Attorney Journals, Orange County, Volume 205

The

4

For Last-Minute Trials

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.

The Biggest Marketing and Sales Obstacle Lawyers Face

by Mike O’Horo

The Conscious Competence Cycle

CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE

3

“Smooth operator”

I can do it! (but I really have to focus on what I’m doing).

UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE

4

“Second nature”

I don’t even have to think about it, the skill is automatic.

The biggest marketing and sales obstacle lawyers face is unconscious incompetence. It means you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s one of the four stages of competence. This matters because one characteristic of that stage is overconfidence about your innate ability to generate business, based on ignorance of what it actually takes to generate business.

Unconscious incompetence isn’t unique to lawyers or to business generation. It’s a universal experience. We all begin there whenever we encounter something new, whether it’s our ability to understand a new concept, or perform a new skill.

The problem is that this blindness makes us unable to recognize a skill deficiency. If we’re not deficient, why would we seek help? That’s why so many of us must learn almost everything through the School of Hard Knocks.

Here’s a common, if somewhat frivolous, example.

Let’s say we’re talking about golf. Since I’ve never played, I’m definitely at unconscious incompetence. Comparing golf to other sports I’ve played, in my ignorance I may conclude, “How tough can it be? The ball isn’t moving; it

CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE

2

“Taking up the gauntlet”

I realize how difficult the skill is to master and how much I have to learn.

UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE

1

“Blissful ignorance”

I have no knowledge of the skill; how to do it or why it is important.

sits there and waits for you to hit it. There’s no shot clock, so you can take as long as you want. There’s no defender, and everybody has to be real still and quiet so as not to distract you. How tough can it be?” With that mindset, why would I buy golf lessons? I don’t think I need them.

Any golfers reading this are chuckling at my naivete, and can’t wait for me to give it a try so they can have a laugh as I disabuse myself of this foolish notion. So, I go out on the course and try to play, with predictable difficulty. Only after I’ve struggled can I appreciate that there’s a lot more to being able to play than I was aware of. I’ve just progressed to Conscious Incompetence; I now know what I don’t know. One thing I know for sure is that I definitely will need some help learning the game. Only now do I experience any desire or need for lessons. There’s always more to any skill than meets the eye. Few lawyers have much experience at all with real selling, much less doing so in a competitive environment. As a result, most believe that what they’ve seen or read is the totality of it. Others believe that it’s innate, the exclusive province of “naturals.” That belief sometimes takes the

form of, “It can’t be learned; you either have it or you don’t.” Obviously, holding either view won’t make you seek training, or even make use of it if it’s given to you.

Worse, there’s a whole generation of lawyers who made lots of rain for a long time without ever learning how to do it. Giving proper respect to the time and effort they expended, their results were more the product of the sustained demand for legal service, and the associated pricing power, that existed for more than 20 years until around 2009. If everybody’s buying, and they’re not overly concerned about price, and your firm’s brand or your economic/social circumstance gives you access to buyers, how much skill do you really need?

As you know, times have changed. Demand is flat at best, and there are many, many more competitors chasing a slice of the same pie. Showing up with impressive credentials is no longer enough. These are the ultracompetitive conditions under which all your clients must get their business. So, now, you have to have the same marketing and sales knowledge and skills they have.

Their marketers and salespeople aren’t naturals. Your clients spend big money on marketing and sales training; it’s irrational to expect yourself to acquire these skills by some magical means.

Get help from somewhere, whether it’s a friend who has the combination of business generation skills and teaching/coaching skills, and is willing to devote the time to guide you for the duration, or professionals inside your firm, or one of the many professional trainers and coaches serving the legal profession. Or, you can buy online training inexpensively, and supplement it with coaching.

From whatever source, get help. Otherwise, you’ll have to learn everything the hard, expensive way, and you simply don’t have the time.

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

Attorneys often have sticker shock when they realize just how much good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) costs. The truth is that SEO, when done the ethical way in accordance with Google’s best practices, is time-intensive. It’s not just adding some keywords to your web page titles and meta descriptions.

However, plenty of agencies charge high prices—and price is not always correlated to quality. So, why is SEO so darn expensive? And how can you tell the good legal SEO agencies from the bad, if the pricing is the same?

Here’s why SEO costs so much, including a breakdown of set-up and ongoing SEO activities, the skills and training required to successfully execute on SEO, and timelines for actually getting results.

Ethical, Effective SEO Is Time-Intensive

Let’s say you want to grow your law firm as quickly as possible.

• You create a new website on Wix, cramming as many relevant keywords as you can fit.

• You throw up some content on Instagram and Facebook and pay for some backlinks.

• You dump a ton of money into Pay-Per-Click (PPC) to generate immediate leads.

After four weeks, your get-rich-quick scheme may be sending you traffic via PPC. But after two months, you probably still won’t be ranking on Google or in the Map Pack. You’ll be left with digital assets that may need to be completely reworked, and now you have less money to make it happen.

Instead, let’s consider ethical, effective SEO.

This involves creating a comprehensive SEO approach that includes all your online platforms, producing valuable content to help you rank organically, earning backlinks, and tweaking as you go along.

It will take a bit longer, but the result is a well-built SEO machine with a solid online reputation and real authority with your audience and with Google.

No amount of money or black hat techniques can trick the algorithm (not for long, at least). If you want to continue to

Why Is SEO for Law Firms so Expensive?

by Omnizant

grow your business past the first flush, embrace the algorithm’s natural SEO limits with organic, ethical link-building and valuable content.

First, You Need to Do Research and Craft a Strategy

You need to craft an SEO strategy that is completely customized for your business.

This research process must be thoroughly completed before the launch of any SEO campaigns, otherwise you’re just dumping money down the drain.

• Keyword research

• Extensive research of your specific market

• Competitor research

The key is to dig into your unique niche, then find out who is already ranking well in your target market. Now you can unpack their strategies to rival and surpass them with your own unique approach.

