Writing what I’m about to write is destined to get me in trouble with somebody.  But I can’t help myself and I’m coming from a place in my heart that is all about helping you have a more successful practice.

Okay, here we go.

I keep stumbling across pictures of lawyers, usually women, on their websites that are quite attractive. Then I meet them in person or, more commonly, see them on a video on the web. They are still attractive, sometimes, but they don’t resemble their photos. It’s like their photos were taken in a “Glamour Shots for Professionals” store or something. The photos resemble head shots for movie stars. The reality is, well, reality.

I’m all for looking good, but using these pictures creates a problem for the professional involved (and I don’t mean that I can’t identify them when we’re meeting for lunch). What I mean is that the professional creates an immediate trust problem. Their failure to resemble their photo creates a situation with a prospective client who wonders if this professional is honest and trustworthy. It makes the prospective client question the credibility of the professional and it does it on a semi-conscious level where we feel a bit like “something is wrong with this picture” – literally.

I’ve had lots of pictures taken of our lawyers. One of the pictures made the woman look like a model. But that was okay because she actually looked like a model. The other pictures are nice. They are the the best image of the lawyer that can be obtained from the lawyer’s actual face. But when all is said and done it’s clear that our pictures resemble our lawyers.

Make sure that, using your professional picture, a reasonable sampling of people can pick you out of a lineup.