Biographies play a critical role in marketing for lawyers and their firms. They appear on law firm websites and on third party websites such as Linkedin. They are reprinted by law firms for use in marketing materials and pitch books for new business, presentations and speaking engagements. Clients and prospective clients read your bio.

As recruiters for the partner search firm that we co-founded and formerly partners of large law firms ourselves, we have reviewed thousands of biographies. While there are some very well-written bios in the marketplace, we see far too many uninspiring and confusing biographies. Worse yet, judging by the similarity of biographies of lawyers practicing at the same law firm, it is apparent that some lawyers choose to “mark-up” a bio written by another lawyer in the firm, which itself was poorly written.