Attorney Journals, San Diego, Volume 227

SAN DIEGO

Volume 227, 2022 $6.95

Want to Get More Done?

Think Big, Act Small

Jay Harrington

California Case Summaries

Monty A. McIntyre Why Smart Law Firms Are Hiring Salespeople

Aaron George

How to Deal with Underperforming Lawyers

Eric Dewey

20 Traits of the 100%-Capable Rainmaker

Mike O’Horo

Law Firm of the Month

20 Frustrating Things Lawyers Do While Delegating

Dina Eisenberg

10 Ways to Improve Personal Marketing and Business Development

Susan Duncan

19 Steps to Building a Regional or National Law Practice

Trey Ryder

Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys San Diego Meeting the Challenge for the Little Guy

The University of San Diego School of Law Congratulates the 2021-22 Law Firm Challenge Winners!

Firms with 10+ Alumni

Firms with 6-9 Alumni

Firms with 2-5 Alumni

100% Alumni Participation

Greatest Number of Alumni Participating

100% Alumni Participation

Finch, Thornton & Baird, LLP*

Witham, Mahoney & Abbott

Coughlan & Vinel, LLP

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Most Dollars Raised

Dallo Law Group, APC

Greatest Number of Alumni Participating

Delphi Law Group, LLP *

Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP

Gerson Law Firm APC*

RJS Law – A Tax Law Firm*

Blanchard, Krasner & French*

CaseyGerry Attorneys*

Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP*

Wingert Grebing Brubaker & Juskie LLP

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Greatest Number of Alumni Participating

Blanchard, Krasner & French* Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

CaseyGerry Attorneys*

Most Dollars Raised

Wingert Grebing Brubaker & Juskie LLP

Qualcomm *

Most Dollars Raised

Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP *

RJS – A Tax Law Firm*

CaseyGerry Attorneys * Fell Law RJS Law – A Tax Law Firm * Wingert Grebing Brubaker & Juskie LLP

To see the list of all participating firms and to join the Law Firm Challenge, visit law.sandiego.edu/lawfirmchallenge. *Special thanks to firms that have funded private student scholarships.

2022 EDITION—NO.227

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 Want to Get More Done?

Think Big, Act Small

by Jay Harrington

8 How to Deal with Underperforming Lawyers

by Eric Dewey

10 California Case Summaries

by Monty A. McIntyre

12 Twenty Traits of the 100%-Capable Rainmaker

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Brian Topor EDITOR Wendy Price

by Mike O’Horo LAW FIRM OF THE MONTH

CREATIVE SERVICES Penn Creative

16 Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys, San Diego Meeting the Challenge for the Little Guy

CIRCULATION Angela Watson PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Griffiths STAFF WRITERS Dan Baldwin Jennifer Hadley CONTRIBUTING EDITORIALISTS Eric Dewey Susan Duncan Dina Eisenberg Aaron George Jay Harrington Monty A. McIntyre Mike O'Horo Trey Ryder ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Info@AttorneyJournals.com SUBMIT AN ARTICLE Editorial@AttorneyJournals.com OFFICE 30213 Avenida De Las Banderas Suite 200 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 www.AttorneyJournals.com ADDRESS CHANGES Address corrections can be made via email or postal mail.

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16

by Dan Baldwin

22 Ten Ways to Improve Personal Marketing and Business Development

by Susan Duncan

24 Why Smart Law Firms Are Hiring Salespeople

by Aaron George

26 Nineteen Steps to Building a Regional or National Law Practice

by Trey Ryder

30 Twenty Frustrating Things Lawyers Do While Delegating

by Dina Eisenberg

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Want to Get More Done?

Think Big and Act Small

by Jay Harrington

L

awyers work hard. It’s what they do. The good news is that hard work can be deeply satisfying. It feels good to do a job well done. Accomplishment gives us meaning. Hopefully this resonates, because it’s a feeling you’ve experienced before. But it’s not just me making this assertion about the connection between hard work and happiness—academic research backs it up.

In the early 1980s, well known psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi conducted a series of studies meant to understand the psychological impact of common behaviors we engage in every day. One of the major insights of his work was to show that depth generates meaning. He found that people are actually happier doing deep work than they are relaxing. Based on his findings he concluded: “The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult or worthwhile.” Csikszentmihalyi popularized the term “flow state” that is used to describe the effortless feeling experienced by high achievers—from authors to athletes—operating at peak performance during periods of hard work.

It’s called “hard” work for a reason. Any time you’re trying to learn a new skill, or attempting to build something worthwhile, it’s hard. Most of us start enjoying something only after we get good at it. And it takes practice and hard work to get good. Take playing the guitar, for example.

Practicing guitar is painful (physically and emotionally) and frustrating for several months until enough work has been put in to build up calluses and learn the basics.

Once someone earns their calluses and their skills improve, however, guitar starts to become fun and satisfying.

Resilience is built up during the painful periods of any worthy endeavor and serves as a bridge to the other side. If you want to do something that’s satisfying, most times you have to do it when it’s not.

I’m convinced that one of the reasons career dissatisfaction is so high among associate attorneys is that we don’t do a good enough job of explaining to them that things get better

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over time as they get better and build confidence. Passion for a career is cultivated and hard won over time. Getting really good at something is the first step toward becoming passionate about it. Perhaps a young man who’s struggling wasn’t “meant” to become a lawyer in the purest sense, but he can grow and derive meaning from his career over time as his competence grows. Practice is a precursor to passion.

