LawyersUSA

Amidst the homemade pet videos, pirated movie clips and amateur animation that are commonly found on YouTube.com, a few lawyers are experimenting with the popular website.

Take Kelly Chang Rickert, a Los Angeles divorce lawyer.

In one of her videos – which plays like a movie trailer – she says, "Trust and rapport are critical to a divorce case, so I won't take someone as a client until I've met them." In another, she delves into the difference between physical custody and legal custody.

Thomas Goldstein, a Supreme Court litigator, recently posted a video on YouTube that parodied Apple's iPhone advertisement and showed off his many high Court connections, including Nina Totenberg, Lawrence Tribe and the nine justices.

And Allison Margolis, a young solo practitioner in Beverly Hills, explains her niche practice representing medical marijuana drug defendants while her Ivy League credentials are displayed on screen.

These videos are catching the attention of legal bloggers, if not potential clients surfing the web for a lawyer.

"I think video works for everybody. If it doesn't now, then it will," said Carolyn Elefant, a blogger and sole practitioner in Washington, D.C.

Some law firms are simply replicating the standard television lawyer commercials on YouTube.

"I've never been a fan of personal injury TV commercials on TV, so I don't like them any better on YouTube, but I do like the online videos that personalize a lawyer," Elefant said.

Some lawyers have posted online videos that provide educational material. While not outright solicitations, they market the lawyer's knowledge of the law and build the firm's reputation.

Producing and buying ad time on television for educational videos would be too costly for most firms, Elefant noted.

'Eat, breathe, google'

For Rickert, who says a whopping 80 percent of her business comes from the Internet, online videos are a natural progression toward new forms of media that are popular with consumers.

"Google is part of our daily life. We eat, we breathe, we Google. The yellow pages are basically obsolete," she said.

More and more consumers are turning to the Internet to find a lawyer and therefore any lawyer in a consumer-oriented practice, such as family law, elder law or estate planning can benefit from an online video, Elefant said.

Rickert said video ads are particularly suitable for family law.

"Family law is more personal. In the business setting you're not friends with your clients, but in family law, they cling to you, you are their best friend, so they need to see what you look like up front," she said.

It also helps that almost all her clients are under age 50 and are comfortable with the Internet.

Although one of her videos depicts her in casual clothing and in natural poses, such as getting out of her car and enjoying views of the city, Rickert recommends that lawyers keep their videos professional because you never know who will see it.

"I've had judges comment on my videos," she said.

Margolis, the criminal defense attorney, said she began producing videos only as a platform to promote her views on medical marijuana.

She currently has 30 videos on YouTube, but since posting a professionally-produced video highlighting her practice about one year ago called "L.A.'s Dopest Attorney," she sees its potential as a marketing tool.

Margolis likes to use the videos in place of some of the conversations that would take place in her initial meeting with clients.

"It's kind of awkward to have to sell myself in a client interview, so I tell them to go on the Internet so I don't have to sell myself. The video tells them my views and helps me package my good points," she said.

Elefant says one reason Margolin's video is successful is that she expresses a passion for her line of business and will attract a niche clientele, not the "corner drug dealer."

Not mature enough?

The novelty of using YouTube as a marketing tool also highlights some of its limitations at this stage.

Margolis, for example, wonders how to get people onto the YouTube site other than linking her videos to other sites.

In addition, she's not sure that the number of hits on her videos has actually translated into more clients.

"In my opinion, YouTube is not mature enough to become a place where you can put up videos and get great marketing returns," said Kevin O'Keefe, president of LexBlog Inc. in Seattle.

He also questions whether YouTube is enough of a "community" like some of the social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, where consumers go to look for services, such as a lawyer.

One of the reasons is that YouTube (unlike Google, which owns YouTube) is not fully searchable. Although a computer user can search for words in a video's title, YouTube's search engine does not extend to the video's content. This makes it important for lawyers to name their videos carefully to include keywords that help market themselves.

"By putting the right title describing your video, it's possible that people could find your YouTube video in the general Google search," said O'Keefe.

Instead of trying to attract clients to the YouTube website, O'Keefe suggests the best way for lawyers to use YouTube is to take the actual video and implant it on their firm's website or blog – not just a link to the video.

The video window would appear on the site and most people are comfortable enough with the "push and play" button feature to watch it directly on the firm's website or blog.

"Smart lawyers are going to start to have videos on their blogs so that others can 'steal' them. You want people to do that and implant the video on their own blogs," O'Keefe said.

A good vehicle for this is producing a series of videos answering specific questions or addressing discrete legal issues.

"Provide information in your video and add it as a component to your blog once a week," O'Keefe said.

The goal is to multiply the number of sites on which the videos appear and make them a place for people to go for answers.

"Someone is going to say 'Kevin O'Keefe has a nice video answering this [legal] question.' If you have a two to three minute video on various legal subjects it makes things popular, and that's good marketing," O'Keefe said.

The other advantage to using YouTube is that it provides a free place to store your videos, otherwise you would have to find a host and pay a fee to store and access them, he added.

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: sylvia.hsieh@lawyersusaonline.com