.Legal vs .Law

Paul Saputo is an accomplished Texas criminal defense lawyer, currently representing clients in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin and many other Texas locations. As the Saputo Law Firm’s principal criminal lawyer, he leads the Saputo Law Firm’s lawyers in providing high-level state and federal criminal defense and trial representation with client-focused, one-on-one customer service.

You may recall an interview I posted a couple of weeks ago with an attorney who chose to use the dot legal TLD for his website.  Well, Paul has chosen the shorter, dot law TLD and has shared some thoughts with me about his decision.  His site can be found at saputo.law.

Mike: What made you decide to choose a dot law name over a dot com?

Paul: There were several reasons I chose a dot law domain. First of all, my desired dot com was unavailable. I wanted an easy-to-brand domain name, and the dot law was much more brand-friendly. Secondly, I thought having the dot law would add credibility to my domain since it would make it obvious that I was a lawyer. And lastly, I felt that the dot law would force people to stop and think about it since it’s unusual. And that extra thought might make them more likely to remember me.

Mike: Have your clients taken to the domain name? Has there been any confusions on if the domain is saputolaw.com which appears to be in use by another law firm?

Paul: Everyone seems to like the dot law TLD, and I have not had anyone tell me they were confused. I have, however, had difficulty with some web forms that don’t recognize the dot law as a valid TLD when I enter my email or domain name.

Mike: As a criminal defense attorney, what is one piece of advice or law that you think all Americans should be aware of?

Paul: Everyone can be accused of any crime at any time. You don’t have to do anything wrong. Even for that reason alone, we should all care much more than we currently do about the criminal defendant. It is not, despite clever marketing campaigns, the job of the police to “protect and serve.” The job of the police is to investigate reports of criminal activity and then to make arrests. The police are in the business of arresting you. Your criminal defense lawyer is in the business of protecting and serving you.

Mike: How has your domain name been treated by Google?

Paul: Google has treated me very well – no problems at all. It’s hard to compare the performance to a dot com since I’m focusing on my one website, but I certainly haven’t noticed any problems.

Mike: In your opinion are the new TLDs such as .law helpful to consumers and business as a whole? Why or why not?

Paul: I think the new TLDs are helpful to everyone. The new TLDs make it easier to establish a brand identity, and this is helpful to everyone. Trademark protection was created for this very reason – allowing consumers to easily identify the source of a product or service creates an opportunity to build trust between business and consumers, which is helpful for both at the same time.

Mike: Being a lawyer, how important is it for you to have an online presence?

Paul: Having a good online presence is more important to some practice areas than others. If your practice is consumer-focused, then you have to give consumers a reliable source of information about yourself. If your practice is based more on referrals from other lawyers or from businesses, then chances are those people are not searching the internet for you. Those people already know who to ask.

Mike:  Why did you choose .law over .legal? Any advantage to one over the other?

Paul: The dot legal domain adds two characters. There is no added benefit to the two characters, so I think it’s a waste.

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