ABA Law Practice Management Section

Published on: February 28, 2025

ABA Law Practice Podcast — Marketing Strategies and Ethics for Law Practices

ABA Law Practice Podcast In the January 20, 2025, episode of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Podcast, host Terrell Turner discusses the complexities of legal marketing with me in this 30-minute discussion available on americanbar.org as well as in your favorite podcast library, including Spotify and Apple.

Micah Buchdahl, who concentrates his practice in marketing, advertising, and solicitation issues at the state bar level, shares his vast experience working with aggressive law firms. The conversation covers the evolution of advertising from print to digital, the impact of changing algorithms on marketing strategies, and the integration of influencers in legal marketing. Micah emphasizes the importance of understanding multi-jurisdictional ethical rules and the responsibility that law firms hold over their marketing practices. This episode provides valuable insights for law firms navigating the rapidly changing landscape of legal advertising.

The Law Practice Podcast is hosted each month by Terrell Turner, the founder of accounting firm, www.TLTurnerGroup.com.

Published on: January 23, 2025

LP Magazine — Lawyers Shopping for Lawyers

by Micah Buchdahl

It would seem like a no-brainer. You or a family member, relative or friend needs a lawyer. Hey, I’m a lawyer. I know lots of lawyers. That should be easy. But in many cases, it is not. We know the practice areas we know. And in many cases, those are not necessarily typical consumer-facing ones. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had commercial real estate attorneys complain to me about getting calls from Jane Doe for a residential commercial real estate transaction. Or an employment lawyer getting a call from John Doe to represent him against the very company that is your client. I remind them that the public does not typically know the difference between plaintiff side and defense, or a real estate attorney handling multi-million-dollar commercial transactions and not interesting in reviewing your kid’s college apartment lease (which many of us have done). This all traces back to us—the “educated” consumer that is a lawyer and needs a lawyer. It should be so simple.

But we often find that it is not always so easy. I doubt many of us in the practice are going to look to advertising for help. We’ll reach out to a variety of colleagues for suggestions and guidance. My most recent marketing column in the January/February 2025 issue of Law Practice, Lawyers Shopping for Lawyers, tackles the business development considerations of the referral source and the challenges that come with marketing (and representing) other lawyers.

If you are blocked from reading the column behind the ABA paywall, it is provided below in its entirety.

Published on: January 14, 2025

ABA Law Practice Today — For PA Lawyers, Remember Sexting is Sex; Texting can be Improper Solicitation

by Micah Buchdahl

Texting In once again serving as the issue editor for the Ethics-themed December 2024 edition of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today webzine, I contributed an article addressing recent changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct in Pennsylvania, and related ethics opinions, addressing texting in two different ways—ways where texting can be improper solicitation, and a whole different definition of “solicitation”—as it relates to sexting. In the article headline I submitted, “For PA Lawyers, Remember Sexting is Sex; Texting can be Improper Solicitation,” I may or may not have made it more salacious to increase readership and interest (i.e. click bait). But our copy editors did edit my title to the official “Can Texting Be Improper Solicitation?”

Many thanks to the authors contributing excellent articles to the Ethics issue. Michele Carney wrote on Formal Opinion 512 and The Reasonableness of Fees When Using AI. Dave Ries once again tackled a cybersecurity ethics issue with Ethically Avoiding Fraud and Scams. Law Practice Division chair-elect Dan Siegel authored Generative AI Competence. And Charity Anastasio wrote on Lesser Known but Wildly Helpful Ethics Rules. All of us—myself, Dave, Dan, Michele and Charity—are active members of the ABA LP Ethics & Professionalism Committee.

If you are blocked from reading the article behind the ABA paywall, it is provided below in its entirety.

Published on: May 29, 2024

LP Magazine — TikTok Is Gospel to Generation Z

by Micah Buchdahl

TikTok In recently reviewing a law advertising campaign, I found myself saying that we need to run this on TikTok. I looked at the matter and the target audience, and it seemed quite clear that this was the best way to engage. My growing fascination with one of the newer online tools—from something I considered a ridiculous kiddie timewaster—to an app that someone sends a link with useful (and/or entertaining) information nearly every day. When it comes to effective law marketing in 2024, you need to know TikTok—and that is why I wrote TikTok Is Gospel to Generation Z in the May/June 2024 issue of Law Practice.

If you are blocked from reading the column behind the ABA paywall, it is provided below in its entirety.

Summary

Published on: November 17, 2023

LP Magazine — At the Intersection of Leadership & Marketing

by Micah Buchdahl

Is law firm leadership and law firm marketing synonymous? Or better yet, should they be? I try to answer that very question in the November/December 2023 issue of Law Practice, At the Intersection of Leadership & Marketing.

Please note that if the ABA paywall prevents you from accessing this column, send me an email and I’ll forward you a copy.

The leaders of most law firms—sometimes a managing partner, other times a management or executive committee—are often going to have first and final say on marketing and business development decisions. If not the strategies themselves, then often the dollars approved to staff and finance them. The problem lies in that not all great law firm leaders are great marketing minds.