It’s also critical to know your firm’s capacity to execute. There’s no point in creating an SEO plan that requires peoplepower or money that you simply can’t allocate right now.

This set-up process can take several weeks, depending on your niche, your location, your current digital assets, and your goals.

Next, You Need to Execute Your SEO Strategy Consistently and Skillfully

Now it’s time to execute on your legal SEO strategy. This means building a website and everything below.

Technical skills: Search intent analysis; keyword research; coding; report pulling with Google Search Console; forecasting; website management and rebuilds; conversion tracking

Content skills: Content writing and editing for practice area pages, blog articles, long-form content pages; social media content creation; industry expertise (and hiring attorneys like we do adds a premium cost)

Off-site optimization: Earning links from reputable publications; creating guest posts for third-parties

Skill and consistency are the two most important elements of a successful SEO strategy.

From crafting a review-generation strategy to creating content and managing technical website issues, SEO requires consistent effort over a long period of time. This includes daily, weekly, and monthly activities. SEO can take between three to six months to see organic results.

Most firms hire an SEO agency because the work is too specialized and too extensive for existing staff to manage. In other words, you can get great results with a skilled team and consistent effort—but it does come at a cost.

Maintenance and Ongoing Improvements Are Non-Negotiable to Keep Your Ranking

Set-up is only half the battle with SEO. Do not be fooled by an agency that promises to set you up for success with a high fee up-front and no maintenance!

Ongoing maintenance is necessary for every single part of your digital presence.

While it’s relatively quick to set up a Google Business Profile, you need to post updates and monitor reviews to optimize your visibility. This takes time.

You also need to review your reports to learn what works and what doesn’t work. Then, you need to pivot your optimization strategy as needed. This means ongoing site enhancements and

A/B testing of landing pages, CTAs, and other messaging.

As the algorithm changes and your competitors adapt, you need to change, too. Did you know that Google makes thousands of changes every year.?

SEO Requires a Diverse Skillset and a Devoted Team

As you can see, managing SEO with a dynamic content strategy requires a ton of time and commitment. It also requires a diverse team—not just one jack-of-all-trades.

SEO success is possible. Your goals are not too big! You just need to spend some money.

Hire a team that’s capable of executing on your vision, rather than expecting top results from an overworked, non-expert team.

Review and Next Steps

Without a comprehensive digital presence built with SEO in mind—and without a skilled, devoted team to manage your SEO strategy—any initially exciting results will fizzle out.

Instead, invest in skilled help and ongoing support from a legal SEO agency. n

Since 2006, Omnizant’s team of digital marketing experts, designers, developers and writers has helped over 2,000 law firms develop powerful websites that drive business growth. Learn more at www.omnizant.com.

Paul D. Woodard PARTNER

Corey F. Schechter PARTNER

Butterfield Schechter LLP is San Diego County’s largest firm focusing its law practice primarily on employee benefit legal services. Our experience in employee benefits law and business law provides creative solutions for the most pressing business concerns. We are also dedicated to employee ownership and know all things ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plans). Learn more at www.bsllp.com.

According to a national survey, the number 1 fear people have is speaking in public. Fear of dying is ranked number 7. So just remember when you attend your next funeral that more people would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy.

I realize speaking is not for everyone, but if you enjoy speaking or educating people in a group, then speaking and seminars can be one of the best ways to grow your practice. There are very few practice areas I can think of whose marketing efforts would not benefit from participating in some form of education-based seminars or presentations. Giving a seminar or presentation can give you massive credibility, if it’s done correctly. It is also a proven lead generator, if the follow-up is efficient.

For those litigators and trial attorneys, giving a seminar is old hat. You educate your juries on a regular basis and often some of the best public speakers I’ve seen are the trial attorneys. For the rest of us, there are many options to select from. Here are seven common ways you can implement speaking to generate more clients for your law firm:

• Give a public seminar or presentation

• Give a private, client-only seminar in your office

• Give an after-dinner presentation to a group of clients brought together by one of your referral partners

• Give a presentation over a conference bridge line (teleseminar or webinar)

• Be one of the experts on a panel with affiliated professionals (a banker, another attorney, a CPA or financial advisor)

• Give a keynote speech to a trade association

• Be the moderator/facilitator of a panel discussion

How to Generate New Law Firm Clients Using Speaking and Seminars

by Stephen Fairley

There are three basic types of seminars you can participate in:

Wholesale Seminars

This is where you work with a referral partner who sets up a meeting with his or her existing clients and you speak to their clients and educate them about what you do. A common example of this is when an estate planning attorney works with a local financial advisor and speaks to the advisor’s clients on asset protection strategies.

One of our estate planning clients used this type of seminar very successfully when he teamed up with a wellknown certified financial planner. The advisor had a large client base and they spent a few thousand dollars each month on promoting the events via ads in local newspapers. They held most of the seminars for two hours on a Saturday morning and usually had 30 to 60 people show up. Each person spoke for about an hour. We helped our client implement a strong follow-up program and by the second event he was signing up 30-40% of the attendees for a free estate planning consultation! He was able to sign up over 60% of those people as new clients with an average fee of $3,500. When you do the math, if they only had 30 people show up per event and only 30% of them signed up for a free consult (9 people) and he closed 60% (that’s 5 new clients) at $3,500 each, that means that particular seminar was worth $17,500 in new work for the firm. Now multiply that by one to two seminars per month and you can quickly see how this can add up.

