Attorney Journal, Orange County, Volume 131 by Attorney Journals

ORANGE COUNTY

Volume 131, 2017 $6.95

What’s on Tap for 2017 in Digital Law Firm Marketing?

Guy Loranger

Offer a Guarantee for Added Client Confidence

Client Satisfaction Surveys: Five Quick Questions to Ask

Trey Ryder

Ray Gross

How to Double Your Productivity in 30 Days

Creative Price Negotiation

Mike O’Horo

Dave Lorenzo

Desk-icide: Seven Ways Your Workplace is Making You Sick

Leigh Stringer

McIntyre’s Civil Alert Organized Succinct Summaries

Monty A. McIntyre Shake Your Moneymaker: Get Paid in 2017

Attorney of the Month

Jared Correia

Joseph M. Lovretovich

JML Law, Anaheim Working Smart to Secure Successful Results

Keller/Anderle LLP BUSINESS TRIAL LAWYERS

Specialization matters. Having represented more law firms over the last 25 years than any other broker in the region, no one understands their real estate needs better than I do. — JASON HUGHES President & CEO, Hughes Marino

ORANGE COUNTY CORPORATE REAL ESTATE ADVISORS

At Hughes Marino we only represent tenants and buyers – never landlords – so we never have a conflict of interest. Our only fiduciary duty is to our client, the tenant. We are fully committed to protecting our clients’ interests, and we always guarantee our service and results. (949) 333-3111 | hughesmarino.com

ORANGE COUNTY LOS ANGELES SAN FRANCISCO SILICON VALLEY SAN DIEGO

2017 EDITION—NO.131

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 What’s on Tap for 2017 In Digital Law Firm Marketing? by Guy Loranger

8 Creative Price Negotiation by Mike O’Horo

10 How to Double Your Productivity in 30 Days by Dave Lorenzo EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Brian Topor EDITOR Wendy Price CREATIVE SERVICES Skidmutro Creative Partners CIRCULATION Angela Watson

12 COMMUNITYnews

ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH

16 Joseph M. Lovretovich JML Law, Anaheim Working Smart to Secure Successful Results

PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Griffiths

22 McIntyre’s Civil Alert Organized Succinct Summaries

STAFF WRITERS Jennifer Hadley Bridget Brookman Karen Gorden CONTRIBUTING EDITORIALISTS Leigh Stringer Guy Loranger Jared Correia Mike O’Horo Monty McIntyre Ray Gross David Lorenzo WEBMASTER Mariusz Opalka ADVERTISING INQUIRIES info@AttorneyJournal.us SUBMIT AN ARTICLE Editorial@AttorneyJournal.us OFFICE 30211 Avenida De Las Banderas Suite 200 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 www.AttorneyJournal.us ADDRESS CHANGES Address corrections can be made via fax, email or postal mail.

by Jennifer Hadley

24 26

by Monty A. McIntyre

24 Shake Your Moneymaker: Get Paid in 2017

by Jared Correia

26 Desk-icide: Seven Ways Your Workplace is Making You Sick

by Leigh Stringer

28 Client Satisfaction Surveys: Five Quick Questions to Ask

by Ray Gross

30 Offer a Guarantee for Added Client Confidence

by Trey Ryder

Editorial material appears in Attorney Journal as an informational service for readers. Article contents are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of Attorney Journal. Attorney Journal makes every effort to publish credible, responsible advertisements. Inclusion of product advertisements or announcements does not imply endorsement. Attorney Journal is a trademark of Sticky Media, LLC. Not affiliated with any other trade publication or association. Copyright 2017 by Sticky Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without written permission from Sticky Media, LLC. Printed in the USA

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What’s on Tap for 2017 In Digital Law Firm Marketing? by Guy Loranger

It’s the start of a new year—and the time for some reflection. During the coming days and weeks, your law firm should look back on your digital marketing efforts from 2016. What worked? What didn’t work? Of course, you should also look ahead to 2017. You need to ask, “What can we do to stay ahead of our competition?” In the constantly changing world of digital marketing, you will need to keep pace with emerging trends. In this article, we discuss the latter. As a company that concentrates on digital marketing for law firms, we want to share our thoughts on seven areas (in no particular order) that we believe your law firm should focus on as you embark on 2017. For additional information and resources beyond this post, please register for our free upcoming Webinar, “7 Resolutions for 2017 to Grow My Caseload From the Web.”

1. THINK MOBILE Don’t look back: The future of digital marketing will focus on mobile device users. During the coming year, you should expect to see a growing number of people use their smartphones and tablets to search for lawyers to help them with their legal needs, whether it involves a car accident claim, criminal charge, divorce or other matter. A Google announcement in November 2016 drove this point home. In the announcement, Google Product Manager Doantam Phan wrote that the search engine “will eventually use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results.” In December 2016, our own Marketing Consultant, Amanda Wiebke, described how law firms can stay on top of this trend by: • Using responsive site design 6 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

• Focusing on PageSpeed • Ensuring content is mobile-friendly • Increasing local search visibility In short: If you fail to make “mobile-first” a central focus of your digital marketing efforts in 2017, you could quickly fall behind the rest of the pack. This article by our Lead Senior Consultant, Grant Brott, explains the mobile-first changes you need to be aware of.

2. INCREASE YOUR SPEED One of the offshoots of the shift to mobile-focused marketing is the need to cut down on the time it takes for your website’s pages to load for users. In March 2016, our Director of Strategy, JR Oakes, discussed how slow loading times can hurt your law firm’s digital marketing campaign in two major ways: • It can reduce your conversions. • It can lower your search rankings. As JR pointed out, even a 1-second delay in response time can cause a 7 percent drop in conversions, according to Kissmetrics. Additionally, our own analysis across nearly 130,000 service industry-ranking URLs revealed a “strong correlation between your website’s load speed and rank in Google.” Google uses PageSpeed Insights to measure how fast a website’s pages load for users. You can read more about the program here, including PageSpeed scores. As Google notes, “A higher score is better and a score of 85 or above indicates that the page is performing well.” (We are proud to say that, due to the hard work of our team, all active Consultwebs client sites average 90-plus in Google PageSpeed Insights for both mobile and desktop sites, with a two-second average load time.) As you head into 2017, we hope you give ample attention to your website’s PageSpeed.

3. GAIN POSITIVE ONLINE REVIEWS The signs indicate that more people will use online reviews to make their decisions as consumers in 2017, including the decision of which lawyer to hire. For example, 91 percent of the consumers who participated in a 2016 BrightLocal survey reported that they “now actively read online business reviews,” with 10.5 percent reading online reviews of attorneys. Additionally, the BrightLocal survey revealed that: • 84 percent trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. • 74 percent trust a local business more based on positive reviews. • 73 percent believe that reviews which are three months or older lack relevance. • 59 percent look at two or three review sites before they make a decision about a business. • 54 percent will visit a company’s website after reading positive reviews. • 32 percent believe that reputation matters when choosing an attorney. It will be crucial in 2017 for your law firm to actively generate positive online reviews across multiple platforms. In addition to social proof, online reviews will also factor into your search rankings. To learn more about what your firm can do to obtain these reviews, check out this recent article by our Director of Marketing, Mike Zellmer. You should also feel free to download our client reviews bundle.

