At Bentley & More LLP, we provide aggressive legal representation to consumers and employees across California. Our attorneys are fierce litigators with decades of experience advocating for our clients. While we are effective in resolving many kinds of conflicts outside of litigation, we have a proven track record of fearlessness in taking matters to trial and beyond.
Law firms, like any other business, need to market themselves in order to attract clients and grow their practice. In today’s digital age, having an online presence is crucial for any law firm to reach its target clients and stand out from the competition.
If you’ve researched online marketing opportunities for your law firm, you’ve probably come across multiple resources on content marketing. Today, many successful businesses invest time and resources into creating blog posts, articles, and other original content, and it’s becoming an increasingly popular marketing tactic.
Below are some ideas to help you get your firm’s content marketing off the ground:
1. Legal news and updates: Keep your audience informed about the latest legal developments and changes in the law. This not only demonstrates expertise but also shows that you are up-to-date with the latest legal trends. Make sure to go into detail on the way the changes can potentially impact clients, and how you can help.
2. Case studies: Case studies are a great way to showcase your expertise and the results you’ve facilitated for your clients. This will give your prospects a sense of what to expect if they work with your firm.
3. Legal tips and advice: Offer practical tips and best practices to help your audience navigate the legal and compliance landscapes and make informed decisions. This can be in the form of articles, infographics, or even video content.
4. Industry insights: Share your thoughts and opinions on the latest industry trends and events. This can be an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and leadership in specific practice areas.
5. Behind the scenes: Give your audience a glimpse into the day-to-day workings of your law firm. Share photos, videos, and stories about the people and processes that make your firm unique. This is a great marketing tactic for social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
6. Client testimonials: Publish testimonials from your previous work to show potential clients how you have helped others in similar situations. This can be an effective way to build trust and credibility with potential clients. A great way of collecting client testimonials is Google reviews. Consistent Google reviews is a great way for potential clients to see that your firm is actively closing cases and yielding positive results (and it helps with SEO!).
7. FAQs: Answer common questions about the legal process, your firm, and the services you offer. This can help educate clients and make them feel more comfortable with the idea of working with you. FAQs are also topics that are usually searched for online and having strong content around these topics on your website will help draw in more traffic.
8. Legal resources: Share resources that can help your audience better understand the legal system and the services you offer. This can be in the form of articles, guides, or links to other useful third-party websites.
9. Thought leadership: Share your insights and perspectives on important legal issues. This can be a way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field and attract more clients.
10. Community involvement: Highlight your firm’s involvement in the community and the charitable work you do. This can help build your brand and show potential clients that you are a responsible and compassionate business.
Blogging regularly can help your law firm stand out from the competition, build your brand, and attract new clients. However, it’s important to keep in mind that creating a successful blog takes time and effort. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
1. Define your target audience: Who do you want to reach with your blog? Understanding your target audience will help you create content that is relevant and engaging to them. If you are looking to attract potential clients, think about what they might be researching or looking for online.
2. Create a content calendar: Plan out your blog posts in advance to ensure that you are consistently publishing new content. This will also help you avoid last-minute scrambling to come up with ideas. Outlining your content in a calendar helps to keep things organized and makes it easier to plan ahead on future topics.
3. Keep it simple: Your blog should be easy to read and understand. Avoid using too much legal jargon and
technical terms that your audience may not be familiar with. If you include legal language in your blog, make sure to explain in detail.
4. Optimize for search engines: Use keywords and meta descriptions to help your blog show up in search results. This can help more people find your blog and learn about your law firm.
5. Promote your blog: Share your blog on social media, in your email newsletter, and on your website to help reach more people.
If you’re ready to improve your law firm’s content marketing strategy, these tips are an excellent way to develop content that drives brand recognition, website traffic and, importantly, new client leads. n
Louise Petersen is an Account Manager at 9Sail, a NJ-based SEM agency that uses proven tactics to help businesses generate leads, draw targeted website traffic, increase brand awareness, and build and manage brand reputations. Learn more at: www.9Sail.com.
Do you know who your best clients are? If you do, are you able to pinpoint what makes them an ideal client? How can you apply that information to all of your marketing activities in order to maximize profitability? In this article we are talking about creating client personas for your law firm. Here’s what you need to know about these fictional representations of ideal client relationships.
Often called “buyer personas,” these are fictional representations of your firm’s ideal clients based on factual data and research. The concept is not just about who is easiest to work with or who you like the best. Client personas are based on understanding high-value visitors, leads, and clients over time. They should be used to focus your time and resources on the individuals who are most likely to convert. An effective client persona will give you a deep understanding of your most profitable relationships so that you can attempt to attract more leads like them. You can tailor your content creation, marketing messaging, sales follow-up, and much more toward the right people by building out specific client personas.
Clearly, client personas are important. In fact, it would be difficult to stress just how valuable they are. Comprehensive client personas take some time to create but it doesn’t need to be a terribly difficult process. Most of the process revolves around obtaining accurate information and figuring out the best way to present that information within your firm. Here are the steps we suggest.
