Author: Staci Nichols – Chief Marketing Rebel

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What Seinfeld Can Teach Lawyers About Writing Profile Blurbs “About Nothing” (Avvo, Justia, SuperLawyers)

*FYI – You can skip to the bottom and get my lawyer bio writing formula (a 10-minute read) as a series of AI prompts.

For many of us, the extent of our knowledge about writing copy comes from Elaine’s time working for the J. Peterman catalog on Seinfeld.

The #1 Mistake Lawyers Make Writing Profile Blurbs

Writing a profile for Avvo, Justia, or SuperLawyers simply involves translating your brand message into words that speak to your target audience. You can actually see mistake #1 and #2 right there…most law firms don’t have a brand message or know who their target market is.

Lemme guess…your law firm’s brand is “the utmost professionalism,” just like everyone else?

“But, Staci, isn’t my target market just the people in my area who need [divorces, bankruptcies, wills, criminal defense, a lawsuit filed]?” If you’re in Enumclaw, Washington, maybe. But if you’re in New York City or Los Angeles, where 40% of the country’s attorneys reside, you need to dig a lot deeper.

Lawyer Profile Bios: Target Market

Certainly you have clients you prefer to work with…that’s your target market. Not everyone who gets a DUI in LA is a match for you. One of the most common examples of lawyers who know their target market in the legal industry are female divorce lawyers with pink and gold offices who only market to and work with female clients.

These smart marketers are unapologetically not for everyone. While your law firm is trying to flex having bigger shoulder pads or more dusty law books than the other guy, these niched-down attorneys are happier working with a smaller corner of the market because that corner is full of their favorite people to work with.

Additionally, while most lawyers have “clients,” these lawyers have what Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income blog calls “superfans.” This same concept is also echoed in The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz. As long as you are everybody’s lawyer, your profile blurbs will never create a true superfan (i.e. a die-hard brand ambassador who will loyally follow your socials and tell everyone about you). “The riches are in the niches” holds true even for lawyers.

“A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one service over another.” -Seth Godin

Lawyer Profile Blurbs: Branding

As far as your “utmost professional” law firm branding, let me pause you. Ultimately, we are trying to translate your top-notch legal writing skills into copywriting skills, right? Nobody knows more about writing flamin’ hot copy than Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes.

Go ahead, click on her name and read a few of her posts. Does one of the top copywriting experts out there come off as unprofessional because she’s not stiff? Does Ann’s raw tone diminish trust because it’s personal, prose-y, and fun? She coins zany terms like thoughtstipation and Analog Intelligence, but that didn’t stop Forbesfrom calling her “the most influential woman in social media.”

Let’s think about your lawyer brand from a thought leadership point of view. If you want to pull ahead of the competition, it’s going to require stepping out of “the box” one way or another. If all the lawyers are trying to be “the utmost professional,” then they’re essentially all the same…from thought leader to wallflower. As long as you’re all the same, you really are writing “about nothing.”

The pink elephant in the “law firm branding” room here is lawyers think they need to be boring, bland, and overly formal to be “lawyerly.” Does Mark Zuckerberg need to dress like Bill Gates to be taken seriously as a CEO? Did Seinfeld need to be able to act to have the best comedy sitcom on TV? Does Ann Handley need to play it safe in order to be respected as an expert marketing wordsmith? No.

What Mark, Seinfeld, and Ann all have in common is that they’re smart. Well-written. Pioneers. What if your lawyer brand wasn’t about out-shoulder-padding the next guy? I promise…you can rely on your own skills, experience, and knowledge to establish your professionalism as an attorney. Let some of your personality shine through. Although some would disagree, lawyers are people too!

“97% of attorneys have zero personal content on their websites.” -Finances Online

Lawyer Profile Blurbs: Attract/Repel

Winding back around to your attorney brand and ideal client (or “target market”), the attract/repel concept is a great place to start when thinking about your profile bio. We don’t just want to attract ideal clients, but we want to repel the rest. Example: remember those pink and gold offices I mentioned above. Making a man feel like he’s walking into Victoria’s Secret is a great way to repel him. It’s also a fast track to turning your female clients into superfans.