The point is that the type of intense work that leads to high achievement is not only remunerative, it can be psychologically rewarding as well. In light of work’s holistic benefits, it therefore makes sense to work in the most productive manner possible in order to realize the greatest benefits. What follows is my take on how to get more—and more important—things done in less time.

I’ll start with an overarching argument, which is that the best way to tackle something big and important is to: Minimize as many distractions as possible in order to create space and time to work intensely and consistently on one’s most important priorities.

Notice that this formulation consists of three elements which can be summarized and categorized as follows: (1) minimize distractions, (2) do intense, consistent work, and (3) establish important priorities.

Minimize Distractions When he was CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates would disconnect twice a year for off-site “Think Weeks” during which he would do nothing but read and think deeply. In 1845, Henry David Thoreau headed to the woods for two years to write his master work, Walden. George Orwell fled the hustle and bustle of London and escaped to a remote house on the small island of Jura off the coast of Scotland to write 1984. He described his writing sanctuary as “extremely un-get-atable.” After his standout 2014 season, All Pro defensive lineman J.J. Watt of the NFL’s Houston Texans bought a minimalist cabin in a remote area of northern Wisconsin in order to isolate himself during the offseason while upping his training regimen.

Now, as a busy lawyer, I’m not suggesting that you can or should head off to a remote location in order live and work monastically, but in order to consistently produce valuable work, you do need to find ways to minimize distractions in your day.

Distractions come in many forms. At the office: relentless email; mind numbing, soul sucking meetings; chatty colleagues; LinkedIn; phone calls; the window washing guy outside your office. At home: the kids; the dog; heaps of laundry; dirty dishes; television; Facebook; the comfy couch.

Ever go on the Internet just to check out “one thing” and emerge from a daze twenty minutes later wondering what the heck just happened? You get the idea. In fact, that “minute or two” you intend to spend online checking Facebook is costing you much more.

According to a study conducted by Gloria Mark, who studies digital distraction at the University of California, Irvine, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds for us to return to our original task after an interruption. Do the math on that during the course of an 8-hour day, and you’ll see why interruptions aren’t some trifling annoyance—they’re productivity killers.

To avoid the “work, distraction, work, distraction” cycle that leads to unproductive days, you need to set firm boundaries—for yourself and others. You need to create a work environment that fosters the type of focused work required to achieve big things.

manager you may be, it’s tough to manage through the chaos of a typical day without understanding the hierarchy of your priorities. In this sense, productive people—effective people— practice “time curation” as opposed to “time management.”

They discern. They pick and choose. They don’t multitask, they prioritize. And then they ruthlessly honor, defend and work in accordance with those priorities. In other words, when it comes to how they structure their days, they’re “essentialists.”

This is the central argument of Greg McKeown’s excellent book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. It’s a book that espouses the importance of focusing on the most important, essential tasks on your plate. McKeown describes his methodology as the “disciplined pursuit of less.” At its core, essentialism is about setting priorities. According to McKeown: “Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done.”

You can work hard, but hard work matters little if you’re working on the wrong thing. As Henry David Thoreau wrote: “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”

Before worrying about eliminating distractions and developing a deep work habit, the most important step in accomplishing big things is spending the necessary time to identify your most important priorities.

Intense, Consistent Work

Think Big and Act Small

Thinking big is expansive thinking. Thinking small is restrictive thinking. Thinking big is all about possibilities.

Thinking small is all about limitations. Have big dreams? You need to think big.

However, the size of our dreams is what often stops us from pursuing them. The task ahead seems so momentous that we don’t even start. We assume we need long blocks of uninterrupted time to make progress, and because we’re busy and don’t have long blocks of time, we just give up instead.

It’s okay—in fact, it’s necessary—to think big, and have big dreams, if you want to accomplish big things. But the way to get there is not by acting big—it’s by acting small. Success is sequential. It results from tackling lots of small things on a consistent basis, not trying to tackle everything at once.

Dominoes fall one at a time.

In practical terms, what this means is that it’s necessary to break big and unwieldy tasks into a bunch of small and manageable tasks, and then work intensely and consistently to accomplish each one. You’ve probably heard this one before because it’s timeless: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Lawyers work hard to accomplish important things. But it’s not all of the big, bold things we do during our lives and careers that lead to success. It’s the small actions taken every day that make the difference and lead to compounding results over time.

Author and marketing guru Seth Godin wrote on his blog: “The thing is, incremental daily progress (negative or positive) is what actually causes transformation. A figurative drip, drip, drip. Showing up, every single day, gaining in strength, organizing for the long haul, building connection, laying track —this subtle but difficult work is how culture changes.”

It’s how lives and careers change too.

Clear goals. The right priorities. Small, consistent actions.

This is the formula to leverage the power of progress in order to make big things happen. n

Establish Important Priorities

Jay Harrington is an attorney, executive coach, author, and legal marketing consultant. He is the owner of Harrington Communications, an agency which helps lawyers and law firms build stronger brands and bigger books of business.

His new book, The Essential Associate: Step Up, Stand Out, and Rise to the Top as a Young Lawyer, launched on April 3rd, and is available for purchase at http://www.TheEssentialAssociate.com.

There’s never enough time in the day, and you probably can’t work longer hours—at home or at the office—than you already do, so it’s important to work smarter. No matter how skilled a

Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 227, 2022

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How to Deal with Underperforming Lawyers

by Eric Dewey

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he challenges of a shrinking and intensifying competitive legal marketplace demand that firms address under-performing lawyers quickly and decisively. Business development coaching has increasingly been adopted to help these lawyers get back on track. But, is the traditional model of business development coaching effective? And, if not, what’s missing?

