Attorney Journal, Orange County, Volume 135

ORANGE COUNTY

Volume 135, 2017 $6.95

5 Tech Options to Make Your Law Firm Easier to Contact

Casey Meraz 5 Ways to Leverage HARO For Media Coverage

How to Divide Law Firm Partnership

Sally Kane

Jeffrey Fink

Which is Better: eDiscovery In the Cloud, or eDiscovery In a Data Center?

How Can Building a Stronger Brand Bring You Better SEO Results?

Adi Elliott

Tanner Jones

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ORANGE COUNTY LOS ANGELES SAN FRANCISCO SILICON VALLEY SAN DIEGO

2017 EDITION—NO.135

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 How to Divide Law Firm Partnership Income

by Jeffrey Fink

8 Which is Better: eDiscovery In the Cloud, or eDiscovery In a Data Center?

by Adi Elliott

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Brian Topor EDITOR Wendy Price

10 Five Tech Options to Make Your Law Firm Easier to Contact

by Casey Meraz

CREATIVE SERVICES Skidmutro Creative Partners

14 Five Ways to Leverage HARO for Media Coverage

CIRCULATION Angela Watson PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Griffiths

by Sally Kane

STAFF WRITERS Jennifer Hadley Bridget Brookman Karen Gorden CONTRIBUTING EDITORIALISTS Jeffrey Fink Adi Elliott Casey Meraz Tanner Jones Sally Kane WEBMASTER Mariusz Opalka ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Info@AttorneyJournal.us SUBMIT AN ARTICLE Editorial@AttorneyJournal.us OFFICE 30211 Avenida De Las Banderas Suite 200 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 www.AttorneyJournal.us ADDRESS CHANGES Address corrections can be made via fax, email or postal mail.

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12 COMMUNITYnews

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LAW FIRM OF THE MONTH

16 Kerr & Sheldon, Fountain Valley Blue Collar Lawyers, White Collar Service, Premium Results

by Jennifer Hadley

ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH

22 John Reynard III, Irvine From Business Owner to Business Owners’ Strongest Ally

by Jennifer Hadley

28 How Can Building a Stronger Brand Bring You Better SEO Results?

by Tanner Jones

Editorial material appears in Attorney Journal as an informational service for readers. Article contents are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of Attorney Journal.

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How to Divide Law Firm Partnership Income

by Jeffrey Fink

One of the quickest ways to silence a roomful of lawyers is to raise the question of how to divide law firm partnership income.

Many lawyers are reluctant to discuss the subject because they are unfamiliar with the options and uncertain how to select among them. Others are concerned that a conversation with their partners about compensation splits will be too uncomfortable.

The good news is that there are there are enough different ways to slice the pie for each viable firm to be able to find a solution that works. Also, as with other partnership agreements, the conversation becomes much easier if it starts with what kind of culture and behavior the partners want to encourage rather than with money. The actual numbers flow more easily once the goals are clear.

The major variations are as follows:

1. It’s Good to Be King One lawyer is the name behind the firm. He originates many of the clients by virtue of his prowess, reputation or connections.

All the others bask in his reflected glory. He gets to look over the books and decide how much the other partners should be making based on subjective or objective criteria. He may not disclose all of what those criteria are. However, most people see the fairness of his decisions. There is enough money coming in to keep most of the people happy most of the time. The incentive is to keep the king happy.

2. The Gang of Four Instead of having one king, a group of lawyers forms a committee to decide how to split the income for the rest of the partners. At some larger firms, the compensation committee is separate from the executive committee that runs the firm.

At others, the compensation committee makes a non-binding recommendation to the executive committee. At still others, it is the same committee. Although the committee likely has to publicize some of the factors on which it makes its decision, the other partners often become supplicants who write up an annual impassioned summary of achievements and predictions for the committee. This structure works if people trust in the process and the people on the committee. The incentive is to shoot for the targets the Gang of Four makes public and to make sure everyone in the Gang likes you.

6 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

3. The Black Box The Black Box is a variation of The Gang of Four, except that the criteria are entirely subjective. It may work if there is enough money to go around, but the problem is that lawyers, like everyone else, often compare themselves to their peers.

The subjective element creates a huge potential for perceived unfairness, which can cause rifts in the firm. The incentive is to work hard and play office politics.

4. Eat What You Kill The EWYK model appeals to the strong strain of individualism in Western culture, and American culture in particular. The theory is that each member of the firm is the captain of her own destiny, can choose how much to work in any given period and should be rewarded for her efforts. It is a very common structure among smaller firms, but tends to go by the wayside as firms grow. The behavior it incentivizes is the sharing of space and administrative resources, individual responsibility, the development of individual practices and a sense of independence.

It can also encourage divas. It does not encourage other benefits of being in a firm, such as cross-selling to specialists within the firm, a team-based approach that becomes necessary as matters become more complex and multidisciplinary, the sharing of knowledge, the development of associates coming up through the ranks and, perhaps most importantly, balancing out the strength of individual practices on a year-by-year basis. A lawyer might have a bad year followed by a good year, while another has a good year then a bad year: the EWYK model does not let them smooth out the cash flow. Finally, the incentive to develop a sense of community within the firm is not emphasized, which means that lawyers feel less incentive to stay. When they leave, they take “their” clients, who have never developed a relationship with others in the firm. Nonetheless, many smaller firms with practices that do not require extensive teamwork find the clarity of the approach appealing.

5. The Formula The Formula takes the overall firm revenue and plugs in percentage values for factors that may include some or all of: (A) length of service, (B) client or matter origination,

(C) ongoing relationship management (in case clients get handed over from one lawyer to another), (D) billing responsibility for a matter (which may be separate from relationship management), (E) time spent servicing clients, (F) management and administrative time, (G) special projects or other incentives, (H) total hours billed, (I) prospects for the coming year (especially if there are client payments that will straddle the fiscal year-end, as in corporate matters that get billed at the end of the transaction or contingent fee matters) and (J) other creative elements.

The advantage is that if everyone knows The Formula, it reduces the chance that people will see distributions for a particular year as being unfair. It sets the incentives. If structured properly, it encourages the kind of internal cooperation that is good for the firm’s longevity, which is why it is common throughout the service sector. The disadvantage is that a mechanical formula removes business flexibility and encourages people to structure their practice in ways the framers may not have intended. For instance, big corporate transactions can be very lucrative, but a formula that focuses entirely on collections may encourage business lawyers to move to firms that give them more steady current income rather than periodic bonuses when transactions close.

6. Solomon’s Baby Outside of the law firm world, many people who own partnerships expect a fixed percentage of the profits, like dividends from shares of a corporation. Law firms have two variations: (A) L ock-step compensation, in which everyone in the same year of partnership is paid the same, was the gold standard for generations. Not so today. It requires a huge amount of trust that each member will pull his or her own weight, make up for down years with future up years, get paid less in up years than might be possible elsewhere to even things out or out of a sense of community, and stay with the firm. It requires and encourages teamwork and long-term planning, and reduces internal conflict over pay.

