Marketing an appellate law practice is different than marketing many other kinds of practices. The target market for appellate lawyers may be trial lawyers, both in their firm and outside their firm. Many trial lawyers prefer not to handle appeals. To tap into that market, you need to grab their interest and not bore them.

So, how do appellate lawyers market to trial lawyers. I believe the starting point is by writing and speaking to become more visible to those lawyers and to peak their interest. Several lawyers I have coached are focusing on appeals. Most recently I have been working with Roanoke, Virginia Gentry Locke partner Jay O’Keeffe who has written several appellate law strategy articles and has created De Novo: A Virginia Appellate Law Blog.

I read a recent blog by Ann Handley on blogging titled:  3 Not-So-Obvious Things Your Blog Needs. The three things are:

  1. A point of view so you differentiate your blog from others.
  2. Really great headlines because 8 out of 10 will read the headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read the post itself.
  3. A call to action to get readers to dig further into your website.

I believe Jay’s blog posts have all three things. Jay recently wrote an entertaining post titled: A Day in the Life of an Appellate Lawyer. Jay’s point of view is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I have never met Jay’s children or his dog, but I know them from this post. His headline attracted my attention and reading the blog post caused me to want to learn more about Jay. He did a great job of letting readers get to know him and engaging them.

I have also been working with Seattle Cozen O’Connor partner Melissa O’Loughlin White who is  marketing her appellate expertise both inside and outside her firm. Melissa makes her speaking interesting by  focusing on both practical appellate tips and appellate trends. She wrote about insurance coverage appellate issues in Washington. Melissa also recently wrote an article When Appealing is Most Appealing: Six Critical Issues.

If you want to focus on appellate law, what could you write and speak about to market your practice to other lawyers? How can you write about it or speak on it in a way that will engage your readers and audience.