Others often perceive lawyers that struggle to build a client base as suffering from time management or motivational issues. As such, business development coaching services tend to focus on building better disciplines in the lawyer. While these issues may contribute to the problem, more often than not poor business development results have their roots in the makeup of the lawyer’s practice and the conditions in the firm. I call these structural issues because they create impediments to building a practice that are so familiar that most lawyers fail to recognize them.

Diagnosing the cause of a lawyer’s under-performance can be a challenge. The attorney’s practice area; their target clients; the breadth or depth of an attorney’s knowledge; the firm culture and compensation system; the maturity of the attorney’s practice; the lawyer’s matter management skills; their billing rates and competitive position; and the lawyer’s professional relationships are so varied and dynamic that no two lawyers’ practices are truly similar.

There is a pervasive belief in law firms that lawyers are the best ones to understand their own business development challenges. As the thinking goes, no one understands his or her practice and clients as well as he or she does, so surely, he or she knows what needs to be done to turn around a struggling practice. It’s not true. But too often they are left to fend for themselves.

Lawyers struggle to bring in their own clients for a variety of reason. These reasons include a lack of marketing knowledge and skills; client development challenges; firm culture or compensation issues; competitive positioning problems, and challenges associated with the structure and

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focus of their practice. The idea that focusing on a lawyer’s motivation, attitudes or time management without first determining whether the lawyer is burdened by structural issues in their practice is neither fair to the lawyer nor in the best interests of the firm.

To illustrate what I mean by ‘structural issues’, a senior partner came to me after having been unsuccessful working with three other business development coaches. On our introductory call, I reviewed his bio and quickly realized his problem. He listed experience in eight unrelated practice areas, published legal and business topics on an even broader variety of subjects, and featured as his most significant matters work that was more than 15 years old. His fear of missing out on potential work (by listing eight different practice areas in which he had some experience) confused his prospective clients about the area of the law in which he was truly an expert. No amount of nagging and cajoling would fix this structural issue in his practice.

A second example comes from a lawyer working in a small, 12-lawyer ‘full service’ law firm whose practice area required significant bench strength to effectively leverage the types and size of matters he said he handled. He wasn’t getting this type of work because, surprise, platform matters to clients.

Practice Development or Business Development Coaching?

In just about every lawyer I have worked with, low motivation and poor time management were rarely contributing factors.

Their challenges, which these lawyers didn’t understand at the outset, related to practice focus, practice maturity issues or practice transition challenges. These are all practice development issues. The traditional coaching model typically does not include a methodical process to evaluate the myriad of challenges that work against the lawyer’s best efforts. But practice development coaching does.

To ensure the punishment fits the crime, law firms can develop a formal process to diagnose the underperformance of lawyers and pinpoint whether the low numbers result from behavioral or structural causes.

Practice diagnostics can tease out the factors that inhibit growth and prioritize which issues to address for the greatest and fastest impact. A good system should assess the firm’s compensation system, the financial and billing data for the lawyer and their practice group, the lawyer’s practice specialty areas, the market opportunities for the practice, their client relationships, and their past business development and marketing activities. This examination paints a more accurate picture of the challenges and opportunities in a lawyer’s practice. It puts aside the assumptions about motivation and time management and leaves them to the actual coaching process where those issues can be more accurately analyzed and addressed.

Practice analysis is an extra step in dealing with underperforming lawyers, but it will ensure the best use of the firm’s investment by directing resources to the true challenges and obstacles facing the lawyer. Practice analysis helps the attorney identify a coherent strategy and a working plan to move forward. What’s more, it helps the firm better

understand the challenges that lawyer faces and set more realistic expectations for how quickly that lawyer will be able to turn around their practice. As any seasoned sales professional will tell you, if the product is flawed the sales will be too.

As an industry, we focus too heavily on promotion and not enough on the packaging and positioning of our attorneys’ individual practices; that is to say, we do not focus enough on practice development. Practice development analysis can help identify the structural challenges the lawyer faces.

Only then can you begin to ascertain whether behavior, attitude or time management problems are also affecting the lawyer. n Eric Dewey, MBA is principal of Group Dewey Consulting and has more than 25 years training and coaching hundreds of lawyers and other professionals in practice and business development.

He is the former chief marketing officer of several large law firms and has extensive experience in financial services, commercial real estate and management consulting. His clients range from the nation’s largest law firms to midsize law firms, specialty boutique firms, and solo practitioners.

Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 227, 2022

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California Case Summaries New California Civil Cases

by Monty A. McIntyre, Esq. Monty A. McIntyre, Esq. is the publisher of California Case Summaries™ which provides short summaries, organized by legal topic, of every new published civil and family law case helping California lawyers easily master the new case law in their practice areas, get better results and referrals, and grow their law practice (https:// cacasesummaries.com). Monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions are available, as well as annual Practice Area subscriptions in the areas of Employment, Family Law, Real Property and Torts. Monty has been a California civil trial lawyer since 1980 and a member of ABOTA since 1995. He currently works as a full-time mediator, arbitrator and referee with ADR Services, Inc. conducting Zoom hearings throughout California (to use Monty contact his case manager Haward Cho, haward@adrservices. com, (619) 233-1323). Monty also helps lawyers improve their skills and practices with his Lawyer Master Mentoring™ services (for info visit Monty’s web at https:// montymcintyre-law.com).

