Author: JMF

As I’ve stated in the past, if you want some really good advice on legal marketing go to the Nolo Legal Marketing Blawg written by Carolyn Elefant.  In my humble opinion, she is as good as it gets on legal marketing in today’s blogoshpere world.  I’m just going to add my two cents on what has worked for me and, also, what I plan to do in the future.

Below is my current legal marketing plan in a nutshell (caveat, it needs work, but I’ve had two cups of coffee and feel like writing):

(1)  Foremost, we live in a digital age and I plan to use the internet as my number one marketing tool (at least from the start).

(2)  Assuming I can establish a foothold here in Minneapolis, I then plan on scouting out attorneys in my practice area for the old get-to-know-you.

(3) Next is researching and joining organizations which enable me to network effectively.

That’s it.

For item number one, I plan to use the internet and its search engine capabilities to get a lot of buzz for my website – flanderslawfirm.com.  I’m not very happy with the law firm website and I plan to redesign it with a law firm website “call to action”, but the website will due for now.  Also, as I talked about in a prior post, I have taught myself how to design websites now and I think I can update my site as needed.  I may change templates entirely.

Anyway, I’ve also talked about blogging for business and why I blog.  To be honest, I don’t think I am very good at the whole blogging thing and I need to be more focused.  This blog is essentially an outlet for my thoughts, so please pardon any rambling.  Blogging for business allows you to build a link-back structure which eventually leads to your firm’s website.  (Of course, your firm’s website is an entirely different animal and I won’t cover that so much here – basically, get your contact information in the correct spot).

This blog is newish and only has a finite number of posts.  I am getting some good SEO recognition on Google and other search engines and that is not by accident.  However, I don’t have much of a pagerank yet.  Pagerank influences the ability of my blog to link to my website and move my website up in terms of search engine recognition.  I am working on pagerank and it takes time and effort – essentially blogging a lot with good, well-written content.

Beyond pagerank, I do have law firm blog network of sorts that will all be pointing to my law firm website.  This is user generated content  (or USG in the industry).  I am trying to make as much USG as possible while I wait to be licensed in Minnesota.  I don’t have to pay anybody to do this and it really does work.  It takes up my time and is rather tedious, but it does make me feel connected when I am otherwise isolated.

So, I continue to blog on this starting a law firm blog, and I also have one other estate planning blog at the moment.  I plan on moving on to family law (my main practice area) but I haven’t gotten there yet.  One problem I have been having is that I bought several domain names that are location specific (Minneapolis) but I am not licensed in Minnesota yet.  I can make a generic blog with no location specifics but that is essentially pointless in terms of generating traffic to my website.  However, as I have stated, getting content up is king in the blogosphere and I can always make changes to content later.

There is my initial interenet legal marketing plan in a nutshell:  user generated search engine optimization. Or:  USG = SEO.  There are many books on the subject an I suggest you go buy them and read them.

(2) Networking with other lawyers.  This one is straight forward and simple.  However, in practice, it is harder than you might think.  I am young (31) and a lot of more experienced attorneys have their networks firmly established.  This means two things for me:  (1) I can get the older attorneys cast off work and (2) I can network effectively with younger attorneys who generally have less referrals to give.

In terms of the older attorneys:  I have found them to be a mixed bag.  Some will help, others won’t.  Some don’t care.  Some care, but they don’t have much work to give.  Essentially, networking at this level is all random, but it is useful.  It gets my name out there and it does result in some referrals.  If you get one and take the case – no matter how bad the case –  you MUST do a good job on it.  If it’s a dog and the client treats you badly, don’t network with that attorney anymore.  If it’s a decent case, but not great, do a good job and make sure the referring attorney know it.  Take that attorney out to lunch or something, thank them, and ask for more work.  After that, repeat the cycle, make friends, etc.

In terms of younger attorneys:  I love this bunch.  They know what it is like to be starting out.  However, they are also a mixed bag.  Some are helpful in terms of someone to talk to, but have no business to refer.  Some have business to refer, but are not going to refer it.  Some have no clue.  What I like to do with this group is simply make friends.  Eventually these friendships will cause work to come in.  Have fun with them.  Go to lunch a lot.  Go golfing together.  Whatever.  Just make yourself known in that group and try to be the hub or really helpful person.  Organize the lunches.  Organize the golf outing.  Networking is about being the go-to-guy.  It’s work, but it also brings in work.  After that, repeat the cycle, make more friends, etc.