Retail Seminars

This is where you set up a public seminar (this can be free or paid) and you invite people to attend and listen to your presentation. For example, a small business attorney can invite local business owners to attend a halfday seminar on common legal issues faced by growing

companies. I’m not sure why, but many attorneys seem to do this kind of seminar for free. I’m more in favor of charging a reasonable fee, as long as you are going to provide good content for attendees. This not only keeps out the tire kickers and your competitors, but also generally attracts a more serious person to your event. A retail or public seminar is usually the most expensive to conduct because you must market them heavily to generate enough attendees to make it worth your while. If you select to conduct retail seminars I recommend you either do a series (perhaps one topic each quarter) or you hold the same seminar multiple times per month or year. This is the model we use for our Rainmaker Retreat two-day law firm marketing boot camps for attorneys. We hold the same event 10-12 times per year across the country.

Referral Partner Seminars

This kind of seminar involves speaking to a group of potential or existing referral partners in a group setting. For example, you set up a meeting of CPAs and speak to them about how to generate cross-referrals with your law firm and how the two professions can work seamlessly together to better serve the client. Alternatively, you go to your local CPA society and offer to give a seminar at an upcoming meeting about a topic of interest to CPAs. As someone who makes their living from speaking, I know it can be a difficult, yet rewarding form of marketing. Yet, I always have attorneys come up to me afterwards and say something like this, “I gave a speech once and I didn’t get any new business from it.” Well, if you find yourself among the skeptics, here are some critical law firm marketing tips to remember so you can achieve better results from your speaking and presenting efforts.

Tip 1: Only Speak to Decision Makers

The first important tip is to always speak to the right group, and the right group are decision makers, not gate keepers! Make sure you get in front of the right group—people who can either refer you clients or who are highly likely to need, want and be able to afford your services. You can best accomplish this by asking the following questions:

• What is your average attendee like?

• What are the typical job titles of attendees?

• What is the size of the average attendance?

• What percentage of your usual attendees are decision makers?

• What kinds of topics have had the best turnout?

• Who has recently spoken to your group and what did they speak about? How did that go?

Tip 2: Educate Your Audience

Make sure your talk is about something they care about. Make it educational. Do not stand up there and spout legal jargon and legal theory or sections and codes because that’s not what people want, unless your audience is other attorneys. Most audiences want practical, useful information they can take away and immediately implement.

Give them lots of practical, useful information that will help them. You may say, “Well, I don’t want to give away the store. I don’t want to give them so much information that they can do it themselves.” Please understand, if you could give them enough information where they could do it themselves, the people who actually would do it for themselves and not hire you are not good prospects for you.

You want to target the people who have the money to hire an attorney and do not want to do it for themselves because they either understand the risks of doing so or simply do not have the time, energy, effort or expertise needed to successfully complete the task. You do not want to hire tire kickers or “do it yourself-errs” because they typically will only hire you if you have an absolutely ridiculously low price. At the Rainmaker Retreats, we actually follow the opposite principle. We purposefully try to overwhelm our audience with so much practical, useful, step-by-step information. Why? Because we want them to walk out of the room with so many great ideas that they don’t know where to start so they will turn to us and hire us to implement a proven law firm marketing plan for them.

You must recognize that not everyone in every audience is in your target market and you need to qualify them as much as they qualify you! You want to ensure they need you, they want you and they can afford your prices. If you don’t want to attract “yellow page clients” then don’t charge yellow page prices.

Tip 3: Obtain All the Attendees’ Contact Information

Ideally, you want the attendees’ contact information before they ever come to your event. If you are speaking for an association, simply ask for it (be specific and ask for their first and last name, email and phone in an excel file), sometimes they will give it to you and other times they won’t. Either way, have a plan for obtaining the attendees’ contact information at your presentation. If the conference organizer will not give it to you, simply do a giveaway for a prize. You can try to be a little creative in your giveaways without going overboard like a bestselling book, a gift card to a local restaurant, a digital camera, a set of golf clubs, a coupon for a massage, tickets to a play at a theater, or a nice bottle of wine. Simply have them pass their business cards to the front or pass out 3×5 cards and have them fill out their full name, phone and email address and pass it to the front. Do a drawing for the prize at the end of your seminar. Obtaining their contact information is critical for success in speaking and seminar marketing.

Tip 4: The Fortune Is in the Follow-up

If you are a regular reader of this column, you have heard me say this before: the fortune is in the follow-up! The number one reason why lawyers don’t achieve great results from speaking and seminars is because they don’t have a written follow-up system. You must develop a follow-up strategy before your talk. Let’s say your followup strategy is a series of emails, phone calls and maybe a letter or postcard. Your follow-up system would include 4 emails, 3 phone calls and 1 letter.

• Email 1 would be sent within 24 hours post-seminar. It would be a thank you email with an offer for a free consultation, a special report or an audio CD.

• Phone Call 1 would be made by your staff and would be made within 24 hours post-seminar. The call would be to thank them for attending and make the same free offer that’s made in the email.

• Letter 1 would be sent out the next day (they should receive it within 3 days if they are local) and the letter would repeat what you have written in the email.

• All of this would happen in the first 24 hours after the seminar. Some of you will question if that’s too aggressive an approach. Let me assure you, it is not. A quick follow-up system like this demonstrates a high level of professionalism and commitment to your attendees. It tells them that you care about them and most of them will be impressed that you followed up so quickly.

• Email 2 is sent three to five days after the event. Remind them about the seminar they attended and invite them to sign up for a consultation or your newsletter.

• Email 3 might offer a brief tip about the topic you spoke about: top 10 tips or recommended resources, etc.

• Every person should be followed up with at least three phone calls before you stop trying to reach them.

• Every attendee should receive at least 5-7 emails and 1-2 printed letters from your law firm. If you use this kind of follow-up system, you will find significantly better results from your seminars and marketing efforts. Make sure you have a follow-up system in place before your presentation and make sure you have your staff doing most of the work. Your focus is on becoming a powerful Rainmaker for your law firm, serving your clients with excellence and bringing in new clients. 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.

Ring ... ring ... ring ... ring ... ring ... Goodbye. Chalk up another lost client to your front desk. How seriously have you invested time and money into your intake department?

