Carolyn Elfefant over at MyShingle.com has a post this morning titled “Crowdsourcing Advice for a Struggling Solo.” She has included a letter asking for advice from a struggling solo lawyer in an east coast city. The letter brings up issues that all solo attorneys struggle with.
Ms. Elefant asked readers to try and answer the attorney’s question, so I’m doing so here. To that end, here is the sanitized version of the struggling-solo-attorney’s letter as posted on MyShingle:
I am a solo with a practice in a large East Coast city. I handle real estate transactions, bankruptcy, divorce and general litigation. I started my solo practice three years ago, following several years of employment at a smaller firm. Initially, I was able to sustain a practice through referrals – although even then it was a struggle. But lately, I find that people don’t want to pay for legal services. I do an initial consult, but then the potential client will haggle over the price. In addition, the referrals come in spurts and I would like to find a way to produce a steady revenue stream.
I am updating the firm resume, adding a Facebook page, joining Linked In and I have started sending email updates to colleagues. But I would like ideas to jump start my practice – to start bringing in work right away while developing a reliable stream of revenue for the future.
To try and answer the questions, I’m going to strip the letter down to its most basic level:
Good things for a Solo Attorney:
- The attorney indicates that he/she has been a solo for three years;
- The person has some kind of referral base, although dwindling;
- This person apparently has office space and necessaries like a receptionist, billing software, etc.
Bad things for a Solo Attorney:
- Dwindling referral base;
- Lack of steady revenue stream;
- Potential clients haggling over price.
As Ms. Elefant states, there isn’t a lot to go on in the attorney’s letter, but the things I listed above are something all solo attorneys struggle with. I know I have.
So, to try and help: the attorney does have some things going for his/her law practice. The attorney has the ability to be successful with the institutional tools he/she has set up. These are all good things.
The rest of the issues seem to be related to marketing and client interviews strategies. Let’s start with the client interview. The attorney is concerned about clients coming in for a consult and haggling about price. This happens to me all the time. That is what walk-in clients do.
If the attorney wants to continue to have a general practice dealing with every-day people, my suggestion to solve this problem is work on your selling skills. I don’t mean sugar-coating the law or telling the potential client that they have a case when they don’t. However, being overly nice to the client and making them understand how valuable your services will be to them is rule-number-one. I don’t have a lot of problems closing and I think it is because I am overly nice, I explain the law in an easy to understand way, and I make the client knows that they and their legal problems are really important to me.
After that, I have found that having a credit card system usually helps ease the burden of a large retainer. We aren’t told if this attorney utilizes credit card payments. To me, credit cards are a must for a general practice attorney who is seeing people walking in the door.
Another client interview retention technique I use is the call back. It works in one of two ways: (1) I tell them to think about what they want to do with their loved one and I’ll wait or (2) I tell them that somebody from my office (usually me) will follow up with them in a couple days to see if they are still interested. I don’t change my price, but I do explain the credit-card-system and I do take this additional opportunity to explain to them why I can be of service to them. Basically, the client really wants to know that they are going to get something of value from us over-priced lawyers.
The second issue I see is the steady-revenue-stream conundrum. Ah, the gold mine of solo attorneys.
My big suggestion for this is to find a practice area that caters towards steady-revenue. Once you choose one, you market towards it. One idea is collection work. Collection work allows you to be in court often and meeting with debtors on a constant basis. It’s nickel-and-dime stuff, but it is work. Also, if you have a large collection practice, you will begin to get good referrals from banks, businesses and other entities that are in need of fee collection – or, perhaps, better legal work. Once this practice gets off the ground, you have instant steady revenue. I’m not saying it is easy, but it is an option.
Another steady revenue option is getting on a public defender, indigent-person, court-appointed-appeals contract. These are all steady revenue sources and they are usually available to struggling solos. I try to get in good with my local judges, do a good job, and then let them know I am looking for work. They usually want to help and they steer me business because I do a good job (I think) and they like me (I know).
Another idea is getting on a pre-paid legal referral network. These networks can be dicey and you should check with your bar-association to see if they are legal, but they do work. The pre-paid legal referral sources will always call you if you do a good job. Try to get friendly with the support staff and they will really like you – thus referring steady business to you.
Finally, work your butt off networking at corporate/business functions and get yourself a great manufacturing type client. These businesses always have need for a labor law lawyer. The employees constantly have problems and/or the business always needs contract related advice. This one is tough, but it can be a gold-mine, steady-revenue source.
I am not trying to say these options are easy. They are not. I have struggled with doing every one of them. To me, law firm marketing means hustle. However, what has helped me with the hustle is: focus, being a nice guy, working really hard, and having a plan.
That is my two-cents. I hope it is helpful to the struggling attorney. If anybody wants to post here on their ideas on how to start a law firm and maintain it, please feel free to comment.