Restriction on the advertisement by law firms according to US regulations

The advertisements by lawyers play a significant role in educating the public about legal issues and assisting in the intelligent selection of counsels. This, in turn, increases the opportunity for lawyers to expand their clientele. Towards this end, the standard set by the American Bar Association under its Model Rules of Professional Conduct allows for advertisements by attorneys with very few limitations as long as such advertisement is not misleading, deceptive, or false. The State Bars, however, have their own variations of this model rule that make advertisements by lawyers a little more tricky than it may seem in the first glance.

A few years ago, advertisement by lawyers was considered against the ethics and etiquettes of the noble profession of law. Legal profession was seen as a service-oriented profession that should restrain from indulging in mundane commercial activity such as advertising.

It was not until the landmark case of Bates v. Arizona in 1977 that advertisements became commonplace for lawyers to reach out to potential clients. The court held that the prohibition on advertisement to be anachronistic and unnecessary for maintaining the integrity of the profession. In what is considered a watershed moment in the history of legal advertisement in the US, the case marked a paradigm shift on the perception towards legal advertisement among lawyers and clients alike. Advertisements from being perceived as an attack on the dignity of the profession started being received as a necessity to effectively initiate relations between lawyers and clients.

Here is the brief outline of the rules governing advertisement by lawyers in few of the major jurisdictions in the United States and how one may innovatively use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and legal documents automation, as means to engage with potential clients without violating the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC).   

New York

In New York, the rules of advertisement are progressive and provide lawyers with a considerable flexibility to market themselves. The Lawyers may use graphics, sound effects, films, to advertise themselves with the use of appropriate disclaimer so that the possibility of such representation being misleading, false, or deceptive is ruled out. The commentary on RPC published by the New York bar Association also clarifies that all the communication made by the lawyers to potential clients might not be considered as advertisements. Even the communication made to potential clientele will not be considered an advertisement if it is not for commercial purpose and is merely for a general informational purpose. This, in fact, is recognized as a duty of lawyers to make the general public aware about legal issues.

The rules on advertisement categorically bar solicitation of clients through in-person or telephone contact, or by real-time or interactive computer-accessed communication if the contactee is not an existing or former client, or a close friend or a relative. This raises the complexity of the issue when it comes to the use of Instant Messaging (IM) systems. Please see here.

Washington

In Washington DC, the laws are even more relaxed than in New York. In a welcome move, the DC Bar adopted a progressive set of rules that have minimal limitations on advertisement. The commentary on RPC states that the rules that attempts to regulate more than imposing restriction on misleading, deceiving, and false information is unnecessary. With the absence of the regulations on solicitation, there is no ambiguity involved in the legality of using IM systems providing a fertile ground for innovation in legal services online.

California

In California, the revised and updated RPC, effective from November 2018 has well-considered the development in online marketing. The advertisements have to follow the general restriction of not misleading or deceiving the recipient and disseminating false information.

The regulations on solicitation in California are similar to that of New York. Solicitation of clients through in-person or telephone contact, or by real-time or interactive computer-accessed communication if the contactee is not an existing or former client, or a close friend or a relative is prohibited. In such a scenario, the use of IM system raises complex questions.

Florida

Florida noticeably treats advertisements with more suspicion than other jurisdictions. Florida Bar has a separate Standing Committee on Advertisement that is invested in maintaining compliance with the RPC. Any kind of advertisement on TV, radio, internet, except for the website of the concerned lawyer or law firm needs to be filed for review with the respective Bar’s headquarters twenty days prior to its intended use. Interestingly, however, as per the Handbook on Lawyer Advertising and Solicitation issued by The Florida Bar, internet chatrooms and IMs are not prohibited practices. The Handbook is quite exhaustive dealing with the breadth of issues including networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. If any of the information provided on these sites are used to promote the lawyer or law firm’s practice are subject to the lawyer advertising rules.

The fact that you lawyers are reading this article on advertising proves that there is a huge alteration in lawyers’ attitude towards marketing. Today, unlike the past, the importance that lawyers give to marketing, advertising and business development has risen much controversy.