Before you answer that, let’s step back a minute and consider the story of the young fisherboy. This angler grew up on the river with his father learning the art and craft of fishing. His dad would catch the fish and let his boy zealously reel them in, one by one. Eventually, the boy accepted the process of taking the rod from his father each time he had one hooked.

Eventually, one day his father stopped going fishing with him and depended on his son to bring home dinner. The boy soon realized that he could no longer rely on his old process of depending on his father’s ability to set the hook.

He had to learn to set the hook himself.

I implore you, teach your staff how to set the hook. Stop treating your website leads like they’re referrals.

The Problem With Referrals

There’s no doubt that referrals are the best possible lead source. It is said that the average company generates 65% of its new business from referrals (NYT). Furthermore, your clients are said to be four times more likely to hire you when they are referred from a friend or from someone they trust. However, there are two major difficulties with referrals:

1. You have to pay out a hefty sum at the end of the case (for a contingency fee-based lawyer); and

2. There just aren’t enough of them.

If you have accepted those two facts, you have likely considered Internet marketing for your law firm.

The process of riding a bull is not the same process as riding a bike. Each requires its own unique techniques and training (although I can’t personally say I’ve ridden a bull). With Internet marketing, you should avoid applying your referral processes and mindset when handling your lead intake. Otherwise you risk damaging your law firm’s bottom line.

A person who calls you after finding your website on the Internet, with no prior knowledge of your firm, has no personal loyalty or ties to you or your great firm. In fact, they have no reason to hire you other than what is said in those first few

Stop Treating Your Website Leads Like They’re Referrals

by Tanner Jones

minutes when they call in. If you don’t have someone willing to greet them with exceptional service and a sales mentality, you will lose out to a law firm that does.

Referrals vs. Internet Leads

Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• Referral: A referred client will leave you a voicemail and wait for your return call.

• Internet: An internet lead will move on.

• Referral: A referred client will punch buttons through a phone tree in an effort to talk to you.

• Internet: An internet lead will hang up and call someone they can talk to immediately.

• Referral: A referred client may overlook your tired, disinterested intake “professional.”

• Internet: An internet lead assumes your intake “professional” is a reflection of your entire firm and representation ability. They move on.

I strongly urge you to stop treating your website leads like they’re referrals. You are costing your firm tens of thousands in case fees and are wasting significant marketing dollars. Consider applying a portion of your advertising toward your intake team. Hire rock stars and offer ongoing training and coaching. Your intake process is one of your most important functions to growing your case load on the Internet.

The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad. —A.K. Best n

Tanner Jones serves as the Marketing Director for Consultwebs.com, the premier provider of innovative online legal marketing to ethical U.S. law firms seeking growth and profit. Consultwebs fosters professional, long-term relationships built on trust, integrity, high quality and results. Often the first contact clients have with Consultwebs, Tanner helps law firms develop their marketing strategies, including search marketing campaigns, responsive website design, social media and pay-per-click advertising. Tanner has spoken and presented at legal marketing seminars throughout the country including the PILMMA and M&L Legal Marketing conferences. www.consultwebs.com.

CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF WINNING FOR CLIENTS

HHJ Trial Attorneys celebrates five years of excellence in winning complex and high-profile cases, driven by a dedication to total client service and never backing down from taking any case to trial.

by Dan Baldwin

I think the difference between then and now is that I’ve been able to see and actually experience what I knew we were capable of doing from the beginning. Before, when our future as civil litigators was unknown, there was some uncertainty as to whether or not we could prove ourselves in this new area. We always believed our skills would translate in the courtroom so that we would become one of the top trial attorney firms in this arena, but we didn’t know because we hadn’t done it in a civil context. Now we know. We’ve experienced it. Now we know, factually, that not only do we have the skills and the resources to do it, but we’ve also done it. We’re really excited to see what we’re going to be doing in the future,” says Elliott Jung, Founding Partner.

Formed in 2018 by Adam Hepburn, Michael Hernandez, and Elliott Jung, HHJ Trial Attorneys has become one of Southern California’s premier personal injury and sexual abuse/sexual assault law firms. The Partners at HHJ have tried over 100 jury trials. They have won tens of millions of dollars for their clients and have been voted “Best Litigation Firm” by the San Diego Union-Tribune multiple

years in a row. With confidence in the abilities of the partners and their carefully assembled team, the firm has not shied away from taking complex and even controversial, high-profile cases against governments, insurance companies, celebrities, and large corporations. Each partner has been voted as Rising Star Super Lawyers.

Hepburn says, “Part of our success was that all three of us never thought of failure as an option. We’re all pretty confident in our own right when facing the unknown and we knew we worked incredibly well together. With the synergy we brought to the table, with all our skills and abilities, we never doubted that it would work. What we didn’t know, however, was the route it would take or the speed it would take off, and that can be challenging and scary at times. We are very grateful for our success as a team because we know very well that success is never guaranteed when you form a new law firm. The common denominator amongst the partners was that we would just keep grinding until we got where we wanted to be, and I think that’s our same mentality today.”

© Bauman Photographers

The HHJ Trial Attorneys: Adam Hepburn, Partner, Elliott H. Jung, Partner and Michael Hernandez, Partner

Hernandez says that from the beginning, the firm’s focus would be on serving the needs of the client above the needs of the business’s bottom line. “We try to be the best law firm and get the best for our client. It’s not about how much money we can earn from a given case. We work to make every client happy—period. That often results in referrals on bigger cases and other attorneys trusting us. When we get referrals from other attorneys, we make sure to be aggressive with the case and make sure they know they obtained value in coming to us. That’s the biggest compliment. People trust us enough to send us their friends, relatives and business associates and the only way to earn that is by making sure every client walks away happy.”