First you need to know which types of personas are most helpful for your firm. Unfortunately, there is not really a comprehensive list that you can choose from. Every organization is unique and that makes their ideal clients unique. HubSpot has a great tool called “Make My Persona” which can generate some different options for you. In general, firms have the same or similar categories based on key traits of the clients.
There are many types of research that can inform your client personas. Things like internal reports, surveys, client interviews, and conversations with your sales team can all be helpful. Consider the following:
• Going through your contacts database to uncover trends about how leads are generated.
• Using form fields on your website and lead magnets to capture important information.
• Discussing leads and client activity with your sales team to better understand client behavior.
• Interviewing clients or prospects that you interact with the most.
Spend some time compiling all of the information you’ve obtained. This timeline will vary for every marketer, but a robust client persona will take resources. Once you have everything in front of you, start to look for signals that point to certain traits or behaviors. You are looking for specific information on commonalities. This can be based on demographics such as age, or other
key information such as which legal issue they come to your firm for or how many engagements they typically have with your attorneys. Essentially, you should notice some correlation between your “ideal” (the most profitable) client and certain metrics. This will help you to understand who the best of the best really is.
There are plenty of analytics or CRM tools out there that can provide much of the data you need. However, chances are there is a bigger picture in play. Through tactics like interviews or feedback sessions with your sales team, attempt to learn more about the motivations, challenges, and objections for each persona type. Who are the most motivated prospects on their lead list? What is the type of engagement that ends up driving the most revenue for your firm? Which practice area closes deals faster, and can you find a reason? There are a variety of factors that go into building a persona and only some of them are based on numbers—the rest will need to come from an in-depth knowledge of your target market.
Take all of the information you have and distill it down into a statement about your personas: what they are
concerned about, who they are, and what they want. Then, you need to put it into a format that works for everyone across your firm. It’s important to make sure everyone is speaking the same language when it comes to your target audience. Write a statement that serves as a sort of elevator pitch where your firm is positioned in a way that resonates with the persona. Furthermore, use language your target audience would be familiar with. It’s a best practice to name the various personas you create, and you may even want to find images that will help you to get a visual (for example “Personal Injury Paul”).
Takeaway : Creating client personas allows for more efficient use of your firm’s marketing resources. Personas help you to target and message individuals that are the best fit for your firm. n
Kevin Vermeulen is Partner and Chief Operating Officer for Good2bSocial. He has over 30 years of marketing and advertising experience, including 22 years working in various senior management roles, including Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for ALM Media, a leading legal publisher, helping lawyers, law firms, consultants and companies grow their business. Learn more at: www.good2bsocial.com.
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Ankura
(Ankura)
Ankura is comprised of more than 1,500 professionals, including highly experienced eDiscovery experts; financial analysts; economists; certified public accountants; certified business appraisers; merger and acquisition specialists; professional engineers; and information management analysts. We have offices in over 38 cities worldwide.
Solving challenges with the right combination of expertise.
How do you help a client who doesn’t know what’s best for them and focuses on the wrong area? I work with hundreds of law firms every year and one of the most common requests I hear from attorneys is, “I need more leads.” Yet when I inquire further into the specifics of their situation, I often find that lead generation isn’t their primary problem—it’s lead conversion. Let me explain. I was recently speaking with a bankruptcy attorney who claimed he needed more leads to build his practice. I asked him approximately how many leads were coming into his law firm each month. Needless to say, I was astounded when he informed me his firm’s marketing was consistently generating in excess of 100 to 150 new leads every month! Even with modest conversion rates you should be able to generate at least $500,000 annually with this many leads. Yet he was experiencing serious cash flow issues.
I kindly told him I did not believe his biggest issue was lead generation; it was lead conversion—converting more browsers into buyers. I walked him through our Rainmaker Lead Conversion System and how it could help him fix his follow-up and convert more prospects into paying clients. Unfortunately, either I did not do a sufficient job of justifying my response or he did not believe me because he persisted in the belief that he simply needed more “qualified leads” and all his problems would be solved.
Lead conversion is the most overlooked area at most law firms and it has the potential to significantly increase your revenues this year. Imagine the impact on your firm’s revenue if you improved the rate of conversion by just 10%, much less the 20-40% increase we have seen when using a formal lead conversion system.
I often ask attorneys about their closing rate— the number of appointments they turn into paying clients—and they invariably say that it’s “very high” or “excellent,” but careful examination tells a different story. I find the majority of attorneys significantly overestimate their closing ratio. Just like practicing law, converting leads into paying clients is a skill that takes practice, but you need to understand how to track your data and analyze it.