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT

CALIFORNIA COURTS OF APPEAL

Attorney Fees

Arbitration

Pulliam v. HNL Automotive, Inc. (2022) _ Cal.5th _ , 2022 WL 1672918: The California Supreme Court affirmed the rulings of the trial court and the Court of Appeal awarding plaintiff attorney fees of $169,602 after a jury found for plaintiff in her action for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act (Civil Code, section 1790 et seq.) and awarded her $21,957.25 in damages. Resolving a dispute among the Courts of Appeal, the California Supreme Court ruled that the FTC’s Holder Rule, requiring consumer credit contracts to include language permitting a consumer to assert against third-party creditors all claims and defenses that could be asserted against the seller of a good or service, and stating that “recovery hereunder by the debtor shall not exceed amounts paid by the debtor hereunder” (16 C.F.R. section 433.2(a) (1975)), does not prevent a prevailing consumer from recovering attorney fees to the full extent allowed by state law. The California Supreme Court disapproved of the contrary decisions of Lafferty v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (2018) 25 Cal.App.5th 398, 418–419, and Spikener v. Ally Financial, Inc. (2020) 50 Cal. App.5th 151, 159–163. (May 26, 2022.)

Leshane v. Tracy VW, Inc. (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 1283276: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order denying defendants’ petition to compel arbitration of plaintiffs’ first amended complaint alleging violations of the Labor Code solely as representatives of the state under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA; Labor Code, section 2698 et seq.). The trial court properly denied defendants’ petition to compel arbitration finding plaintiffs’ claim under PAGA was not subject to arbitration under Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348. The Court of Appeal rejected defendants’ argument that Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.2 should be construed broadly to allow defendants to still compel arbitration after the plaintiffs, by amending their complaint, no longer maintained any action in any forum based on arbitrable claims. There was no longer any action for defendants to counter by filing a petition under section 1281.2 for specific enforcement of the arbitration provision. (C.A. 3rd., April 29, 2022.)

Quach v. Cal. Commerce Club (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 1468016: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order denying defendant’s motion to compel arbitration. The

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trial court concluded that defendant had waived its right to arbitrate by waiting 13 months after the filing of the lawsuit to move to compel arbitration, and by engaging in extensive discovery during that period. The Court of Appeal disagreed because the California Supreme Court has made clear that participation in litigation alone cannot support a finding of waiver, and fees and costs incurred in litigation alone will not establish prejudice on the part of the party resisting arbitration.

(St. Agnes Medical Center v. PacifiCare of California (2003) 31 Cal.4th 1187, 1203.) This rule had particular force in this case where plaintiff admitted he incurred no costs in litigation that he would not otherwise have expended had the case gone to arbitration earlier. Plaintiff failed to show that defendant’s unreasonable delay in asserting the right to arbitrate prejudiced plaintiff. (C.A. 2nd., May 10, 2022.)

Attorneys People ex rel. City of San Diego v. Experian Data Corp. (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 1222870: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order denying defendant’s motion to disqualify three private law firms hired by plaintiff City of San Diego (City) on a contingency fee basis to help it sue defendant, on behalf of the People of the State of California, for violating the Unfair Competition Law. (UCL, Business & Professions Code, section 17200 et seq.) The trial court properly denied the motion. The contingency fee arrangements between the City and the private law firms in a UCL action filed by the City’s attorneys did not violate the prosecutor’s duty of neutrality and did not require disqualification. Moreover, the agreements to pay the private law firms twenty-five percent of any penalties recovered from defendant did not violate Business and Professions Code section 17206’s requirement that all funds recovered in a UCL action be paid to the City’s treasurer. (C.A. 4th, April 26, 2022.)

Civil Code Soleimany v. Narimanzadeh (2022) 78 Cal.App.5th 915: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s judgment for defendants and its award of $59,780 in attorney fees and $2,082.65 in costs to defendants, following a bench trial and the granting of defendants’ motion for judgment in an action where plaintiffs sued defendants to recover amounts due on two promissory notes. One note was unsecured and the other note was secured by a deed of trust. The trial court properly ruled the 16% interest rate on the loans was usurious and that each note was payable at maturity without the specified interest, and this issue was not appealed. The trial court properly ruled that the unsecured note should bear interest at 10% per annum after the breach pursuant to Civil Code section 3289(b). The trial court erred in awarding no interest after the breach of the secured note. The Court of Appeal ruled that even though Civil Code section 3289(b) did not

apply to the secured loan because it was secured by a deed of trust on real property, the plaintiffs were nonetheless entitled to prejudgment interest on the unpaid principal at the date of maturity at the rate of seven percent, the default rate of prejudgment interest provided in article XV, section 1 of the California Constitution, which applies except when a statute provides otherwise. (C.A. 2nd, May 17, 2022.)

Civil Procedure Hahn v. New York Air Brake LLC (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 1210643: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment in an action for wrongful death due to exposure to asbestos. The trial court erred in granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the basis that plaintiffs could not invoke Code of Civil Procedure section 474 because they “knew or should have known” facts establishing a cause of action against defendant when they first filed their complaint so their action was untimely under Code of Civil Procedure section 340.2. The Court of Appeal ruled that compliance with section 474 is determined by the facts that a plaintiff actually knew at the time the complaint is filed, not the facts plaintiff should have known. (C.A. 1st, April 25, 2022.)