“The strength we have in numbers and resources to be able to prosecute people who have caused some type of injury to our clients is much more powerful when combined with our trial experience gained over the past decade. That combination is a very big threat against people who are doing wrong,” Jung says.

“Michael and his team were so great during this entire process. They helped me to get a pretty significant settlement from my case and they were never delayed in any of the processes. I am confident that had I not “fired” the first attorney that I started to work with and called HHJ trial attorneys, I would not have gotten the results that I got with HHJ. You can’t go wrong with working with these guys to settle your case.” —Khala

Barkus

GOING THE LIMIT

One of the firm’s strengths gained between “then and now” is their reputation for total client service, including a willingness and an ability to take any case to trial—to refuse to back down regardless of the apparent odds against them.

A high-profile sexual assault case makes the point. The firm’s client was a young female who graduated from college and had moved into the job force. She experienced a sexual assault during her college years and because of the trauma, she began therapy. She went to a facility named PsyCare, which set her up with a male therapist. He started to groom her by asking her questions such as how often she masturbated, did she find him attractive, and he even started putting her in role-playing scenarios in which he played the part of her boyfriend.

Months later, at the end of the therapy sessions and when she was about to move out of state, he asked her if she wanted to have a sexual relationship with him. She said yes. They had sexual intercourse at a hotel the next week and then he left and had no further contact with her.

HHJ sued PsyCare and the employee. They reached a settlement with the employee, but PsyCare said they weren’t going to pay anything because they had done nothing wrong. HHJ confirmed that they would be moving forward with a jury trial. During the discovery process, HHJ learned that six months earlier another female had filed a complaint against the same employee for making improper sexual comments to her during a therapy intake session. The case was based on his prior conduct and that PsyCare had acted negligently for not firing him or for continuing to allow him to see female patients and thereby putting those clients at risk of harm.

A week before trial, PsyCare’s attorney called Hernandez and said, “I have been doing this for 16 years. You have no case and it won’t get past in limine motions. She said that she was going to go after our firm and the client when she wins the case for malicious prosecution.” She followed up with a 998 for zero dollars and an agreement not to sue us. During trial, the

Elliott H. Jung, Partner

Adam Hepburn, Partner

© Bauman Photographers

© Bauman Photographers

defense relied on the fact that they created a 6-month review plan where he had to speak with a supervisor every week for an hour to discuss his clients. They said that was more than enough to protect the public from future harm. Hernandez and Jung concentrated on the grooming, the fact PsyCare knew the employee was a predator and chose to put their clients at risk when they continued sending female patients with boundary issues with men to a person that knowingly had boundary issues with women.

Unintimidated, HHJ tried the case before a San Diego jury and won a $1.75 million verdict, which is one of the highest medical malpractice verdicts in San Diego history. The jury found PsyCare 60 percent wrong and the therapist 40 percent at fault.

Hernandez says, “It was the confidence and the knowledge in our skills that gave us the ability to push that case forward because all the way up until trial, the representatives for PsyCare were telling us to dismiss the case immediately and that if we didn’t do that, they’d be going after our plaintiff. Another firm, lacking the confidence and skills and understanding that we had at that point, might have folded quickly in the face of those challenges. We did not. We knew we were doing the right thing. People know now that we will take a case, no matter how challenging, all the way to protect our client.”

Jung says, “We have really started to specialize in sexual assault cases. For example, we currently have a case against a large youth organization where a young woman was sexually assaulted for years. The new statutes passed in the last few years allow so many more survivors of abuse to obtain justice against their perpetrators. These cases are extremely important because they are very common and too many people are

unwilling to speak up about these situations. They are very dark experiences, but they’re righteous cases for the ones we believe we should stand up for. The subject matter is tough. The cases are not easy, but we know we’re doing the right thing for the right people.”

AN IDEAL MATCH FROM THE START

Hernandez says, “Adam and I were roommates in law school, and we started at the public defender’s office together. We had a plan to ultimately leave the office and form our own civil law firm. Elliott was an attorney working with us and he was crushing a lot of trials—handling complex criminal trials. We thought he’d be a good addition to the firm. We asked him if he wanted to join and the next day he agreed.”

They had the right formula for success from the beginning. “If we had three Adams in the firm, things would not work out. If we had three Michaels this firm would not operate. If we had three Elliotts, we would never survive. The different personalities, abilities, and talents coming together make it work. We have similarities, but the differences meld,” Jung says.

Hepburn says, “That’s the biggest mystery to most people. The reality is we’re like brothers. We have discussions, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a heated argument. We are all extremely cool-headed and we don’t get into confrontation with each other or anyone else. If there’s a problem, we figure it out and avoid pointing fingers at each other. The most important consideration for me in choosing whom to partner with was asking the question of: Who do I want at my side in tough times who won’t freak out when really difficult challenges arise? Elliot and Michael are people I’ve never seen freak out over a single thing in life. All of us focus on the solution and just get on with it.”

The effectiveness of HHJ in serving their clients is in large part due to the assembly of a remarkable group of professionals and the building of a firm culture devoted to the client rather than the dollar. The firm now has a staff of 12, including six attorneys.

The three partners manage the firm with the input of their head paralegal, Shelby Cardoza. “She is the ‘mother hen’ of our group. We take on a lot of cases for other firms and everyone who has worked with Shelby says she’s the best paralegal they’ve ever seen. Even opposing counsel has tried to recruit her multiple times. The fact that our staff is so loyal speaks to the quality of our firm’s culture,” Hernandez says.

“Recruiting the right people is a skill we had to learn. That’s another ‘then and now’ difference. Having the right culture at the firm to recruit the right people is essential and we’ve been able to do that. We’ve created a culture of people who are dedicated to our clients, who want to work hard, and who obviously want to work here, but because we’ve built this strong foundational team of exceptional people, it has allowed us to do so much more as a firm,” Jung says.