(3) Joining Organizations.  This is a tough one for me.  Which organizations are the good ones?  Am I looking for referrals or am I simply trying to get my name out there in the community?  Both are necessities, but certain organzations often don’t provide both.  I’d like both.

In my prior practice, I was on the board of directors of a major community child services not-for-profit.  It was great for name recognition, but not so much for referrals.  However, I got a lot of satisfaction from doing it and really enjoyed the people.  The work was fulfilling in a way that the practice of law was often not.  This was good for several reasons and I aim to join a similar group in Minneapolis.

I was also in Kiwanis.  I didn’t enjoy Kiwanis as much.  It was good for community recognition but it lead to nearly zero referrals.  This may be because I wasn’t very interested in the group and it probably showed.  My excuse is that I was a little too busy, but I regret doing something when my heart wasn’t in it.  My life is too short for that.

So, with my prior organization-joining-experience behind me, I now plan to join organizations that (1) I have a high level of interest in and (2) that I really want to get involved with on a detailed level.  Again, joining these organizations does not necessarily bring in work right away.  That is ok.  It serves to get your name out there in the community, generate a possible referal base, and may give you something to do while your practice builds.  Remember, it is going to be slow at the beginning and you need to have something to do.  But, don’t get sucked in too deep.  Remember that the purpose is to help your fledgling law practice.  If you forget that, you may find yourself running charity auctions every other weekend instead of bringing in billable business.

Those are my initial thoughts on a legal marketing plan.  Simple, I know.  But, I have found that simplifying is often the best thing I can do.  It creates focus and an objective.  Starting a law firm is all about focus on practical level.  You need to generate revenue right away and this means getting out in the community and hustling.  Believe, you will be surprised out how well the hustle works.

 

Starting a law firm means that you wear many hats.  Perhaps too many?  It also means managing time can be tough and things get put on the back-burner that maybe shouldn’t from time to time – such as blogging.

Ok, this post is a total cheat and I apologize ahead of time.  I hate short blog posts, I don’t want to say anything unless I can put my full effort into it.  However, today my starting a law firm blog gets less effort because I am in extreme bar exam study mode.

The point here is that I want to blog, I like to blog, I hope my readers like this blog, but I don’t have time right now.  I know many of you probably struggle with this as well.  Blogging for business is important, but it means that you have to keep it up.  That is actually the whole point- you have to get content out there.  The blog (yours, mine, anybody’s) is like a little child that you have to feed and nurture otherwise it wilts and dies.  I don’t want my child to die so I am posting about not having time to post.

Anyway, I wish everybody luck on the their upcoming bar exams. I know I am very tired and want to just take the test and get it over with.  I don’t worry too much about passing, but I am still in the library everyday grinding it out.  The bar exam is akin to the practice of law itself – you just have to grind it out.  Good luck to everybody!

Starting a law firm means that the buck stops here . . . with you.  If you aren’t so good at being diligent and extremely forthright in everything you do, maybe starting a law firm isn’t such a good idea.

When working at my prior firm, I will admit that, as an associate attorney, I often had an unwise attitude that the partners were ultimately responsible.  I thought I could just work hard and try and generate a lot of business for the firm and everything would be fine. While that certainly made the partners happy and gave my wallet a boost, it didn’t lead to learning skills necessary to be a good lawyer.  I forgot, at times, to take ultimate responsibility for my actions.  Looking back on the experience, I realize that I often needed a lesson in accountability.

Accountability also means that the client comes first.  Always.  The client is the boss and you are their paid servant.  I don’t mean that they dictate your ethical and legal responsibilities, but lawyers are accountable to their clients and their case from beginning to end.  Now, if you are not getting paid for your legal fees, you don’t have to keep working for free, but you owe a duty to withdraw your attorney appearance in an ethical fashion as an officer of the court.

Accountability also means being there for your staff.  On more than one occasion, when I first began practicing, I have had issues with staff where I dictated a legal document or asked my assistant to do something and then I forget about it.  I may even have failed to read the letter I had dictated or, perhaps, the assistant simply misunderstood or just plain failed to complete something.

