about branded hashtags for even higher recognition on social channels.
For example:
Personal injury lawyers from Davidoff Law put their branded hashtag #davidofflaw first in all Instagram posts.
Brand Your Law Business Like a Pro
We hope this article has broadened the scope of law firm branding for you.
Remember that powerful brand identities go beyond names, logos, and slogans. They are much more than that. If you want to shine brighter in a crowded field of competitors, use the suggested law branding strategies that can bring the most reward to your legal practice.
Go ahead and start seeing results — make your law brand identity distinct and tangible.
P.S.: If you’re only at the stage of creating your law firm’s name, fret not — Wordlab’s business name generator will take care of it.
Featured Image Credit – Sora Shimazaki