Michael Hernandez, Partner

© Bauman Photographers

Hernandez says, “Our staff, our case managers, paralegals, and our associates are so good, they allow us to be more creative and to take on other issues that we never would have been able to tackle, but for their amazing abilities. They are phenomenal.”

THEN AND NOW ... LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD

Creating a new business in a complex and highly competitive environment is a challenging prospect. For Adam Hepburn, Michael Hernandez, and Elliott Jung and for HHJ Trial Attorneys, the challenges of the past have helped create great prospects for the future.

“I felt very competent as an attorney in general, but when you’re going into a new area of law you can experience things that come out of left field. After doing this now for years, I feel very confident in taking on novel cases in a slightly different area of the law because I know the skill set is the same, but the laws just may be a little different. But no matter what, I know I’m going to do a really good job. And I say that for each of us. We’ve taken on a case or two where initially we thought we might need to associate with other, more experienced attorneys in a specific field only to discover we didn’t need to do that. We had what it takes from the beginning,” Hernandez says.

Hepburn says, “I don’t think there is a ‘secret sauce’ to success. There are just times when the right circumstances come together with the right people who are effective at what they do. I think our firm does that. When we started,

our motto was to treat every client as if they were a member of our family. That’s easily tossed around, but if you are an attorney and you really do act that way and you really do treat every client as if they’re a member of your family and you’re thinking about how I need to be fighting for this person as if they were my spouse, my cousin, that makes all the difference. It becomes life-or-death and you have to win for this person. We’ve abided by that since we started.”

Jung compares the firm and especially the partners to Watchmen. “We need people in our industry willing to take a chance for people who don’t have any money or resources or ability to push these cases forward, we have the legal ability as a contingency fee attorney to put up our own abilities and our own resources for cases we believe in. We want to be those Watchmen who say, ‘Hey, if you’re a defendant and you’ve done something wrong that hurts our client, we’re coming.’”

The HHJ Trial Attorney Team

Leadership and management need to exist in every financially and professionally successful law firm. The terms “leadership” and “management” are not synonyms. In simplistic terms, the leadership role is the ability of an individual or group of partners to influence other partners and associates to follow in the achievement of common goals. Management, on the other hand, is the coordination by the managing partner and/or management committee of the cooperative activities of all or most of the attorneys by executing the functions of planning, control, organizing, staffing direction and taking corrective actions, as required.

Good law firm management cannot be achieved until all the partners agree to subordinate some of their independence to a managing partner or a management committee. The partners must strike a balance between their rights as owners and their responsibilities as members of the firm. They must relinquish some personal prerogatives to achieve the overall results that they would not be able to attain on their own.

Some law firms are financially successful despite the managerial abilities of their partners. These firms have attracted highly skilled attorneys who are able to perform high-quality work for financially successful clients. However, in today’s highly competitive environment in which most firms practice, the fact that partners may be high-quality lawyers is not enough. Leadership and sound management practices are required to manage the firm’s resources, ensure adequate cash flow and develop and implement the marketing and planning processes.

In theory, all partners are created equal. By dint of partnership status, they are accorded the same rights and privileges. However, as many firms quickly discover, that is simply not the case in practice. Invariably, each of the partners has his or her own idea about how to perform their job and exercise their authority accordingly.

Relationship of Leadership to Management in a Law Firm

by Joel A. Rose

Members Must Be Willing

If a firm is to continue to be professionally and financially successful, a designated leader, whether a managing partner or management committee, will not succeed unless and until all attorneys in the firm recognize that the impetus for successful management is derived from the willingness of all firm members to be governed.

The partners must also recognize that managing a firm, either as the managing partner or a member of a committee, is as important and as complex as performing client work.

In some firms, the leadership role is assumed easily and quite naturally either because the individual is a founding partner or because he or she controls a significant client base. In firms where the partners are relatively young and inexperienced, the process of natural selection, as it were, may be somewhat more difficult. In situations in which no partner surfaces as a natural leader, or no one wants the job, the firm must take aggressive action if it wishes to grow and satisfy the professional, economic and personal objectives of its members.

What Kind of Manager?

The firm must make some hard-and-fast decisions about the kind and type of leadership that is required and what the members are willing to live with.

Should the general partnership elect a managing partner? Should this individual be appointed by the management committee? Sometimes, the size of the firm will preclude this particular dilemma. The small firm is in a position to establish a democratic form of governance that includes all the partners in a leadership role. Where that is not practical, the partners face a difficult choice and risk setting up two formal or informal power centers. This will create great potential for dissension and divisiveness since the camp will inevitably follow its choice of leadership when given the opportunity to make the selection.

What kind of individual makes a good leader? Generally, lawyers are not recruited to a law firm on the basis of their interest or skills in leadership. And more often than not, they are not trained by the firm in those skills. Consequently, lawyers’ skill and interest in leadership vary greatly. As a result, the composition of any management committee will consist of attorneys who are good leaders and those who are not.

For as relevant as leadership skills are when an attorney is being selected to serve as managing partner or as a member of a management committee, they are not necessarily the only factors that should be considered. It may be equally as important, or perhaps more so, to provide equitable representation on the committee to all the different groups of lawyers that make up a law firm.

The Requisite Qualities

The requisites for leadership are, in this day and age, well known:

• The leader must garner respect and support, be an excellent communicator and have clout and wield it when necessary. For practical reasons, it may be difficult for a junior partner to be a successful managing partner. The managing partner must keep the objectives of the firm in proper perspective. He or she must be able to rise above self and understand that the good of the firm must come first.

• The managing partner must be able to make decisions and have them stick. The managing partner must want to manage the firm. Many partners want to have a great deal of say in firm operations, however, they stop short of following up on their advice or opinions with any sort of recognizable action. This kind of management by debate leads many a management committee down the blind alley of endless discussions and meetings. That is not the way to manage a law firm and it is not what most lawyers want to do in their professional lives.