Remember, you aren’t everybody’s lawyer, and there are plenty of clients to go around. Well… maybe not in Enumclaw, where I grew up. Nevertheless, here are some examples of how a law firm can repel clients they don’t want:

• An immigration law firm can have text in Chinese, show photos of a primarily Chinese staff, and clearly state, “Our forte is securing visas and citizenship for people immigrating from China.” Don’t say, “Se habla español.”
• Personal injury lawyers can have a photo on their Harley, wearing a leather jacket, and specifying that motorcycle accidents are their bread and butter.
• Any lawyer can show their personality, share the story of why they practice their niche, and double down on language and imagery that subtly repels undesirables.

“Boring copy is gonna kill your business. Know what makes your copy boring?… YOU’RE TOO DAMN POLITE. TOO FREAKING NICE. Yawn. And it makes your stuff crap to read. No offense. But it’s true, and we both know it.” -Marie Forleo

Attorney Profile Blurbs: Connecting with Transparency + Authenticity

Gary Vaynerchuk, author of numerous marketing books, uses the term “outrageous transparency” to describe what it takes to stop the scroll today. With only 3% of lawyers having any personal details on their websites, the legal industry is more like a sea of “polished fakery” than outrageous anything. Law firms’ current MO of “calculated polish” is insanely ineffective.

The legal industry has a loooooong history of being behind the curve on adopting emerging marketing standards. Lawyers hesitated to give up phone book ads for websites. Lawyers drug their feet to get email addresses. Lawyers thought social media was immature until like three years ago. Embracing modern branding and copywriting concepts is still something you can be an early adopter of in this profession. Just because it’s a conservative industry doesn’t mean these things won’t eventually trickle down to lawyers…they always do.

Back during my years of attending Social Media Marketing World annually, I watched Bryan Kramer give a seminar called How to Get People to Consume Your Content in a Noisy World. He said B2B and B2C marketing is dead. Today, there is only H2H or “human to human” marketing.

For lawyers, what this really equates to is being yourself. You might have heard marketing gurus say, “You need to find your USP (unique selling proposition).” Years ago, the experts believed that “curated unique-ness” was the secret. No, only doing divorces for left-handed redheads is not where all the treasure is buried. YOU are the unique selling proposition. YOU are how you can make H2H connections with Avvo, Justia, and SuperLawyers visitors.

Yes, have a target market and a niche, but, to connect with people authentically and transparently, you need to crawl out from under those shoulder pads. Why are you a lawyer? Why did you and your dad start this firm? What does the town you’re in mean to you? Why did you choose the lemon law? What was the moment that changed everything and lead you to being here today? Not to be dramatic about it, but who are you?

Why Your Attorney Bio Is a “Marketing Air Ball”

Ideal client–check! Branding–check! The next woopsie lawyers make is misunderstanding consumer behavior. Why do people buy stuff? I know they didn’t talk about this in law school, so let’s explore.

Here is a telling example from the wedding industry that has repeated itself year after year ever since The Knot started gathering these numbers.

In 2025, the average amount a couple spent on their wedding flowers was $2,700. The average amount spent on a wedding dress was $2,100. TOTAL INVESTED IN THINGS THAT MAKE THE BRIDE & THE WEDDING LOOK SEXY = $4,800.

In the same year, the average amount spent on a wedding officiant was $240. The average amount spent on a wedding DJ was $1,700. TOTAL INVESTED IN FUNCTIONAL THINGS THAT WILL MAKE OR BREAK THE CEREMONY & RECEPTION = $1,940.

As if this isn’t enough of a head scratcher, research done by Liene Stevens, a leading wedding business consultant, indicates that 77% of couples say their top wedding priority is fun. So $2,700 on “not-fun” flowers and $1,700 on the heartbeat of your wedding fun, the DJ. Hmmm.

The point is that people buy because of emotion, not because of a practical list of “features.” A dress that costs $500/hour to wear makes her feel all the feels, even though she knows it’s embarrassingly impractical. Your resume and selling points don’t elicit any emotional response like that–that’s where your marketing isn’t even hitting the backboard. A successful Avvo profile translates “law review” into safety, “certified elder law specialist” into trust, and “X years of experience” into relief.

