LawWiser, a Knowledge Platform for Lawyers in India, was recently founded by Aman Abbas, a veteran marketing advisor to the legal services sector. Asia Law Portal is now partnering with LawWiser to provide high-quality video services to lawyers. The platform is primarily video driven – and offers lawyers the opportunity to explain their practices, their legal experience, and analyze issues of importance to clients and referral sources alike – via this important medium. In this interview with Asia Law Portal, Abbas explains more about what inspired the founding of LawWiser and how it can help lawyers from around the world.
Aman Abbas, Founder, LawWiser
What is LawWiser and what inspired its’ creation?
LawWiser is primarily a knowledge platform for lawyers. We aim to build a community of lawyers to achieve multiple things such as peer to peer learning, interaction, sharing of opinions, networking and visibility.
The unique thing about LawWiser is that it is a video driven platform, which makes content consumption easier. The way content is done in today’s time is very different from what it was in the past. There is a lot of focus on the ‘visual appeal’ of the content which gave rise to things including infographics and visual harvesting. Today, over 70% of content consumption is in video format. So why should legal content be left behind?
Making videos is not about video production. It is about the content strategy, the right kind of people – lawyers and digital marketers who make a winning combination and that’s what LawWiser’s strengths are.
What kind of content would LawWiser host? And who would be the main stakeholders in the ecosystem?
LawWiser hosts opinion makers and influencers who give their perspective on topical legal issues in their respective jurisdictions. We help law firms and private practitioners talk about their perspective on law and regulatory issues. As practitioners, they bring a wealth of practical experience – which is helpful for key audiences.
In addition, we welcome corporate counsel to share their side of the story, which provides equally insightful information on their experience of working ‘inside’ a client office.
Besides these, we also have “explainer videos” on topics such as understanding arbitration, mediation or how corporate law works — and so on.
LawWiser offers lawyer the opportunity to promote their practices via video. Why is video an important medium of communication for lawyers?
Since most content consumption now is on digital platforms, it’s the quality of content that wins the ‘visibility war’. Therefore, we encourage lawyers to create quality content that will attract visibility.
Video establishes that ‘connection’ with the viewer — and with good post-production — it’s also easier to comprehend even the complex matters when explained through infographics within the video. It’s also easier to establish the ‘expertise’ of a lawyer through videos — therefore it naturally makes the lawyer a ‘go-to-person’ for clients.
What are your markets and how has the reaction been so far?
The uptake of digital platforms and social media is tremendous across the markets. We work in India and across Asia to offer our expertise to help firms enhance their digital footprints and discoverability. The initial response has been quite encouraging, and we will be fully operational region-wide very soon.
How are you looking at this period of lockdown since videos often require in-person recording?
It’s unfortunate what the world has to go through at the moment, but it taught us many valuable lessons. We are more digital now than ever and that emphasizes the need for something like LawWiser much more. The migration of business development and marketing efforts to digital platforms is efficient and cost effective at the same time. This provides lawyers more time to invest in fee-earning and academic activities.
We have a network of on-ground staff across India and we are quickly ramping up this network across Asia. However, during Covid-19 times, we are currently doing self-made video with guidance from the LawWiser team. We help with the script, guide the lawyer through the entire process — as well as do post production work so that social distancing is taken care of.
What is typically involved in producing a video for a lawyer?
Producing video content on legal issues require the following:
- Specialized resources who can guide lawyers on content structuring,
- Digital marketers who are able to create the reach, and
- Post-production teams able to create impactful videos.
LawWiser’s team consists of lawyers and content strategists who help law firms with content preparation and guide the postproduction. This makes lawyers lives so much easier as they can focus on their fee-earning activities.
The most important step is to prepare the script beforehand. This brings clarity of thought to the video, keeping it crisp and making post-production much simpler. The final output is tremendous when the subject matter expert knows exactly what to say. Remember, if the shoot time is longer due to several retakes, frustration and fatigue can potentially appear on camera. So it is recommended to write the script first, practice it one or more times before the shoot — and then time the recording to ensure you’ll get short and crisp videos with a clear message.
Lockdown days have helped us become comfortable with cameras. So, whether it is a DIY or in-person shoot, we hope we would see more camera-friendly lawyers in times to come.
