Law Marketing Bibliography

Reviews of books on client development
for lawyers and law marketing professionals

The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet
By Gregory H. Siskind, Deborah McMurray, and Richard P. Klau
ABA, Chicago, 2002
Paperback, 268 pages, $79.95
Reviewed by Sonny Cohen

If this book were a horse race and the chapters were horses, most of the horses would end in the money. At its most basic level, the book is a checklist of the essential items you must consider when you develop or improve your website. It was published in 2002, so the examples, and references to websites whose looks have long since changed, are dated -- but the overall messages remain valuable.

When I first read LGMI almost five years ago, I sat back and said, "Ah yes!" It was the first comprehensive discussion of the combustible mixture of the words lawyer, Internet, and marketing. I was riveted. I quoted from it in proposals to prospective clients, and displayed it at legal marketing exhibitions. It is still one of only a handful of publicly available studies of professional services and their use of the Internet for websites, business development, and more.

LGMI's content has stood the test of time pretty well. The chapters about choosing consultants, strategic planning, and managing content contain enduring truths that even Internet time can't change. Design issues are rightfully placed back around chapter 10, rather than in the first chapter where many firm website committees try to put it.

Where the book gets a little long in the tooth is, not surprisingly, on some of the technology issues. The subtitle of one chapter, "To Frame or not to Frame," is no longer the question. Sections about e-mail marketing are forward-thinking, but the specific content needs an overhaul.

The chapter on tracking results and measuring effectiveness, however brief, includes a critical discussion about return on investment, which is a conversation not had often enough. And presciently, the book examines blogs and extranets. But the importance of search to marketing is given only a nod.

Today many of the chapters, such as those about e-mail marketing or legal blogs, should be expanded substantially -- in fact, those topics deserve their own books. And law firm websites are both more proliferate and strategically driven now than ever before.

There remains a gap between online opportunity and practice. Since law firm marketers are a pretty inbred lot, seeking their direction from each other, LGMI is one of the authoritative brands still worth a marketing director's read. But it would be wonderful to see an updated edition that reflects today's Internet marketing environment, and points in new, new directions as well as the 2002 edition did.

Gregory H. Siskind is a partner at Siskind, Susser & Bland (www.visalaw.com), an immigration law firm with offices around the world. He practices in the firm's Memphis headquarters. He has been an active member of the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management Section, and is the chair of its Publications Board.

Deborah McMurray is a principal of Deborah McMurray Associates (www.deborahmcmurray.com), a strategic marketing consulting firm to the legal industry, based in Dallas.

Rick Klau is VP of business development for FeedBurner (www.feedburner.com), a Chicago-based Internet company. He maintains a web log about law, technology, and business strategy at www.rklau.com/tins.

About the reviewer
Sonny Cohen is director of Internet marketing strategy at Duo Consulting (www.duoconsulting.com), a web content management firm in Chicago. He helps clients develop online business and marketing strategy, and implement search engine optimization campaigns. Duo's clients include law firms in all areas of civil practice. He is a regular contributor to the firm's blog and serves on panels at national and regional marketing conferences. He is a member of the Legal Marketing Association.

© 2006-2008 David M. Freedman
Posted 9/14/06