Sort of Legal

After this Nomad List article about my practice running a law firm remotely, I started getting e-mails from law students and other attorneys about my remote practice.  They ranged from “you go girl”* notes of encouragement to stories about their own law practice experiences to questions about my practice.   

I try to respond but due to time constraints, my responses are almost always late and it’s hard to give every person’s e-mail and questions as long of a response as I’d like.  I’ve had so many lengthy thoughts in response to e-mails sent to me on walks…in the shower…in bed…only to get distracted from writing the actual response by the pull of billable work.

In an effort to try to better respond to those who have reached out and others in similar positions, I’m trying to incorporate more posts here that address some of the common questions law students and attorneys have had for me.  So, please, keep sending them!

To date, the most common question has been: how do you get clients?  So, I’ll start there.  I do two types of work – contract work for other attorneys and direct client transactional work for small businesses.  Here are the different ways that I’ve gotten business in both of those areas over the past 4+ years:

Cold Outreach.  Oh, YES.  It is called cold outreach because doing it makes you feel like you’re alone in the cold…naked.  If you can endure the emotional distress and self-doubt it inevitably causes, smart cold outreach is very effective.  My first contract attorney jobs were from cold-outreach and I’ve received others since. 

The key to cold outreach is to reach out to people who might need your services.  For example, large firms like DLA Piper and Greenberg Traurig probably aren’t interested in contract services from an attorney they have no connection with.  If they have a need, including a temporary one, they have the funds and resources to hire for it through normal channels. 

In contrast, small law firms often do have periods of time where they cannot handle the workload but need help.  I sent one cold e-mail to a group of local of local attorneys running solo practices or very small firms a few years back.  The one, single e-mail resulted in almost immediately booking a new attorney customer and thousands of dollars in work over the course of a few months.

*Ethics Alert*  I have not used cold outreach for clients.  I know some attorneys who have sent very simple letters to identified groups of prospective clients with great success.  If you are reaching out to clients, remember attorney ethics rules are very strict about when how you can do this. (Still trying to get rid of that ‘ole ambulance chaser reputation our field has.)  Check the rules.

Applying to Jobs.  It sounds counter-intuitive but applying to jobs can actually help you build out your legal practice.  Part-time and temporary jobs can help you fill the financial gap as you build out your own practice.  For example, I had a part-time in-house legal job at an art licensing company when I started my firm.  It helped provide some base money and I developed skills and intellectual property law knowledge in that position that have made me a better attorney for my clients.

Another way to use job applications is to apply with an alternative offer to do contract work for the firm.  I have sent inquiries to positions that were not for a remote or contract attorney role and offered contract legal services.  A lot of those offers were not accepted but I can recall at least one that was.  These types of inquiries or offers are like dating – you’re just looking for one (or two) hits, you don’t need them all to work out. 

*Ego Alert* Developing relationships and doing work for other firms is not selling out or working for the man.  It’s smart business.  The more I’ve gotten to know solo and small firm practitioners, the more I’ve realized how common it is for firms to have relationships with one another.  I know one well-established firm with older attorneys from corporate backgrounds that makes a substantial percentage of its income doing work for another firm.  If you don’t like the idea of saying that you do work for other firms, just call it a strategic partnership with XYZ firm, which is really what it is. 

Paid Ads.  If you have the funds, paid advertisements work.  Personally, I’d stick to online ads.  I’ve personally used Google Ads to develop leads for small business clients and for three months ran a featured profile section on Avvo.com.  Google Ads definitely generate traffic to your site or members on your e-mail list.  I cannot recall if I received any direct clients from the Avvo.com ads, but I did not get enough to make renewal worth it.  (And I really disagree with the company’s attorney rating system which makes me reluctant to give them money.) 

If I were to do paid ads now, I’d consider Facebook and Instagram Ads which from what I’ve heard are becoming increasingly effective.  I’d also go with a smaller, local digital marketing company (if I were outsourcing the marketing efforts) over a national company that provides marketing services to law firms.  I think you get more tailored, cost-effective service this way. 

I’ve had large companies try to sell me packages for thousands of dollars with contractual commitments.  When you look into them, a lot of these companies are selling nearly identical websites and landing pages to all law firms.  Some of them sell OK content, but I’ve also seen some that charge an arm and a leg for monthly blogs that are so poorly written, it would be embarrassing to have them on your site.

In short: Do your research and proceed cautiously.  Ask for examples before paying large sums of money.

Giving Free Advice to Groups.  I’ve generated business by providing free, general legal advice through written articles (for example, this one) and speaking for free at events.  It’s a fair amount of work and can leave you thinking thoughts like “Ugh, this is a lot of work for FREE” and “why am I giving out free legal advice when that’s what I get paid for?”  

I still struggle with those types of thoughts sometimes and there is certainly a balance you need to strike.  However, it’s more accurate to think of it as receiving free marketing than giving free advice.  I’ve found that sharing general guidance to groups through writing and presentation often makes people realize what they need legal help with…and when they do, guess who they reach out to?   Even if you give exact instructions on how to do somethings (see LegalZoom’s website), people sometimes would still rather just pay you to do it for them especially when the instructions reveal how much work is involved.

Now, you may have noticed that I qualified “giving free legal advice,” with “to groups.”  The “to groups” part is important.  I advise strongly against giving free legal advice or representation unless it is pro bono work.  Direct, free, legal representation, in my experience, does not pay off.  It is a time suck that ends up costing you time, energy, and the money you would have earned on billable work.   For friends, I’ve started using a heavily discounted “friends rate,” which allows me to help friends without going broke.

Doing Good Work.  Maintaining clients is easier than constantly having to find new ones.  I’ve found that when you do good work and are easy to work with (no one wants to work with a jerk), people come back to you.  There are other techniques, like email lists, that can help further increase repeat business but you have to have the fundamentals of good work and good attitude down first.

Earlier this year, a business client I had worked with for a little over a year recently made the difficult decision to shut-down operations.  When giving me the news co-owner that I worked with most told me that when he starts a new business he will definitely call me to work together again.  It was bittersweet encouragement to keep aiming to do good work and be someone that people want to work with.

Word of Mouth Referrals.  This ties into doing good work.  If someone has a good experience working with you, they will refer you to other people.  That’s FREE advertising.  And despite all the review sites and other ways to find businesses out there, people still rely on and trust word of mouth recommendations.

The other form of word of mouth referrals are referrals from non-clients like your friends and family members.  Other people that know you’re an attorney.  Of course, to refer you business, your friends, family, and acquaintances need to know what you are doing. It can feel uncomfortable at first but don’t be shy about telling people what you are doing. 

Confidentially tell your family and friends about the new adventure that you are embarking on and the type of clients you are looking for.  When you meet new people introduce yourself as a small-business attorney (or whatever your area) who runs a small law practice remotely or a contract attorney who helps other attorneys with their overflow work.  You will be surprised at how often non-networking connections lead to business.

Getting Paid.  Of course, the point of getting new clients is to get paid!  I use Freshbooks for time-tracking, invoicing, sending quotes, tracking expenses, receiving credit card payments, and running reports to assess how my business is doing.  I’ve used it and been recommending it for years.  If you’re interested in giving it a try, I’d love it if you’d use the link below to learn more.

*No one actually said “you go girl,” but that is the essence of the type of e-mails.  Also, I think saying “you go girl” is fun and ridiculous. I want to bring it back.