Legal memes have emerged as a creative tool that combines humour and education to demystify the legal system. With the rise of social media platforms and websites, these memes have gained tremendous popularity in recent years, providing a new way to communicate with the public.

These memes often feature witty and humorous takes on various legal themes, including lawyers, judges, and court proceedings. While some may argue that the use of memes in the legal system is inappropriate, the reality is that legal memes have a dual effect.

They provide some much-needed relief to a complex and often stressful topic. Legal memes offer a refreshing way to laugh at the idiosyncrasies and the absurdities of the legal system, thereby promoting a positive attitude towards the law.

Educating the public about the law

Legal memes can also be an effective tool for educating the public about the law. They can help demystify legal jargon and present complex legal concepts in a more approachable way, making them more accessible to the general public.

By breaking down legal concepts into bite-sized pieces, legal memes help the public to better understand and appreciate the legal system.

Although legal memes are commonly created by lawyers and law students, they are now embraced by a broader community. Their popularity demonstrates that people are eager to learn more about the law, and are open to doing so in a fun and engaging way.

Legal memes have the potential to bridge the gap between the legal profession and the public, making the law more relatable and approachable for everyone.

Many lawyers don’t want to think about marketing. But the reality is that there are many law firms out there spending tens of thousands of dollars on marketing each month.

These are those (normally personal injury or criminal lawyers) that you see all over TV and billboards.

But what about the law firms that have little to no marketing budget? Outside of inconsistent referrals from other lawyers, how are these firms meant to get clients?

Creating a social media page for your firm on Facebook doesn’t work. Facebook changed its algorithm years ago to push down non-paid content on the platform.

When you post something without paying Facebook, very few people will see it.

It’s also highly likely that people don’t want to follow a law firm on Facebook or Instagram.

If you do estate law in Seattle, do you think people want to read about death when they are browsing their social media feed on their lunch break?

Do people want to read about child support battles? Of course not, it’s stressful.

People want to follow social media accounts that are about fashion, dancing, eating food, and travelling.

To prove my point, Dentons, one of the largest law firms in the world, has only 62 likes on Facebook. And there doesn’t even seem to be a page for all of Denton’s locations.

Linkedin For Lawyers

Many lawyers have had some success in posting stories on LinkedIn. I call these “Linkedin skits,” and they often get a lot of likes.

Source: Linkedin screenshot

Above are two lawyers that do well on Linkedin with skits, Lena Koke and Ryan Kniznik. You can see examples of how this works by finding them on Linkedin.

But when you do these types of posts yourself, be honest with yourself, who is liking your LinkedIn posts?

Chances are it’s just other lawyers that you know. It’s not a way to get new customers.

The Legal Memes Marketing Experiment

So I decided to do a marketing experiment. I had seen that there are social media accounts, run by law firms, that have over 250K followers on Instagram.

That’s a massive following for an account about the law.

I focused my efforts on two accounts called “Lawyer Issues” and “Attorney Problems.”

The Instagram accounts post funny attorney memes, but every once in a while post something about their law firm as well.

For example, Attorney Problems is run by West Coast Trial Lawyers in LA. Sometimes they post about personal injury law in California.

So I decided to try something similar and measured my success over eight months.

I started creating my own attorney memes, which were mainly about civil litigation and divorce. I found groups on Facebook and Reddit that were about child custody and filing for divorce.

Most of the group posts were people ranting, but I thought my law memes would give some people a laugh.

And I was right! People loved the divorce memes. They would often get hundreds of likes, and over fifty shares.

How Will Memes Help Your Law Firm?

Now you might ask yourself, how does this promote my legal company? Well I added my company’s name to each meme (@clearwaylaw.)

You can see an example of how it works below.

As I continued to post in these groups over time, people started doing internet searches for my company.

They would go to the website and fill out the contact forms asking for an attorney.

The issue with this was geographical in nature. The group names were groups like “Divorce Legal Help Group,” which could mean the people in the group needed help with child custody anywhere in the English-speaking world.

So we started getting people contacting us asking for a child custody attorney in places like England, Australia, and South Africa.

They would often say they saw some law memes and decided to reach out. We had to tell them we couldn’t connect them with attorneys in these places and our company hasn’t expanded to these markets (yet.)

So Clearway needed to find some groups on social media that would be more location-focused. We wanted to find legal groups that were located in Canada, China, and the United States, which is where Clearway operates.

We also decided to expand out of just connecting people with family lawyers, and into other areas of law.

So we found groups on Linkedin called “Toronto Lawyers.”

Once we started posting our legal memes in groups like this, the quality of leads we got through doing attorney memes was much better.

And it was also fun. We had many attorneys contact us on Instagram saying they loved our memes and asking us what ClearWay Law is.

It was a way to start a conversation, and it helped build relationships with new people.

Start Building Relationships With Legal Influencers

Have a look at the Attorney Problems and Lawyer Issues Instagram accounts, and if you think you could send them funny memes they would like, then you should do so.

Once you get better at making lawyer memes (it’s a skill,) then you can start seeking out other groups to post in.

Let’s say you are a California lawyer, you can join this page on Facebook and start building relationships.

Other attorneys in California will see your memes, and will also see your law firm’s @ tag. In time, they will remember the name of your firm, and you will have built a brand.

Screenshot: California Attorney Referrals Page on Facebook

Memes Impact Society In a Big Way

You might think that memes are silly and stupid. Maybe something that teenagers are into to pass the time.

But memes impact society. Just like Hollywood, they offer an insight into how things work for people that have no idea. Even if they are exaggerated and inaccurate.

Just like the movie “Legally Blonde” doesn’t accurately show what going to law school is like, memes don’t have to be accurate either.

Let’s say someone is thinking about going to law school, and they see the meme below.

It could scare them off. They might decide to do an MBA or go to medical school instead.

When people are unsure of how things work, or what they want, they are easily influenced by songs, movies, and what they see on the internet.

Another example is below. Imagine if someone was thinking about if they should become a civil litigator or an immigration lawyer.

This picture (and others like it) might make them second-guess becoming an immigration lawyer.

Legal Memes

And of course, it’s silly. There are tons of immigration lawyers who make tons of money. But it just puts a little bug in the back of the law students’ minds, which makes them question if that’s really what they want.

There is a popular song called “Don’t Be a Lawyer.” Again, it’s silly, and easy to dismiss as being just for fun. But the video has over two million views.

I can guarantee you that a lot of people who were researching law school searched “should I be a lawyer” on an internet search.

And they probably found this song. The song makes it clear how hard it is to become a Supreme Court judge.

It also points out that certain types of lawyers don’t make much money. Human rights, M&A, environment, and immigration law get thrown under the bus.

And also words like “it’s a guaranteed soul destroyer, don’t be a lawyer” stick in the mind.

Use Lawyer Memes To Start Conversations

On the plus side, you can use legal memes to start a conversation about things you think are important.

If you want to promote more people getting a marriage agreement before the wedding, you could create a meme about that.

Or maybe you want people to stop talking to the police when they are arrested, and call a criminal lawyer instead. You could create a meme about that.

In conclusion, reach out to me if you need any help getting started. I’m happy to point you in the right direction. I can also post some of your memes myself. You can reach me on my Instagram.

Author: Alistair Vigier is the CEO of ClearWay Law

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Legal Memes: The Humorous Side of the Law