Professional Reputation

As a lawyer, you know your most valuable asset is your professional reputation. How you are viewed by your clients, colleagues, and the public at-large will play a critical role in your ability to support yourself as a lawyer.

And yet, lawyers risk their professional reputations all the time. Whether it be for lack of understanding, or lack of professional ethics, there are a lot of lawyers who don't exercise vigilance in protecting their reputations.

This is no more true than in the arena of web marketing.

Some lawyers are willing to take huge risks with what they publish (or hire someone else to publish on their behalf) online.

Whether it be comment spam, link farms, article spinning, or worse, there are a lot of lawyers that risk not only their professional reputations, but potentially, their license to practice.

Whether it's web design, search engine optimization, or some other form of internet marketing, online professional profile development should be executed in a way that puts your best foot forward.

It shouldn't put you at risk of looking foolish to your peers.

It shouldn't put you at risk of looking foolish to your clients.

It shouldn't put you at risk of losing the ability to practice.

Unfortunately, the only way to protect against potential embarrassment and/or ethical violation is to understand a little bit about how the internet and search engines work.

Don't let someone comment on your behalf without the opportunity to review it first.

Don't let someone publish under your name without knowing what and where they are publishing.

If you're committed to participating in these types of strategies, you better have a clear understanding what's at risk in terms of harm to your professional reputation, your license, and your online visibility.