Problem:

Firm Size: Single location, 14 attorneys. Personal Injury.
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Although we’re now seeing some recovery, as of late September, 2020, COVID-19 continues to have a tremendous impact on lives, businesses, and the economy as a whole. But how have law firms been affected, and are all practice areas being impacted similarly? As we saw in part I and part II of this series, the majority of the firms we checked in on felt a sharp drop in traffic, but smaller law firms felt this more acutely than bigger firms.

Theory:

As the economy improves (at least, ostensibly), we expect to see traffic to law firm websites rise with it. Many economic indicators appear relatively healthy (the dow jones being just below where it was before the sharp drop in March), and unemployment rates at just over 8%, contrasted with the 15% right at the start of the pandemic. That being said, there are ample ways that the economy has not recovered from the initial shock caused by COVID-19, so some firms may be feeling this.

Conclusion:

The following is a spot check of 9 different law firms across three different practice areas. Paying special attention to percent change in total website sessions. This time we’re zooming out and looking at total organic traffic to the website, starting on Jan 1, 2020, to the end of September. So, pre and post-COVID-19.

What we find is that even within the same practice areas, firms are impacted differently. Looking within Personal Injury, client #1 tells a story of no drop in traffic from the start of the pandemic, and even a strong and sustained increase in traffic starting in May. Meanwhile, client #2 saw a steep drop off in February and March, and has only recovered slightly. Family Law has seen slight improvement since the start of the economic downturn across all the clients we spot checked. Criminal Defense, notably, started to see an increase in traffic only after June.