As a law firm, you’re well positioned to support your community through a crisis. People are scared, and they have a lot of questions about how this crisis affects their lives. You can be there to not just answer those questions, but to lead them to a brighter future. Here are some ways your law firm can support your community as they try to manage their lives during the COVID-19 crisis.

1. Share helpful information
Use your digital platforms to share helpful information to your community. On Facebook or Instagram, let your local and online communities know about informative resources you’re offering. For example, we created an “Essential Workers Guide” for all of our clients, which can be downloaded from their sites and social media. Here is one in action, and it links to this guide.

2) Answer questions
As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to affect us, more people will begin to encounter challenging situations with their work, health, relationships, and finances. Already, people have specific questions about their situations that only a lawyer can answer. For that reason, you should share answers to questions about how the COVID crisis affects your clients. For example, we created longform pages answering specific COVID-related questions like this one.

3) Don't just share resources, be a resource
Instead of sharing general resources about the pandemic, be the resource your community comes to when they want to know more about the pandemic in your area. You can share facts about coronavirus in your city, from lockdown regulations to how your clients and prospective clients are being affected. Here, we created a resource page for one of our clients.

4) Send regular update emails to your clients
Email updates and newsletters are an excellent way of reaching your clients at this time — especially since they are now spending more time checking their email. Link to your blog that covers high-quality content addressing specific client concerns. Here, we’ve done just that:

5) Say thank you.
The nation’s essential workers are put at risk every day. Although when they took their jobs they couldn’t have imagined today’s unprecedented risks, they are now working to cure the sick and keep essential business afloat. You can thank essential workers in many ways, and a thank you goes a long way to help uplift them during this difficult time. From reaching out to them personally, to dedicating a page on your website, to creating a homepage video, there are many ways for your firm to share your gratitude.

At CLM, we have been working around the clock setting up interactive resource pages, custom guides, building secure file sharing portals, automated email lists for COVID-19 related announcements, community support videos, and proactively keeping our clients in front of their communities during this trying time. Our goal is to help our clients thrive during and after the pandemic.

Cristina Fríes is a MA in English/Creative Writing from UC Davis (2019), and is a legal marketing strategist and content developer for CLM. Her interests include creating compelling marketing content, writing books, and traveling the world.