Published on: July 11, 2023

LP Magazine — Market Share Competition Among Diverse Law Firms Heats Up, and Gets Heated

by Micah Buchdahl

The cover of the final hard copy issue of Law Practice There seemed to be some irony in receiving the final, hard copy, mailed issue of Law Practice magazine in the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ended race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country. I won’t get overly political here except to say that I’m not a fan of SCOTUS these days, between these harmful rulings and ridiculously unethical behavior by appointed Justices that I would not welcome at my dinner table. It’s quite sad.

In Market Share Competition Among Diverse Law Firms Heats Up, and Gets Heated, my marketing column in the July/August 2023 issue of Law Practice, I address the state of doling out work to diverse lawyers and law firms—for the first time since my March/April 2017 column—a lot had changed. The first section of the recent column subtitled “Diversity in Reverse,” seemed so apropos after the SCOTUS decision. It already felt like progress that took decades to implement now saw courts turning back the clock. Again, quite sad.

Writing about competing for work in the diversity space was triggered by a joint report last year from the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) and the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (IILP), “Understanding and Assessing the Use of Minority- and Women-Owned Law Firms by Corporate Clients.” Blend the George Floyd murder in with the COVID world of Zoom and Teams…and you get a picture of the modern landscape of the legal industry. There isn’t even a clear definition anymore of what diversity is, when contemplating the distribution of work.

Published on: May 25, 2023

Buchdahl Receives ABA Award for Law Practice Management Excellence

by Micah Buchdahl

Pictured (L to R): Pam McDevitt, Tom Grella, Micah Buchdahl, Walt Karnstein, Andrea Hartley

On May 18^th, I had the privilege of being honored by the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Division with the Samuel S. Smith Award, recognizing an individual who has demonstrated outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of law practice management.

Read the ABA’s press release here.

Published on: March 16, 2023

ABA Law Practice Today — Marketing Your Practice in 60 Minutes or Less

by Micah Buchdahl

60 Minutes In serving as an issue editor for the Marketing-themed March 2023 edition of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today webzine, together with my co-issue editor Jason Marsh, we tried to put together a collection of articles that would prove both timely and informative.

My article contribution, Marketing Your Practice in 60 Minutes or Less, is not rocket science. But people read this stuff (click bait? Perhaps?). And it is designed more to encourage doing something, rather than simply doing nothing. Sometimes I too should follow my own advice. We’re all busy. But if we can just carve out a little time for business development each week, we’ll be the better for it. My wife keeps asking me when I’m going to get around to updating my own website and writing some fresh content. Soon. Soon. Maybe I should do it one hour at a time.

Paula Zirinsky writes on Marketing Opportunities in a Slow Market. And there is nothing more timely than Abbey Block of the Ifrah Law Firm in Washington, DC, writing on Can My Lawyer Be a Robot? We’re reading about issues surrounding artificial intelligence every day now, and the impact that it has, and will have, on the legal profession. Addressing some similar themes but from a total different angle—law marketing and AI—is Chat GPT, Your AI Friend in Content Marketing? For Lawyers, It Depends, by Marina Wilson of Justia.

Published on: March 1, 2023

LP Magazine – Guilt by Associations

by Micah Buchdahl

ABA Law Practice Magazine In my March/April 2023 marketing column in the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Magazine, I address the pros and cons of organizational involvement in Guilt by Associations.

It should come as no surprise that I tout my ABA involvement as a core component of my own business development strategy. At some point, I decided I was going to go “all in” on ABA activity—and it has been beneficial on so many fronts. For me, as an attorney, I wanted to network with other lawyers. And because my own business and practice is national in scope, a broader-based organization made more sense. As a bonus, many of my closest friends today are people I met through ABA activity.

Now my home for most of the last 20+ years of ABA membership has been the Law Practice Division. But choosing the right places to hang your hat have a lot of variables—geography, practice type, cost, ability to travel, ability to meet on nights or weekends, ability to build a referral network, exposure through writing or speaking, and opportunities to be a leader. Are you an introvert or extrovert? Who else is active in the organization? The thinking should go well beyond, “I live in Chicago. I should join the Chicago Bar Association.” Or “I’m an IP lawyer, I should go to INTA.” It might involve a women’s initiative, or something outside the scope of legal, like a House of Worship or Museum group. Some of the wisest moves in organizational involvement is to sit on a board with huge potential clients on the left and right of you—but in a completely non-work, non-legal setting.

Published on: November 17, 2022

ABA Law Practice Today — Point-Counterpoint: The Likelihood of Revising RPC 5.5

by Micah Buchdahl

SNL’s Point-Counterpoint

Perhaps, I’ve never (co) authored an article with a smaller potential audience than the great give-and-take on the bandied-about subject of Model Rule 5.5 under the Rules of Professional Conduct. In the November 2022 edition of the American Bar Association’s online webzine, Law Practice Today (LPT), together with Charity Anastasio of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), we debate the viability of a revision.

In Point-Counterpoint: The Likelihood of Revising RPC 5.5, we ask and answer the question – Is the Association of Professional Lawyers’ Proposal for a Revised Model Rule 5.5 on its way, or DOA?