(B) Some smaller firms have fixed distributions that reflect the perceived relative contributions of the partners. Often, they are based on circumstances at the time the firm is formed and may seem imbalanced as time goes on. The imbalance often fractures firms that do not have a mechanism to revisit fixed percentages as practices develop over time.

7. The Reference Standard In baseball, even the greenest Major League player is entitled to be paid a minimum salary. Law firms sometimes do the same, with each member of the firm being entitled to receive some minimum compensation. For instance, some firms have

decided that no partner should receive less than the highest paid associate. Others use a similar method to calculate retirement or buyout distributions.

8. The Bleacher Seats Since the 1980s, more and more firms have been moving toward a tiered partnership structure. The tiers are divided differently in different firms, but many contain a tier of “non-equity partners.” These partners may hold themselves out as partners to the outside world, but really receive a salary plus bonus based on individual performance and have varying degrees of tenure (some of the many flavors of being “of counsel” overlap with being a “non-equity partner”). The next tier may be paid on a formula that combines a smaller fixed amount plus a percentage of the firm’s net income or divides a set percentage of firm profits among all partners in that class. The top tier is often paid on more of a percentage basis divided using one of the approaches outlined above. The assumption is generally that total compensation—and risk—increases as one climbs the tiers. Firms use a tiered structure to manage expectations and attorney development and to maintain firm financial health.

Some firms have a policy of moving non-equity partners out the door if they do not advance within a certain period of time. Other firms use the incentive structure to focus nonequity partners on client origination, which may come at the cost of servicing existing firm clients. Rightly or wrongly, many perceive non-equity partners as being like tenured associates who can only advance if the firm fears they will walk away— meaning that they have developed invaluable expertise or a separate, portable client base. As long as the firm stays on top of how its attorneys are developing, though, this system works well enough that most of the nation’s largest firms have adopted one or another variation of it.

Finally, whether partnership terms work well for any firm depends on one big intangible: trust. Do attorneys trust each other to continue developing and maintaining their separate practices? Do they trust each other enough to work together on firm and client projects, to assume joint liability, to share the burdens of administration and not to jump ship at the first opportunity to make a few extra bucks? Do they trust each other enough to set shared goals and rewards? Most importantly, as they develop the partnership compensation structure, do they trust each other enough to have open, good faith conversations about what kind of firm they want? The level of trust drives the partners’ options. n Jeffrey Fink is a lawyer in Wellesley, Massachusetts, who provides his clients with large firm quality and responsiveness in a small firm setting. His practice has three main areas of focus: business law, alternative dispute resolution and family law. He is the author of the popular Kung Fu Mediation blog (he approaches conflict from a different perspective as a second degree black belt in kung fu) and is a regular contributor to Family Mediation Quarterly and various online publications.

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017 7

Which is Better: eDiscovery in the Cloud, or eDiscovery In a Data Center?

by Adi Elliott

W

hich is better, eDiscovery in the cloud, or eDiscovery in a data center? This commonly asked question is actually a false dichotomy—in reality, neither the cloud nor a data center is better, because the cloud is a data center. “The cloud” is often used as a buzzword to give the impression of technological sophistication.

Some companies that use cloud-based IT services promote themselves as being “in the cloud,” implying that this makes their products and services somehow “high tech” and therefore high value. But the fact that a company operates in the cloud doesn’t really tell us anything about the quality of its applications. And it doesn’t, by itself, provide any net benefit to the end user.

eDiscovery in the Cloud: Reality vs. Hype Before “the cloud,” businesses would have to make large, upfront investments in hardware (computing, networking, data storage systems) and software (the applications that run on that hardware) simply to get basic parts of a business, such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), email, etc., off the ground. The problems with this were twofold: 1. You had to pay the up-front costs whether or not you had underlying business to support these costs and; 2. It forced companies to maintain and run large cost centers that were far removed from the way the company would actually make money.

“The cloud” enabled businesses to pay a usage-based monthly fee for both the hardware and software. This helps many companies, particularly small or highly specialized ones, by significantly reducing the overhead costs that often act as barriers to market entry and expansion.

Today, the cloud has made it possible to affordably “pay as you go” for the immediate use of someone else’s data center and software instead of incurring a large up-front infrastructure cost to be amortized over time and then separately procuring software to run on that hardware.

One of the first examples of this was Salesforce.com.

Salesforce created a CRM application accessible via the 8 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

internet that could be used and paid for on a monthly basis, starting at a single user and scaling up as necessary. It’s important to note that Salesforce was a “cloud” to its clients, but not to itself.

Companies now have the option to subscribe to a service that provides all the functionality their company needs, at the scale at which it needs it, for a monthly fee. At its core, that service is still essentially a data center with software, “virtual” in the sense that the subscriber doesn’t see or handle the underlying infrastructure, which is owned and managed by the cloud provider.

Beware Cloud-Based Marketing Hype When someone touts that their technology is “cloud-based,” it’s important to understand who is getting the benefit of the cloud. The real benefit of the cloud is a business process benefit to the company using it; it does not necessarily provide direct benefit to the end users of that company’s products or services.

The cloud gives companies who don’t have the interest, resources, or expertise to make large, up-front investments in hardware and software to solve a discreet business problem that are not core to how the business makes its money.

What Does “The Cloud” Mean for eDiscovery?

If you think about it, the eDiscovery industry has always been “cloud”—before the term cloud was cool. By managing the hardware and software ourselves, giving our clients logins to access these applications securely over the internet, and providing the capacity for them to scale up or down depending on the demands of the project, eDiscovery providers—as a whole—were doing exactly what Salesforce was doing in the CRM space, but for our clients.

Electronic discovery has been “cloud” this whole time. n Adi Elliott leads the definition of Epiq’s global eDiscovery strategy.

Elliott is a frequent author and speaker on the topics of the business of eDiscovery, technology-assisted review, and hiring and training top talent. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

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5 Tech Options to Make Your Law Firm Easier to Contact

by Casey Meraz

It’s no secret that if you make it easier for people to reach you using their preferred method, you’re going to get more contacts —ones that could convert to clients. Today, this is especially true of your website. While phone calls have always had the highest conversion rate, from the initial contact to case signups, technology is rapidly evolving and offers more ways than ever for people to contact you.

Let Prospects and Clients Click Receiving legitimate contacts that may turn into clients should be at the forefront of any digital marketing campaign. Here are a few ways you can use technology to make your law firm easier to contact.

1. Put a click-to-call feature on your mobile website.

Pull up your website on a mobile device and see if there is a prominent way to click to call your firm. If there isn’t an obviously clickable number—one that follows the user down the page—you’re missing out on mobile conversions. With over 50 percent of Google searches happening on mobile devices, this could be your biggest change in terms of conversion. So, make sure that each page of your site has a prominent clickto-call option.