There are many variables you can consider if your practice isn’t generating the revenues you want, but after nearly a decade of specializing in helping law firms improve their lead generation and lead conversion strategies, I have found there are really three major areas that tell most of the story:
This is the system of attracting new potential clients to your law firm. You can use both online and offline strategies. Online or internet related strategies include a website, blog, social media and search engine optimization. Offline marketing strategies include referrals from current and former clients, monthly newsletters, building relationships with potential referral partners, networking, speaking and seminars. It’s important to know that lead generation is the second most expensive thing you will have in your law firm, the first being payroll. You must take a systematic approach to lead generation. Without this, you are reduced to sitting in your office waiting for the phone to ring or a referral to walk in, which is not a good place to be.
This is your ability to turn leads into paying clients and is what I will focus on in this article.
How to keep your paying clients coming back for more and/or referring your firm to everyone they know with a similar problem to theirs.
The first step in lead conversion is to develop a “universal lead definition” (ULD)—what precisely is counted as a lead, who counts the leads, how you track the leads, and what does not constitute a legitimate lead. We teach our clients that a lead must meet all three of these criteria:
1. Someone who has never done business with you before (versus a repeat client).
2. Everyone who contacts the firm via email, phone, social media, personal referral, internet, networking event, seminar, etc.
3. They express an interest in your services.
In order to build a financially successful law firm, you must be committed to tracking every single lead and following up with them religiously! Far too many attorneys only track the appointments that show up (and if truth be told, they are not even very good at doing that) or how many of the people they meet with in person who sign up as a paying client at the initial consultation. What they don’t recognize is that is only the fourth stage of lead conversion and there are five stages.
1. Number of leads into the top of the funnel
2. Number of leads that turn into appointments
3. Number of appointments who show up
4. Number of appointments who sign up at the initial consultation
5. Number of appointments who sign up later
No lead conversion system is complete without tracking all five stages. How many of your leads turn into actual appointments? How many of those appointments actually show up? How many of those people who show up sign up at the initial consultation? And how many people sign up later down the road? Each of these numbers is critical to track because if you know what your conversion rates are at each stage then you can determine where your biggest challenges are and develop a plan to improve.
The greatest value of a true lead conversion system is that it gives you direct insight into the actual state of your company and allows you to efficiently automate the follow-up process with dozens and even hundreds of leads. We have helped our clients compete with and beat much larger law firms simply by creating an exceptional followup system. Lead generation too often comes down to a firm’s financial ability to “throw money at the problem,” but a lead conversion system can level the playing field and give small firms a true unique competitive advantage.
When someone doesn’t retain you at the first meeting, rarely does the problem that brought them to you go away on its own accord. Understand that when they don’t hire you, they are not saying “no,” they are usually saying, “not yet” or “I’m not ready.”
Conversion rates can differ widely, depending upon your practice area, but in general the lower your average client is “worth” to your firm the higher your conversion must be in order to run a successful firm. For example, if you practice consumer bankruptcy and the average chapter 7 client pays you $1,500 to handle their case, you must have a higher conversion ratio than the business litigation attorney whose average client pays them $50,000 to $100,000 in legal fees. For consumer attorneys you need at least a 15-20% conversion rate to run a decent practice. This means for every 100 leads your marketing generates, you need to sign up a minimum of 15-20 people. Consumer firms with a comprehensive lead conversion system often experience double this rate, which means they can be very profitable. Think about it this way: if you generate 50 leads per month and close 10% at an average fee of $5,000 per client, that means you made $25,000 in gross revenues (assuming 100% collection rates). However, if you increase that conversion rate to 20% you would double your revenues—with the same amount of leads! The key point is that even small increases in conversion rates can make a significant difference in your revenues.
The key to increasing your conversion rate is to fix your follow-up! This is another area that many attorneys think they are doing a good job, but upon further investigation I often find massive gaps in their follow-up process. Too many firms follow the approach of “only taking one bite out of the apple,” that is to say they try to get the prospect to retain at the initial consultation (or worse, over the telephone), and if they do not first succeed then they give up and go on to the next person, without ever trying again to get that business. This is a major mistake!
When someone doesn’t retain you at the first meeting, rarely does the problem that brought them to you go away on its own accord. Understand that when they don’t hire you, they are not saying “no,” they are usually saying, “not yet” or “I’m not ready.” But circumstances can change and sometimes very quickly. All of the sudden the legal issue
goes from the back burner to the front of their mind and retaining an attorney becomes the most important thing in their world. If you have a system that helps you stay connected with them via email or periodic phone calls, then they will more than likely retain you when they are ready versus going to one of your competitors. However, if you fail to fix your follow-up, when they are ready they will likely start the search all over again and you will likely lose this client forever.