4. GRAB USERS’ ATTENTION THROUGH VIDEO You can expect the importance of video in your law firm’s digital marketing campaign to continue to grow in 2017 and in the years that follow. As Cisco projects, the world’s “IP video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2020, up from 70 percent in 2015.” Make sure to read this excellent overview of how to make full use of video content in law firm marketing by our Social Media Strategist, Travis Haney. In addition to posting recorded videos on your firm’s website and across other platforms, you should use live video to grab prospective clients’ attention and to promote your firm. Get started by reading about Facebook Live here.

5. REACH OUT TO YOUR COMMUNITY In recent years, we have found that our clients’ digital marketing campaigns benefit greatly from reaching out to their communities. Community outreach can lead to acquiring high-quality backlinks that boost your website’s search rankings. They also

effectively promote your law firm’s brand. Reaching out to your community can involve sponsoring a scholarship essay or video contest. It can also involve a social responsibility campaign such as the highly successful Fraternities4Family initiative that we organized for the family law firm of Charles R. Ullman & Associates in Raleigh, North Carolina. Corrie Benfield, a member of our Content Team, provides a list of ideas that can get your law firm started on reaching out to your community in 2017.

6. PROVIDE IN-DEPTH, RELEVANT AND VISUALLY APPEALING CONTENT Earlier this year, Kissmetrics reported on a study by serpIQ which revealed a strong connection between the length of a page’s content (in terms of word count) and its position in search rankings. In fact, the highest-ranked pages featured 2,000 words or more of content, according to the study. In 2017, your law firm should move toward publishing long-form static content and blog articles on your website. The challenge will be to ensure that the content is well-written, informative and relevant. It should also be easy on a reader’s eyes. You should strive to feature content that answers the questions that prospective clients commonly pose about their legal issues and your law firm’s services. (Pay attention to the fact that many searches today are conducted by people talking into their mobile devices.) You can make the content visually appealing by blending in graphics, trust badges, testimonials and case results. You should also display the content in a conversion-oriented design that features eye-catching banners and prominent calls to action.

7. REFINE YOUR CLIENT INTAKE SYSTEM The success of your law firm’s digital marketing campaign in 2017 may very well depend on what your law firm does after the campaign generates leads. Katie Johnson, a member of our Marketing Consultants team, pointed out in a recent article that the intake process at a law firm can make or break a firm’s ability to sign a case and maximize its return on investment. “Often, problems with intake aren’t for lack of caring—it’s more a matter of unrefined processes,” Johnson wrote. During the coming year, evaluate what your firm is doing with its intake process and explore ways you can improve your ability to convert clicks to cases. n Guy Loranger is the Web Content Editor for Consultwebs.com. His role allows him to interact regularly with clients on developing website pages, press releases, blogs and other Web content that promotes their firm’s practice areas and enhances their search engine rankings. He is also Google Analytics IQ certified. Consultwebs.com Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 7

Creative Price Negotiation by Mike O’Horo For 20 years, Mike O’Horo has been known by lawyers everywhere as The Coach. He trained more than 7000 of them, generating $1.5 billion in new business. Mike can be reached at mikeohoro@rainmakervt.com.

ost lawyers struggle with negotiating pricing with prospects and clients. Part of this is the product of lawyers’ personalities, which are generally conflict-averse. Part of this is based on the fear that inartful price discussions could cause them to overplay their hand and lose the business. However, a large part comes from having a singular focus on money. Money is a factor, but it’s rarely the defining one. It isn’t the number one consideration in taking or remaining at a job, and it’s not the number one consideration in most “considered” purchases. Whether we’re talking about salary or purchase price, as long as the money is in the right vicinity, other, non-financial, considerations make a big difference. Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer’s passing in late September brought to mind his late, longtime agent, Mark McCormack, who founded International Management Group and made it the world’s most powerful sports marketing agency. One quote from him is instructive for lawyers. “I find it helpful to try to figure out in advance where the other person would like to end up—at what point he will do the deal and still feel like he’s coming away with something. This is different from ‘how far will he go?’ A lot of times you can push someone to the wall, and you still reach an agreement, but his resentment will come back to haunt you in a million ways.” (My late father, a career salesman, favored a simpler version: “Don’t try to take the last nickel off the table.”) Against this backdrop, I read an interesting approach from Amy Lieberman, a Phoenix, AZ mediator. Her article, “Peace of Mind: The Resolution Ratio,” in the August issue of Attorney at Law magazine, offers a very useful framework for approaching negotiation. Ms. Lieberman introduced the idea of “conflict currencies” that—in addition to money—include acknowledgement, appreciation, respect, trust, communication, fear, and process. She adds “The Resolution Ratio,” which argues that for each negative, or debit, introduced into a negotiation, you’ll need to offer three positives, or credits, to “even the score, restore balance, and bring peace of mind” necessary to reach a reliable agreement without resentment. Her key point is that “a harm cannot be remedied by simply one act.” She shares six concrete examples of the 3:1 ratio being applied. The point that lawyers can apply to their business development efforts is to expand your concept of tradable value beyond money. This is particularly important when your client is trying to negotiate more favorable pricing. Besides a price reduction, 8 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

what else can you offer that your client might accept in lieu of money? Let’s say your client is explicitly directed by senior management to reduce overall legal spending. The easiest way is to insist on a price concession. When that happens, any strategy you try that would result in the client having to go home empty-handed cannot work. The entire savings target ends up coming from you. Focus on the overall cost-reduction goal, which includes many more factors than topline price. What can you offer that helps achieve the cost-reduction goal and doesn’t cost you? Which of the client’s processes or protocols results in redundancy or rework that costs you both money? How much unnecessary and expensive back-and-forth can you eliminate at their end or yours? Maybe this is an opportunity to get the client to embrace a technological solution that would reduce both your costs. If the power relationship with the client means you must accept a painful price concession, what can you get in exchange that would result in comparable profitability? (After all, it’s not what you charge that matters, but what you keep.) In exchange for price concessions on the labor-intensive work, would they be willing to let you do additional work that you can automate or scale to a greater degree, reducing your overall cost for the account and raising the overall profitability? Legal service has matured to where few lawyers enjoy much pricing power for traditional services. The thing to do in response is to get very creative in defining what other “currencies” you can trade that cost you little or nothing. Understand, though, that even if you negotiate well, it’s a Band-Aid. The price for mature services always declines. Plan for another round of price negotiation in a year or two, and periodically thereafter. Before you can draw a line in the pricing sand, you must have a replacement source of revenue. Start investigating ways to transition your practice away from price-sensitive areas and toward emerging problems and issues that your expertise can make a difference with. Begin shifting your proactive BD investments to those areas so that at some point you can afford to fire a client whose price-reduction needs would put you out of business. Price negotiations are a reliable sign that it’s time to start thinking about exiting that part of your practice in favor of something that offers greater value to both clients and you. n

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How to Double Your Productivity in 30 Days All

of us are plagued with too much work and too little time. Many of us have experimented with various time management systems and various electronic scheduling programs that we hope will keep us focused and on track and help us improve our productivity. In reality we all possess the tools we need to double (and in many cases even triple) our productivity. The secret is focus. I’m not talking about listen-to-your-wife-while-you-watchthe-basketball-game focus. I’m talking about focus on one task and one task only to the point of excluding everything and everyone else. And I’m talking about that kind of focus all the time. But for most people, this is easier said than done. Here’s how you can do it:

Step One:

Write down everything you have to do and everything that takes up your time and energy during the course of the week. Make a big list. On this list put everything you spend time working on and thinking about. Then lump these activities into categories. For example: driving to and from meetings, research, preparing a talk, returning client phone calls, sifting and sorting email, networking, drafting an agreement, etc.

