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Recent Florida Supreme Court Ruling Allows Lawyers to Claim Expertise

Legal Public Relations

We at Fort Lauderdale-based public relations agency Durée & Company have represented a variety of law firms and lawyers for many years. During those years, we have always been careful to abide by The Florida Supreme Court’s rules that govern potentially misleading advertisements and social media endorsements when publicizing our clients.

However, as of June 27, 2019, that rule has been amended! Prompted by a petition from The Florida Bar, the Florida Supreme Court amended Rule Regulating the Florida Bar (Bar Rule) 4-7.14 (Potentially Misleading Advertisements) to allow lawyers and law firms to claim expertise or specializations in certain areas of law without being board certified. This is as long as they can back it up with relevant “training, education, experience or substantial involvement in the area of practice.” In a law firm’s case, if they advertise expertise in a certain practice area that not all of its attorneys have, the ad or post must include a “reasonably prominent disclaimer” making that apparent.

This amendment is a great gift to us ― we get to tell more of the story about our legal clients, leading to increased awareness about their expertise and exactly what they do. This goes for advertising, social media including LinkedIn, press releases, blogs and much more. For example, LinkedIn has an “endorsements” feature that allows your connections to endorse you for specific skills. Since LinkedIn members can’t control what their connections endorse them for, many lawyers were removing this feature from their profile, as it was potentially causing them to be out of compliance with state ethic rules.

We are glad this long-established debated has ended and a new standard to claim expertise has been established. This will certainly help us tell the bigger picture behind each story!

Are you a law firm or a lawyer looking to tell your story about your expertise or specializations, and much more? See how we generate buzz to help our legal clients get their names, successes, awards, recognitions, and stories out there to garner more business. Contact us at 954.723.9350 or email us at info@dureeandcompany.com.

 

 

About Durée & Company

Durée & Company, Inc. is an award-winning full-service public relations, marketing and special events firm with offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Aspen, Colorado. The firm serves the corporate, agency and nonprofit arenas for local, national and international clients focusing on public relations for real estate, public relations for restaurants, public relations for law firms, public relations for charities, public relations for healthcare, and many more. Durée & Company services include Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Advertising, Special Events, and Radio Promotions and Outreach.

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Five Things That Need to be in Your Resume or Cover Letter

To paraphrase Jerry Maguire, help us help you. As we sift through the paperwork, here’s what we are looking for:

1. What you love to do and why.

In PR, you may love writing, editing, interviewing, pitching the media, researching, coordinating events, networking, posting to social media … whew! While we would love it if you had a passion for it all, we’d never believe you if you said as much.

What part of this zany, crazy, whirlwind, yet meticulous, tedious, detail-oriented, profession calls to you and why? Help us make the connection as to how PR is really for you, and call it your Professional Summary.

2. Something you did that changed something or someone else.

If you never showed up to your last job, what wouldn’t have happened? That’s right. Erase yourself. Now which clients disappeared with you? Which articles just fade away? What press releases cease to exist? How much social media did NOT get liked?

We are just meeting you. So take a moment to spell out your impact, and it will be easier for us to see what you can do for the clients of Durée & Company. Share this under your Job Responsibilities.

3. Anything you created.

Feeling humble? Well, stop it. This is the part where you brag. If you craft a delightful blog, master a mind-blowing website, shoot crazy video or direct wonderful events, show us.

Then tell us a bit of how you did it, so we trust that it was your brilliance and not the intern’s. Let’s dub this Your Portfolio.

4. An indication of why you belong here.

At PR firm Durée & Company, we have a culture. Really, all companies do. To learn about ours, do some legwork. At this point, if you’re on our blog, you are in the right spot to begin learning. Hate pink? Not good with women? Live in Kansas? Low energy? Then you might want to reconsider applying. However, if we resemble a group that you’d like to hang out with, share why. You can do that in the Cover Letter.

5. Correctly spelled words – all of them.

Do more than hit spell check. Know how to spell or ask someone to proofread. Correctly spelled words work everywhere, all the time. Consider them the Little Black Dresses of resumes.

So consider these five tips – we’ve just given you a “cheat sheet” about what we’re watching out for. Even if our position may not be for you, feel free to use our advice for another – it may just get you the job!