When someone mentions Coke® or Nike®, an unmistakable image comes to mind. In the legal profession, the real “product” is the individual. An attorney’s personality, style, and demeanor are an essential part of his or her brand—and a good professional portrait will capture and convey these qualities in an instant. This is why incorporating a business portrait on your firm’s website is not only a smart move but a wise investment.

Great Jakes founders Dion and Robert Algeri, experts on web-centric marketing for law firms, stress that “attorney portraits are, without a doubt, the single most impactful element of an attorney’s bio. Why? Because images evoke a quick and powerful emotional response in a way that written words can’t.” Incorporating a professional portrait on a firm’s website achieves several objectives:

• Photographs personalize a law firm, allowing prospects to put a face with a name.
• They also convey an individual’s style—elegant, refined, friendly, distinguished, warm. These are the qualities that distinguish one attorney from another—and one firm from another—and thus are the assets that should be highlighted in as many ways as possible.
• One glance at a portrait communicates the gender and relative age of a lawyer as well as his or her ethnic or cultural background. A gallery of portraits can make a striking visual statement about the range of associates a firm employs.

Law firms should invest in the best portrait money can buy because a business portrait is only as good as the photographer who makes it.  A snapshot of someone’s face often reproduces his image without reflecting his personality.  Professional photographers understand the art and craft of creating a portrait. They work for just the right angle, using lighting and expression to fully and faithfully reflect the subject’s inherent character.  

People trust their attorneys with their most important assets—their wealth and their reputation. Whether representing a client in a divorce, facilitating an adoption or assisting in estate planning, attorneys are invited to participate in the most personal aspects of their clients’ lives.  A business portrait should immediately convey confidence and success in a tasteful and professional presentation.

Finally, “Branding Diva” Karen Post [http://brandingdiva.com] offers these thoughts on the importance of your online headshot:

1. Your portrait is your surrogate persona and a voice for your brand.
2. Grainy, low-resolution images are an admission that you’re foreign to the online environment.
3. Invest in your brand. Your photo image is often the first thing people associate with you and your qualities.

A picture is worth a thousand words. What is yours saying?