Step Two: Select the five areas of focus that are the best possible use of your time. Notice: This step has a hidden step within it. You must determine what your time is worth and decide what is the best possible use of your time. Once you have selected the five things (or categories) that are the best possible use of your time, you can move on to step three.

Step Three:

Ruthlessly eliminate everything else from

10 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

by Dave Lorenzo

your life except the five things that are the best use of your time. The idea is to delegate or otherwise permanently dispatch these things from your life. Get rid of them completely.

Typical Excuses Whenever I introduce this concept to my clients they always push back on certain items. Email, for example, is one of the biggest time wasters on the planet. Here’s what I encourage you to do with email: 1. Never keep email open on your desktop while you are working. 2. Train your assistant or paralegal to sort your email. Have her alert you to anything urgent, handle what she can handle and flag things that need your attention. 3. Schedule time to check and respond to email every day. Select an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. 4. If something in your email will need longer than 5 minutes of work, schedule time to handle it. Actually, put it on your calendar—as long as it is one of the five things you are focusing on. Another area people complain about is the telephone. Here is my solution for that problem: Never take an inbound call. Have all your calls go to voice mail. Have the voice mail transcribed and emailed to your assistant or paralegal. Have the assistant handle the issue or schedule time on your calendar for you to handle the issue later on (as long as it is one of your five areas of focus). n Dave Lorenzo helps solo attorneys, large law firms and small independent law practices make a great living and live a great life. People say his down-to-earth personality reflects more of his street smarts than his Ivy-League education. He can be reached at 888.692.5531.

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Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 11

COMMUNITY news n Richard W. Millar, Jr. has joined Friedman Stroffe & Gerard, P.C. (“FSG”) as Of Counsel. Millar will work in FSG’s Litigation and Real Estate & Construction groups. FSG is a leading transactional and litigation law firm based in Irvine. Millar has been a practicing attorney in California for approximately 50 years. He is well-known in the Orange County RICHARD W. MILLAR, JR. legal community as a top litigator and as a regular columnist for “Orange County Lawyer Magazine” (official publication of the Orange County Bar Association) with over 160 articles published. Millar’s practice is primarily business, real estate, and construction litigation. Over the years, he has been hired by almost every title insurance company operating in Southern California to litigate real estate title issues. He has tried over 100 cases to verdict and handled over 50 Appeals. Millar has represented owners, general contractors, and subcontractors in a wide variety of construction disputes. Millar has received Martindale-Hubbell’s A-V rating for 35 years. The A-V rating is the highest rating possible for both legal ability and ethics. He has a 10 AVVO rating and is listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in American Law. n Fewer than five percent of attorneys receive the Super Lawyers recognition, and this year all five Berger Kahn shareholders and two of its long-tenured attorneys have been selected to the Southern California Super Lawyers List, a rating service of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. DALE AMATO While named to the list of Super Lawyers for many years, shareholder David Ezra was selected to Super Lawyers “Top 100” list for the fifth consecutive year. Enjoying an eighth consecutive year on the Super Lawyers “Top 50 Orange County” list are Managing Shareholder Craig Simon and shareholder David Ezra. Shareholder Sherman Spitz has been selected to the “Top 50 Orange County” Super Lawyers list for his fifth STEVEN GENTRY consecutive year and joins the “Top 100” list. Shareholder Teresa Ponder has been named to the Super Lawyers list for her sixth consecutive year, and shareholder Stephan Cohn is named to the Super Lawyers list for his fifth consecutive year. Attorneys Dale Amato and Steven Gentry are also recognized to the list of Super Lawyers for the fourth year.

12 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

n Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce that Partner Ketan S. Vakil has assumed the role of administrative partner for the firm’s Orange County office effective January 1, 2017. Mr. Vakil succeeds Bill O’Hare, who steps down from the position after leading the Orange County KETAN S. VAKIL office for more than 20 years. Mr. O’Hare remains active in his practice as a senior commercial litigation partner, continues to serve on the firm’s executive committee and will maintain his presence in the community. Snell & Wilmer is also pleased to announce that Orange County counsel Jeff Singletary has JEFF SINGLETARY been elected to join the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2017. He is among the firm’s ten attorneys who were recently elected. Singletary concentrates his practice on business litigation in state and federal courts. He represents clients in matters involving breach of contract, business competition torts, real estate, public and private construction projects and various intellectual property litigation matters, including trademark, trade dress, trade secret and patent claims. Singletary received his J.D. magna cum laude from University of San Diego School of Law where he served as executive editor of the San Diego Law Review and was a member of Order of the Coif. He received his B.A. from University of Colorado at Boulder. n The Orange County Women Lawyers Association announced twelve Orange County Bar Association members as its officers and directors for 2017. These new officers and directors include: President Michelle Tran, Law Offices of Michelle L. Tran; President-Elect Jaimi JAIMI GROOTHUIS Groothuis, Bently & More, LLP; Vice-President Michelle Philo, Adtile Technologies Inc., and Secretary Sheila-Marie Finkelstein, Hostrom, Block & Parke APLC.

COMMUNITY news n Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has elevated 10 attorneys based in California to shareholder and principal status, effective January 1, 2017, including Maria R. Harrington, who is based in the firm’s Irvine office. Harrington advises and counsels MARIA R. HARRINGTON employers on a variety of employment law matters, including human resources audits, leaves of absence and paid sick leave, performance management, policies and handbooks, and reductions in force. She is licensed to practice in California and Hawaii, representing employers in single-plaintiff and class action litigation involving discrimination and harassment, fair employment practices, wage and hour issues, and wrongful termination. She appears before state and federal courts, as well as state administrative agencies. Harrington earned her J.D. from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and her B.A., cum laude, from the University of California, Irvine.

n The Orange County Bar Association is pleased to share that Board Member Daniel Robinson has been installed as president of the Orange County Bar Foundation for 2017 after serving as president-elect last year. Robinson is a partner at Robinson Calcagnie Robinson Shapiro Davis, Inc., where he specializes in civil litigation. DANIEL ROBINSON Robinson received his B.A. from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and his J.D. from Loyola Law School.

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Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 13

WORKING

SMART to Secure Successful Results

JML Law’s Team Approach to Each Case Ensures Justice for Individuals by Jennifer Hadley

“I always had a vision of what I wanted to accomplish as a lawyer, and felt that I could best invoke that if I could control the mission of my own firm,” says Joseph M. Lovretovich, award-winning attorney and founder of JML Law, APC. Indeed, the tried and true ‘work smarter, not harder’ adage might as well have been written about Lovretovich’s approach to securing justice for workers who have been wronged, or individuals who have been injured through no fault of their own. This has led to the creation of a firm of fourteen lawyers dedicated to the rights of plaintiffs. “I have assembled some of the brightest people in the fields of employment, personal injury and workers’ compensation law,” he says. For more than 40 years, Lovretovich has constantly sought new ways to reach underserved markets, build a practice that operates as a well-oiled machine, and most importantly, that delivers results his hard-working clients deserve. In the process of doing so, this strategy has also yielded numerous published decisions, which by proxy have helped protect countless workers Lovretovich will likely never even meet. Yet the work continues. Today, he and his esteemed team of experienced employment and labor, personal injury, and workers’ compensation attorneys continue to work smartly, to secure wins for the individual, all the while protecting and preventing others from suffering similar injustices.