2. Add a click-to-text option on your website.

Texting is rapidly becoming a preferred contact method for many potential clients. Did you know that you can add text widgets to your website? Adding a click-to-text button can help increase conversions by up to 36 percent depending on your target client demographics. Plus, it’s easy to use and you get the client’s mobile phone number right out of the gate.

3. Add responsive live chat, too.

Whether you use Ngage, Apex Live Chat, Client Chat Live or a self-staffed live-chat model, adding a live-chat option can increase the number of leads from your website. The key, as with most of these models, is the responsiveness of your agents.

Replying promptly is everything because if you take a moment too long, the visitors will stop chatting or will even forget that they started. Your operators need to be quick and should try to get the client’s contact information as soon as possible before the chat ends.

10 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

4. Have a callback feature on your site.

Although the callback feature has been around for a while, many firms aren’t taking advantage of it. Allowing visitors to have you call them by entering their phone number takes one step away from the contact process and barrier to entry.

Services like BounceHelp.com offer this feature as a simple website plug-in where users can even schedule a time to call based on what’s convenient for them, which may increase conversions as well.

5. Respond on social media channels.

Potential clients may be reaching out to you on social media platforms, whether it is LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or another channel. Facebook users can even provide a responsiveness score for how long it takes you to respond to messages. By being active on social media, you open up opportunities to join legal-related discussions and respond to consumers where they are already spending most of their web time. With this one, though, you definitely don’t want to set it and forget about it.

Plan to Be Responsive When trying out new technology like the above, most law firms tend to try everything at once and then neglect to properly track conversion rates—if they track them at all. Keep in mind that if you provide too many options on your website, you might confuse new visitors. Alternatively, if they don’t find what they’re looking for quickly, they’ll leave anyway.

You’re only going to get the good results if you’re there to respond quickly. Lawyers who respond to leads quickly and have an easy online sign-up process will take everyone else’s lunch. Since website contacts can happen at any time, you’ll want an after-hours and overflow answering service in place, plus a good system for following up to convert contacts to paying clients. n Casey Meraz is the founder of Juris Digital, a full-service law firm marketing agency specializing in web design and development. He writes and speaks on internet marketing issues and is author of the book, How to Perform the Ultimate Local SEO Audit. Follow him on Twitter @CaseyMeraz. Previously published in Attorney at Work.

KA

Keller/Anderle LLP BUSINESS TRIAL LAWYERS

COMMUNITY news n Elie Gendloff, PhD, has joined Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP as Of Counsel in the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group. He is a patent attorney whose practice focuses on life sciences.

Practicing out of the firm’s Irvine and Los Angeles offices, he is licensed in California, New York, Missouri and Wisconsin. He is also registered with the U.S. Patent and ELIE GENDLOFF, PHD Trademark Office.

Gendloff has extensive experience preparing and prosecuting patent applications in a variety of areas including biotechnology, clinical diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, biologics, molecular biology, medical devices, immunochemistry, stem cells, tissue engineering, immunology, virology, oncology, neuroscience, genetics, infectious disease, agricultural biotechnology, green technology and consumer goods. He also has substantial experience evaluating inventions for patentability.

His background also includes work as a research scientist with experience in biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology of mycotoxin biosynthesis, regulation and degradation; molecular and quantitative genetic analysis; and immunochemical detection of haptens including monoclonal antibody technology. n Eric Traut is currently chairing the College of Trial Advocacy, a service he has been proud to provide the legal community since 1998 that teaches lawyers the fundamentals of Civil Trial Advocacy, giving hands-on training in an actual courtroom setting. The panels include Hon. James L. Crandall, Hon. James J. Di Cesare, Hon. Terri FlynnPeister, Hon. Martha K. Gooding and many more esteemed individuals from the Bench and Bar.

ERIC TRAUT

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n Aitken Aitken Cohn founding partner Wylie Aitken was given three prominent awards recently: inductions into the Lawdragon Hall of Fame, the 2016 Orange County Business Journal’s OC500 and the 2016 Irish Legal 100.

The Lawdragon’s Hall of Fame honorees range from plaintiff WYLIE AITKEN lawyers who have changed the lives of badly injured individuals to powerful corporate governance experts. To date, there are only 50 attorneys that have been named to the national list; Aitken is one of them, joining the ranks of world changing attorneys and judges such as Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’ Connor and the late Antonin Scalia.

The OC500 is the Orange County Business Journal’s annual list of the 500 most influential people in Orange County. Aitken was chosen for his enormous influence in the community based on his multiple verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars and for his philanthropic support of local organizations.

This is also the eighth consecutive year that Wylie has been named to the Irish Legal 100 list. The Irish Legal 100 honors the most accomplished and distinguished lawyers, judges, educators and politicians of Irish descent from around the country who share a passion for the law and pride in their heritage. n For their excellence in the practice of law and their Martindale AV listing, two Berger Kahn Shareholders, Sherman Spitz and David Ezra, are included in ALM’s “Top Rated Lawyers,” an honor reserved for only the top 5% of the Bar. The American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel will be publishing a list celebrating their award and Berger Kahn congratulates our attorneys on their honor.

SHERMAN SPITZ

DAVID EZRA

n Jennifer Keller, a nationally prominent attorney at Keller/ Anderle LLP in Irvine, has been named to the 2017 “Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America.”

The list is said to be “the most elite distinction in the profession, covering the best of the best in all practice areas.”

JENNIFER KELLER According to the American Bar Association, there are over 1.3 million licensed attorneys in the nation, so recognition as one of the top 500 confers a rare honor. Keller has been named annually to the list since 2012.

Keller has tried over 150 cases to jury verdict, ranging from complex civil matters—including business and intellectual property cases—to white collar to murder. Ms. Keller is listed annually in “The Best Lawyers in America®” and is among the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America. She appears routinely in the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of California’s Top 100 Lawyers. Ms. Keller is a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only organization limited to the top one-half of one percent of the nation’s attorneys. She is also the former President of the Orange County Bar Association and serves as a Trustee of Chapman University. n Briles Law Group is expanding in Irvine with the recent opening of a larger office as well as launching a new San Jose location. “Our new location is centrally located in Orange County and allows easy access to the local Workers Compensation Appeals Boards,” said Tracy Briles, managing partner of TRACY BRILES Briles Law Group.

Briles Law Group opened its San Jose office, located at 1922 The Alameda, Suite 103, due to increased client volume and the fact that nearly half of Briles’ clients reside in Northern California. The San Jose office mainly covers cases concerning workers’ compensation, employment law and personal injury.

The office is managed by Andrew Lee, who served as Of Counsel for Briles Law Group for a year. The Irvine office is managed by the firm’s founding attorney, Briles.

Briles received her Juris Doctor from Western State University College of Law in Irvine. She has over two decades of legal experience, and focuses her practice on workers’ compensation, bankruptcy, Social Security, immigration and personal injury. Briles, a former federal probation and parole officer, is not only a lawyer, but a real estate broker.

