Marketing through presence at events

As a lawyer, the rules have been set for us to follow that we cannot market our services by advertising or even soliciting openly through the normal channel like buying some small print advertisement in newspaper and magazine telling people of your services. A lawyer in Malaysia cannot even claim that he is better than another lawyer when he is handling a case. A lawyer here also must always keep his demeanor either in the court of law or in his everyday conduct. Even if they won a case, a lawyer cannot solicit for an interview which may be viewed as him trumpeting his achievement. The code of ethics for lawyers are outlined properly in the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978.

Some lawyers do skirt around the rules by getting their name published in newspaper and articles. They write and they comment on certain issues. They are not necessarily to blame as the newspaper and magazines can get extra mileage if they can get a lawyer of prominent cases to comment on the case such as the strategy that they use or the reason behind that strategy. Some of them published books detailing their career. Some of them are hauled to the front of the Displinary Committee of the Bar Council which supervise such travesty. One of the famous case is when a lawyer published a book on his rags to riches story on how he build his legal firm empire which is now one of the largest legal firm in town.

That is why one of the best way to be known that your legal firm exist is to go and meet people. You can go to offices of those who can give you cases such. Places like the offices of manager of a bank or the Chief Executive Officer of a developer. Some may give you some lip service of trying you out but never will but some do really give you the try-out that you deserve. Another way for you to be known is to go to events that you have seen I went to like those events where there are wristwatches or cars being launch. At these events, I can mingle around with people who may never meet or know that there existed people like me. Those who are plying their trade but can never advertise at all about their practice.

So, for a lawyer, events can sometimes be a good place to be at to ensure more files are translated at the office. Oh, the hard work....

 

Meeting school friends can sometimes be a form of marketing

(breaking of fast with them in 2008)