Early Education and Experience

A second-generation Southern Californian, Lovretovich was inspired by his father to pursue a career in law. “My father was an officer with the LAPD, which led to my desire to become an 16 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

attorney. He used to say to me, “I don’t want you to do what I do.” He encouraged me instead to practice law, and initially I planned on becoming a prosecutor or a public defender, Lovretovich recalls. However, upon earning his law degree from Southwestern University School of Law in 1976, like so many young law school graduates, he found himself working in the field of insurance defense. Though he seemed a natural born lawyer from the start, and quickly cut his teeth in insurance defense—which culminated in launching his own firm—Lovretovich found that after 10 years, he’d accomplished all that he wanted to in the field. More notably, he began to realize that his passion for helping individuals was outweighing his desire to defend insurance companies. The epiphany arose out of his willingness to take cases out of his practice area, whenever people came to him for help. In particular, he recalls that his first employment case had a powerful impact on him. “I took other cases, while I was running the insurance defense firm. I did a bit of family law, and a few criminal cases. Over time I didn’t feel comfortable in insurance anymore. I didn’t feel creative. I was in a reactive field of law, and I began to want to develop the stories for people who needed help. This was in the mid-1980s at a time when the insurance world was changing. The insurance world became more aggressive, and where I felt I could resolve claims for people who really were suffering before, suddenly every claim was suspect and the goal was to deny paying any claim,” he recalls. This shift coincided with Lovretovich trying to help a woman who came to him after being sexually harassed and then fired from her job. “I took this case for a friend, and I was able to

ATTORNEY

OF THE MONTH

2017 2016

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 124, 2016 17

get her quite a bit of money, after she was unlawfully fired. I wound up with a very grateful client, and knew then that I wanted to pursue plaintiff’s work, full-time” he says. He jumped into employment and labor law with both feet, and began succeeding for clients immediately. “Fleming v. Parametric Technologies was one of my first employment cases when the field was first developing. I had to take depositions all over the world, and against all odds, we were able to obtain a $1.8 Million-Dollar verdict, which was held up on appeal,” he recalls. Thus, with this type of initial success under his belt, Lovretovich had reinforced to himself that plaintiff’s work was where he belonged. As he set about to build a team of talented and dedicated attorneys to join him in his efforts, he also developed the mission behind which his burgeoning firm would operate. “We are committed to the representation of the rights of the individual,” he says. For Lovretovich, abiding by that guiding principle has meant that while his firm handles many potential seven-figure cases, he will represent low-wage earners as well. Experience has taught him that his duty is to help the individual, regardless of the size of the case, as long as it is a viable case. In fact, he says that he would advise any new attorney to consider the benefits of doing so. “Being willing to take cases that may be small will sharpen your advocacy. You will also get the satisfaction of helping those who are dispossessed, and it will heighten your prestige among the defense bar,” he says.

Team Effort to Best Represent Individuals

Although the size of the case is not of paramount concern to Lovretovich, being selective about the cases that the firm will

18 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

take is undeniably responsible for JML Law’s overwhelmingly impressive track record. Indeed, Lovretovich cannot underscore the value his firm places in thoroughly vetting each case through an unmatched intake process. As such, more than 18 years ago, Lovretovich welcomed Donna Lloyd to the firm, who brought over 20 years of investigative experience to the firm, and soon became a pivotal member of the JML Law team. A former investigator in insurance defense practice and legal assistant within the Texas Attorney General’s office, Lloyd also served as a principal in an investigation company, Lloyd & Lloyd International Services. Under Lloyd’s direction as Director of Intake and Legal Investigations at JML Law, Lovretovich says that the firm has been able to better reach underserved markets in California, as the result of her extensive intake process. “We conduct lengthy phone intake interviews, we follow up on witnesses to confirm stories, often locating additional witnesses and information. We conduct searches on social media, and exhaustive searches for other pending cases against the same defendants. We call fellow attorneys representing other individuals against the same defendants, to make sure that all of the facts back up a case before we will accept it,” Lovretovich explains. In fact, the firm now employs a team of five people who are dedicated to this comprehensive intake process. Once the firm accepts a new case, an entire team will be responsible for seeing the lawsuit through to trial if necessary. “Each case is assigned to one of our team leaders, David Tibor, in our Los Angeles office, or Jared Beilke in our Orange County office. Both David and Jared are very experienced trial attorneys who aggressively prosecute their cases. David joined the firm six years ago, and has become a key member of the trial team. Jared recently joined the firm after twenty years at a top-rated

litigation firm. Their teams include two additional lawyers and a paralegal. Every case has a full team,” Lovretovich says. In addition, the team is supplemented by other attorneys who play distinct, and invaluable roles within the team. For example, Jennifer Lipski helms the law and motion and appellate department, ensuring that the firm is constantly on the forefront of existing and emerging case law. “Her knowledge of legal precedents has enabled us to succeed on several major decisions in the court of appeals,” Lovretovich says. As for his role, Lovretovich is involved and aware of all aspects of the firm’s cases, and handles many of the firm’s mediations, or tries the cases before the court. “I am there to design the plan, and to execute the plan for each case,” he says. This framework allows the firm to handle many cases and to go up against the biggest and most powerful companies and their law firms. Because Lovretovich is driven to reach, and help as many wronged individuals as possible, he intentionally sought out diversity when building his team. “We have Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean speaking attorneys. Minority communities suffer a lot, from unjust employment practices and in cases of personal injury. Our diversity allows us to market to these often-closeknit communities who are generally underserved,” he says. That’s not to say, however, that JML Law only focuses on underserved or minority markets. On the contrary, in keeping with their commitment to diversity, and keeping their focus firmly set on helping all individuals who have been victims of illegal or unjust practices, JML Law also counts high-wage earners amongst its clientele. In particular, Lovretovich says the firm has helped countless high earners in the field of technology

and top earning sales professionals. “In the field of high-tech, for example, older workers are often pushed out illegally so that the company can bring in younger employees,” Lovretovich says. “In high-tech, individuals in their 40’s can be considered old.”

Track Record of Success in Securing Justice

Suffice it to say, JML Law’s absolute team commitment to securing justice for every client certainly makes a difference in the lives of aggrieved employees, or injured victims. But their efforts aren’t limited to only securing financial compensation. Instead, Lovretovich says, the JML team insists on truly being there for their clients, throughout often drawn out, and frankly, terrible situations. By way of example, Lovretovich recalls the case of Roxie, a client who was severely disabled, and suffered horrifying sexual abuse at a school. “Throughout that case, Donna or another team member accompanied her and her family to all aspects of the criminal proceedings against her perpetrator. We never left her to fight this battle alone,” he says. Even after the team secured a favorable settlement, which allowed her to get the care she needed, the relationship didn’t end. “Roxie died several years ago. I had the honor of serving as a pall bearer at her funeral,” Lovretovich says simply. Likewise, the firm made a significant difference in the life of Mike, who was sucker-punched at a local bar, and suffered permanent brain damage as the result. “When we met Mike, he Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 19

Contact Joseph M. Lovretovich JML Law 2400 E. Katella Avenue, Suite 440 Anaheim, CA 92806 jml@jmllaw.com 714-456-9176 JMLLaw.com 20 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

» EDUCATION • Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles, California – J.D., 1976 • University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California – B.A. cum laude, 1973, Major: International Relations

» HONORS & AWARDS • Super Lawyers – Southern California, 2007-2016 • Avvo Rating – 10 out of 10, 1/2017

» PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS • State Bar of California, Member • National Employment Lawyers Association, Member • California Employment Lawyers Association, Member • Los Angeles Bar Association, Member • Consumer Attorneys’ Association of Los Angeles, Member • California State Bar, Labor & Employment Section • Los Angeles County Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section • Orange County Trial Lawyers Association • Consumer Attorneys of California • American Association for Justice

EXPERIENCE

was living in a homeless shelter, and suffering from a severe brain injury. No one wanted his case. We were able to resolve his case for $1,000,000, so that he could afford to buy a home, and have the care he needs.” Moreover, the efforts that the team at JML Law put forth for each individual often have permanent lasting benefits for thousands of others that the dedicated attorneys will never meet. Examples of these include two significant published decisions Lovretovich fought hard to win for clients. In Colmenares v. Braemar Country Club, Lovretovich’s client had suffered a back injury, and was consequently terminated from his job. After the court ruled against Lovretovich, he pursued the case to the California Supreme Court and emerged victorious. As the result, the rights of disabled workers were effectively expanded. Likewise, in Dee v. Vintage Petroleum, Lovretovich helped expand and protect the rights of those who were subjected to racial slurs in the workplace. Lovretovich is also devoted to helping the next generation of attorneys to realize the immense satisfaction that he has derived from devoting his life’s work to helping others. “I especially relish mentoring young lawyers. When I first started, I had no resources to turn to when trying to develop my practice. Therefore, my door is always open to young lawyers who simply have questions on law or practice or who actually want to co-counsel with us on their cases,” Lovretovich says. Clearly, Lovretovich’s long held vision of how law should be practiced has proven to be spot on, time and again. Not surprisingly, as the result, a large portion of the firm’s caseload comes from referrals from fellow attorneys, who then find themselves on the receiving end of generous referral fees. The rest of the firm’s business is secured through satisfied client referrals, marketing, and the firm’s reputation for excellence based upon Lovretovich’s forty years of experience. With offices in Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Lovretovich says that his firm will continue to operate as a team, even as it expands to serve the needs of individuals who need help. “We will continue to fight for individual rights. Together with the experienced attorneys who work with me, we can handle the biggest firms out there. Our intense intake process lets us go into lawsuits well prepared, often before the defense attorney even gets the case. Then, our innovative team approach of aggressively and proactively prosecuting our cases allows us to control the lawsuit,” he says. n

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McIntyre’s Civil Alert Organized Succinct Summaries by Monty A. McIntyre, Esq.

Monty A. McIntyre has over 30 years of experience as a mediator and arbitrator. More than 35 years of experience as a civil trial lawyer representing both plaintiffs and defendants in business and commercial, bad faith, brain injury, construction, land use/CEQA, medical malpractice, personal injury, real property and wrongful death cases. To schedule a meeting with Monty A. McIntyre contact Kelsey Hannah at ADR Services, Inc. at 619-233-1323 or kelsey@adrservices.org

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT Attorneys (Anti-SLAPP) Barry v. State Bar of California (2017) _ Cal.5th _, 2017 WL 56342: The California Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal holding that, in the absence of subject matter jurisdiction, the trial court had no power to hear or decide an anti-SLAPP motion to strike under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16. The California Supreme Court ruled that a court that lacks subject matter jurisdiction over a claim may grant an anti-SLAPP motion to strike and may award attorney fees and costs to the defendant. Because the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction, plaintiff could not show a probability of prevailing on the merits. Here is the procedural summary of the case: After the State Bar commenced disciplinary proceedings, plaintiff stipulated to violations of the rules of professional conduct and agreed to the recommended discipline. Plaintiff then filed a writ petition with the California Supreme Court, the court with jurisdiction over disciplinary proceedings, seeking to set aside the stipulation. The Supreme Court denied the petition and imposed the discipline. Plaintiff then filed this complaint against defendant in the Superior Court. (January 5, 2017.)

CALIFORNIA COURTS OF APPEAL Arbitration Hernandez v. Ross Stores (2017) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2016 WL 7131651: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order denying a motion to compel arbitration in a case where plaintiff filed a single-count representative action under the California Private Attorney General Act (PAGA), Labor Code section 2698 et. seq., alleging defendant had violated numerous Labor Code laws and seeking to recover PAGA civil penalties. The trial court properly denied the motion based upon Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348, 387. The PAGA claim was a representative action brought on behalf of 22 22 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

the state that did not include individual claims. There were no individual claims or disputes that could be separately arbitrated. (C.A. 4th, filed December 17, 2016, published January 3, 2017.)

Civil Procedure (Anti-SLAPP) Healthsmart Pacific v. Kabateck (2017) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2016 WL 7340044: In an action by plaintiffs against certain lawyers and their law firms for defamation and other causes of action arising from statements two of the lawyers made on television and radio programs about a pending lawsuit, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order denying an anti-SLAPP motion to strike under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16. Standard of review: de novo. The Court of Appeal ruled that the action arose out of activity protected under the anti-SLAPP statute, and because the challenged statements were protected under the fair report privilege, plaintiffs did not establish a probability of success on the merits. (C.A. 2nd, filed December 19, 2016, published January 10, 2017.) Silva v. See’s Candy Shops (2017) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2016 WL 7176684: The Court of Appeal affirmed in part and reversed in part the trial court’s orders granting summary judgment for defendant in an employment action alleging wage and hour violations brought in plaintiff’s individual capacity, on behalf of a class of See’s Candy employees, and on behalf of aggrieved workers under the Private Attorney General Act of 2004 (PAGA). Standard of review: de novo. The Court of Appeal ruled that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment with respect to individual claims alleged in the first and second causes of action because defendant did not move for summary judgment on those claims. The trial court properly entered summary judgment for defendant on all remaining claims including the PAGA cause of action and the class-certified claims (failure to properly pay wages based on defendant’s rounding and grace-period policies). (C.A. 4th, filed December 9, 2016, published January 5, 2017.)

Government Cape Concord Homeowners Association v. City of Escondido (2017) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2017 WL 56336: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order denying a writ petition seeking a refund of

sewer service fees under Government Code section 53082(b). The Court of Appeal ruled that section 53802 did not apply because the property was connected to the sewer system. Section 53082(c) imposes liability only where the premises is not connected to the sewer system. (C.A. 4th, January 5, 2016.)

Taxes Swart Enterprises v. Franchise Tax Board (2017) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2017 WL 118040: In a case where plaintiff sought a refund of $1,106.71 (the minimum franchise tax of $800 plus interest and penalties) the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order granting summary judgment for plaintiff. Standard of review: de novo. The California franchise tax does not apply to an out-of-state corporation whose sole connection with California is a 0.2 percent ownership interest in a manager-managed California limited liability company (LLC) investment fund. Passively holding a 0.2 percent ownership interest, with no right of control over the business affairs of the LLC, does not constitute “doing business” in California within the meaning of Revenue and Taxation Code section 23101. (C.A. 5th, January 12, 2017.)

