How To Build A Law Practice

The question "how to grow a constabulary firm" is a common 1, and it'south no wonder—running a law firm is tough, and growing a law firm is even tougher, particularly today.

For many firms, the challenges that hinder growth—like the costs of starting a police force firm in the get-go place, struggling to learn new clients, competing with other firms, and having no time to focus on the business organization side of things—can get so overwhelming that police force firm growth becomes stagnant. If this sounds like your firm, yous're not lone.

Whether you lot want to bulldoze revenue growth, meet growing need, or only afford to hire support to better manage our new reality, nosotros'll walk you through communication for growing a law firm. This post features advice from Hamra Law Grouping's Abraham Hamra: A Reisman Award winner who grew his revenues to over $850,000 with an initial investment of $250.

How can I grow my law practice?

Existence proactive, delegating to the right people and technologies, and—above all—having a program will be key to growing your police force firm. Letting get can exist tough, but you lot won't be able to grow your practice alone.

1. Acquire to delegate

While a potent work ethic is admirable, it'southward not always in your (or your business firm's) best interest when information technology comes to growth—especially if you're as well decorated to respond to potential clients or as well decorated to market place your services. Chances are, y'all're doing work that doesn't really demand to be done by you. Delegating could gratuitous up significant time, and atomic number 82 to opportunities for growth.

Appraise your work tasks, and challenge whether yous're the one who should be doing them. Come with a list of questions to ask yourself when y'all're unsure if a task can be delegated. Write them down, and refer back to them. Hither are some questions to become yous started:

• Could someone else adequately complete this task?
• Could someone else complete this task faster than me?
• How much volition it toll for me to complete the task? How much for a staff fellow member?
• Are there any ethical issues with delegating this task?

2. Create efficient systems

Your law house needs to run efficiently to avert wasted time and resource, and to create a positive environment for clients and staff. Clear systems are the respond.

"The manner I systemize my practise is almost like a workflow functioning, in which I'yard responsible for intake strategy," he explains. "Once the client comes in, I bring in the client business development, sign them up, and I give them to i of my assembly, who is in charge of distributing the work around the part."

Abraham and his team follow set up workflows from which the firm's operations catamenia smoothly in the correct direction. "Once yous have the organization in place, then it'due south about acquiring new clients and hiring new associates to fulfill the needs of overwork, or existence overworked," Abraham says.

3. Hire when the time is right

Without the right people to depend on, growing a law house is an uphill battle. Don't be afraid to build a team that can support the business, fifty-fifty as the business is growing.

"I mean, that's what the firm is. It's people. It's a combination of people, working together for an cease goal. And that end goal is growing the business concern, and providing quality, legal representation to my clientele," Abraham says.

Similarly, for Kevin Vela of Vela Wood P.C.—a house that he grew to xiv attorneys and increased annual revenue by at least 40% every twelvemonth for nearly a decade—one of the keys to sustainable growth was to proactively hire employees as the business firm gained new clients. If you wait to hire until you're overloaded with clients and desperate for help, it could be too late, and be counter-productive to your law firm'southward growth.

"I think if you lot become in a position where you're and then stressed and you've got too much work on your plate and you're at the betoken where you lot have to add someone, you're just adding something else to your to-do list that yous don't have time to do," Kevin says.

4. Outsource what you can't hire for

Hiring total-time associates isn't the only style to back up your growing business concern. As this guide explains , legal process outsourcing is a way to delegate tasks (like document review, scanning, and non-substantive court appearances) exterior of your staff—whether to other experts, freelance lawyers , or other qualified professionals.

Past taking these tasks off of your plate, outsourcing can lighten your house's workload, so that you and your staff can focus on your priority work.

5. Use technology

Not all delegation means hiring people—y'all can leverage engineering science to help you automate or streamline repetitive tasks. For example:

• Clio Payments , for example, helps streamline routine payments data entry (such as recording legal credit card payments, marker bills as paid, and modifying account balances).
• Clio Grow automates and simplifies your firm'south client intake process with tools like easy online scheduling, online intake forms, and due east-signatures.
• Virtual receptionists like Ruby can handle the work of answering client calls and so zero gets missed.

Firms who employ tech grow faster: Co-ordinate to the 2020 Legal Trends Report, firms using online credit card payments, customer portals, and client intake solutions together consistently earned over 20% more than acquirement per lawyer each month—and every bit much as 39% more in August—compared to firms who hadn't adopted these technologies.

