Advanced Online Reputation Management (ORM) for Attorneys & Clients

Our individual ability to build new relationships, foster trust, and earn respect all contributes to building a reputation. Every day there are 5.5 billion searches performed for a plethora of reasons, including finding a restaurant in a new city, buying mom a gift, or researching the next law firm to engage. The world is literally at our fingertips, but most people only bother to go through detailed information on first page of Google. In fact, 94% of people only look at the first page of Google search results. The general public, including experts and bloggers, can express inaccurate opinions. Their views can then be shared and amplified through a labyrinth of social media channels. The proliferation of performance and peer review websites such as Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell and Yelp also leaves the average attorney more vulnerable than ever before.

In the age of digital Darwinism, we are now guilty until proven innocent. Internet Defamation lawsuits are on the rise. And even when we are innocent, we still may be guilty online. If negative results appear for an attorney or client, their online reputation can quickly damage their offline reputation — and affect their life.

Two examples:

1. A client is exonerated and found not guilty of all criminal charges, but when the client or his/her company is Googled, news articles appear highlighting the now dismissed accusations.

2. A partner is accused of harassment from a disgruntled ex-employee. When any prospective or current clients Google the firm, defamatory content appears on page 1 of search results and may adversely affects the reputation of each attorney.

The exact nature of reputation issues varies considerably. Assessing reputation damage is not a perfect science. For many companies, Online Reputation Management, SEO, and negative link suppression are synonymous. Search engines employ complicated algorithms: hundreds of calculations and contributing factors are involved when a search engine results page populates. Many experts agree that Google’s algorithm often favors negative press and even mugshots.

Learning Objectives:

-Provide online reputation management guidelines for lawyers, their firms, and their clients.

-Highlight the difference between suppression and removal of defamatory content.

-Review The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and options for content removal & suppression.

-Share best practices for responding to negative online comments and reviews.

-Review of Internet Defamation & reputation management cases resulting from court case filings, negative news editorials, embarrassing images & videos, negative customer reviews, employee slander, erroneous information and mistaken identity.