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5 Ways to Leverage HARO for Media Coverage

by Evan Walker

by Sally Kane

Getting quoted in the media is one of the most effective ways for lawyers to raise their profile, gain credibility as a thought leader and attract clients. However, you may not have the time to cultivate relationships with the press or the budget to hire a PR firm. Help A Reporter Out—HARO—is a shortcut to free publicity and can be a powerful marketing tool.

HARO is a platform that connects journalists to sources for their stories, distributing over 50,000 journalist queries from respected media outlets each year.

Pitching a reporter can be an intimidating process, and many HARO queries receive hundreds of responses per day. How can you capture the attention of journalists and build relationships with the media? Over the past 12 years, I have used HARO as both a journalist and an expert source. HARO has helped me secure press mentions in leading media outlets such as The New York Times, Business Insider and Psychology Today. Here are five tips to help you do the same.

Respond Quickly HARO sends requests to your email inbox three times a day, Monday-Friday: at 5:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET. Since HARO queries receive so many responses, it is important to send your pitch as quickly as possible so it does not get buried in a sea of other responses.

How quickly do you need to respond? Responding within the first half-hour is ideal. A same-day response is important.

If you do not have time to answer the query that day, it is best to move on.

Be sure to double-check the reporter’s deadline, which is always listed in the query. Some deadlines are set only a few hours after HARO sends the request.

Be Concise and on Point In your HARO response, it is important to answer the writer’s questions and prompts specifically and directly. In most cases, you want to keep your entire response to 150 words or less.

This is not the forum for lengthy, complex responses. Tailor your response to the query, avoiding answers that may appear generic or templated. Include your answers and tips in the pitch itself so all the information the journalist needs is right in front of him.

14 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

Do not link to your response, request an interview or require that the journalist contact you by phone or email to gain the information. The goal is to make the reporter’s job as easy as possible.

Create a Pitch Template Pitching HARO is a numbers game; the more pitches you submit, the better your chances of getting quoted. To streamline the process, it is a good idea to create a pitch template that contains the basic elements needed in every pitch.

My pitch template includes a greeting, my bio (I have several bios, depending on the pitch), my contact information and my social media information. In the body of your pitch, break up the text with headlines, short paragraphs and bulleted or numbered items to make it easier to scan. You should also include a link to your website or blog, since backlinks can help drive traffic to your site.

Many queries require a headshot so it is also important to have a quality headshot that you can send via email or link to online.

Recycle Your Content Not all your HARO pitches will get accepted, but that does not mean you have wasted your efforts. You can recycle your responses into blog posts, client tips, articles, SlideShare presentations, short videos and other content assets.

Become the Go-To Expert in Your Field Capturing the attention of journalists is not easy, but these tips can help you get your pitch noticed, build relationships with the media and establish yourself as a thought leader in your practice niche. n Sally Kane is a lawyer, writer and legal marketing consultant for PaperStreet, a digital marketing agency for law firms. She has been writing on law practice marketing and management topics since 2004 and has published over 100 articles in various legal media outlets, including Vault.com, Legal Management, Law Practice Today, The Legal Intelligencer and Student Lawyer. Previously she served as editorin-chief of a national legal magazine and as a legal careers expert for About.com. Follow her on Twitter @sallyannekane. Previously published in Attorney at Work.

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by Jennifer Hadley

“

Approximately forty percent of our clients are referred by lawyers who recognize it’s not cost effective to handle an occasional personal injury matter. Over the years, hundreds of local lawyers have made us their personal injury department, and generated a no-overhead source of income from our referral fees. We handle personal injury cases efficiently and effectively, litigating as necessary so injured victims obtain the best recovery possible,” says Russell Kerr, Founding Partner of Kerr & Sheldon, APC, based in Fountain Valley, CA. “Currently we have over 200 lawyers that use our firm for personal injury referrals. Our typical client is any person that has been involved in an injury accident caused by the negligence of a third party,” confirms Partner and Senior Trial Attorney, Jeffrey S. Sheldon. “As a litigation-based firm, we either achieve a favorable settlement for our client or the matter will be filed as a lawsuit and proceed to jury trial as needed. All four attorneys in our office have extensive jury trial experience,” he adds.

Meeting of Like Minds The earliest beginnings of Kerr & Sheldon can be traced to Kerr’s experience as a law student. While attending Pepperdine University School of Law, Kerr worked at the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, where he appeared at more than 80 Administrative Law Hearings on behalf of consumers before various agencies, including Social Security, the Department of Welfare, and the Employment Development Department. A 16 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

staunch consumer advocate for as long as he can remember, in 1979, Kerr opened the doors to Kerr & Associates.

For his part, Sheldon, who jokes that he pursued a legal career only after realizing a career as a professional baseball player wasn’t going to pan out, followed a slightly different path. Ultimately, he arrived at the same conclusion as Kerr: he had a fierce desire to help those who needed help during one of the worst times in their lives.

While earning his law degree from California Western School of Law, Sheldon says he received incredible training for his future in jury trials. “I was trained to do jury trials for approximately one year by San Diego Superior Court Judge, David Gill. Part of this training was to seek out the judges following a trial for their feedback on trial skill,” he explains. “I was taught to speak to juries, like I would talk to a 12th grade class. They are intelligent people, but they are not lawyers,” he says. The training was the perfect fit for Sheldon’s good natured, and noticeably lighthearted personality.

After being admitted to the Bar in 1989, and eager to continue his passion for conducting jury trials, Sheldon accepted an offer working for large insurance carriers as “they had a promise of courtroom activity,” he says.

Suffice it to say, however, insurance defense work didn’t bring Sheldon a sense of purpose. “It didn’t take long for me to realize that as badly hurt as someone might be, it was my job to help mitigate the insurance company’s exposure. After my first trial, my client was very happy with me, but I couldn’t help but

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Left to right: Geoff Rill, Russell Kerr, Jeff Sheldon, Brian Trela feel like I wasn’t helping anyone. I was derailing someone’s life,” he says.

Within two years, he had his fill of defending insurance companies, and was considering an offer with another plaintiff’s firm when he met Kerr. “Russell offered me almost a mini partnership from the start, that was more than fair, in regard to clients I brought in. His firm was smaller, but successful, and he had built the infrastructure which I was then fortunate to be able to thrive in,” he says.

From the very start, in 1994 when the two began working together, the pairing was a natural and successful fit. “We’re not fancy, intimidating attorneys. We work with ordinary people who have been injured. We work with individuals, who have had something terrible happen through no fault of their own,” Sheldon says. Yet, for as seemingly easy-going as he seems, he’s quick to point out that Kerr is even more unflappable, not only with clients, but with the staff as well. “Russell is so calm. In 23 years, I’ve never heard him yell or become angry. He is mellow and low-key, but incredibly good at what he does.”

Continuing, he says, “I’m friendly, but tough with opposing counsel. Clients never feel their attorney is a push-over. I’m not aggressive for no reason. I’m not the stereotypical ‘pit bull’ attorney; I’m more like a well-trained German Shepard who will attack when necessary,” he laughs.

