When delegating marketing to an agency outside of your firm, it is very important to make sure that the agency has experience in legal marketing and knows the rules and regulations regarding legal advertising.

All advertisements must not be misleading or false.  Each state bar has regulations that, if not followed correctly, could lead to serious consequences for the individual lawyers or law firms.

The American Bar Association states “A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services.”

Hiring an outsourced team or even having a paralegal conduct marketing activities that don’t follow state bar regulations could result in serious damages and also tarnish a firms reputation.

The ABA states that lawyers are responsible for delegation of all non-lawyer functions at their firm   You are responsible for a non-lawyer’s violation of any marketing or assistant work performed on your behalf.

Almost as important as following these various guidelines is ensuring that the advertisements are actually reaching the right potential clients. Placing ads on Avvo or Google could lead to issues if the ad is placed incorrectly and establishes you or your firm as an expert in a unfamiliar area of law. The marketing is wasteful if you wind up paying for a lead when you are unqualified to solicit the business. Advertising platforms need to be fully controlled by experts who won’t waste your pay per click budget on unqualified leads .

It is very important to work with a company or individual that has vast experience within the legal marketing industry.  Always personally review all marketing ad copy, design, and placement of advertisements across the internet.

Remember, hiring a service or marketing company to handle your advertising does not relieve any ethical or legal obligations set by the ABA or individual state bars.  Monitor and get to know your outbound marketing strategy.