Torts Bigler-Engler v. Breg, Inc. (2017) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2017 WL 65411: In an action alleging medical malpractice and intentional torts arising from the use of a cold therapy device after orthopedic surgery, the Court of Appeal granted a rehearing, depublished its earlier opinion dated October 28, 2016, and issued a new opinion. In this new opinion, the Court of Appeal came to the same conclusions as the original decision on most issues. However, it concluded that its original discussion of the interplay between MICRA and Proposition 51 was incorrect and ruled that a Proposition 51 apportionment should be applied first before determining whether the $250,000 MICRA cap needs to be applied. Defendant Oasis MSO, Inc. (Oasis) was liable for $130,000 after the Proposition 51 apportionment. Because this was below the MICRA $250,000 cap, that cap did not apply. Plaintiff’s 998 offer was ineffective because it failed to include an acceptance provision. The jury awarded $68,270.38 in economic compensatory damages and $5,127,950 in noneconomic compensatory damages to plaintiff, apportioned liability among the three defendants, and awarded punitive damages of $500,000 against defendant Dr. Chao (Chao) and $7 million against defendant Breg, Inc. (Breg). However, the jury’s verdict findings of intentional concealment against Breg and strict products liability against defendant Oasis were not supported by the evidence. This required reversal of the punitive damage award against Breg. The Court of Appeal also ruled that the noneconomic damages and punitive damages as to Chao (whose stipulated net worth was $3,411,577) were excessive, and those awards were reversed and remanded for a new trial unless plaintiff accepts reductions in those awards to $1,300,000 and $150,000. The decision discusses a plethora of attorney conduct, damages, malpractice, tort and trial issues (C.A. 4th, January 6, 2017.) n

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 23

Shake Your Moneymaker: Get Paid in 2017 by Jared Correia

awyers and money do not go together like peas and carrots. Actually, let me rephrase that: Lawyers and talking about money do not go together like peas and carrots. Lawyers and managing money do not go together like peas and carrots. And lawyers and setting competitive market rates do not go together like peas and carrots. Lawyers and making money, however? Yeah, that goes together like peas and carrots. Lawyers, like every group of business professionals, want to make money. It is the antecedents for doing so, however, that get in the way. Peas, meet … Brussels sprouts.

It’s 2017 and It’s Time You Got Paid Here are some solutions for making more money this year that don’t require an accounting degree.

Discuss Money Upfront Even elephants in the room were once wee baby elephants. But, allowed to grow and flourish, and to literally eat all of your hay, they become problematic. The fee question is one you don’t want to let linger. In talking with potential clients, address your fee as soon as you can, without appearing callous. You’re not running a pro bono or low bono practice (at least not intentionally), so the foundation of any attorney-client relationship is an agreed-upon rate between the parties. If your potential client is not willing to pony up a retainer, or starts to squirm when you relay your fee structure, it’s time to think about pulling the plug. Don’t waste any more time exploring the engagement because that’s even more of your money down the drain. • For initial pricing discussions with clients, it helps to have a settled fee schedule. Know your own rates and communicate them clearly to potential clients. And if you discount, do so intentionally.

Rehab Your Rates You should examine whether your rates continue to work for you on an established schedule anyway. Consider this your official kick in the pants. Most lawyers I talk to don’t charge enough. How do I know? Because their competitors tell me the rates they won’t release to them, and I get to compare fee structures

24 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

across firms. Of course, I can’t share confidential information. So, what is a thoroughgoing attorney left to do? Start with the Clio Legal Trends Report, which relays average billing rates for the contiguous United States. Check your jurisdiction, and if your rates are not above the average (remember, it’s an average, and you’re certainly not average, right?), round up. Of course, understanding that you’re not charging enough is one thing. It could also be that you’re not charging in the right way. It’s unfortunate that many attorneys see the adoption of alternative fee structures as a major concession to cost pressure, wrought by modern clients, when those alternative fee arrangements actually represent a great compromise between lawyers and clients. Fixed fees, for example, may be an effective value proposition for the client (there’s a fee cap) and the law firm (the acquisition of expertise means an attorney can perform work more quickly while charging more for it). • One of the most dramatic things you can do is to adjust your law firm billing rates. Increasing your rates is one clear method for vetting clients with an ability to pay, while adopting alternative fee structures can help balance out the responsibilities of lawyers and clients.

Adopt Electronic Payment Methods At this point, very few law offices are not at least partially paperless. Most lawyers own a smartphone. Yet these same people take payment by check and money order. If you’ve realized the efficiencies wrought by technology, why are you still managing your law firm payments in the same old way? Especially if you’re attempting to represent modest-means clients, it’s infinitely easier for your clients to make payment via credit or debit card, and pay the balance off over time. It’s a de facto payment plan—which, see above, you probably don’t offer anyway. Since the process of paying via plastic is much simpler than acquiring cash or a money order, you’ll also be paid faster. If the theory is true that you should endeavor with your whole soul to get an initial retainer, because it may be the only money you see from your client—well, allowing those retainers to be paid via credit card means that you’re more likely to get that money in the first place. There are several methods for processing payments online, including those built for lawyers, like LawPay. If you’re worried about the ethics issues associated

with credit and debit card processing, those are relatively easy to overcome. • Invest in online payment processing—if you don’t, your competition will—and so will your potential clients.

Understand the Relationship Between Your Overhead and Your Revenue This seems like something a greenhorn would say about business management, but there are thought processes and discussions relating back to overhead that lawyers just do not consider. First, many small firms do not effectively monitor their overhead. They can’t tell you what their businesses costs are; or, they pull a figure from thin air. They don’t know what their monthly expenses are. They can’t see trends in expenses. If you’re not keeping track of all that, you will never know how much you have to make to cover your overhead. And, if you don’t know much you need to make to cover your overhead, you won’t know how much you need to make to have a subsistence wage. Oh, and if you don’t know how much you need to make for a subsistence wage, you’ll never understand how much you’ll need to make beyond that to have the lifestyle you actually want. Coming around to understanding the complete financial picture of your life as an attorney is sort of like building a pyramid, even if most lawyers attempt to establish that pyramid on a foundation of sand. • Establish a budget to get a handle on your overhead and it will more effectively inform every financial decision you make about your law firm.

those accounts. • Check up on your accounts receivable in a consistent manner and you'll find some money there. Collecting on lingering accounts receivable is kind of like finding change in your couch cushions or a $20 bill in your jeans pocket—and it feels just as good.

A Little Tenacity Pays Off Making money requires a pinch of tenacity, not necessarily an in-depth understanding of finance. Adopting one or all of these suggestions for your law firm will allow you to add cash this new year. n Jared Correia is CEO at Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, which offers subscription-based law firm business management consulting and technology services for solo and small law firms. Red Cave also works with legal institutions and legal-facing corporations to develop programming and content. A former practicing attorney, Jared is a popular presenter and regular contributor to legal publications (including his “Managing” column for Attorney at Work). He is the author of the ABA book “Twitter in One Hour for Lawyers,” hosts the Legal Toolkit podcast, and teaches for Concord Law School, Suffolk University Law School and Solo Practice University. Previously published in Attorney at Work.