Let me give you a simple illustration. When an attorney calls me to get some ideas on how to market their law firm, I often end up inviting them to attend one of our Rainmaker legal marketing seminars, but often the dates of our seminar conflict with their schedules. It’s not that they don’t want to go, it’s “not yet” or perhaps they are not mentally ready to make the jump to the next level. Either way, if I depended on my memory to follow up with them some time in the future, we would be in serious trouble! Instead, we have implemented a comprehensive follow-up system that includes multiple keep-in-touch emails and automated reminders that help us remember to call that person weeks or even months after the initial call. In addition, we are committed to sending out a newsletter every single month and have been doing so for years. I regularly hear from new clients how they have been receiving my newsletter for 5 to 10 years and finally were ready to sign up and start working with us. Talk about a long sales cycle! It’s a good thing I don’t depend solely on people like that to build my company. The point here is if you have a comprehensive system that follows up with potential clients for long periods of time, you will reap the benefits. If you are interested in how a lead conversion system can help your firm fix your follow-up and convert more browsers into buyers, I invite you to call our office and set up time for us to talk. n
Stephen Fairley, founder of the Rainmaker Institute and mentor to thousands of attorneys, passed away on October 5, 2020 after a battle with cancer. Despite his ill health in the last few months of his life, Stephen dedicated himself to helping attorneys navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, embodying his passion for helping lawyers achieve a Lifestyle Law Firm®. His legacy will live on through the company he built and the team he assembled, as they continue to provide proven marketing solutions to help attorneys grow their law firms. Learn more at www.therainmakerinstitute.com.
Growing your firm is essential for small law practices. It is something that needs to happen but that most attorneys fail to dedicate an adequate amount of time. One takeaway that you need to have when strategizing business development ideas is that they need to be actionable. Big picture talk is great, but you need to have step-by-step goals to reach the big picture. Without these actionable items, your ideas will rarely become a reality.
No matter what the strategy is for growth, you need to focus on the ROI or return on investment. Without tracking expenses and gains, you will likely be throwing money away. Before investing any money in a new marketing scheme or business development idea, you should define the goals of the investment. Knowing your goals will help you to measure your ROI. The goals should be broken down into benchmarks that will help inform your decision on whether to keep investing in the opportunity, change tracks or go in a new direction.
Say your firm decides to sponsor an event or program. Sponsorships are a great way to get the word out about your firm. They are also a valuable networking opportunity. But sponsoring an event without trackable goals could be a waste of time and money. Start with an overall goal of the sponsorship such as generating three new clients. Then establish a plan to make that happen. Decide who will represent the firm and what their individual goals will be. Any contacts that are made during the event should be noted, and a follow-up email or card sent. You can weigh the expenses of the event against any new business that was obtained through contacts or referral sources and decide if the ROI was justified.
Any marketing communication should be tracked and analyzed to see what kind of an impact it is having on your contacts. One of the most natural areas to start is with email communications. If
you send out a newsletter or other templated email, you can track the number of people that are opening the email (open rate), those that opened the email and clicked on a link (Click Through Rate) and those that have unsubscribed. Tracking these metrics will determine not only the reach of your email marketing efforts but also if it is having a positive impact on your audience. You can assess whether to continue the campaign or to change the format.
Social media campaigns, blogs, and other online marketing efforts can also be tracked and analyzed. Some programs can help you determine the number of website visitors, their engagement and if they are converting into paid clients. The world of digital marketing and tracking your digital marketing efforts could fill pages; suffice it to say here, you should be monitoring each campaign and using metrics to guide your spending. If you do not have an in-house marketing department, you should be working with a reputable outside company. Basic knowledge of digital marketing will go a long way in making sure that your firm is having success with each of your campaigns.
Once you have the data, your law firm will be able to track information on the success of your investments. Regular meetings about your business development ideas and marketing strategies will help you assess what is working and what should be reconsidered. A firm grasp on your firm’s investments and the ultimate revenue from those investments will help to inform your decisions for each year to come. Over time, if you do not see substantial growth, then your strategy should change. n
Bill Tilley is the Founder & CEO of Amicus Media Group (AMG). AMG brings to the table an unparalleled network of media relationships and services to drive quality cases to law firm partners at the most cost-effective economics possible. Utilizing the power of television, radio, and the web, AMG combines our extensive experience in legal marketing focusing on areas such as Mass Tort, Personal Injury, and Family Law. Amicus Media Group’s range of services span from media buying, media management, performance marketing, campaign financing, and creative production. Learn more by visiting http://amicusmediagroup.com.
This month is the 7-year anniversary of TBM’s lawsuit win for our son against Caltrans. Every year on the anniversary, we send a big “THANK YOU” to the TBM team to thank them for all the work that they did during that hard fought battle to ensure our son’s future health and well-being.
“TBM was an amazing team to have on our side. We felt secure in the knowledge that we had expert legal care and that they provided exceptional health professionals to help our son in his recovery. What we didn’t expect was the incredible, heartfelt care and concern for our family’s well-being. I can’t imagine going through what we went through without the support we had from TBM. We were always aware that our family mattered. That we were more than just clients. We were and continue to be a part of the TBM family. We are forever grateful.” —Joyce Buxbaum
Joyce Buxbaum’s testimonial fairly represents the feelings of families, individual persons, and organizations who have been served by the attorneys and staff of Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire, LLP. The firm has progressed and made significant changes since first appearing in these pages, but their commitment to getting the best results for their clients while providing legitimate care and support has remained a constant.