Like Elaine says in the video clip above, you better sell something “that isn’t innocent at all…touchability.” If she can make a white cotton shirt elicit an emotional response, you can make entrusting you with a major life decision elicit one too. Have no fear, I am about to teach you how to think beyond “member of the bar association” and “admitted to practice before the…” Let’s go.

Lawyer Profiles: Headshots Matter

In court, is the opening or closing argument enough? Are you satisfied with just having a witness testify and not also showing the jury photos and videos? You’ll “win” the profile blurb the same way you win over a jury…by showing instead of telling. A picture might only be worth 700 words in this economy–I haven’t checked the inflation rate of attention spans lately, but a “show” always beats a “tell.”

Let’s not overlook the obvious. The biggest “show” on any lawyer profile is your headshot.

For this, I recommend stealing research from dating apps. Men get more activity on outdoor photos, women on indoor photos. Men should actually look away from the camera and not force a smile. This “brooding vibe” signals confidence. Men making direct eye contact with the camera, and worse smiling, can actually reduce credibility. On the other hand, women establish trust best by smiling directly at the camera.

Candid photos (think photojournalism-style) consistently rate as more effective. Avoid staged and/or heavily posed pics…so please skip the “team photo” by the sign near your firm’s front door or in your law library. Ladies, to get a non-staged picture where you just happen to be smiling directly at the camera, I highly recommend a friend behind the scenes reading lawyer jokes to you. Natural smiles for the win!

Step #1: My Avvo Bio Writing Formula

The first thing we are going to do is borrow a concept from the search engine optimization playbook called EEAT. For professionals like doctors, accountants, and lawyers, Google judges your content with a different yardstick than it would, say, a fashion influencer or a scrapbooking blog. For professionals who create what Google calls “your money, your life” (YMYL) content, how you rank in search results is based on how much experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT) you demonstrate.

A successful Avvo, Justia, or SuperLawyers profile needs to check all four of these boxes:

• Experience: How many years practicing, what kinds of cases you’ve handled, relevant jobs before law school, other degrees you hold
• Expertise: “Wait, I have to show my expertise but can’t use the word ‘expertise’?” Yes, that’s correct. Demonstrate your expertise with certifications you hold, conferences you’ve spoken at, podcasts you’ve appeared on, and articles or books you’ve written
• Authoritativeness: This is where thought leadership comes in…what other sources have quoted you, linked back to you, published your guest blog posts, referred clients to you, or collaborated with you. If you’ve served as the chair of a bar committee or submitted legislation, that shows authority.
• Trustworthiness: Ensure what you say is factually accurate and consistent between social platforms. Any time you can verify a profile or even just create a profile, that’s trustworthy.

How do you talk about all that stale resume stuff and not sound like dry toast? This is where my writing system comes into play. Think of the resume version of your EEAT “selling features” as 4s. They tell, they don’t show. 4s read like a shopping list and spoon feed direct “selling features” to readers. Start by gathering up all your 4s…then we’re going to turn them into 2+2s.

What does that mean? We use storytelling to break down your EEAT selling features into “shows” instead of “tells.” I’m going to warn you up front, this is going to involve revealing some personality. Yes, personal content. Like talking about yourself in the first person. The shoulder pads are coming off!

Think about writing your law school personal statement. Did you start out saying, “In 2000, Staci Nichols graduated from college”? No. According to the book 55 Successful Harvard Law School Application Essays, you all told vibrant, impactful stories…and strategically peppered in your humble brags. No run-on sentences of selling features.

Step #2: My Avvo Bio Writing Formula

This fast and easy step is to read your own online reviews. Look for common themes. What do your clients consistently say about you? While maybe you see yourself as easy to talk to, perhaps your clients primarily appreciate how organized you are.

Step #3: My Avvo Bio Writing Formula

Something business owners ask me all the time is, “How can I stand out when I don’t stand out?” Let’s see…you all practice law, graduated from law school, passed the bar, and, of course, exude the utmost professionalism at all times, right? Does one divorce lawyer file “the secret documents” that the other ones don’t know about? Are you the only corporate attorney who knows about “the loophole”?