Make Efforts to Collect on Your Accounts Receivable Who has two thumbs and has money out there just waiting to be collected? Um, you do. (Please point at yourself now. No, with your thumbs. C’mon, man.) Many solo and small firm lawyers are so dedicated to acquiring new business that they neglect the work they’ve already done. Even highly transactional law firms do not immediately get paid for all of the work they do. And when payments linger, it’s easy to forget about them. Unless you have a specific method for regularly reviewing the status of accounts receivable, you’re far less likely to collect on them. A lot of attorneys give those accounts receivable up for dead and are too quick to judge their clients as malefactors when they’re not paid immediately. However, there are any number of reasons clients don’t pay. If all it took to get paid was a small push, doesn’t it pay (see what I did there) to make it? Lawyers are trained to think up the worst imaginable scenario, and to plan for it. But giving your clients the benefit of the doubt, at least at first blush, is a more prudent course of action than assuming they will never pay anyway. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever before to quickly review the status of accounts receivable via modern software tools, many of which feature upfront graphical representations of the present value of Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 25

Desk-icide: Seven Ways Your Workplace is Making You Sick

itting for long hours, indoors, staring at a computer and shoveling in bad food at work isn’t just a bad idea, it can be devastating to your health. I know, it seems almost counter-intuitive: Worker safety standards globally are at an all-time high. We have “nutrition-packed” food and, on the whole, work itself has gotten much easier than in generations past. So why are our workplaces so toxic? Here are seven reasons—and a few ways you can change your work habits to make health a priority this year.

1. Sitting Too Much A study of occupations, led by Dr. Tim Church from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, compared levels of physical activity for the entire American workforce over the past five decades. It found that workers in 2010 burned fewer calories on average than workers in previous generations, purely based on the increased prevalence of more sedentary jobs. We are gaining weight because of it, but weight isn’t the only problem. Our sedentary behavior increases cardiometabolic risk factors, which can lead to diabetes, heart disease and stroke. It is also causing an increase in the number of cases of deep vein thrombosis.

TIP: Don’t sit in one position all day. Change your position often and move around frequently. Stand up every 30 minutes

26 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

by Leigh Stringer

and walk around every hour and a half, even if it’s just for a few minutes.

2. Not Exercising Enough (Waiting for the Weekend) Are you so caught up in work that you don’t make time for exercise during the work week? Studies show that if you wait until you have two consecutive days—the weekend—to get the recommended amount of exercise, you are not likely to meet the weekly target of 150 minutes of vigorous exercise. It is just too much exercise to fit into too brief a period of time. It also increases your chance of injury. Weekend warriors trying to fit in major home improvements and yard work during the weekend regularly injure themselves by pushing themselves too hard, too infrequently.

TIP: You need a consistent healthy exercise plan that keeps you strong and full of energy all day and all week. Don’t wait until the weekend!

3. Bad Lighting Compared to the outdoors, our workplaces are lit like caves. One day we’re going to all look back and realize that we have been working in the dark for the last 200 years, literally, and it is negatively impacting our sleep and well-being. A good portion of our global workforce spends roughly 90 percent of

each day indoors, which essentially puts us in a state of “light deficiency” that disrupts our sleep cycle. Insufficient sleep is associated with several chronic diseases and conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression. We need more intense light to reset our circadian rhythm, which helps us sleep.

TIP:

TIP: How can you avoid the gravitational pull of a nice cold soda or chocolate bar? The best defense is a good offense. Bring your food from home. Prepare it when you are not hungry so that you are prepared when your stomach growls. And if you must use a vending machine, check the calorie count before you buy your snack.

Sleep experts recommend being outside as much as two hours a day, but even 30 to 60 minutes—say over a lunch break or during a walking meeting outdoors—will help.

6. Coming to Work When You’re Sick

4. Poor Air Quality

When you come to work sick, you are likely spreading diseases to colleagues and clients. As tempting as it is to “power through,” the overall health risk is not worth it. Researchers from the University of Arizona placed a tracer virus on commonly touched objects such as a doorknob or tabletop in workplaces. At multiple time intervals, the researchers sampled a range of surfaces including light switches, countertops, sink tap handles and push buttons. They found that between 40 and 60 percent of the surfaces were contaminated within two to four hours.

Headaches and sickness are a common result of working indoors and exposure to abnormal levels of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and volatile organic compounds. Indoor settings often contain levels of pollutants that may be two to five times higher—and occasionally more than 100 times higher—than outdoor levels. Sources include combustion, building materials and furnishings, toxins used to clean surfaces, central heating and cooling systems, and humidification. It is also impacted by the piles of paper and clutter that are lying around and collecting dust. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says current air quality codes in buildings are not the standard for healthy or optimal indoor air quality—they just provide the minimum level of ventilation that will allow you to walk into a space and not object to the odor. There is lots of room for improvement in most buildings.

TIP:

It often takes a major renovation to improve air quality substantially. You can, however, remove the piles of paper and materials that collect dust and dust mites that trigger sinus problems and asthma. Also, use “green” cleaning products that do not have toxins that contribute to poor indoor air quality.

5. Eating from a Vending Machine Those vending machines are so darned convenient. What’s the big deal about eating from them? For the most part, the vending industry stocks mostly processed, sugary foods and drinks in their machines. In fact, only 2 percent of all vending sales are “healthy” snacks according to VendingMarketWatch. com. Vending machines are so prevalent, and so impactful to our diet, that the Food and Drug administration announced that vending machines nationwide are required to display calorie information.

TIP: If you are sick, stay home for your sake and that of your colleagues. This may be a reason to make the case for a “work from home” policy.

7. Skipping Vacation A recent Glassdoor survey found that only 51 percent of U.S. workers use their eligible paid vacation time. Worse, 61 percent of Americans work while they are on vacation, despite complaints from family members. You need it to refresh and revitalize to be effective—and your family will love you for it. John De Graaf, who made a documentary about overworked Americans called “Running Out of Time,” has found there is a high cost to not taking a vacation. “Women who don’t take regular vacations are anywhere from two to eight times more likely to suffer from depression, and have a 50 percent higher chance of heart disease,” he says. “For men, the risk of death from a heart attack goes up a third.”

TIP:

Plan your vacations, take them and enjoy yourself. Give yourself and your colleagues permission to unplug. n Leigh Stringer (@string0820) is Senior Workplace Expert for EYP Architecture and Engineering and is researching employee health and productivity in conjunction with the Harvard School of Public Health, the Center for Active Design, and other leading organizations. She is the author of “The Healthy Workplace.” Previously published in Attorney at Work. Learn more at leighstringer.com.

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 27

Client Satisfaction Surveys: Five Quick Questions to Ask

awyers often resist the idea of conducting client satisfaction surveys: They don’t believe people will be honest unless they have complete anonymity, and they don’t believe clients will take the time to complete the survey. It’s true, many will not complete the survey, but some will. And right now, you probably aren’t collecting any valuable information from your clients. Even worse, the feedback you’re getting is probably in the form of a negative online review.

Here’s What Client Satisfaction Surveys Can Do If you’re not conducting a satisfaction survey upon closing each client’s case, you should be. Surveys are an excellent tool for improving customer service and increasing positive online reviews. They can bring to light your firm’s weaknesses and strengths and help identify problem employees. They also give you the opportunity to: • Remind clients to share their positive experience by posting positive reviews on online reputation platforms like Avvo, Google, Yelp, Judy’s Book and Facebook. • Prevent an upset client from leaving a negative review by allowing them to air their grievances in person or in a survey, reducing the chance that they’ll tarnish your reputation online. • Solidify your relationships with happy clients—any additional positive communication will inspire them to feel confident referring you. • Mend relationships with clients who were not happy with you, or with the outcome of their case. Surveys don’t have to take a lot of time. Typically, clients must sign paperwork to close the file. Simply add five minutes to this appointment to hand them the survey and explain why their feedback is so valuable. If anonymity is a concern, send them home with the survey and a self-addressed stamped envelope.