For example, the firm earned a landmark victory in successfully settling a case against a corrupt hospital system and an orthopedic surgeon who were committing blatant acts of malpractice. The hospital and the surgeon were accused of putting profit before patient welfare and neglecting their professional duties, which resulted in severe injury and life-
threatening conditions for more than 65 patients and their family members. Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire, known for its expertise in medical malpractice cases, took on the challenge and fought tooth and nail to ensure that the victims of this injustice received the compensation they deserved. The legal team meticulously gathered evidence, interviewed witnesses, and presented a strong case in court, which eventually led to a favorable settlement for the plaintiffs. The settlement serves as a warning to all healthcare institutions and medical professionals that they will be held accountable for their actions and must always prioritize the welfare of their patients. The victory was not only for the plaintiffs but also for the entire healthcare community, as it upholds the ethical standards and values of the medical profession.
“This case highlights the crucial role that law firms play in protecting patients’ rights and ensuring that medical professionals are held accountable for their actions. The settlement sends a clear message that patients have the right to receive quality care and treatment,” Founding Partner Vincent J. Bartolotta says.
Founded on October 1, 1978, the firm has earned more than $2 billion in verdicts and settlements for their clients and has paid more than $3 million in referral fees in the last ten years. Practice areas include personal injury, business litigation, class action lawsuits, condemnation law and eminent domain, sex abuse litigation, medical malpractice, product liability, and wildfire and floods. The firm has seven attorneys (four partners and three associates) and an administrative staff of
© Bauman Photographers
Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr.,
Founding Partner
2021
LAW FIRM OF THE MONTH
paralegals, law clerks, secretaries, accounting, receptionist, trial presentation specialists, and an HR/Administrator.
“Our mission statement is and always has been ‘Making Lives Better.’ To do that you have to genuinely care for the people you represent—and we do. It is not lip service or a motto. We treat every client as if we were working for a family member. Our attitude is not limited to our clients, but also to each other. We treat each other with the same dignity and respect we would want for ourselves. This applies to our witnesses, experts, service providers and all who deal with us. This life is short. We work to make it the best it can be for
Left to Right: Chris Hulburt, Partner, John J. O’Brien, Associate, Karen R. Frostrom, Partner, Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr., Founding Partner, Karla Lopez, Associate, Kevin F. Quinn, Senior Partner, and Noelle Webster, Associate.
Karen R. Frostrom, Partner
“Our mission statement is and always has been ‘Making Lives Better.’ To do that you have to genuinely care for the people you represent and we do.”
Vincent J. Bartolotta
everyone involved in our legal universe. We are a smaller firm, lean and mean, and have the ability to provide individualized care to our clients without the administrative issues that come with being a large litigation firm,” Bartolotta says.
Victory in the courtroom or across the negotiating table requires teamwork, and the team at Thorsnes Bartolotta and McGuire is recognized for their knowledge, experience and dedication.
Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr. specializes in plaintiff’s litigation with an emphasis in business disputes, condemnation and major injury cases. He is recognized annually by Woodward/ White as one of the Best Lawyers in America—a recognition he’s received every year for the past 30 years.
John O’Brien was recently honored with an Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award for success in a three- month trial on behalf of several young women who were exploited by the producers of Girls Do Porn. The prime defendant was listed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List and was recently arrested in Europe. His case highlights the firm’s commitment to serve the most vulnerable, even where others might pull back because of taboo or discomfort. O’Brien specializes in personal injury, complex business disputes, and sex
trafficking litigation. A lawyer with 14 years of experience, he focuses his practice on helping individuals and business owners recover from harm caused by others.
Kevin Quinn represents 15 victims of a reckless surgeon who was operating deep inside people’s brains, though the man is not a neurosurgeon. He was also doing procedures neurosurgeons declined because of the undue risk. The case is against hospitals that developed lucrative profit centers around this dangerous surgeon. One recently settled for many millions, the other is preparing for trial in Los Angeles. Quinn practices in a wide range of areas including products liability, medical malpractice and personal injury.
© Bauman Photographers“These guys are amazing. Went above and beyond to help me. Very very efficient, kind, and understanding. Would absolutely hire them again.” Sonny LangleyKevin F. Quinn, Senior Partner John J. O’Brien, Associate
After leaving to form his own firm, Christian Hulburt recently returned to the firm where he first started. He returned to become a mediator and fundraiser for the National Conflict Resolution Center as it developed with the DA’s office the nation’s most comprehensive juvenile justice reform. He is an ordained minister in the Catholic Church and a celebrated trial lawyer, bringing a passion to care for the injured and vulnerable while advocating for justice. He came out of retirement at the invitation of Bartolotta. He was recognized by his peers as Trial Lawyer of the Year, Consumer Advocate of the Year and three times chosen for the Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award by the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego
Noelle Webster, one of the firm’s youngest associates, recently settled a case for a daily ocean swimmer who was knocked over by a construction fence at La Jolla Cove and suffered a broken back. The mediator remarked, and went out of his way to write, that Webster’s presentation at mediation—created by the firm’s in-house graphics illustrators—was the most thorough and impressive he had ever seen in his long career. She focuses her attention on medical malpractice, personal injury, and complex business litigation.
Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire has three ABOTA members (Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr., Kevin Quinn, R. Christian Hulburt). The firm has been recognized as a Best Lawyer Best Law Firm by US News & World Report, received the prestigious Tier One ranking for San Diego in the areas of Commercial Litigation;
Construction litigation, Real estate; Mass Torts Litigation; construction; Class Actions; Personal Injury; Product Liability Litigation. The partners are conferred with regularity as Outstanding Trial Lawyers, Trial Lawyer of the year and Best Lawyers in America. The managing partner, Bartolotta, has been recognized by Cal—ABOTA as Trial Lawyer of the Year for the State of California.
Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire has been and continues to be a leader in the legal community and in the community at large.
For example, they were the first firm in the city to use a trial presentation software that placed a bar code on evidence for ease in the Courtroom; their demand packages are unique in that they are outside the box.
In one case they represented a musician who got severely injured in a multiple vehicle accident who became a paraplegic. The firm’s demand package was a mockup of Rolling Stone Magazine. They have led in creating video demand packages that resulted in settlements in the millions of dollars that led to a story shown on 20/20.
Recognizing a responsibility to the community, Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire is a leader in its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The firm has built a staff that represents a wide
© Bauman Photographers Noelle Webster, Associate © Bauman Photographersrange of backgrounds and perspectives. It provides a diverse range of practice areas to better serve all its clients. The firm recognizes the importance of having a diverse workforce, not only to better reflect the communities they serve but also to bring new ideas and approaches to the table. Their actions have resulted in a more dynamic and creative work environment, where employees feel valued and supported.
The firm’s commitment to diversity is also reflected in its hiring practices, which prioritize equal opportunity for all candidates. The firm’s diverse range of practice areas allows it to provide comprehensive legal services to its clients of all backgrounds, cultures and languages. From medical malpractice, wrongful death and personal injury, construction law and intellectual property, sex trafficking and sexual abuse, the firm has built a reputation for excellence in all areas. Their attorneys have a deep understanding of the legal landscape and use their expertise to deliver results for their clients.
The firm is proud of its inclusive culture and its ability to bring together a diverse group of individuals to form a cohesive and effective team. They believe that this diversity is what sets them apart and has been a major factor in their success. They
are committed to continuing to build an inclusive workplace and expanding their practice areas to better serve their clients. In a world where diversity and inclusion are becoming increasingly important, this law firm serves as an example of how a commitment to these values can lead to success.
“We have clients to this day, whom we represented 10-15-20 years ago who stay in touch. We still get tamales at Christmas. We get cookies. We get letters from them wishing individual members of our team a happy birthday. We must be doing something right that these people all these years are still sending us cards or thank yous or cookies or fruit baskets. We have changed with the times, but our commitment to helping people in real need has remained rock solid. That will never change,” Bartolotta says. n
There you are, in your office, the night before your proposal is due, cursor blinking on your screen. And you’re staring at questions 1 and 2 of the Request for Proposal.
Q1. “What are your hourly rates?”
Q2. “How do you justify your hourly rates?”
When I consult with legal clients about their proposals, differentiating themselves is always the hardest part for them. Experience? Great results? Happy clients? Attorney bios? Yeah, they have it, but so do all the other large firms that they’re competing against. So how do you stand out? How do you get the client to choose you? Most importantly, how do you justify those rates?
Without a structured process, most clients simply give up. You cite the same things everyone else is citing, hope for the best and then dabble on a little of that magical Biglaw cure-all: prestige.
Ah, yes. What is prestige going for these days on the spot market? Can you buy a bucketful?
Does it work this way? Not at all. But every RFP that gets sent out gets back a dozen proposals going on and on about the history of the firm and how prestigious it is.
To the proposal writer, this makes perfect sense. After all, who is the client to say what is and isn’t prestigious? It’s a matter of opinion.
Think about that, though. Is your unverifiable, untestable opinion a solid foundation on which to justify hourly rates in a proposal to the very person who you want to pay them?
And is it something you even want to claim? To me, there are six very good reasons why you should banish this word from your legal proposals.
by Chris Sant
A proposal is a sales document. So what you say in it does affect the opinions that the reader has of your firm.
And a proposal can heighten the dignity of an otherwise excellent firm in the eyes of the client. In the end, though, for a proposal to ring true at all, it needs to reflect the actual character of your law firm. Now, a law firm can certainly enhance their prestige if they’re willing to pay the price to do so. But trying to claim the mantle without paying the price will be quickly found out. Moreover, the client will not appreciate you passing off averageness for the pinnacle of quality. It’s a sham.
There are firms that have become recognized as prestigious through decades of unsurpassed results, the highest standards and excellent customer service. And there are firms that have entered the club in a much shorter amount of time, spending what it took with tables at charity dinners and soirees and Monets and other forms of advertising that the legal world considers acceptable. A hundred years on one hand and ten or twenty on the other.
