Being an excellent lawyer and building an excellent practice don’t always go hand in hand. Running a law firm is running a business, and some lawyers are great at law and not so great at business.
For many firms, the challenges that impact growth, such as the costs of starting a law firm, struggling to acquire new clients, dealing with competitors, and handling day-to-day operations, can leave the practice stagnant.
Building a million-dollar firm is difficult, to begin with, let alone as a fresh firm with $0 and zero clients. But with the right systems and strategies in place, you can create the firm you dreamt of.
Learn to Delegate
When they start a law firm, many lawyers end up taking on as many of the tasks as possible. This not only takes away from their main purpose – practicing law – but can harm the bottom line. Lawyers are not experts in marketing or accounting, and not every task needs to be done by you.
Learn to delegate. Delegating effectively frees up time for more important tasks (billable hours), but also creates opportunities for growth. Ideally, you’ll have departments and talent in place to tackle all the tasks you need to be done. But if that’s not possible as a firm just starting out, consider outsourcing some of the work to ensure that your time is being used wisely.
Leverage Available Technology
If outsourcing or hiring isn’t an option to decrease your workload, turn to technology. Legal management solutions can automate plenty of tasks, such as routine payments, the client intake process, and time tracking.
Using technology can keep law firms running efficiently, no matter what size it is. As you scale, you’ll have these workflow processes in place to ensure everything runs as it should, no matter how big your firm gets.
Put Systems in Place
The only way to effectively scale is with the right systems in place. Systemization allows your firm to run smoothly and become more productive and profitable. Many of your daily processes are repeatable, and when the systems are in place, practices can scale.
As the founder of your firm, it’s up to you to design systems that assign tasks to the appropriate people, giving you time to focus on high-value tasks that only you can do.
For example, many aspects of legal cases have predictable patterns, including filings, transactions, and litigation. Especially if your practice has a focus, such as child support, prenuptial agreements or family law. You can identify the patterns, put a system in place to complete tasks efficiently, and anticipate problems that may arise.
Invest in Marketing and Client Acquisition
Law firms need a marketing strategy and client acquisition strategy just like any other business. There’s a predictable process that clients go through to find a law firm, and the right marketing strategy can put you squarely in front of them to bring them in.
Recognizing the Problem
Prospective clients have a problem that they need to be fixed, whether that’s a criminal case, a divorce, or a personal injury. They think, or know, that they need a professional on their side to navigate it, but they may not know how to go about that. They may not know if they need an attorney or what’s involved, so they conduct a search on the internet to learn more about their circumstances.
Maybe their search is “when to call a lawyer for a car accident injury” or “do I need a lawyer for my divorce?” If your law firm’s website shows up in those results and gives them clear, relevant information, it can instill trust and create a demand for your services.
Positioning Your Firm as the Solution
The prospective client is looking for information for their problem. Legal matters can be complex, so the extent of their search depends on their circumstances.
They’re limited to the information they already know and the information they come across quickly. Maybe they saw a blog post from your firm that relates to their situation. Perhaps they’ve already seen your firm on social media and recognize it. Most of the information people gain about businesses comes from the internet, rather than billboards and phone books, so you need to be present to stay at the forefront of their minds.
Hiring an attorney has a lot of costs and risks. Their case outcome rests on their lawyer, and they’re spending money on the law firm that they have the most confidence in. They’ll compare different law firms, read reviews, and explore your site to make a determination. How you present the information and the value you provide could be the difference between them choosing you or a competitor.
Getting the Referral
If all goes well, the client finds your content or your website and chooses you as the law firm for their case. Their experience was positive and their case outcome was as good as can be expected.
Your work isn’t done yet, though. After a case is resolved, your client is still within an important stage in the client process – the retention stage. If they have a positive experience every step of the way, regardless of the case outcome itself, they’re likely to refer you to a friend or family member and write a review online.
If that experience was negative, the opposite can happen, including negative reviews that can damage your reputation. It’s vital to engage with your clients after their case has concluded, get feedback on their experience, and lay the foundation for future referrals and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
Build Your Million-Dollar Firm
Starting a law firm and taking it from no clients to a million-dollar firm takes hard work, strategy, systems, and a shift in perspective from lawyer to business owner. Learn to delegate, build a scalable business, and nurture your client relationships to reap the rewards. The work is worth it, however, and can get you more clients, more revenue, and a future success story.
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Author Bio: Maxwell Hills is the founder of Hills Law Group, a premier Orange County family law firm with a concentration on high net worth divorces. Max’s entrepreneurial career stretches back to his teenage days when he had his music used in Grey’s Anatomy and ESPN. Today, Max has used that experience to build Hills Law Group with 0 customers and $0 in revenue to a respected firm in the industry.