Elder Abuse Samantha B. v. Aurora Vista Del Mar (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 1010252: The Court of Appeal primarily affirmed the trial court’s rulings and the judgment for plaintiffs, awarding plaintiff Samantha B. $3.75 million in noneconomic damages and plaintiff Danielle W. $3 million in noneconomic damages, punitive damages of $50,000 each, and allocating 35 percent fault to defendant acute psychiatric hospital Aurora Vista Del Mar, LLC (Aurora), 30 percent fault to the owner of Aurora, defendant Signature Healthcare Services, LLC (Signature), and 35 percent fault to Aurora’s employee Juan Valencia, in plaintiffs’ action alleging Elder Abuse and medical malpractice as a result of the sexual abuse of plaintiffs by defendant Valencia. However, the Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s orders granting defendant Aurora’s motion for nonsuit on plaintiffs’ causes of action for vicarious liability under respondeat superior and ratification. The judgment for plaintiffs was affirmed because the MICRA damages cap in Civil Code section 3333.2 does not limit noneconomic damages awarded for Elder Abuse (Welfare & Institutions Code, section 15600 et seq.), clear and convincing evidence supported the jury’s findings of neglect and recklessness, the trial court properly instructed the jury, and the jury correctly attributed 70 percent of the fault to defendants Signature and Aurora. The trial court erred in granting the motion for nonsuit, and this portion of the case was reversed and remanded for a new trial on the issues of respondeat superior and ratification. (C.A. 2nd, April 5, 2022.) n Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 227, 2022

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20 Traits of the 100%-Capable Rainmaker

by Mike O’Horo

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hat does it take to be a great rainmaker, able to generate millions of dollars in business—each year, reliably? What’s actually involved in the rainmaking sausage? As with every great accomplishment, there’s much more than you can see.

The Winter Olympic broadcasts featured background stories about how athletes became among the best in the world at their sport. Before those stories, those of us who don’t ski, skate, slide, or curl knew little about the details of being able to, for example, slide a polished stone to a precise destination more than 100 icy feet away.

Many lawyers, observing their rainmaker peers, likewise see only the most visible things they do versus the many skills they must master and deploy consistently. I guess it’s similar to the limited perception that green lawyers have about first-chair trial lawyers.

Here’s my description of the characteristics of a 100%-capable rainmaker: 1. Avoids “pitching” behaviors in favor of helping buyers make informed, considered, self-interested decisions about problems of significance.

2. Possesses significant business acumen and awareness of the current business environment and influences.

3. Avoids “product-centrism,” i.e., an orientation to the merits of the firm’s service products, and the resulting inclination to pursue demand solely for one’s own technical specialty.

4. Bases conversations on Demand-Triggering business issues, i.e., problems for which there is objective, 3rd-party evidence suggesting strategic, operational, or economic consequences of sufficient impact to require decision-making, action, and solution investment.

5. Cross-sells other’ services by learning from colleagues the door-opening business problems that drive demand for each service and asks clients if they face that problem.

6. Recognizes the existence of multiple stakeholders in this problem at different levels. Is adept at evincing their full complement of self-interest relative to the demand-triggering problem and facilitating a decision.

7. Conducts a disciplined investigation of the practical and economic consequences of inaction against the demand-triggering problem (Cost of Doing Nothing) 8. Elicits each stakeholder’s perception of the imputed or perceived ROI obtainable from successful solution. Uses declared ROI to motivate a decision, and to earn and maintain premium prices and margins.

9. Has mastered the process of Stakeholder Alignment leading to a reliable group decision.

10. Develops Professional Intimacy.

11. Earns the right to manage the matter. Develops business in a way that does not induce the client to default requiring the 12

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selling lawyer’s personal technical participation beyond the degree that the seller deems strategically appropriate.

12. Anticipates success and plans for the future resource requirements of the larger practice that will result from successful business development.

13. Doesn’t wait for service-product obsolescence but anticipates product/price maturity and looks beyond today’s demand to prepare for a different future. Initiates discussions that cannibalize today’s declining-margin services in favor of initiating demand for future premium-priced services.

14. Initiates operating changes demanded by clients, recognizing the value in being out front on trends.

15. Establishes a defensible, differentiated position in an organized market sub-sector containing growing companies with healthy profit margins. Aligns with decision-makers who recognize that only two out of the three elements of the “Value Holy Trinity” (Speed, Impact, Price) usually are available at any one time, and who value speed and impact over the other permutations.

16. Establishes valuable contributory roles that facilitate subordinate team members’ growth and institutionalize the client, thus avoiding the bottleneck of inordinate client contact having to flow through her.

17. Shares credit—and client responsibility—freely, to enable her to diversify her portfolio, and attract and retain key talent.

18. Maintains robust awareness by reading about key business trends, industries, and sectors, to the point that she is prepared to offer an informed, current, cogent opinion—extemporaneously, without notice or preparation.

19. Consistently seeks candid feedback from clients, team members and contacts regarding service satisfaction, demand trends, and macroeconomic social and political factors that influence and shape current and future demand.

20. Seeks continuous skill improvement through ongoing training and coaching.

How many of these were you unaware of? Are you surprised that there are this many? If you’re a successful rainmaker who aspires to greatness, use this as an improvement checklist. Assess yourself against each and commit to improving each area of weakness. n Mike O’Horo is a serial innovator in the law business. His current venture, RainmakerVT, is the world’s first interactive online rainmaking training for lawyers, by which lawyers learn how to attract the right kind of clients without leaving their desks. For 20 years, Mike 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.

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BET-THE-COMPANY CASES OVER 65 YEARS OF COMBINED EXPERIENCE REFERRALS/SUBSTITUTIONS ACCEPTED AT ALL STAGES OF LITIGATION, INCLUDING TRIAL • $22,659,551 settlement for clients defrauded in a local Ponzi scheme in Levin v.

Chicago Title, et al. (2021)(Michael Kirby & Jason Kirby).

• Complete defense jury verdict in real estate dispute and more than $400,000 collected for attorneys’ fees and costs in Batter v. McElhinney, et al. (2019)(Jason Kirby).