When this happens, I naturally got very frustrated with the mistake.  After all, I had just sent a legal work product that I knew contained mistakes to the client, opposing counsel, or filed with the court.  But, guess what, in the eyes of the law, the mistake was mine.  I signed the document.  I should have slowed down and read the document and corrected the mistake.  If I had realized my level of accountability, I would not have made that mistake.

Finally, I try to think about situations where others failed to be accountable to me and my law firm.  Have you ever, like me, spoken to court staff about a particular issue that they said they would do and, somehow, it never got done.  Have you ever asked for a title search on a parcel of real estate from the title company by Friday and never gotten it?  Have you asked your clients to bring in paperwork, sign a document, or generally be on top of things and they completely blew it off?  I would guess that many of you have experienced this and just shook your head in disbelief.

But, I often think of being a solo lawyer as being a babysitter for the mass of humanity.  People make mistakes and screw stuff up all the time.  I do.  I bet you do.  That is why there are laws and that is why I have a job.  If I can’t accept that I have to be accountable for the silliness of myself, my clients, and the judicial system writ-large, then I should get out of practicing law.  (yes, at times, I have considered it).

In conclusion, I try to be accountable every single day to myself, my clients, and my law firm.  Starting a law firm is a lot of work – but it starts with being accountable from the get go.

Starting a law firm means that you have to market your law firm.  That is a no-brainer. I would guess that 75% of all legal blog posts out there in the blogosphere are related to law firm marketing in some way.

But, an equally important question is:  how do blog to market my firm?  In my case, there are so many different routes to choose and I question what is the most effective use of my time.  I struggle with these questions every day and I would guess that many fledgling solo practitioners do as well.  After all, time is what we sell.

During my struggle to start and market my law firm, I have been doing quite a bit of blogging.  I have discussed the purposes of legal blogging in the past, but I don’t think I have focused enough on why solo lawyer should blog.  Stated another way, should solo lawyers blog just to blog?  To be honest, I am not even sure that this blog and what I am writing at this very moment is “proper marketing”.  It may not be.

My point is that the blog is not just an outlet for thoughts and ideas about starting a law firm.  Or, rather, it can be about that, but such an effort is not very effective marketing.  If your read enough blogs and posts by other solos related to practicing law, you will probably notice one of two things:  (1) the lawyers actually want to give away good, well-thought-out advice or (2) the lawyers are trying to make money from the advice.  This blog falls into the former group (you may not think my blog is good or well-thought-out, but I am certainly not trying to make any real money from it).

However, I wanted to point out that I have separate blogs on starting a law firm AND for my specific pratice area.  I blog about starting a law firm because I feel like I have advice to give and because I actually enjoy it.  It keeps me a little more focused on what I need to do to be successful as a solo attorney.  But, it doesn’t bring in money.  What does bring in money (if you do it correctly) is blogging about a specific practice area and using key words and search terms related to your locale and practice area.  E.g.:  once I get licensed in Minnesota, my practice blog will focus on family law and/or trusts and estates in my particular area – Minneapolis.  Sadly, several attorney in Minneapolis have picked up on this and I have some competition, but there is still room for me in the market (I think).

If anybody is reading this and taking it actually following my advice, you too should blog.  But, I would recommend blogging about your chosen legal niche practice and then using key words related to your locale.  This is both difficult and fairly easy.  The difficulty is actually blogging consistently and staying true to your search terms.  The easy part is that you know way more than the average person or business who you are marketing to.  If you can write like a lawyer, you should be able to blog like a lawyer.

In this blog, I do it for fun (mostly) and because I hope somebody is being helped.  I felt very lost when I first started practicing and I was upset that the partners at my old firm apparently didn’t feel the need to train me.  Of course, it’s possible I didn’t listen. Furthermore, this blog does provide me with some search engine bonus because I can link to my website and other blogs through it.  I have been doing that effectively up until now because, again, I’m not licensed in Minnesota yet.  Rather, I’m suffering through studying for the bar exam, again.

If anybody wants to comment or ask questions about starting a law firm and blogging or how to set one up through WordPress, Blogger, or any other service, feel free to leave a comment.  The process is fairly simple, but it does take some thought and effort.