Chances are—better yet, research says it’s so—you are more likely to read this article because a photograph of my ugly mug accompanies it. Well, not because it’s MY mug, but because it’s a face and readers’ eyes tend to be drawn to faces. Now that I’ve got your attention, here’s my pitch: You will benefit if you send us your picture.

Here are three reasons why:

1.       Your Bar Association membership card will look naked without it.

2.       You will be better known, and your Bar Association will be just a little bit closer with your face in the member directory at www.nhbar.org.

3.       Your participation will make the member directory a more useful memory aid. Forget a face but remember the name? Check the directory, and you’ll have them both.

Now let’s look at those reasons one at a time.

Reason #1: The Bar Association will be issuing membership cards to active-status members effective with the dues payments for the 2006-7 Bar year starting in June. Once you’ve paid your dues, the Bar will issue you an identification card that will bear your name and your Bar ID number. Although some members of the Bar have grown accustomed to not having an ID card, there are an increasing number of members who have indicated that an ID card would be useful. A Bar ID card can ease access to courthouses in jurisdictions where lawyer identification cards are commonplace; it can provide immediate identification as an attorney at clerks’ counters, and, if you flip it over on the back, the card will refresh your memory of the lawyers’ oath. There may be other benefits to be had in the courthouses of New Hampshire once the cards become an accepted part of practice here. Your Bar leaders are working on that.  

But if we don’t have your picture, your ID card won’t either. To verify that you are the lawyer the card says you are, you might have to also pull out your driver’s license. C’mon, you’re over 21 – you don’t want to have to do that anymore.

Reason #2: Most, or at the least, many members of the Bar, particularly those of you who have read this far into a Bar News article, want their Bar to be as collegial as possible. If your photo is in the Member Directory, colleagues can look you up. People whom you’ve dealt with but never met will find you just a little more approachable; heck, they might even pick you out of a crowd. (Which might be a problem if you are a fleeing felon or have something to hide, but we’re not assuming that.) And if your colleagues also participate by making sure their pictures are in the directory, if you know whom you are dealing with, you’re more likely to treat them with civility.

Now before we get into Reason #3, our request for photos does not mean we are also planning to publish a member photo directory at the present time. Although a Web site member directory isn’t as portable (yet) as a print directory, it’s a heckuva lot more accurate. A surprising amount of the information in a print directory becomes obsolete as soon (even before ) it is printed. E-mail addresses, phone numbers, last names, law firm affiliations — even law firm names—are changing all the time. And with the innovations underway with Palm pilots, video Ipods, Blackberries and smaller computers, it might not be too long before members will be accessing the Web directory on the go.

Reason #3: It’s about memory, remember? Lawyers, many of them predominantly left-brained people are more likely to remember names than faces. And, let’s face it, none of us are getting any younger, so anything that helps us with our memories has got to be a good thing.

A personal anecdote – in a previous life, I served as editor of Business New Hampshire magazine. I had worked there for three years before a new publisher took over and mandated that my editor’s column had to include my picture. At first, I thought it was a hokey idea. I was wrong. It really made a difference, and there were tangible benefits. In the next few months after my column included my picture, there was a slight but noticeable rise in letters to the editor, and people on the street or at functions came up to me more frequently.

Sending your photo to the Bar Association doesn’t have to be the end of it either. Having a good professional photo available could be a spur to your marketing efforts — use it for your Web site, your brochure, or for those articles you’ll be writing for the Bar News or your local newspaper.

Looking forward to seeing you.

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