• It generally can be agreed that both the managing partner and members of the management committee, as lawyers, want to practice law. The amount of time available for management is limited and must be used wisely.

• While there are responsibilities that the committee and managing partner should fulfill, their principal role should be to make sure the important aspects of the firm’s operational activities are being managed.

• There are some management functions that need to be performed by the managing partner or the management committee that normally should not be delegated. There are other tasks that may be performed by either of these lawyer managers, but that may also be performed by other lawyers or a qualified law firm administrator.

• Assigning the responsibility for various functions should depend on making certain that the managing partner and the committee are charged with those functions that require their specific talent, energy and interest. Where the responsibility for those other functions is placed should depend on the firm, making certain that the managing partner or the management committee have time to perform the functions that only they can perform before they take on additional responsibilities.

Charting a Course

In assessing his or her role, the managing partner needs to realize that attorneys’ expectations regarding the practice of law may well be different from the expectations that attorneys held a decade ago. These expectations may have changed in regard to hours of work, specialization, income, risk, independence and ethics. Today’s attorneys have a greater desire to know the reasons behind decisions and to participate in decision-making.

The managing partner has to consider how the generational backgrounds and financial expectations of the new crop of attorneys have changed, and how these changes may be reflected in their attitudes, needs and financial goals. Ultimately, these changes will be reflected in the firm’s culture, how it will be managed and partners’ expectations of other partners and associates.

One of the significant problems in today’s law firms is the paucity of leadership. There are plenty of partners who may be capable of managing the firm, but their leadership component is lacking.

I have consulted with many law firms in which current mid-level and younger partners referred to certain senior partners as being the “heart and soul” of their respective firms. The former partners do not believe most of the other active partners have the leadership skills that are possessed by the senior partners.

It has been my experience that those managing partners who position themselves as firm leaders and who are eager to listen to the opinions, advice and

feedback from other partners, key thought leaders and by meeting “one-on-one” with every partner in each of the firm’s offices at least quarterly, or more frequently, as required or the opportunity warrants, have been very successful establishing and reinforcing their personal, enhanced working relationships and leadership role with the partners, especially since the development and reinforcement of personal relationships facilitate the level and quality of communications. As such, many of the more enlightened managing partners and members of management committees make it a priority to communicate with other members of the firm. Many of these successful managing partners who are perceived by their partners as leaders manage the firm by “walking the halls” and visiting their firm’s other offices and speaking with partners and associates as a major component contributing to successfully enhancing communications between themselves and the attorneys.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, since it is the work that binds and unifies the partners and associates. The leadership skills possessed by the prudent managing partner or members of the firm’s management committee will recognize the need to chart a course that mediates between the requirements of the practice of law and professional, personal and financial objectives of those attorneys who will perform the work. n

Joel A. Rose enjoyed a career as a certified management consultant and president of Joel A. Rose & Associates Inc., management consultants to law firms based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He had extensive experience consulting with private law firms and performs and directs consulting assignments in law firm management and organization, strategic and financial planning, lawyer compensation, the feasibility of mergers and acquisitions, and the marketing of legal services.

To schedule, contact Haward Cho: (213) 683-1600 and (619) 233-1323 or haward@adrservices.com

Short summaries (one-paragraph), organized by legal topic, of every new published CA civil case, helping CA attorneys save time, win more, and make more money. Monthly, quarterly, annual, and annual practice area publications are available. Subscribe at www.cacasesummaries.com

Monty A. McIntyre, Esq. Mediator, Arbitrator & Referee ADR Services, Inc.

You’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again, about the importance of ‘rich, quality content’. The holy-grail in the online world is content that is worth reading and worth sharing. For a long time that meant a great article, or landing page, filled with information and phrases that give the customer the answers they seek.

However, this is a world that is ever changing, and in that we begin to change our definitions. In this case, we must change the way we view rich, quality content to better adapt in this industry. What am I talking about? Media, but not just smiling faces scattered in bio pages, and battered up vehicles at the top of a car accident page. I mean rich, high-quality infographics, videos, eBooks, webinars; re-creating content not just to include the written word but the vast resource that is visual media.

It’s a new step in an ever changing staircase, and it can seem like a bit of a mystery to begin. You may be asking yourself: What kind of resources best fit my firm? How do I know if this is high quality or not? Below I have a short list of some dos and don’ts to get you started in better utilizing media to represent your brand.

DOs

Know Your Demographic

The first step to any branding, or media marketing, is to know the groups you are targeting. Whether you cover a range of practice areas, or one specific niche, if you do not understand your demographic you will fail to utilize the potential of your media. An important first step is to not only look at the data of your potential clients, but to understand their potential questions and needs. In doing this you can use your media to better embellish your content to fit their needs, and create authenticity in your brand.

Create Original Content

It’s a no-brainer, but the more original your content, the more your firm will stand out from your competitors. In a world in constant competition to be the best, relying on outdated and unoriginal content is a quick way to be left behind. Whether you set up a space in your office to film testimonials, or hire

Dos and Don’ts of Representing Your Brand

by Ashleigh Walker

a professional to take photos around your firm, time spent on original media is well invested.

Branch Out!

We are learning more and more the importance of using media throughout a site. Not only does this break up content, but it gives your site a better sense of harmony throughout. There are so many forms of media that can be utilized in a site to create better user interaction and conversions, such as infographics, eBooks, and Webinars for a more visual and informative experience to your firm.

Align with Your Brand Goals

No amount of effort or hard work is going to matter if at the end of the day you’re not consistent with your firm’s goals and beliefs. Are you focused on helping the customer throughout their process? Do you aim to answer any questions they may have?

Do you want your name to be the first thing that they think of when they need representation? Use your firm ideals to help you create content, and let it become a resource for your site. If you try to create content based on what others are doing, it will come off as forced, whereas incorporating your ideals will make your content and media authentic.