When you don’t feel like you stand out, creating an Avvo profile can truly feel like you are writing “about nothing.” From a consumer’s point of view, you all get people from point A to point B, legally speaking. If you were all special, there’d be no need to find your “unique selling proposition.”

However, you CAN stand out with better branding, which, in large part, means better writing. Let’s go back to Seinfeld. Why did Seinfeld stand out?

• Elaine was voted “worst hair on TV” in the early seasons
• Jerry couldn’t act and would hide his face when he couldn’t stay in character
• The show was shot on a low-budget sound stage
• Their wardrobe budget was somehow even smaller

The only thing Seinfeld needed to stand out was better writing. We connected with the characters on Seinfeld because they were real and raw and relatable. They were flawed, not “polished fakery.” Although Jerry and George weren’t sure if they were men…that made them human.

After you gather your 4s and online reviews, you’re going to skim through your competitors bios and make a do-not-play list of what we’ll call “Full House words.” The sterile, predictable stories of Full House, the epitome of “polished fakery,” are the opposite of the unfiltered, unrefined writing on Seinfeld. Think of your “Full House words” as profile boilerplate. All that cliché stuff that is so common it doesn’t mean anything any more…those are like good night hugs from Danny Tanner. Here are some example of “Full House words:”

• “professional”
• “award winning”
• “personalized service”
• “it’s our goal to…”
• “you deserve to have the peace of mind of knowing that…”
• “talented”
• “one of the best”
• “skilled”
• “I’m ______, and I am the owner of…”
• “not only meet but exceed your expectations”
• “we have taken ______ to another level”
• “free consultation”
• “we offer high quality service dedicated to…”

Talk about bas-ick!

Step #4: My Avvo Bio Writing Formula

After gathering your 4s and making a list of Full Housedo-not-play words, you’re going to get inside the experience of hiring you. What is the consumer’s journey of trying to connect with you? To find you?

Let’s face it…it’s like trying to pick a jar of pasta sauce in the grocery store. The jars are all basically identical. Do I want marinara or vodka sauce? I don’t know. What’s better…Ragu or Bertolli? We don’t know, so we fall back on the one thing we do know–what’s cheaper. No business owner wants people shopping based on what’s cheaper.

Walk around in your ideal client’s shoes. It worked for Elaine when she had writer’s block with the Himalayan walking shoes. Lawyers, the person on the other end of the phone was just in an accident, arrested, or got a foreclosure notice. What does that feel like? Does that person care what year you graduated? Not as much as she cares about feeling safe with you, about how easy you make it to connect, about how you will swoop in like a superhero and make things better.

Tell a story. Create an experience. Elicit an emotional response. Be human. You did it on that law school personal statement, you can do it again.

Recap: My Full Avvo Profile Writing Formula

• Step #1 – Gather a complete list of your 4s (resume selling points). Ensure you have 4s that address each of the EEAT rubric items (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). Then break down those 4s into 2+2s.
• Step #2 – Read your online reviews and pull out common themes and/or direct quotes.
• Step #3 – After reading through your competitors’ Avvo, Justia, or SuperLawyers profiles, make a list of Full House words and phrases to avoid in your profile.
• Step #4 – Put on your Himalyan walking shoes and get inside your ideal client’s experience of hiring you.

Now it all comes together. Your lawyer bio is your EEAT 4s and review themes turned into 2+2s minus any Full House words. Then proofread it for connecting with your ideal client perhaps by adding a law-school-personal-statement type of story. Below is my Avvo bio writing formula as a series of AI prompts.

For a sample of what this bio writing formula looks like in action, check out my LinkedIn “About” section.

BONUS: Men, get new headshots outdoors looking away from the camera and not smiling. Women, get new headshots indoors smiling naturally while making eye contact. Keep it candid, nothing posed or staged.

AVVO BIO WRITING FORMULA AI PROMPT

First Prompt

I need you to write a bio for my Avvo profile. Here’s my website: XXX. I’ve also pasted my resume below/attached my resume (or: Here’s my LinkedIn profile: XXX). We are going to use a writing formula for this. For the first step, make a list of my selling points as a lawyer based on my resume/website/LinkedIn details. Include anything that pertains to my experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness as an attorney, such as my law school history, career highlights, notable cases, certifications, etc.

