Seriously, your dog will likely get you more clients than your law degree, your employment history, and your accomplishments in law school—combined.

Last week, I spent a few hours reviewing the websites of the attendees of my Workshop.

Many of the sites aren’t related to family law (about half of the lawyers who come practice in other areas). In preparation for the Workshop, I’ve reviewed the sites of bankruptcy firms, employment law firms, small business firms, criminal defense firms, personal injury practices, and others.

I usually head straight to the bios for the lawyers. I want to get a feel for who’s coming to the Workshop, so I start there.

Within seconds, I’m immersed in lots of third person, blah, blah, blah, excellent, blah, experienced, blah, associate at Such & Such, moved on to Boring, Boring and More Boring. Achieved greatness in moot court and blah, blah, blah.

It makes me sleepy, and by sleepy, I mean COMATOSE.

Please, please, please stun me with a Taser. Can you say caffeine? Lots of caffeine?

It’s all good until I hit the third site, and then I need the Taser again.

Maybe (with emphasis on “maybe”) in some practice areas, someone cares where you went to law school and when you went to law school. Maybe in some practice areas, someone cares where you worked before and where you worked before that.

But, in most practice areas—when real people decide which lawyer to hire—no one cares about that stuff.

What Potential Clients Really Want to Know

Most people care about you as a person. They want to know a bit more about you. They want to be sure they can trust you.

• For dog people, it’s noticing that you’ve got a dog.
• For beach people, it’s noticing that you like the beach.
• For cyclists, it’s noticing that you ride a bike.

Give them something—anything—so they can feel a connection with you.

Some of our lawyers mention their dogs in their biographies. Their clients bring up the dogs all the time. The same is true of anything else interesting we put in the bios. The clients notice and ask about it.

Stop doing what you’re doing and think about yourself (that’s not too hard, is it?). Think about your hobbies, interests, and passions. Are you a wine lover, a reader, a TV watcher (I bet you’ll find others who share that interest), a hiker, a porn watcher (might want to hold that one back from your bio), a golfer, a movie watcher, a musician, or a serial killer (again, probably TMI, but who knows)? Is there something interesting about you? Anything?

Whatever you’ve got is more interesting than your legal education and work history—I promise. And guess what? You’ve got plenty of room down at the bottom to mention that boring stuff you feel compelled to mention. There are no limits on how much stuff you can put on your website. Go hog wild with your bio. Just put the interesting stuff at the top so visitors will see it.

Your dog really will get you more business than the rest of that stuff. Please, please, please just stick the dog in. Put her right between Harvard Law School and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.