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Great Minds Focus On Specifics That Set Them Apart As the relationship and firm grew, with Sheldon becoming Partner in 2004, the partners solidified the type of firm that they wanted to continue to build together. They mutually agreed that personal involvement with their clients was paramount. “When any of our four attorneys is assigned a file, our client has immediate, direct contact with that lawyer. We have never had a client complaint that they can’t speak with their attorney. Each of our attorneys has a paralegal and a legal assistant assigned to help, but our clients can always reach their attorney,” says Sheldon.

For decades the firm has actively marketed to other attorneys to serve as their go-to personal injury firm. “Lawyers are uniquely suited to assist and protect others in the pursuit of justice,” says Kerr. “This is particularly true now as regulations on insurance companies and large corporations are gradually being removed, giving them the upper hand on average citizens.

Especially over the past few years, consumers have seen their rights slowly, but surely eroded, dramatically transforming the playing field [when they are] against corporations,” he adds.

To that end, Kerr and Sheldon are there to fight back

against those diminishing rights, and have had tremendous success in doing so, to say the least. One area in particular has made Kerr & Sheldon a stand-out in auto accident cases. “We’re thorough in all aspects of personal injury damages, including taking an aggressive approach to property damage claims such as diminished value or stigma damage, which is the loss in value in high-end vehicles following collision repairs. For years, insurance companies have wrongfully denied that diminished value is recoverable in California. To skirt the law, insurers relied on a confusing jury instruction to mislead vulnerable accident victims— making them believe that only their vehicle’s cost of repair was recoverable, and that there was no basis for recovering diminished value for a car’s loss in value due to a collision,” he says.

The firm was so dedicated to ensuring that victims receive proper compensation for a vehicle that had sustained damage, thus reducing its value, that in 2015, Kerr played a significant role in clarifying the obscure jury instructions. “In 2015, we joined with consumer attorney Montie Day, Esq. in successfully petitioning the California Supreme Court Judicial Counsel to remedy the confusion caused by the previous jury instruction,” Kerr explains. “Now it’s clear a vehicle’s loss of value is a recoverable item of damages even if repairs were done perfectly.”

The firm also has significant success in prevailing in notoriously challenging slip and fall cases. Victories the firm achieved include $450,000 and $364,000 verdicts against two large grocery stores. “At trial, the judge pointed out that of the 30 slip and fall cases he’d heard, 28 had been defense verdicts.

The only two that weren’t, were our cases,” Sheldon explains.

legal theory of ‘bystander liability,’” Kerr says.

The firm was also instrumental in ending discrimination at a major restaurant chain against minorities. “The restaurants had a policy of precluding black patrons on a pretextual basis of dress code violations,” Kerr says. In this case, the firm successfully sued the chain to stop the practice, recovering damages on behalf of numerous patrons who were denied admission.

In yet another case, Kerr & Sheldon demonstrated their resolve, and creativity in helping a woman who came to them after an auto accident. “We opened a file for her, but unfortunately the police report showed liability was unfavorable and we had to reject her claim. However, during the interview she mentioned a prior accident from years before that was still pending but her lawyer wouldn’t return her calls. It seemed suspicious. We called the previous lawyer and determined they settled her case without her permission.

Within a week, we had interviewed her, opened a file which we subsequently had to reject, then settled her malpractice claim for a sizable amount, which she desperately needed for medical bills and to replace her wrecked car,” he says.

Finally, in a case that earned Sheldon the noted distinction of being named the 2007 Orange County Trial Lawyers Association’s Personal Injury Trial Lawyer of the Year, the firm faced a final settlement offer of $75,000 from the defense after a low-impact rear-end collision. “Our client was driving a trash collection truck which had minimal damage to its rear from the collision, but despite the minimal property damage he required neck surgery. We stood by our client and after years of litigation which we financed, we were able to obtain a $2.8 Million verdict,” Sheldon says.

Delivering on Their Promises to Fight for the Average Person

Lasting Loyalty Has Firm Poised for a Long Future

As “blue collar lawyers” fighting for the rights of the average consumer, Kerr and Sheldon, along with their colleagues, trial attorneys Brian Trela and Geoffrey Rill, have proven their dedication and litigation skills time and again to impressive results.

For example, in one case, which both partners say was one of the most impactful of their lives, the firm represented a man who had been horribly beaten in a gay bashing case. “The attackers left our client with broken teeth, a dislodged eye, and impaled the back of his head on a rock,” Kerr recalls. “Two teenagers committed the assault while several others stood by and cheered. Since it was a criminal assault it was difficult to establish insurance coverage, but we went to trial, and secured a $1.1 million verdict. A significant portion of the judgement was satisfied by settlements with insurers for some of the six teenagers who incited or encouraged the attack, on a creative

With successes such as these, and a proven willingness to see every case through to trial, it’s not surprising that Kerr & Sheldon have earned the trust, respect and referrals of so many colleagues. But, to hear Kerr tell it, the firm’s efforts to help other attorneys take on cases they aren’t equipped to handle, is matched only by their steadfast commitment to consistency and integrity with referral fees.

“We know a lawyer’s reputation is on the line when they make a referral, particularly of a friend or loved one. Referrals we receive are always interviewed by an attorney and we’re proud to be one of the few local firms aggressively handling hundreds of these cases a year, with reliable success. It is not cost effective for attorneys to only handle an occasional personal injury claim,” Kerr says.

In addition, he says, “We’ve earned lawyers’ trust for several reasons, the most important being our consistency. Referral Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017 19

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Winning as a team. fees in accordance with State Bar Rules are confirmed in writing as soon as we’re retained. We pay 10% of the gross settlement or award above the first $5,000 recovered for automobile accidents, 7.5% of the gross settlement or award above the same threshold for other personal injury matters and 25% of our attorney fees for cases involving minors. We rarely call afterward for reductions, no matter how difficult the case.”

The referral fees that Kerr & Sheldon have paid out over the years total in the millions, and this year is no exception. Within the first four months of 2017 alone, the firm had already paid out more than $200,000 in referral fees to local attorneys.

So, what’s left for Kerr & Sheldon to do after establishing a stellar reputation, recovering tens of millions for clients, and paying millions in referral fees to fellow attorneys? After all, the partners are already highly involved in the legal community, and in charitable work. Together they support Santa Ana charities that provide meals for the homeless during the holidays.

They have also worked with the Eddie Nash Foundation for Foster Youth.

For his part, Kerr has served as past Chair of the State Bar of California International Law Section, a past Chair of the Human Rights Committee of the American Bar Association Section of International Law and current ABA-SIL Division Chair of Public International Law. He has been the editor of the ABA-SIL Human Rights Committee e-Brief Newsletter since its inception and was conferred an Honorary Degree from Coastline College for his extensive efforts in establishing and providing legal services through community-based legal clinics. He’s been a featured guest speaker for the Office of the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Conference on Hate-Crimes and served as a Judge Pro Tem, Arbitrator, and an adjunct Professor of Law at Western State University College of Law. 20 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

Similarly, Sheldon has been published in the field of personal injury trial work and has lectured to lawyers and law students on that subject. He has also served three terms on the Board of Directors, Orange County Trial Lawyers Association. He is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).

