The newest issue of Northern California Super Lawyers & Rising Stars, now available online as a digital magazine and in print, features employment litigator Nancy Sheehan, a partner at Porter Scott in Sacramento. Colleagues praise our cover subject's sense of humor and cordiality in an age when civility is sometimes lacking. Plus, "she's whip-smart," says radio personality John McGinness, who was a client of Sheehan's when he was the Sacramento County sheriff. "She plays chess when others are playing checkers."
Related Stories
Take Your Directory Listing to the Next Level
Use Your Expertise to Gain New Clients
From the Vault -- "King of the Mountain"
Spring has sprung. Well, actually winter is holding a little longer than expected in many parts of the United States. But that doesn't mean you can't find ways to send your law firm's business into full bloom.
Today's legal consumer uses legal directories more than ever, which gives you an opportunity to establish credibility with potential clients and showcase your expertise on directories like SuperLawyers.com.
According to FindLaw's latest U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey, 41 percent of respondents who began their searches online started with legal directories. Obviously, search engines are still the first step to search for answers to legal issues. However, the fact that legal directories were the second most used method for these consumers means the necessity for representing well on directories is as important as ever.
How are you investing in reaching potential clients via your directory listings?
If you're looking to expand your reach with instant online visibility and build trust with potential clients, the SuperLawyers.com directory could be the solution you need.
With more than nine million visits to Super Lawyers attorney profiles in 2017 and 1.2 million page views on SuperLawyers.com each month, your directory listing is a valuable resource to attract, engage and connect with potential clients.
Creating a Presence
Upgrading your SuperLawyers.com attorney profile can increase your brand awareness, establish even more trust with potential clients, grow your referral network and influence hiring decisions.
With a Premium Online Attorney Profile, you will have the most comprehensive online profile with SuperLawyers.com. You can secure premium placement in the directory, give prospective clients easier ways to contact your firm and an opportunity to promote your entire web presence via your directory listing.
Another great option is the Expanded Online Attorney Profile. These profiles show potential clients your contact information, biographical content and a color photo, as well as giving you the chance to highlight your accomplishments.
The Numbers Back It Up
Did you know that upgraded attorney profiles on SuperLawyers.com generated three times more traffic than unpaid profiles?
With searches on SuperLawyers.com increasing 61 percent in 2016 and click-to-calls from the directory search results pages up 229 percent in 2016, this is your chance to show up immediately for legal consumers looking for answers to their most pressing legal questions.
An upgraded online directory profile is an impactful and quick way to up your marketing game this year. Reap the rewards by talking to an Associate Publisher and upgrading today.
As a lawyer, you have a unique set of skills and knowledge. In your practice area, you've developed enough confidence and wherewithal to become trusted by peers and clients. If you're a Super Lawyers listee or Rising Stars selectee, you have even more evidence of a top-notch reputation.
How are you using that expertise to generate new business?
In FindLaw's U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey, the top factor considered for selecting an attorney is expertise. If you were honored for your hard work and dedication by a reliable third-party, like Super Lawyers, you're already a step closer to becoming a client's go-to attorney. Now, it's time to build trust with potential legal consumers by showing your knowledge of crucial legal issues online.
Ask Super Lawyers can help you do just that.
Lead with your skills
Ask Super Lawyers puts your expertise centerstage by placing you directly in front of consumers asking burning legal questions. It's a slight spin on the traditional Q&A because it provides you with an expert writer to create content aimed at sending consumers looking to answer a specific question (in specific states) to your dedicated answer page. It helps establish an online presence and connect your firm with customers seeking legal advice.
It also frees you up to work on what's most important to your firm because it doesn't require extensive time or effort. With a dedicated content strategist researching a popular legal topic, you simply answer the important legal question once and get back to practicing law. No need to monitor and respond to readers, just an opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your field of practice.
An important caveat: the questions and answers are locally focused. A capped number of options are available in each practice-area and state, leading to more targeted information and less competition. This certifies each Ask Super Lawyers Answer Page is valuable to you and to potential clients. You are set up to provide authoritative answers to questions legal consumers are searching in your area.
Why Q & A?
Wouldn't it make sense to optimize your content and leverage your expertise to reach those consumers?
Voice search could impact the future of legal marketing and thinking ahead will get you ready for the potential change. You can learn more about how to prepare by downloading FindLaw's The Future of Search: Preparing Your Law Firm for Voice Search.
In this new legal marketing landscape, Ask Super Lawyers is the perfect brand-building solution for attorneys and law firms, bringing you the right clients to your specialized page in search of an expert answer. Learn more about Ask Super Lawyers and talk to an Associate Publisher today to leverage your Super Lawyers or Rising Stars selection and reach consumers with a specific legal need where you can provide the answer.
Ski season eventually has to come to an end each year, but Jim Chalat (Chalat Hatten & Banker PC) is busy year-round. In the 2006 edition of Colorado Super Lawyers Magazine, the man behind skilaw.com took us through the ups and downs of his nationally recognized winter sports personal injury practice.
An excerpt:
Some of the toughest cases for Chalat are the skier-to-skier and snowboarder-to-skier collisions. The out-of-control skier who caused the injury sometimes cannot be found, and if he (and it's usually a he) is found, the penalties are sometimes trivial.
One of the most famous reckless skier cases involved an off-duty Vail employee, Nathan Hall. In the spring of 1997, the 18-year-old ski lift operator was leaving work, taking the last run of the last day of the season and reportedly bombing straight down the mountain, even though other people on the trail were shouting at him to slow down. A mogul toward the bottom of the slope sent Hall airborne and crashing into Alan Cobb, 33, who had the bad luck to ski across Hall's path. Hall's ski fractured Cobb's skull and caused a massive brain injury. Cobb died just hours later. Hall was sentenced to just 90 days for being criminally negligent. The modest sentence was nevertheless the first criminal conviction handed down by a jury in a Colorado ski accident. Chalat was amicus curiae for the people in that case when it went before the state Supreme Court.
But Hall's landmark sentence hasn't seemed to slow down irresponsible skiers. In 2003, Robert Wills was visiting Breckenridge from his native Britain and reportedly skiing at high speed when he caused the collision that killed Richard Henrichs. Chalat represented his widow, Sandra Henrichs, who filed a wrongful death suit. Chalat won what he calls a "substantial settlement" out of court.
Lift tickets held the key to his client's case. Chalat subpoenaed the computer records of when and for which lifts Wills' bar-coded lift tickets had been scanned. "We determined that they got on the lift almost simultaneously." The defendant's companion testified that they had spent about 10 minutes having coffee at the top of the lift. "How did Wills catch up?" Chalat asks rhetorically. "We determined that he was going very fast [when he hit Henrichs]."
Read the rest of the article and be sure to check out the 2018 Colorado Super Lawyers Magazine.