Well, heck, if those guys can consider themselves prestigious, why can’t we? We can use the same heavy paper in our Christmas cards and serve the same fancy wine at parties for clients.
The problem, though, is that prestige is a specific choice. And if you haven’t been making that choice all along, you can’t justify your rates by citing it now. Nobody will believe you. Why?
Expensive, yes. Prestigious, no.
The sorts of clients who are using RFPs are not stupid. They are Fortune 500 companies. They pay their executives very well. They know what prestige is.
Some attorneys argue that they can claim to be prestigious by virtue of their rates. This gets it all backwards, of course. But, even more critically, these sorts need to realize that they really aren’t actually willing to pay the price for prestige.
Prestige isn’t measured by how many partners you have who claim to bill $1,000 an hour. It’s found in a culture of adherence to the highest standards, even when nobody is looking. It’s a willingness to forego profits now for the sake of goodwill later. It’s ensuring that even your newest associates and paralegals understand that there is no such thing as routine. No routine email. No routine phone call. No routine filing.
The price of prestige is the way the receptionist answers the phone, the way even the UPS guy is greeted in the lobby. It’s the way a young litigator interacts with opposing counsel at the courthouse.
In other words, the price of prestige is doing everything it takes to earn prestige. Hourly rates are not part of that equation.
Still, some lawyers want to run prestige up the flagpole and waive it around for clients to justify their rates. Is that even a good choice?
If you choose to present yourself in your proposals as prestigious, does that mesh with the clients you’re trying to win? Does it harmonize with their businesses, values, goals, hobbies?
Not likely. When I ask training participants to name some prestigious companies, the same one always comes up first. Try it yourself. Who do you think of?
The company most people mention is Rolls Royce.
Most people, even wealthy people, do not have a Rolls Royce. Why not? Wouldn’t they like one? Sure. But they have many, many things they want to accomplish before they get around to buying a Rolls Royce. They’d rather have their kids go to the best possible schools. They’d rather have a beach house as a place the family can go have fun together. They’d rather splurge on tickets to take their buddy to the Super Bowl. But a Rolls Royce? They’re happy with their Lexus or BMW or other luxury car. The extra that a Rolls Royce provides—prestige, essentially— just isn’t that valuable to most people.
And that’s with their own money. If they rarely get a Rolls Royce for themselves, you can be sure that they absolutely do not buy Rolls Royces for their business. Does Home Depot use Rolls Royce as a company car? Does Staples?
So why would you want to sell yourself as the Rolls Royce of law firms when you answer an RFP? And yet a Google search for “prestigious law firm” turns up over two million hits. Clearly, firms are doing just that.
This is not to say that you cannot justify your Biglaw rates. But if your clients are pickup truck people, you will not wow them with a Rolls Royce. Instead, you’ll just make them think, 1) you are very, very different from them, and 2) you waste a lot of money on stupid stuff. Does a client want to pay for stupid stuff through your sky high rates? No way. He’ll pay for quality, results, experience and a lot of other things, but prestige isn’t one of them.
I remember appearing before a judge on a pro bono matter I was handling as a young associate when I was at Simpson Thacher, generally considered one of the most prestigious firms in the world.
I had been before her plenty of times before. But this particular time, the things she said made it clear she had no idea we were representing our client pro bono. Now, our client was a sweet, little old lady who had been forced out of her house by unscrupulous predatory lending. And here she was represented by Simpson Thacher, behemoth international law firm, go-to counsel for investment banks and brokerages and insurers. It was all so obvious. (Not to mention it was written on the front of all our pleadings, but judges reading papers is another topic entirely.)
At that moment, it became incredibly clear that she had never heard of us before. To me, this was eye opening. Green as I was, I just assumed that judges came from elite schools and students at elite schools knew about elite firms.
Nope. The firm name meant squat to her. If it meant squat to her, did it have any value to clients? Maybe at the appellate court level. Maybe in federal courts more than state. But not nearly as much as most Biglaw lawyers wish it did. And that’s for a firm that’s survived at the top of the New York legal community for a hundred years. Who are those other two million Google hits talking about?
There is a vast chasm between a Ford Festiva and a Rolls Royce. This is the area in which you can honestly and proudly describe the character and value of your firm.
The critical task in your proposal is to justify your rates by representing your firm well, not by misrepresenting it. This means your rates need more tangible benefits to rest on. Client-centered benefits include your:
• Responsiveness
• Clear communication
• Quality assurance
• Project management skills
• Operational efficiency
• Speed
• Alternative fee structures
• Experience with their specific industry
• Experience with that specific customer type
• Expertise
• Added value
Of course, you need to be able to actually back these up when the client asks for details. If you can’t say something like, “Yes, all our attorneys and paralegals undergo three hours of training in project management, an hour of training in management, two hours of training in quality assurance, and two hours of training in clear client communication,” then you can’t list them in your proposal as aspects that justify your prices.
