AttorneyMentoring.com Build a Law Practice

Building a Practice

Whatever stage you are in your career, it is important for
you to focus on building your practice. This applies
whether you are in solo practice, a law firm, a corporation
or working for a governmental agency. To one degree or
another, you are developing a personal legal practice, an
expertise, a knowledge-base that will serve your
professional development. The reference to "clients" below
and elsewhere on this website refers variously to outside
clients, in-house "clients" as well as anyone using or
benefiting from your advice and services. Several factors
are important in building your personal practice:

Make a time commitment to market your services.
Focus on developing existing clients as well as
new clients.
Develop a practice plan.
Talk to clients and learn their needs.
Talk to your peers and look for cross-selling
opportunities.
Understand all the services and practice groups in
the firm or all the products and services in your
company.
Be proactive and try and develop new services
Become an expert and let people know that you
have an expertise.
Follow-through on everything that you do
Network , network, network and when you are done
networking, network some more .
Focus on client maintenance/customer service.

It takes time and perseverance to build your reputation and
law practice, but it will make a significant difference in your
ultimate success.

Customer Service

Once you have been engaged, customer service
will help you keep the client.

Overview. Lawyering is a service industry and customer
service should be one of your highest priorities, regardless
of whether you are competing on the basis of price,
expertise, location or some other factor. Customer service
is key to maintaining client loyalty in an ever increasingly
competitive environment. It is also an important factor in
preserving your billing rates and fees. And, it is often a
source of referrals for new business.

The old adage, “the customer is always right” may not
always be prudent in the current regulatory environment,
but the spirit of the saying certainly continues to fuel
successful lawyer-client relations.

In numerous books on developing a leading organization,
customer service is listed as a key distinguishing factor
between good companies and great companies whose
brands have withstood the test of time.

Be a solution provider. Clients use lawyers because they
have a problem or want to avoid a problem. It is as simple
as that. As part of your customer service, you must provide
a solution for your client's problem. If you are perceived as
merely creating more problems or raising more issues,
you are less likely to preserve that client relationship.

Pitching Business

Pitching business is an art. It takes practice and
skilled presentation skills. And, it takes time and
effort to create compelling written and oral scripts to
distinguish your legal service offering from your
competition.

Creating Effective Pitch Materials
Whenever you need to create a pitch piece for a new
engagement from a prospective or existing client, keep the
following checklist in mind:

1.         Define your objectives and do your homework. Have
a clear understanding of the client, their business, their legal
needs, their historical use of outside lawyers, any pre-
existing legal relationships they may have, the purpose of the
prospective project, the client's budget and your likely
competition. How do you go about learning about these
topics? You use every opportunity to ask the client questions
before creating your proposal. The better your understanding
of the client’s needs and circumstances, the more likely you
will address their concerns in your proposal.

2.        Take an inventory of your skills and the skills of your
partners and associates. The pitch materials should
include a summary of the firm’s expertise, any particular
departmental/specialty expertise, high profile or relevant
engagements, individual lawyer experience. Include firm-
wide skills and experience after taking an inventory. And, be
broad in your inventory sweep, since many legal skills, while
not in the exact same field or industry, could easily translate
to other your client's situation.

3.        Focus on presentation. While the content of the pitch
is important, the format, presentation and length are equally
important. Make sure you proofread the material and pay
attention to consistent formatting throughout. Click here for a
pitch book template in Microsoft Publisher format.

4.        Tell the Truth. In addition to local Bar Association
rules about marketing, it is important to describe your
experience and practice in an accurate and not misleading
manner. It all comes out in the end. Click here for the ABA's
Link's to State Ethics Rules Governing Advertising,
Solicitation and Marketing.

5.        Distinguish yourself and your firm. Understand the
basis of how you will compete for this business; are you
competing on the basis of expertise, price, location or other
criteria? Have you adequately described your competitive
advantage? Does that competitive advantage meet the
prospective client’s needs? Do you understand the client’s
motivation? If they are motivated by cost, have you
addressed their concerns/needs? Do you know what it will
take to get them to say “yes”?