In short, Kerr & Sheldon intend to stay the course for the future. “We have some challenging cases set for trial, including an unfortunate death case where a 47-year-old man was killed by a Coca-Cola truck driver,” Sheldon says.

And in the meantime, the two friendly, but tenacious attorneys are looking forward to continuing to fight for consumers’ rights even in the face of industry-wide hurdles, including mandatory arbitration agreements, insurers’ increased reliance on claimsevaluation software to reduce settlement offers, the Howell v.

Hamilton Meats decision limiting recoverable medical expenses to the discounted prices paid by health insurers, and the continued onslaught of tort reform propaganda tainting juror perceptions.

“For 35 years, our firm has encouraged lawyers to “make us your personal injury department,” Kerr says. “We will continue to do that, and we will continue to treat all clients with the respect, and service they deserve. We expect to work hard.” n Contact Russell Kerr Kerr & Sheldon, APC 16480 Harbor Blvd., Suite 100 Fountain Valley, CA 92708 714-531-5900 Russell@kerrlawfirm.com www.kerrlawfirm.com

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Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017 21

From Business Owner To Business Owners’

STRONGEST ALLY Anderson Reynard, LLP’s Managing Partner John Reynard‘s experience as a CEO, COO, and CFO is now used to help fellow entrepreneurs to plan, preserve and protect their businesses and families.

by Jennifer Hadley

A

fter graduating from Stanford University in the mid 1990’s, John Reynard III found himself in what appeared to be a rather fortuitous situation. At just 24 years old, he co-founded a software company which was acquired by a Fortune 50 company within just 18 months. “It was a very exciting experience,” he recalls. “It also taught me the value of legal advice. We were kids when we sold the company, and hired professionals that we blindly trusted,” he explains.

Reynard’s experience with his next company, which was also, by many standards, a great success, still left him wondering how the structuring of the company had gone so wrong. He doesn’t mince words when saying, “We were given terrible legal and financial advice. From a tax standpoint, the company was the wrong type of entity, and it wasn’t congruent with my other plans. We’d spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to sort it all out, before I finally sold my interest to my partner,” he says.

Discouraged, but determined there had to be a better way for entrepreneurs to protect themselves from winding up in similar situations, Reynard says he took time off to travel, and began reading books voraciously. He devoted himself to learning as much as he could about how business owners should manage their family estates. “When I had my own company, I was good at running a business but I did not have anyone on the legal side that could integrate my personal family planning with my company.”

However, because John had also gained experience with several other companies acting as CEO, COO, and CFO, he often found himself on the receiving end of questions from friends, colleagues and peers, requesting his help in planning to preserve and protect their assets and estates. “I had so much personal experience with running companies that I wanted to act as an advisor to businesses and individuals. But I felt that a large portion of the advice that I gave to businesses was legal in nature.

22 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

I had no interest in skirting the line of practicing law without a license, and I wanted to eliminate any barrier that would prevent me from giving the best advice possible,” he says.

Dedication to Preserving the Efforts of Entrepreneurs Through Education Reynard’s mind was made up. “By becoming a lawyer, I wouldn’t have to worry about inadvertently giving legal advice. I would be able to legally help people. Both my successes and failures as a business owner gave me a unique perspective when I entered law school, and I knew exactly the type of lawyer I wanted to be, and the type of law that I wanted to study from the first day I stepped on campus,” he says.

He explains, “A void in the practice of law are professionals who have real-life experience, from the client’s perspective, in the areas of their practice. Too often, professionals fall under a theoretical realm in which the connections between the law and reality are out of sync. Until you have taken your own company through a complex transaction, it is virtually impossible to understand the idiosyncratic nature of running a business. This creates an environment where lawyers are referred to as “deal killers.” Unfortunately, this is often an accurate assessment, as many lawyers without real world experience create legal entities or contracts which bind companies and family estate plans to the point that changing times, dynamics and needs are impossible to accommodate. Too often, company and family plans fail to meet a client’s dynamic life cycle because of the rigid nature of the plans that attorneys and advisors put in place.”

Thus, with this firm philosophy guiding him, and armed with personal experience, the only thing Reynard had left to do was learn as much as he possibly could about law, which he did at the University of San Diego School of Law. As a member of the

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© Bauman Photographers

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© Bauman Photographers

Left to right: Sandra Mominee, Diana Feliton, Charley Palmore, David C. Anderson, John S. Reynard III, William “Bill” Carey, Kristin Canfield Derr

International Law Journal, Reynard was also awarded a Dean’s Scholarship for the Graduate Tax program, before immediately moving on to earn his Master of Laws in Taxation (LL.M).

He also credits instructors and mentors including Professor Frank Partnoy, and Lincoln Quintana, Esq., his first boss, for instilling in him the need to do the right thing at all times, and the absolute necessity of finding balance as an attorney. “I was taught to learn as much as I could, because the information is out there. I spent and continue to spend at least 90 minutes every day reading, and learning something new. Nothing comes easy, but no one was going to out learn me. I called on all kinds of people and asked questions. I called on doctors, I called on advisors, and some of the partners of the biggest firms in town to pick their brains. I have never been turned down for a coffee meeting. We are all in the businesses of helping people,” he says.

Protecting Others by Partnering With an Established Pro By 2013, Reynard found the perfect opportunity to continue to learn, while building the firm he’d always dreamed of. That came through the chance to partner with Harvard Law School Graduate, and AV-Rated Attorney David C. Anderson, who has served the San Diego legal community with premium wealth strategy design and estate planning services for nearly 40 24 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

years. According to Reynard, the dynamic between the two was apparent from the start. “It was the perfect blend of old school, and new school,” Anderson confirms.

Continuing, Reynard says, “Over the last four years, he has taught me much more than just how to estate plan. He’s shown me how to have a family, a business and how to balance the two. He took my young legal background, and my business experience, and blended it with his decades of expertise in estate planning. I honestly partnered with one of the best lawyers in San Diego. His mentorship and experience has allowed me to practice at a level that I believe puts me above my immediate peers,” he adds sincerely.

Together Anderson and Reynard have created something truly unique in a field which, Reynard admits, has a lot of attorneys. “There are a number of great firms in our area of expertise. Since much of our work is transactional, we have the great pleasure of working with many of these firms, and I find that we are collectively able to bring great planning to our clients.”

“We also fill a gap between solo and larger firms. We have a bit more bandwidth than solo firms, which allows us to service more complex and involved matters. But we don’t have the large overhead that many of our larger competitors have, which enables us to be very competitive with our pricing,” Anderson adds.

they were brought into an estate that had serious tax and structure problems. “One of the family planners had concerns that various trusts which a family had purchased did not work the way that the original attorney had promised. Once we reviewed the plan, it was apparent that the trusts did not work, and serious changes needed to be made. We were able to collaborate with the family advisors to fix the issues and put the family back on firm ground.

