“Our 15-year-old firm has 275 Years of Experience”

Wait, what?

Ohhhh, I get it — you are aggregating every single one of your lawyer’s total years of experience into a single figure.

One question — So what?

How does a combined number help provide better technical skills or service to clients? 

I don’t care about that number — not unless one of your lawyers personally has 90 years in practice. Because HE would be a darned-experienced lawyer.

If I have a complex legal matter, I’d prefer one lawyer with 25 years of experience over 25 first-year associates any day — although technically each has 25 “total” years of experience.  The only exception might be if you were competing in a Tug of War at a law firm picnic.  In that situation, I’ll take twenty-five 26-year-olds over one 51-year-old lawyer.

In the example below from a small-firm website, do these “two partners” each have 25 years’ experience?  Or are they one first-year lawyer working for an 80-year-old lawyer who has 49 years experience?  And really, why should clients care anyway?

Or this example, which lists how many years of experience each of the four lawyers have, ranging widely from 2-41 years — technically “bring[ing] more than 75 years.”

Can we agree to eliminate the use of that empty, arguably misleading affectation and instead find a more meaningful differentiator?

We’re currently working with a 200-year old law firm.  

No, really — they’ve been in consecutive, unbroken operation for 200 straight years. Now THAT is a firm that can credibly discuss its years in practice!

Whereas this type of thing isn’t helpful:

Make sense? Do you agree?