• $2.1 million jury verdict for firm client in Doe v. San Diego Unified School District, et al. (2018)(Jason Kirby & Michael Kirby).

• $1.1 million arbitration award for firm clients on cross-complaint after zeroing plaintiff on $6 million damage claim in Step Strategy Advisors v. Solid Gold Health Products for Pets, Inc., et al. (2018)(Jason Kirby lead counsel).

501 West Broadway | Suite 1720 | San Diego, CA 92101 | 619-487-1500 | www.kirbyandkirbylaw.com

© Bauman Photographers JOURNALS

LAW FIRM

OF THE MONTH

2022 2021

Meeting the Challenge for the Little Guy

by Dan Baldwin

Kevin Retoriano, Deon Goldschmidt, Esq., and Michel Shenouda.

O

vercoming significant personal and professional challenges are a sure way to enhance one’s skills in building a law firm dedicated solely to serving the legal needs of people facing the most serious challenges of their lives—personal injury. That is precisely the experience of Deon Goldschmidt, Esq., founder of San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys.

“I have always wanted to fight for the little guy. Big insurance companies have deep pockets and try and deny claims or under settle claims and try take advantage of their ability to intimidate ‘Joe Public’ into accepting low settlements. It gives me great pleasure and a sense of accomplishment in helping client’s obtain justice.

We’re often in the famous David vs. Goliath situation, but we’re not intimidated. We thrive on challenges,” Goldschmidt says.

Founded in 2010, San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys focuses on car accidents, workplace accidents, trip and fall, product liability, wrongful death, and elder abuse. Initially only based in San Diego, the firm has expanded beyond San Diego’s borders. The firm, now trading under the name Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys, employs 23 attorneys

and then start a new career in a new legal environment in a new country,” he says.

Goldschmidt is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa where he earned his law degree from the University of the Witwatersand in 1992. He had an interest in the law from an early age and often attended court sessions. He always had an interest in the law and went to court to watch cases very early on in his college years. He studied especially the power of persuasion at work and became passionate about assisting and representing consumers.

Earning that law degree was the next logical step.

His selection of personal injury law as a focus of his career was something of a fortuitous example of “luck of the draw.” A friend who was a personal injury lawyer was scheduled for two trials during the same day. He asked Goldschmidt to cover one of the trials as the defense attorney. He did so well at representing the client that the other attorney offered him a job. Enthused by the challenge of representing clients in genuine dire need, he accepted. “You might say I stumbled into it, but even as a stumble, it was a major step and a new and more exciting direction for my career in the law,” he says.

“It gives me great pleasure and a sense of accomplishment in helping client’s obtain justice. We’re often in the famous David vs. Goliath situation, but we’re not intimidated. We thrive on challenges." —Deon Goldschmidt, Esq. and staff and has offices in San Diego, Riverside, San Jose, and Dallas, TX, with plans for opening other office this year. The firm has recovered millions of dollars in damages for accident victims who have been injured though the negligence or carelessness of others. The firm handles every type of case from the simplest injury to tragic consequences leading to quadriplegia or even death.

From South Africa to Southern California Perhaps the biggest challenge of his professional life was relocating from South Africa to Southern California and starting his professional career from scratch while raising a family in an entirely new environment.

“I had three kids at home with a wife and I had to start earning a real income fast. That in itself was a challenge.

But insofar as law is concerned, I knew nothing of U.S. law. So, you’ve come out of writing the bar exam, and you’re in mind that you’re ill equipped to be thrust on the public. That was the real a challenge—to learn the practice of law on my own, without very much mentorship

He started his own practice in South Africa in 1992.

Things were looking good for the success of his business and his family life. Life did not turn out that way.

Goldschmidt is an avid cyclist and while in Cape Town attending a biking competition, his children (ages three, four and six) and his parents were violently carjacked in Johannesburg. His dad was assaulted and the perpetrators threatened his children by placing guns against their heads. As a result of that traumatic experience, he decided to give up his practice in South Africa and move to San Diego for a completely fresh start.

“After practicing in South Africa for some 16 years I had to come to the USA and write the bar exam notwithstanding never having been to college in America. At age 40 it was definitely a challenge to write the bar exam and start again,” he says.

Goldschmidt studied six months and passed the Bar exam. Today his Bar admissions are the State Bar of California; U.S. District Court, Southern District of California; U.S. District Court, Central District of California, The Texas State Bar, and he is still a licensed attorney in South Africa.

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© Bauman Photographers Deon Goldschmidt, Esq., Founder

staff helped get him emergency Medi-Cal. Once this was arranged, they transported him to the hospital where he had surgery and a fortunate recovery. The insurance company has now offered policy limits and the firm is in the process of negotiating a waiver of the Medi-Cal lien so that he can have a chance at rebuilding his life.

A random sampling of cases shows that the indigent man’s case was only one of numerous personal injury successes for the firm: $6,500,000 settlement awarded to a client involved in a car accident; $4 million for a product liability suit, $5 million for a negligent tort, $2.7 million awarded to a client involved in a dog bite accident; $2 million for medical malpractice and a $1 million settlement awarded to a client involved in a commercial vehicle accident to name a few.

A recent case illustrates the firm’s commitment to serve the needs of clients regardless of status and based solely on need. The father of a family was killed in a pedestrian accident. He left four very young kids behind.

The family had no means of support, no resources and, from their perspective, no hope. Yet, the firm was able to provide the family with some means of getting through the trauma from a financial point of view.