DON’Ts

Don’t Underestimate Quality

What is one of the largest differences between a successful site, and one that fails to rank month after month? Quality. Quality content has been important in success for some time, and this is no exception for our media. Whether you are filming a video answering questions related to a practice area, or simply adding photos to a new landing page, nothing shouts ‘turn back now’ quite like low resolution and poor lighting.

Ignoring the importance of high-quality media is showing a potential client that you don’t take the time to ensure quality in your firm. Rachel Harmon touches on this further in her article on how photography could lose your business.

Don’t Settle for Stock Images

While stock images may be the quick and inexpensive way to include media in your site, there are downsides to using them. Stock images are taken with the purpose of being used for a variety of different things, which makes finding a photo for any situation particularly hassle free, but as a result stock images can make a site feel predictable and cliché, which is not how you want a client to view your firm.

Don’t Oversell Yourself

While at first it may seem like a good idea to spice up the areas your firm excels in, don’t be too eager to put everything out there. Marketing is making a shift, and big boastful promises are no longer a gimmick that people trust. With a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, people don’t want to feel tricked into thinking you’re the best; they want to be shown that you are through your actions and services.

Your job is not to shout from the rooftops with big bold promises in advertisements all across your site, but rather to provide the answers that your clients are looking for when they open up their search engine. Making promises for service that you don’t uphold is a fast way to taint your brand, and leave customers feeling unsatisfied.

Don’t Rely on Content Alone

One of the most important things your site can have is highquality, authoritative content. This shows that you know what you’re talking about and makes the client trust your firm; but good content is wasted when it sits on a blank page in blocks for the consumer to read. In our fast-paced world, content is not being absorbed in the same ways that it once was, and the importance of hooking them into the content is much more important.

One of the fastest ways that you can break up a text-heavy page is to add media. Create a video that explains the practice area the page is about, have an infographic that goes into further detail, or create an eBook that people can download for later use. Things like this tend to increase customer retention and are a direct polish to your growing brand. n

Ashleigh Walker is an Analyst, Ashleigh assists Consultwebs’ Marketing Consultants with creating and executing client online campaigns. Her work includes everything from conducting on-site technical reviews to brainstorming monthly content plans. Additionally, as an Analyst, Ashleigh delves deep into clients’ websites to determine what can be done to improve their online presence in a manner that best reflects the law firm’s brand and goals. https://www.consultwebs.com.

Marketing is a crucial aspect of growing any business, and law firms are no exception.

Small law firms may face unique challenges when it comes to marketing. In this blog, we will discuss some common pitfalls to avoid when marketing your small law firm.

Don’t Ignore the Importance of Reviews

Reviews are an essential component of any marketing strategy, and small law firms are no exception. Potential clients are increasingly turning to platforms like Google to research law firms and read about others’ experiences before deciding to work with them.

Ignoring reviews can be a costly mistake. If you have negative reviews, especially ones that are left and not replied to or addressed by your office, potential clients may be hesitant to work with you. On the other hand, positive reviews can help build trust and credibility with potential clients.

To avoid this pitfall, make sure you actively monitor and respond to reviews. Encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews of their experiences and address any negative Google reviews promptly and professionally. Reviews are also a great way to increase your visibility on Google’s “map pack,” which is an important resource for local SEO for law firms!

Not Tracking Your Leads

Tracking your leads is key to the success of your marketing efforts. Without proper tracking, you may be wasting time and money on marketing strategies that are not effective.

Tracking your leads involves collecting data on how potential clients are finding your firm, which marketing channels are driving the most leads, and which leads are converting into clients. By tracking this information, you can make informed decisions about where to allocate your marketing resources. Tracking your leads also allows you to accurately pinpoint how much revenue your firm has generated from varying efforts, and allows you to measure ROI effectively.

To avoid the mistake of not tracking where your clients are coming from, make sure you have a system in place for tracking leads. This could involve using an intake/CRM system, setting up conversion tracking on your website, or simply keeping a log of where your leads are coming from in an Excel spreadsheet. Make sure to find the best platform for your firm and keep whichever system you choose up to date.

Four Pitfalls to Avoid When Marketing Your Small Law Firm

by Louise Petersen

You’re Not Optimizing Your Website for Search

Optimizing your website for search is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy. SEO involves optimizing your website content and structure to rank higher in search engine results pages for relevant keywords.

To optimize your website for search, start by conducting keyword research to identify the keywords and phrases that potential clients are using to search for law firms like yours. From there, optimize your website content, including titles, meta descriptions, headers, and text, to include relevant keywords in a natural way.

In addition to keyword optimization, improving website speed and user experience is also essential for SEO. Websites that are slow or websites with a poor user experience may be penalized by search engines.

To avoid this pitfall, make sure your website is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and has a clear and easy-to-use navigation structure. Consider working with a web developer or legal SEO specialist to ensure your website is optimized for search.

Don’t Overwork Yourself

Marketing your law firm can be time-consuming, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially if there is no one person strictly devoted to keeping track of marketing campaigns and ideas. Small law firm owners often wear many hats, and adding marketing to the mix can lead to burnout and decreased productivity.

To avoid this pitfall, make sure you are allocating your time and resources effectively. This could involve outsourcing certain marketing tasks or setting aside dedicated time each week for marketing activities.

Additionally, prioritize marketing strategies that are low-effort and high-impact. For example, setting up a Google My Business profile takes minimal effort but can have a significant impact on your online visibility.

Marketing your small law firm can be challenging, but avoiding these common pitfalls can help you maximize your marketing efforts and grow your business. Don’t ignore the importance of reviews, track your leads, consider your website’s search visibility and prioritize marketing tactics effectively to avoid burnout. By following these tips, you can build a successful marketing strategy that helps your law firm thrive. n

Louise Petersen is an Account Manager at 9Sail, a NJbased 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.