How can hiring women help a legal business?

If you’re brainstorming ways to boost your bottom line, hiring women is a great start. Not only are more women graduating with advanced degrees, many high-tech firms increasingly seek out female employees to fill their ranks.

But the advantages are not limited to bleeding-edge technology companies; the new drive to get women to work for dynamic businesses appeals to most companies staffed by highly skilled professionals, including law firms and other legal businesses. For example, female employees can help improve your:

• Marketing. A diverse team is important because your employees construct the way you are perceived in the community. If your demographics show that women are more likely to visit your site and contact you, it makes sense to add more women to your marketing staff. Female employees can make changes that encourage and inspire action in prospective clients, while happy female clients are more likely to refer their friends.
• Client relations. If you work in an area of law that has a special focus on women, such as divorce law or domestic violence, you are uniquely poised to offer your clients a more comfortable environment. Women taking phone calls, sending emails, and dealing directly with women who need help makes female clients more comfortable in your office, strengthening the relationship between you and your client base.
• Honesty. With so many law firms offering their services, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. What is something about your business that distinguishes you from the lawyer down the street? If you’re a personal injury or worker’s comp lawyer, you may pride yourself on “fighting for the little guy,” or insist you are a “family friendly firm”—but your clients may not believe it if your principles are not reflected in your ranks. Hiring a diverse group of employees not only encourages a wider customer base, it shows that you follow through with the promises you make.