“There are so many cases that give me the inspiration to do the work I do. People come in emotionally and physically compromised from severe accidents and are at their wits end. Slowly we work with them to ensure they

© Bauman Photographers

Taking Up the Challenge for the Consumer Goldschmidt believed his best avenue for finding and handling challenging personal injury cases was to start his own firm and to handle business and cases his own way. “I have always been a person who has steadfast ideas and as such I would not be a good employee. I like the challenge that goes with running a business and having the ability to run trials and practice law.”

He says, “Our tagline is Big Enough to Help, Small Enough to Care. And that’s more than just a marketing slogan. We love to provide the best representation for our clients and still have a family feel to our practice. Every client big or small is a valuable part of our practice and no one leaves our office unhappy.”

One client who left very happy was an indigent man who was injured while pushing a shopping cart across the road when he was hit by a vehicle. He had tried to get help from numerous attorneys, but no one would help him. He was not able to get proper treatment due to his indigence and had severe injuries that required treatment and surgery. When the attorneys took on his case, they immediately took him to an orthopedic surgeon whose

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Kevin Retoriano, Attorney

© Bauman Photographers

get the treatment they need to heal. The satisfaction we get knowing we can help people their recovery and watching them slowly heal month after month, getting to know them as people and finally getting them compensated for their injuries leaves me and my staff with a sense of satisfaction. There is no better feeling then a hug from a client at the end of a case where we could him in his/her journey to healing,” Goldschmidt says.

Communication is Everything “Communication is everything, we communicate with our clients regularly. I have been on the other end of the table and there is nothing more frustrating than not being informed. If a client knows what is going on with the matter, 99 percent of the job is done,” Goldschmidt says.

For example, every client is met, interviewed, and served by an attorney. The firm does not allow non attorneys to consult with clients. Many firms use case managers who are often the initial contact with a client. The Small Enough to Care element of the firm’s motto is evident from the beginning of every relationship with every client.

Goldschmidt says, “That is somewhat unusual. Most people use case managers to handle intake, I believe in the more personal approach, and I believe the way to grow a practice is through personal interaction and communication with the attorney. I try to foster an environment where there’s relationship building between the attorney and client, not only to that client, but I believe that is a proven method of developing a referral base. In my mind, every existing client is a referral base for the next client. We are very insistent on the relationship between the attorney and the client, as opposed to, let’s say, case manager and a client. All of our clients have our cell phone number, they’re able to get hold of us. And we offer that personal service so that we make sure that every client feels like part of the family.”

That intense level of personal contact is one of the reasons for the significant amount of the firm’s referral business—approximately 20 percent. “We are happy to accept referral work from other attorneys. We are happy to provide a fee sharing arrangement. Personal Injury work is all we do, we know this area of the law backwards. I have dedicated the last 28+ years to the practice of personal injury law. We have succeeded in achieving million-dollar settlement and jury awards for our clients. All our work is attended to by attorneys and is not farmed out to paralegal staff. We believe that communication with client’s is the first order of business and we make sure clients are kept informed of their cases at every step of the way,” he says.

Michel Shenouda, Attorney

Taking Care of People Takes Care of Business Since their growth, Goldschmidt has been fortunate enough to surround himself with partners and associates who are invaluable to the practice. Goldschmidt insists that the firm’s success is by no means only his. He is privileged to count his fellow attorneys Kevin Retoriano, Michel Shenouda, Kevin Cowan Matthew Birdwell and Rachelle Law as not only colleagues but “family” and friends. Goldschmidt insists that success is based on a team effort, attorneys working together for the common good of the client’s and each other. “We help each other within the confines of our work but it goes beyond that, I think I speak for my entire team when I say that we are always happy to help each other beyond our work, we all have personal lives, goals and ambitions and we help each other meet both our work and personal goals each lend a helping hand wherever we can.”

“This is an open-door place of business and not a hierarchy of the upper and the lower. My management style is summed up as: Take care of your staff and they will take care of your clients. I teach them everything. You know, take care of your staff, be good to your staff, and in turn, they will be good to your clients. Richard Branson

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© Bauman Photographers

Michel Shenouda, Kevin Retoriano, and Deon Goldschmidt, Esq.

said it best when he wrote, ‘I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers and that people flourish when they are praised.’ I have found that to be an effective management guide,” Goldschmidt says.

The application of that principle has allowed Goldschmidt to shift his personal priorities in the firm toward more management and less time in the trenches of legal work. He still handles bigger and more complex claims. “I have, thankfully developed a trustworthy team. And together we have a relationship, which fosters the importance of building the business and taking care of our clients.”

Looking ahead, he does not see radical changes in personal injury law for the immediate future. He does see a shift in marketing approaches for personal injury firms, a change that has been in the making for the last decade when radio, television, and billboard advertising was dominant. Today online marketing has significantly altered the marketing strategies necessary for success. The firm currently employs a mix of traditional and online

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marketing. “You can’t serve clients if you can’t reach clients. So, we make every effort to reach out to find the people who need our form of representation.”

Goldschmidt is quick to note that their increasing success is based on their success with serving client needs, with helping individual people and families overcome the potentially devastating challenges personal injury brings.

Overcoming his own significant challenges has allowed Deon Goldschmidt and his team to build a firm that accomplishes just that. “Always remember where you come from, serve your clients passionately and success will follow you,” he says. n Contact Deon Goldschmidt Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys 4350 Executive Drive #150 San Diego, CA 92121 619-931-1650 www.SanDiegoPersonalInjuryAttorneys.com

10 Ways to Make Personal Marketing and Business Development Habitual and Effective

by Susan Duncan

A

sk the most successful rainmakers what their secret is to their success and most will tell you that they work on it constantly and relentlessly. It has become integral to their client work and practice and they do it every day. Given the pressure lawyers feel to record billable hours, it may seem almost impossible to find time to do business development and even if time allows, it can be difficult to know how to do it effectively. And like a regular exercise routine, many people don’t like to do it, but once you form the habit and feel more comfortable, you will enjoy the results! Follow these steps for more focused, effective and consistent business development:

 Focus on your goals, then focus on what will make you most successful: qualified leads, proven referral sources, differentiation.