28 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

by Ray Gross

The Five Questions You Must Include in a Client Satisfaction Survey These five questions get to the root of issues quickly—and the client can finish the survey in less than 10 minutes. 1. Overall, how satisfied were you with our firm’s communication with you? 2. How satisfied were you with the outcome of your case? 3. Are you likely to refer us to a friend? 4. Based on your experience with us, what would you say are the strengths of our firm? 5. Based on your experience with us, what would you say are the weaknesses of our firm? Make it easy to answer the questions by providing a scale (i.e., “Circle one: 1 2 3 4 5”) or “Yes/No” options. Also, be sure to leave room for feedback below each question, so that clients can elaborate on their level of satisfaction—space for approximately 200 words should suffice. You can add more questions, but I’ve found that the more questions you ask, the less likely people are to complete the survey.

Paper, Email or Automated Survey Platform? There are many ways to administer client surveys: face-to-face, by personal email message or via an email marketing platform like MailChimp, or with a reputation management platform like Grade.us, which funnels people to online review sites. An email marketing app allows you to create satisfaction surveys directly in the email message and then send them to your clients en masse, in segmented groups or individually. With a reputation management platform, you can add a survey landing page or widget to your firm website, as well as send survey reminder emails. The survey will ask your clients to

rate their overall satisfaction by clicking on a 1 to 5 satisfaction scale, a thumbs up or down icon, or a smiley or frowning face. To be routed to a review page, your client will have to click a 4 or 5, the thumbs up, or one of the two happiest-looking faces. If they click 1 to 3, or select thumbs down or one of the three least happy faces, a screen will pop up to offer them a feedback box and divert them away from the review sites. The feedback box is intended to prevent them from posting a negative review and to help you find out what their issue is so you can satisfy their concern. Obviously, the goal here is to prevent people from leaving negative reviews and to push the satisfied people directly to your Google+ or Avvo page to leave positive reviews. Unfortunately, this does not always work. I do not recommend using automated systems for your initial client satisfaction survey for the following reasons: • Face-to-face communication is much more effective. Talking face-to-face first is your best opportunity to uncover negative issues and put out the fire immediately. Your goal is to make sure unhappy clients do not leave your office until their concerns are dealt with and you have restored their confidence. If doing this in person isn’t feasible, make a phone call when a client matter closes. • Sending an unhappy client an email asking them to share their experience is asking for a negative review. Most will get past their negative experience with time. Others will have the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality and won’t look back. However, if you start blasting them with Grade.us emails, you are putting people who may have let things go just one or two clicks away from posting negative reviews. This is my biggest issue with Grade.us and similar platforms. They can be useful, but only with happy clients, and at a later point in the process.

How to Encourage More Positive Online Reviews With a little research, you will learn there are many ways to conduct client satisfaction surveys and encourage positive online reviews. This hybrid model takes advantage of the strengths of each method while mitigating potential negative effects: 1. Start with a face-to-face conversation as soon as a matter closes. 2. Identify upset clients and address issues. Set an appointment with the lawyer or the person in your office who can fix their issues. 3. Identify happy clients and ask them to fill out a written survey. If they say no to the written survey, ask if it is OK to send them an online survey (i.e., via MailChimp or a similar system). Some will prefer the written survey, but offer both options. 4. Ask happy clients if you can email them a link to Grade.us (or a similar platform) so they can leave a positive review. Explain how easy it is. (“It only takes one to two clicks and takes you right to our Google+ page.”)

You Can’t Fix Something Unless You Know It’s Broken Follow this protocol and you will increase your positive online reviews and decrease the likelihood of negative ones. n Ray Gross is founder and CEO of Attorney Internet Marketing LLC. For more than five years, he has successfully helped increase the revenue of his clients by organizing joint marketing programs and coaching in the art of proper lead intake. Previously published in Attorney at Work.

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017 29

Offer a Guarantee for Added Client Confidence I can feel the chill in the air. You’re thinking, “Guaranteeing a lawyer’s services? You must be crazy.” Sears built a retail empire on six words, “Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back.” Today, most online and offline retail stores and mail-order companies give you a prompt refund, exchange or credit for anything you buy that doesn’t meet your expectations. You may be familiar with these, which I copied from their websites: You Can Count On It: The L.L. Bean Guarantee “Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We will replace it, refund your purchase price or credit your credit card. We do not want you to have anything from L.L. Bean that is not completely satisfactory.” Here at omahasteaks.com, we stand behind our products ... “If you are not absolutely thrilled with your purchase from us for any reason at all–we’ll replace your purchase or refund your money, whichever you prefer.” “When you order from omahasteaks.com, your satisfaction is always unconditionally guaranteed ... so you can order with complete confidence. If at any time you have problems with an order, simply contact Customer Service. Our Toll-Free phone number is 1-800-228-9572. Imagine you are the prospective client. You have the field narrowed down to three attorneys. One guarantees his service in writing. Which lawyer would you hire? A guarantee gives you a substantial competitive advantage over other lawyers who would never dream of guaranteeing anything. The important thing is what you guarantee to do: refund their money, reduce your fee, correct the situation. When you can’t guarantee the outcome of a case, let’s look at what you can guarantee. To be a meaningful competitive advantage, guarantee things that concern your prospects and clients. And since this is for marketing purposes, you want the guarantee to be as broad and all-inclusive as possible. Here are a few examples, with sample language you might use in your guarantee. We guarantee the quality of our legal services. You can be sure that all legal work that comes from this office will be of the highest caliber. If you ever find anything that does not meet your needs or expectations, please bring it to our attention. We will correct the situation immediately. We guarantee to return phone calls promptly. For a positive, 30 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 131, 2017

by Trey Ryder

productive lawyer/client relationship, we must communicate openly and freely with each other. We promise to return your phone call within two hours. If the lawyer you want to reach is in trial or otherwise detained, his secretary will call you and schedule a time when you can speak with him. We guarantee the fee we quoted you. No one likes financial surprises. That’s why on every project we will provide you with a written fee quote. No matter how long it takes us, it will never cost you one penny more. Once we quote a fee, we stick to it, no matter what. You can depend on it. And so forth. You could look at everything you offer clients, and then put that in the form of a written guarantee. What’s next? You could go as far as offering a money-back guarantee for fees. Yes, it does happen. In years past, three of my clients have said in so many words either you like what I do or I’ll refund your money. I’m not aware that a penny has ever been refunded, but their clients sure felt good knowing the lawyer would return their money if they asked. Usually, the value of a money-back guarantee is so great that you should seriously consider offering one. The point is, you might double the number of clients you attract just by offering the guarantee. And even if you do issue a refund once in a while, the fees you earn from your new clients would greatly surpass the amount you return. Also, remember, if you offer a guarantee and then decide it was not a good idea, you can always go back to your previous policy. So, don’t feel the guarantee is etched in stone. It’s for as long as you wish, and nothing more. I urge you to put your guarantee in writing and make it an integral part of your marketing materials and website. Accountability is often lacking in business today, especially in the area of professional services. You create a substantial competitive advantage for yourself and your firm when you write down all the things you guarantee to provide your clients. Then when you promote your guarantee—asserting that you do it for your clients’ protection—prospects will see immediately one more important way you differ from other lawyers. And emphasizing your competitive advantages is what marketing’s all about. n Trey Ryder shares his marketing method with lawyers through a wide range of publications. In addition, he writes and publishes his free e-zine, The Ryder Method™ of Education-Based Marketing. And he maintains the Lawyer Marketing Advisor at treyrider.com. He can be reached at trey@treyryder.com.

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