8.        Tailor your proposal to the differing needs of
potential client and the specific project. Too often, lawyers
use their general marketing materials without tailoring the
material to the client’s specific needs.

7.        Present the offer. While your written pitch materials
may be impressive, if you do not prepare for the oral pitch,
you could lose the business.

Similarly, if you are perceived as a naysayer, that too will harm your relationship with the client. Therefore, your order of the
day is to strive to solve your client’s problem or protect them from future problems. If you raise an issue with a client, be
prepared to propose a solution or at least a range of solutions with appropriate risk assessments for each. Try and be
creative while preserving your integrity and still staying within reasonable legal bounds. Understand the client’s particular
circumstances and issues. Often, lawyers automatically say “no” when in truth they simply do not know the answer or have
little experience in this area. Conduct additional research; call up your colleagues or regulators (on a hypothetical basis, of
course). Find out more facts. Check with the relevant specialty section of your bar association. Persistence often brings
rewards and your client will appreciate your diligence.

Be clear. Remember that your client’s time is very important. They have a business to run that hopefully generates
income. You, on the other hand, represent an expense. This applies to attorneys in firms, companies or the government.
Therefore, make sure that you use your client’s time wisely. Be prepared before every meeting. Practice your message.
Speak clearly. One of your roles as an advisor is to translate the law so that your client fully understands the issues at
hand and can make an informed decision. In general, try to avoid merely quoting the law or a regulation verbatim without
following up with a summary or explanation. Get to the point. Remember, most clients are very conscious of the fact that, if
you work in a law firm, you are billing for every moment or if you work at a company, you represent overhead, and it is
important in each case to make them feel as if they are getting their money’s worth.

Be available. Depending upon the nature of your practice, it is important to return client calls and emails the same day as
they were made/sent. If you are unavailable for any reason,make sure that your assistant or an associate attorney checks
your messages and contacts you should anything important arise. In these days when electronic devices keep you
connected, clients have an expectation, reasonable or not, that they can reach you. Therefore, the more you meet that
expectation, the more likely you will maintain good client relations. While you may not be available to answer their question
immediately, your acknowledgement of their email or message is often adequate enough to satisfy the client.

Be proactive. Try and anticipate your client’s needs. Learn about their business and the industry as a whole. Sign up for
industry newsletters and proactively address new developments. Keep clients apprised of legal developments that could
affect their industry and their particular business. Offer up customized compliance packages. Understand what your
competition is offering in terms of service bundles as well as price points and discounts. The more you know about your
clients and their industry, the better you can serve them but, equally as important, the better you will understand the growth
prospects for your practice. Sometimes the information is not necessarily positive. For example, if you notice that an
industry that you serve is experiencing or likely to experience an economic downturn, you may need to actively seek to
diversify your client base. Alternatively, your clients within that industry may require additional services. If you do not offer
those services, someone else will. Lawyering is a business after all and lawyers depend upon the economic viability of
their clients to pay their bills. It is very important to understand your clients individually and collectively by industry and
practice group.

Customer Service at Work. As you evaluate your customer service initiatives, remember to address every person on your
team, including your receptionist, assistant, messenger, copy attendant, conference room attendant and junior attorneys.
Everyone who has contact with the client or their paperwork must be on the same page regarding the importance of
customer service. The more that support staff and other attorneys understand your and the client's expectations (including
individual client requirements) and deadlines, the better.

When you consider customer service, try and think of initiatives that address client satisfaction with both the substance of
the service as well as its delivery. For example, your legal advice might be right on target, but it was delivered a week past
the due date or the memo contained several typographical errors, etc.

Follow-up with clients to see whether they are satisfied with you and/or the firm. The more you communicate with the client,
the more you will learn how to serve them.