Strong  trend of shifting to online marketing amongst lawyers

In addition, even the platform in which lawyers choose to advertise themselves has changed. According to a survey published in “the marker”, lawyers reported on an 80% increase in advertising on online media and internet platforms as opposed to the newspaper and printed media platforms. The transitional trend from offline advertising and online advertising is a renowned trend and exists additionally in other areas. However, in the legal world this trend is much stronger.

According to the survey, there is an overall decrease of 9% in the offline advertising market in the years 2013-2014. On the contrary, there is a 24% increase in the online internet advertising world in the years 2013-2014. Combined the research above, we can see that in the legal world there was an 80% growth in online advertising compared to 24% growth in the general market.

Inbound Marketing

In the current competitive climate, “Inbound Marketing” has become a widely used buzzword. 

This technique is fundamentally different from the classical outbound strategy.  

How is the “Inbound” content strategy different?

Inbound Marketing is in the center of the customer, trying to figure out the following questions: who is the targeted customer? What are his needs?

When it comes to analyzing the needs of the target audience, Inbound Marketing strategy emphasizes the relevant service and advertising that is required.

However, the main difference is reflected on additional shared needs by the target audience without direct connection to the advertising service.

The focus of this strategy is the fact that our client’s journey does not start with his search for one ultimate service. Our clients journey begins much earlier, long before he even knows what service is required, and concludes after purchasing as an ambassador and a community member.

The Inbound Marketing strategy distinguishes between several distinct personas. For each persona there is a layout of the various stages in the client’s  journey of that persona and provide for each stage a suitable call for action.

HubSpot as a case study

A good example for using the inbound marketing strategy is HubSpot. The company specializes in Developing advanced, advertising and marketing management platforms which are expensive. The company chose to reach its target audience by offering a CRM system.

This is based on the understanding that the target audience is relevant to the (expensive)

Inbound Marketing strategy and is also in need of a CRM system at an earlier stage. Therefore,  the company’s “client journey” with the target audience begins early by offering a solution to the problem at no cost. This creates a trust in the company and the continued journey to acquire a customer is much simpler.

Marketing the services of a law firm

Marketing legal services of  law firms is a complex issue:

• there are many limitations under regulations,
• the variety of the marketing messages are very limited,
• legal online marketing cannot convey really “cool” innovative messages.

Frankly, Legal and law firm advertising is quite boring.

Applying the Inbound Marketing strategy in the legal field generates creative and innovative ideas. This sharpens our understanding that the first encounter with our client should be when I call him for a free value. This means that the beginning of my relationship with the potential client is not focused on me but on him.

It is much easier to advertise and promote a real and tangible value to the customer rather than only a “worthwhile” or “quality” service.

Use of “LegalTech” as a tool to apply Inbound Marketing

As we know, the Legalup software is used as an efficient tool to preserve knowledge. Such use is an internal organization system which allows lawyers to create their legal documents in an efficient way, while using “know how”.

Legal up provides a unique marketing tool for platform for law firms that enables implementation of the Inbound Marketing strategy in an innovative manner.  

Exactly like HubSpot, those law firms can offer their target audience tangible value around real needs and occasionally early on in their journey become a client.

Legalup is a tool for law firm marketing which creates unique digital wizards to create legal documents on Legalup’s website or on a new dedicated site.

Some examples:

The law firm “Shibolet’s” website – Jumpstart

Ehrlich & Fenster suggest wizards

All these Wizards Are based on LEGLUP’s technology and give significant value to the customers.

In order for a client to receive the document, he must leave his details and in that moment the office got a very warm hand and in addition the customer received a free value. The next meeting will be more businesslike and familiar.

Want to learn more about marketing tool that puts you at the forefront of innovation (in the LegalTech world?) – and produce hot leads with viral potential for you?

Contact us for any questions and clarifications

We’d be happy to promote you to the forefront of the 2019 marketing strategy!