The solution we found was able to fix an otherwise seven-figure tax problem,” Reynard recalls.

In another case, where the firm was able to protect a client, Reynard recalls helping an elderly long-time client of the office.

“He came in and explained a new business investment he had made. The deal did not seem like something a retired individual on a fixed income should be involved in. We were able to put a hold on the project and were able to help the family with notifying appropriate authorities. It turned out to be a scam and the individual ended up being picked up by the FBI and is now in jail.”

Planning the Firm’s Focus for the Future With a thriving practice blending Anderson’s longevity in the practice, along with Reynard’s dedication to staying atop of emerging issues in the field, including the effects of

John, Lisa and Layla Mae enjoying the beach in La Jolla. © Bauman Photographers

“Our typical clients are business owners or professionals who have a family. We do not have a specific dollar amount or level of complexity as a requirement to use our services. We have new families and professionals who are just starting their adult lives as clients. We also have incredibly complex, multigenerational family businesses that involve sophisticated and technical tax and structural advice. I guess you could say that we help families and business owners structure their personal and business entities in a cohesive integrated plan,” Reynard says. We are different from others in that we understand the need to connect professional and personal planning. Too many people have a disconnect there. They have an insurance agent, and a financial planner, and a lawyer, but no one is communicating with anyone else. We can serve as the glue in between.”

However, there are distinct differences between Anderson Reynard LLP, and other estate planning firms. “We truly focus on this area of law. Our problem cases arise when other lawyers are getting out of their area of expertise and provide plans that do not work. Additionally, non-lawyer services give the public the perception that trusts and estates can be handled with boilerplate forms. This is a major problem in the legal community and is in fact, a contributing factor to our decision to have a full-time probate litigator on staff,” Reynard says.

Specific cases which Anderson Reynard, LLP have clearly succeeded in protecting their clients include one case wherein

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017 25

Contact John Reynard III, Esq. Anderson Reynard, LLC john@arlawplanners.com 619.220.8688 arlawplanners.com

San Diego Office 2468 Historic Decatur Road Suite 220 San Diego, CA 92106 Irvine Office 110 Pacifica, Suite 130 Irvine, CA 92618

26 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

EXPERIENCE

technology on digital assets and the globalization of wealth, the firm remains committed to providing service to clients which includes communication, in ways that clients prefer.

“We are as technologically capable as our clients and peers want us to be. We have a very innovative blend of old school, intimate client care, with the ability to be completely digital for our tech-oriented clients and peers. Our systems track the technological ability of our clients so that our office communicates in their preferred medium.

There is a lot of talk today about becoming digital and paperless. I believe this is a risk when dealing with clients that do not understand the technology. A client may inadvertently open themselves up to a cyber-attack while trying to access or receive digital files. If our clients want printed invoices, we are happy to oblige,” he says.

In addition, the firm intends to stay the course when it comes to personalized attention. “It is not uncommon for our first meeting with a client to last for two hours. “We need to instill confidence in all family members, so we take whatever time is necessary to do so,” Reynard says.

Not surprisingly, the firm is already growing, with offices in both San Diego and Orange County, and Reynard is predicting that the breakdown of their practice will evolve as well. “I expect our litigation team to grow over the next five years. I also expect to keep working hard and remaining focused on building the best reputation possible.

I am not expecting fast growth, I expect calculated, organic growth with careful and deliberate progress. We will stick to our areas of expertise in Trusts and Estates, Estate Tax, Business Law, Real Estate Transactions, and Trust and Probate Litigation. We don’t go outside of our wheelhouse.”

Of course, in an effort to make sure that Reynard is fulfilling his mission of educating others, he’ll also be continuing his own education, and providing opportunities for his attorneys and staff to seek out additional educational opportunities. Personally, he’s working towards earning his Certified Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Specialist designation from the California Bar of Legal Specialization.

Yet, Reynard will always remember the advice of his early mentors when it comes to maintaining balance. “Our team enjoys what we do. It’s a vibrant environment, which keeps everyone’s mind fresh and keeps our work stimulating. We take our work seriously, and I know that our team counts on us for a stable job, so we are here to support everyone on our team with whatever they need. There is just no reason not to enjoy what we do,” he says.

Personally, when he’s not in the office, Reynard says spending time with his wife Lisa, their 16-month-old daughter, and their Labrador, is his favorite way to enjoy his time off, particularly if it involves spending time in the ocean, or traveling. n

» EDUCATION • Stanford University, B.A., Psychology – 1997 • University of San Diego, Juris Doctor – 2009 • International Law Journal • University of San Diego, Master of Laws – Taxation – 2010 • D ean’s Scholarship for the Graduate Tax Program • T utor – State, Federal Income and Estate Tax

» LICENSES & AWARDS • Licensed California Real Estate Broker • Best of the Bar, San Diego Business Journal, 2016

» MEMBERSHIPS • Advisory Board Member, Family Promise of Orange County • North County Estate Planning Council • Estate Planning Council of San Diego • American Bar Association, Member • San Diego County Bar Association, Member • Orange County Bar Association, Member • Orange County Association of Realtors, Member • San Diego Association of Realtors, Member

» BAR ADMISSIONS • U.S. District Court Southern District of California • U.S. District Court Central District of California

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www.parkercovert.com Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017 27

How Can Building A Stronger Brand Bring You Better SEO Results?

by Tanner Jones

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here are several factors that search engines such as Google use to evaluate and then determine ranking placement for search queries. Listed below are just a few of the main factors out of the 200-plus that many SEOs believe that Google currently looks at to determine rankings: • The link profile of a website • The number and consistency of a business’ citations (NAP profile: Name, Address and Phone Number) • A website’s content quality, substance, domain authority, social sharing, engagement, and user experience • A website’s user experience and related metrics (for example, how easy it is to navigate through your website and find what you’re looking for) • Mobile-friendliness of a website • Online reviews Google has evolved dramatically over time, and they continue to improve their ranking algorithm with the end goal of delivering the most relevant, useful search results possible for their users.

One important topic to understand is how a firm’s brand may be related to search engine optimization, visibility and rankings.

How well a business is known or how popular a particular brand may be in its market and industry, can impact results in search engines.

In other words, big brands often rank better in search engines.

While “strong brand” is not necessarily a Google ranking factor by definition, a well-established presence on the web and in various communities does seem to correlate positively with other ranking factors and can impact SEO in a positive way.

There are big brands in every industry and vertical— including legal. Given the influence brand and branded search has in rankings today, every law firm that is investing in online marketing should re-evaluate how they are positioning their brand to the public, and seek to expand their brand and reputation both offline and online.