For Abraham, automating processes at his firm helps to strengthen his arrangement and polish out workflows. "… information technology gives yous an power to track and agree people accountable for non following through with the arrangement. And it makes information technology easy considering you lot tin print out reports," he says.

Technology similar Clio also helps Abraham keep his firm running more efficiently, cutting down on fourth dimension wasters and making processes more seamless. "…when I go from Clio Grow, into Clio Manage, and I dole out tasks, there isn't that opportunity for small talk, that happens through the transfer of cases. So technology kind of takes that element out of it."

half dozen. Invest in marketing and branding

If y'all want your practice to grow, you need more than clients. Outset by reviewing these essential steps , and consider these tips for marketing to facilitate growth:

1. Know (or establish) your brand.

Your law firm needs a clear identity to successfully market it. Ensure that tangible elements of your brand (like your house logo, colors, etc) are consistent. You lot tin further strengthen your brand with these tips .

2. Found a pb-generation procedure

With the right strategies, you lot can set up a organisation to attract potential clients to your firm online—and, ultimately, catechumen those potential clients into new clients. Learn more nigh how to develop a reliable atomic number 82 generation process .

3. Have a client-centered law firm website.

An effective website makes information technology easier for clients to find you and connect with y'all online—giving them a more client-centered experience from the get-go—as you lot tin can meet with these best-of-the-best examples . A good law house website should:

• Be easy to navigate
• Present services you offer clearly
• Showcase stiff branding for your practice.

four. Leverage strong SEO to bear witness up in searches.

You'll also need a system to draw people to your website. Optimizing your law firm website for local search engine optimization (SEO) tin can yield large traffic growth. Here's a v-step guide to help you lot get started .

five. Find a marketing system that fits your business firm.

For Abraham, marketing includes more one-time-schoolhouse techniques—because they're authentic and work for his firm.

"The marketing campaigns that I've had until now consisted of sending out direct mailers, word of mouth, and telling everybody I see that I'chiliad a lawyer, and what I do," he explains.

Law firm growth strategies that work

Below are a few more of Abraham'due south tried and truthful tips for growing his practice:

Put yourself out at that place

Never underestimate the power of existence friendly and putting yourself on people's radar. That natural marketing mindset has helped Abraham establish his reputation and acquire the business he needs to help his police house abound. In fact, one of his biggest personal injury cases came from his interactions with a local bodega employee.

"I do a lot of cold calling myself, especially when I'g feeling like I'm a trivial slow," he explains. "I'll option up the phones, start calling businesses, introducing myself, explaining what I practice, and hope to score a consultation or a meeting. And when I become to that consultation, I have a 95% closing rate."

Enquire clients for referrals

Being proactive with your client relationships is also fundamental when thinking nearly how to abound a law firm. This way, your clients will be there for you lot when you demand it.

"It's essential," Abraham says. "If I'one thousand not proactive, I probably wouldn't take been able to build the practise, to the size I did, in the number of years I did."

"I would call clients and sometimes I'd inquire them, 'Hey, I'd similar a referral. I'chiliad slow this month. Exercise y'all have whatsoever people you can refer me?' And information technology'd surprise you lot. Your clients like honesty. They'd say, 'Yeah, of course.' And they'll give yous a referral."

Accomplish out to clients proactively

Being willing to reach out, help (even, sometimes, for free), and nurture that relationship can be an investment in future house growth.

"… sometimes I'd call my clients, and ask 'How'southward business? I heard there was an issue with tariffs,'" Abraham recalls. "And he would start expressing, or she would start expressing, all the pain about getting hit with this twenty% tariff, they don't know what to exercise. And I assist talk them through the business organization determination that they're making. It's not necessarily legal advice, and I won't bill for information technology. It is a gap in that billable time, considering I but want that relationship to be more friendly."

"Only on the flip side, if any issue e'er arises in that customer's business, the starting time attorney he'south calling is me. And I'm non looked at as the labor chaser, or the existent estate attorney, but rather as their attorney."

Exist responsive

When thinking about how to grow a constabulary firm, information technology's important to be responsive to clients and potential clients. Every bit outlined in the 2019 Legal Trends Study , a exam emailing 1,000 law firms to cheque their responsiveness came back with dismal results: 60% of police firms didn't respond at all.