The reality is that most firms get by on their experience alone and they can do that because everyone else is doing it too. But as big clients are moving towards using RFPs, they’re also becoming much more willing to take chances on smaller firms who are willing and able to deliver value in other ways. And as more law firms wake up to the value of a persuasive proposal, fewer competitors will be left playing the me-too game with your firm. In other words, the days of Biglaw rates being justified by experience and a whitewash of prestige are clearly at an end.
Prestige has its uses, but very few firms are needed to satisfy the occasional Sultan or Blue Blood. It’s time for you to find a better way to sell your legal services.
You need to win more business. For the sake of your firm’s profits per partner, your job, and your family, you need to be more successful. n
Chris Sant is the Founder of Chris Sant Consulting which provides solutions based on 20 years of success plus proprietary research into cognitive linguistics and buying psychology. His system produces 35% more wins and 35% more money in 35 minutes or less—with a 1,000% ROI guarantee! To learn more, check it out at LawProposals.com. Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Sant
It’s a common sentiment, you think you’ve done everything possible to build your law business…
You have worked hard on building a business that represents your ideals. You have built relationships in your industry. You have a great office space that you have spent time decorating to make your clients feel comfortable. You have hired an all-star staff. You have advertisements in relevant marketing channels. You have created a beautiful website that clearly depicts your firm’s purpose, but you still aren’t signing the cases that you want.
This is a frustrating reality for many legal professionals, who have spent an unmeasurable amount of time and energy making their business the best it can be, but are not seeing the expected results.
A simple area many professionals tend to ignore is the quality of the images they are posting on their site. In a society so hyper-focused on image and a marketing landscape where consumers have to digest thousands of images per day, your photos have to be top-notch, or you are wasting your time. Marcel Just, director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University, explains how important images are to digital marketing in an interview for Nieman Reports, saying:
“Processing print isn’t something the human brain was built for. The printed word is a human artifact. It’s very convenient and it’s worked very well for us for 5,000 years, but it’s an invention of human beings. By contrast Mother Nature has built into our brain our ability to see the visual world and interpret it.” —Marcel Just, Director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Carnegie Mellon University
Stock images always seem like a great idea at the time. They are cost effective, professional, and a stock image
exists for almost any situation you can think of. However, stock images are impersonal, and many fall into the fake or cheesy categories. Stock images don’t give a genuine representation of the people behind your firm, making you seem untrustworthy, which is the last thing any law firm wants. Images of actual people sitting in your law firm will always win out.
Your clients are inundated with images through media outlets that flood our inboxes, mailboxes, and social feeds. If your image does not spark any emotion in the viewer, it is worthless. I’m not necessarily talking about an intense emotional connection, but some type of spark that will keep your visitor interested. If your firm is involved in the community, give visitors a glimpse of your staff working hard to help locals. If you have a big case going on or an interview, snap a behind-the-scenes image so clients feel like they get the inside scoop on your work.
I have a background in retail marketing; nothing drives me crazier than an image with no subject and distracting background clutter. Make sure that your consumer knows exactly how your image relates to the topic they are reading about. To achieve this, you can blur out the background slightly or take images with a crisp clean background.
Keeping out-of-date photos on your site signals to visitors that you don’t pay attention to detail and don’t care about being current. These red flags signal to your consumer that you may treat their case the same way. One of the easiest ways to tell if your photos are outdated is by examining the fashion and style choices made in the photos. A good rule of thumb is to update attorney profile images every year or two, and update images when you hire or lose staff members. In addition to the standard
photos, continually post images from current events happening at your firm.
The final and most important aspect of any photo is the quality. No matter how personal, interesting, specific, or current your images are, if they are of sub-par quality, you might as well not even have them on your site. A low quality image on a website demonstrates that the creators are apathetic to quality overall and will likely be apathetic to the quality of a client’s case. The best way to solve this problem is to hire a professional photographer to come to your business and take photos of your staff and your space.
• Smiling headshots of staff
• Group shots of staff inside or near your building
• Photos of staff interacting with clients
• Photos of your office(s) (Google offers Business View, a service where a professional photographer creates a virtual tour of your office the same way Google Street View does. This is a trust signal for Google and for your clients.)
• Behind-the-scenes shots
• Photos of staff collaborating with each other
• Images/videos of clients for testimonials
Rachel Harmon is an Analyst for Consultwebs and supports Marketing Consultants by auditing clients’ websites and looking for gaps in their online marketing campaigns. She specializes in ensuring clients’ site redesigns, launches, content revisions/additions and other aspects of their online marketing are executed smoothly and in harmony with the firm’s brand.
Smiling headshots
Photos of staff collaborating
Behind-the-scenes shots
Images/videos for testimonials
“Knowing what I know now, I am so blessed that I was represented by the Law Firm of Harley & Duarte. Their vast experience in handling cases like mine truly paid off for me.”
—Mike Denney, Santa Ana, CA