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Branded vs. Non-branded Search for Law Firms It’s important to clearly define the difference between branded and non-branded search. Most law firms will rank in search for their firm name relatively easily. It’s often the least competitive term for which they are trying to rank. A branded search is when someone searches for your firm’s name. If someone instead searches for an “Orlando car accident lawyer,” that is defined as a “non-branded search”— because it does not involve an actual business name.

Google and other search engines track search volume meticulously. They use it to evaluate trends, popularity as related to topics and interests, and to monitor brand awareness and reputation of individual businesses and entities.

If your law firm name is searched for regularly in your market and is being talked about throughout the Internet, your business is often seen as a popular brand. This type of popularity has been said to influence search, and provides these businesses with a boost in their ranking, among other benefits.

Benefits of Branded Search for Attorneys Branded search volume around your law firm’s name can be an important component of your overall Web marketing mix. It implies that you are well-known, and is an indication that your firm is trusted and intentionally sought by the general public.

Whether or not branded search volume is a ranking factor per se, there are a number of other benefits that come with strong brand awareness in your market and increased branded search volume. Branded search may increase the propensity to convert a visitor from the search engine results page. More on this benefit is described later in this article. Additionally, you will see businesses that have strong branded search volume begin to show up in Google’s auto-suggest feature and related searches.

Although there are no law firms currently showing in the above example, this is where one has potential to show with strong brand awareness related to a particular search. Here is an example of a non-legal brand:

Likely, because a large amount of users have searched for a shaving razor and associated the search with “Walmart,” Google has determined this is one of the most applicable and appropriate searches when someone is looking for a shaving razor.

Now, back to the Orlando car accident lawyer search. As you can see, this example indicates how two particularly well-branded law firms are seen as potentially relevant search queries:

What Influences Brand and Branded Search Naturally, firms that advertise on TV often have the strongest brands in their markets—and consequently enjoy the most branded search volume around their law firm name. This is due to the fact that they are continuously delivering their message and brand name into community households, and have established strong top-of-mind awareness.

When people are in need of a lawyer, the lawyers behind those TV commercials are hoping those in need will automatically think of that commercial and make a phone call. Today, with the convenience of the Web at our fingertips, a larger percentage of prospective clients are searching those well-branded firms’ names and reviewing them further online. This helps fuel a firm’s perceived popularity online and heavily influences their branded search volume—ultimately positively influencing their ranking potential.

You may have even see some lawyer commercials instructing people to “go online and search The ABC Law Firm, check us out online, see what others have to say about us.” This is a clever tactic that encourages natural search volume around their brand, but also (assuming they have strong reviews/endorsements) helps to build trust and confidence once a user reads their online reviews and visits their website to learn more about the firm.

Don’t get discouraged, though, if you’re not a TV advertiser.

There is still hope!

You have many other options to strengthen your branded search volume, online popularity and your entrenchment in your local market. Here are a few areas you should consider: 1. Ensure you have a GoogleMyBusiness listing set up for each of your staffed, physical office locations.

2. Obtain as many positive reviews for each GoogleMyBusiness listing and, once secured, expand efforts into other important review sites for added social proof (e.g., Facebook, Yelp, Avvo. Always be sure that your efforts are in compliance with rules and guidelines from applicable bar associations and the reviews platforms themselves.)

3. Establish online relationships or bridge offline relationships onto the Web and make connections via backlinks to your website (or at least work to have them mention your law firm on their site).

4. Treat social media as if it is the word-of-mouth lifeblood for your firm. Engage with people and encourage “likes” and sharing.

5. Get involved with local organizations via charitable contributions, sponsorships, personal involvement in the community and/or scholarships.

6. Create substantive content around your bread-andbutter practice areas on your website. You want people to see the information you are presenting and trust it as though it is written by an expert or enthusiast (as related to the topic). Avoid shallow, non-substantive blogs and practice area pages.

Consider other ways your law firm can influence curiosity about your brand and drive search volume around your firm name. One example may be to implement an initial drip email to all new prospective clients that hyperlinks a targeted search result related to your brand, so that they can learn more about your firm, history and successes online.

Establishing a strong brand online, regardless of rankings benefits, is a powerful next step in your online marketing efforts. Another major strength of having strong brand awareness in your market is the ability to convert more visitors from the search engine results page into a visitor on your website. That is where having a strong law firm brand really begins to play a huge role in terms of driving leads and cases for your firm.

Influences Click-through Rates with Brand Well-known brands influence click-through rates from the search results pages.

Consider if you were searching for information on selfdriving cars. Maybe you were interested in the technology used to parallel park vehicles using hands-free technology.

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017 29

You open up Google and search “hands free technology used for parallel parking” and see these results:

users respond to particular brands in search results and they give credit to certain brands and websites that attract clicks due to their popularity.

Ripple Effects of Brand Equity for Lawyers

For most of us, we recognize two established brands in these first several listings: Geico and Wikipedia. Because of the brand awareness of these two entities, they will largely monopolize the clicks for this particular search. People trust the name, the brand, and because of that, trust the content on the other side of that click.

It works the same for legal.

Google continues to improve its ability to recognize how

Among the major ranking signals are relevant and authoritative backlinks pointing back to your website. A strong brand encourages ongoing, organic link-earning to your site – often through little to no effort by you or your search marketing provider. It’s a compounding effect that strengthens the already established brands and websites.

As a quick example, let’s say you start ranking for a specific brain injury-related term. Over time, as journalists, organizations and others come across your content related to brain injuries, they will occasionally cite the source as a helpful resource in their articles—naturally and organically growing your link profile, strengthening your site’s domain authority, and helping to expand your rankings over time.

Brand is not simply boxed into a specific parameter. There are dozens upon dozens of factors that impact and influence your law firm’s brand: co-citations and co-occurrence, backlinks, social engagement, substantive and trusted content, as well as brand mentions throughout the Web, to name only a few.

There was a study performed by Tom Capper which evaluated the correlation between domain authority of a site vs. branded search volume as they compared to a site’s rankings performance.

The result of the study suggested that branded search volume was better correlated with rankings than a site’s domain authority score. This ultimately implies how critical a law firm’s brand is to their ability to attract and sign more cases from the Internet today.

Summary While no one truly knows all the factors that Google uses to rank a website, it is clear that a firm’s brand has significant influence on the ability to be successful online today.

Many years ago, Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted saying, “Brands are the solution, not the problem.…

Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

Continue to seek ways to build top-of-mind awareness in your market areas and pay close attention to your online reputation. It just may be the driving factor in winning a client over your competition tomorrow. n Tanner Jones serves as the Vice President of Business Development, the premier provider of innovative online legal marketing to ethical U.S. law firms seeking growth and profit. Consultwebs fosters professional, long-term relationships built on trust, integrity, high quality and results. Tanner oversees all business development opportunities for Consultwebs and helps law firms develop their marketing strategies, including search marketing campaigns, responsive website design, social media and pay-per-click advertising. Tanner has spoken and presented at legal marketing seminars throughout the country including the PILMMA and M&L Legal Marketing Conferences. www.consultwebs.com 30 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 135, 2017

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