Existence responsive is important to Abraham: "I take feet if I don't render a client's telephone call within 24 hours. I really do," he says, adding that clients need him to exist responsive to alleviate their anxiety well-nigh their legal matter.

Exist empathetic

As Jack Newton discusses in The Client-Centered Law House , information technology'southward important to remember that your clients are humans—and dealing with legal problems is stressful for them. Empathy helps your firm stand out and grow.

For Abraham, it'southward elementary: "just really care well-nigh your client. Make them family. Give out your prison cell phone number. A lot of lawyers hate that. Every client has my jail cell telephone number. Respond to them, respond their phone calls, even if it doesn't have to practice with law, don't become agitated, and just give them the answer."

Adapt to take on new opportunities

When focusing on how to grow a law business firm, it's important to exist attuned to your clients' needs and new opportunities—and arrange accordingly.

This spurred a shift early on in his career from being a criminal defence attorney to refocusing his whole practice to corporate law, commercial litigation, employment, and employment defense. The shift started when his father told him about a friend who was existence sued under the Fair Labor Standards Human activity and showed him the alphabetic character that his friend received from a lawyer advertizement his services.

"I looked into this area of law and I saw information technology was exploding in New York: there were near 40 cases a week filed. So, I kind of adjusted that letter that the attorney sent. I took on that example, I figured out how to actually practice in this expanse … it'southward a very complicated area. But after months and months of research and study, I became competent in the area. I got the idea of the marketing that was being washed to attract clients. And I instituted that into my house nigh immediately, within a few months."

Attain out for help when you demand it

No one expects you to be a one-person growth machine. It's actually the opposite—you'll likely be more successful if you are able to achieve out for assistance and guidance when you need direction.

When Abraham was starting out, he didn't let his freshness scare him away from potential business organisation. Instead, he called more than experienced attorneys and asked for their opinions. By getting that aid, he was able to effectively practice his job, without beingness tentative well-nigh accepting work.

"And any example that I wasn't familiar with, I would do the aforementioned affair," he says. "Call lawyers, get some mentors, try to sympathize, research online."

Build a strong culture

A strong civilization, filled with people that you trust, is essential for police firm growth. "At the finish of the mean solar day, I mean that's what the firm is," he says. "It's people. It's a combination of people, working together for an terminate goal. And that end goal is growing the business organisation, and providing quality, legal representation to my clientele."

Believe in yourself

Taking on the task of growing a law firm is no minor feat, so have confidence in yourself and stay focused on your business firm—and don't worry about what your competitors call up.

"… I don't even waste matter time thinking about what other competitors may think I'm doing right or doing wrong," Abraham says. "I'yard ever open to getting criticism, and learning what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong to change it. But to try to predict what somebody else may think about me or my practice, or how I got to this place, not something I fifty-fifty waste time or mind power on, because information technology's distracting, and it could be very negative."

And, when it comes to law firm growth, Abraham has fabricated sacrifices—but it has been worth the endeavor.

"It takes time, effort, blood. Well, no blood, just sweat, and a lot of sacrifice…, he says. "Particularly in the first couple of years of edifice the practice, no affair what everyone wants to say about optimizing, or balance, work-life residue—that's all-important, simply that doesn't come until you lot've built a base and built a foundation."

Conclusion and additional resource for how to grow a law house

Getting more than clients, growing your law firm, and condign a success story takes work, strategy, and perhaps a shift in perspective—but the results will be worth it. Much of police force firm growth boils downwardly to strategic delegation, and then start by coming upwardly with a system to facilitate growth and prioritize marketing to bring in new clients. Nurture your customer relationships, and be proactive and responsive. Don't be afraid to hire or outsource staff, and take reward of tech to automate where you can.

If you're thinking most how to abound a police force house and need extra encouragement, at that place are plenty of success stories to inspire you. Abraham'due south full story is a great place to start. Y'all tin also read about law firm growth stars like Shuaib Ahmed, who used tech to cut overhead and grow his revenues 1400% within his commencement twelvemonth of operations. Finally, Tara Burd struck out on her own, and grew a $1 million law house .

Nosotros published this blog postal service in December 2020. Last updated: March ii, 2022.

Categorized in: Business

Source: https://www.clio.com/blog/growing-a-law-firm/

Share this post