Second Prompt

Now please break down each one of these list items so they “show” rather than “tell.” Here are some examples:

• I’ve practiced law for over 15 years —> I’ve handled everything from $2 million contract disputes to 2 a.m. emergency injunctions.
• I’m an expert in employment law —> When an HR director calls me mid-investigation and says, “This one’s messy,” I don’t flinch.
• I’m a leading authority on nonprofit tax-exemption law. —> I’ve been invited to speak at three national conferences this year alone.
• Clients trust me. —> More than half of my current clients were referred by other lawyers.

Be sure to write in the first person. The tone should be witty and conversational, not stiff and overly-professional. Do NOT write like a lawyer. Avoid sexist language and any kind of dashes.  A single sentence should contain no more than 22 words. Vary the sentence structure. If one item starts with the word “At,” then the next item should not also start with “At.” Never use the word “expert” or “expertise” unless it’s part of a proper noun like “Certified Expert in Family Law.”

Third Prompt

Now please crawl this webpage of my online reviews and pull out common themes. Here’s the link: XXX. If you are unable to access this webpage, don’t assume, predict, or use placeholders…instead ask me to copy and paste the content into the chat for you.

Fourth Prompt

Now I need you to crawl my competitors profiles and identify empty, meaningless, cliche words and phrases like “free consultation,” “raise the bar,” and “one of the best.” Here is the link to my competitors’ profiles: XXX. If you are unable to access this webpage, don’t assume, predict, or use placeholders…instead ask me to copy and paste the content into the chat for you.

Fifth Prompt

My ideal client is: XXX. My lawyer “USP” (unique selling proposition) is ME! I want you to incorporate personal details about me such as hobbies, passions, family life, charity work, personal background, important events I’ve experienced, my goals, etc…while speaking in a way that resonates with my ideal client Here is my main social media account for you to learn more about who I am outside work: XXX. If you are unable to access my account, don’t assume, predict, or use placeholders…instead ask me to copy and paste or put screenshots into the chat for you.

Sixth Prompt

Now we are going to put all of these pieces together. Begin my profile bio with a relevant, vivid, impactful story from the details you have about me. Stick to the facts. If I haven’t given you enough background details to write a powerful opening story, tell me.

Then, writing like a cover letter for a job application or a personal statement for law school, weave together the deconstructed “showing” (not “telling”) details about my background, avoiding any of the cliché words and phrases from my competitors’ bios. Pepper in themes or direct quotes from my online reviews. Before generating my bio, run through this checklist and make sure we hit all the marks:

• Does it connect in a human-to-human way?
• Does it speak to the experience my ideal client is having at the moment they contact me?
• Is it outrageously transparent and authentic?
• Does it exude my brand message? Showcase my niche?
• Does it also repel clients I don’t want to work?
• Does my non-work personality shine through?
• Does it avoid a traditional “overly polite” and stuffy lawyer tone?
• Does it elicit an emotional response?
• Does it show rather than tell?
• Is it written in the first person?
• Does it avoid sexist and otherwise insensitive language?
• Is it free of dashes?
• Are sentences limited to about 22 words?
• Is the sentence structure varied (Sometimes starting with “I”, sometimes starting with a clause, sometimes asking a question, sometimes putting the predicate first)?
• Does it avoid using the words “expert” or “expertise” unless they are part of a proper noun like “Certified Expert in Family Law”?

Be sure to naturally, organically incorporate my keyword phrase (City + Legal Niche, such as Los Angeles whistleblower lawyer). For example, you might say, “As a Los Angeles whistleblower attorney, I have seen XYZ…” or “In my time as a Chicago slip and fall lawyer, ABC happened…” Keyword saturation should not be higher than about 1%. Put a brief, low-pressure, non-salesy call-to-action at the end, such: “I’d love hear your story over a fresh latte in my office. Then we can start plotting how your workplace harassment lawsuit will rattle your employer’s cage!”

The word count limit is: XXX (SuperLawyers is 100-150, depending on your profile type. Justia and Avvo don’t seem to have a word count limit, but sticking to 300 words is reasonable.)