Don’t try to do everything all at once and don’t waste time chasing “suspects” instead of qualified leads.

 Find things to do that you enjoy and are good at, including ways to connect your personal hobbies and passions with clients and business development.

At the same time, be prepared to hone skills in areas in which you are weak and also to go outside your comfort zone.

 Remember to say no.

Not every invitation to speak, go to a conference or join a task force or committee will be valuable or help you achieve your goals. This is especially true for many programs or associations in which over three-quarters of the audience is lawyers you compete with!

 Work on your personal style and approach.

How you come across to clients and to colleagues, how responsive you are, how collaborative, how assertive and confident, how you describe what you do.

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 Focus first on giving value and making yourself relevant.

Get to know someone, ask and listen. Leave the discussion/ pitch about the firm and yourself to a later time.

 Become known in a niche.

Write about it, speak about it, get quoted about it and be sure your bio, LinkedIn, and the firm’s web site all have the most current and correct information about it.

 Never take good clients for granted!

Treat them with respect and appreciation, provide value, ask how they’re doing, show them you care, make them always feel like your most important client.

 Collaborate.

Seek feedback from another partner or external colleague on your business development strategy, your elevator speech, or your ideas. Find a “marketing buddy” to meet with weekly or monthly to review progress, brainstorm opportunities and get advice on obstacles.

 Prepare, think ahead and stay ahead.

Leverage as much as you can. If you give a speech at a conference, send the PowerPoint to clients who couldn’t attend, convert it into an article, use the materials to do custom CLEs for clients, convert it into an alert for the firm.

 Make your business development habitual.

Develop and maintain good habits and discipline as you would for an exercise routine: • Make a plan and follow it. Each year, develop a few realistic goals and determine the steps you will take to achieve the goals. Review and revise this plan on a quarterly basis. Also develop your target contact list and review this on a monthly basis. Keep your list of BD to do’s and contacts by your phone. Record your time so you can evaluate effectiveness of your efforts.

• Spend at least 10-15 minutes every day (perhaps at the beginning of each day) to review your BD action plan and contact list. Make progress on at least one action item per day. It could be sending an email to follow up or schedule lunch or a quick phone call.

Peterson Reporting.

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• As a partner, aim to spend at least 200 hours per year on marketing, client and business development. As an associate, spend at least 100 hours. Most very successful rainmakers spend 600 hours/year, just to provide you with a benchmark.

• Get out of the office at least once a week!

Schedule a BD-related meal with a colleague, referral source, prospect or client for the specific purpose of discussing their priorities, trends and business issues. If it helps, schedule lunch on the same day every week.

• Plan to visit one client every month. You likely will be able to fit other visits and meetings around it.

• Ask your assistant to help keep your contact list up to date (every time you return with business cards or get a new client) and help you categorize contacts by client, prospect, referral source, association committee peer, personal, etc.

• Use your calendar as a tickler system to remind you when to follow up with targeted contacts. They should hear from you at least on a quarterly basis.

• Use the internet to stay connected, e.g., LinkedIn, and easy shopping web sites/tools like Amazon Prime to send clients gifts.

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Susan Duncan works on the business, strategy and management side of the legal profession at RainMaking Oasis and has been doing so since 1980.

Along with a high level of energy and enthusiasm, Susan brings deep knowledge of the legal industry and a passion for what she does to her clients and consulting engagements. To learn more, visit: http://www.RainMakingOasis.com.

530 B Street, Suite 350 San Diego, CA 92101

619 260 1069

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Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 227, 2022 Peterson AttJrnl HPV.indd 1

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7/12/13 5:04 PM

Why Smart Law Firms Are Hiring Salespeople

by Aaron George

S

ales is not something that most lawyers think about, even though they are probably out there selling almost every single day. There just hasn’t ever been a role for sales in the traditional legal business model. But that may be starting to change. Legal services are becoming increasingly commoditized, and law firms are waking up and realizing they need to start acting like a real business, where marketing and sales are the name of the game. In this post, we’ll explain why smart law firms are hiring salespeople, explain the role of a salesperson in the firm, and look at how focusing on sales can help you grow your practice.

Sales Is Missing from the Current Law Firm Model Today’s law firm model is pretty standardized. Attorneys and paralegals do most of the actual legal work, billing by the hour or for a flat fee. Receptionists and office admins pick up the phones, handle client intake and scheduling, and manage billing and collections.

As firms grow, they may hire teams to oversee marketing, IT, finance, and accounting. Yet few firms ever hire even a single salesperson.

So who does the selling?

Don’t get me wrong. Not having a dedicated salesperson certainly doesn’t mean that law firms don’t sell. Someone still ends up selling the legal services and signing up the clients, but that role is often very poorly defined.

Sometimes the lawyers do the selling, sometimes the receptionists do the selling, and sometimes the paralegals do the selling. Ultimately, the role becomes muddled up and it’s unclear whose job it is. And this is a big problem.

Why Having a Dedicated Salesperson Is a Good Idea Building a business requires the implementation of standardized processes. Otherwise, it becomes impossible to manage your

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growing workload and keep your staff on track. Eventually your growth will stagnate.

Since bringing in more revenue is the most fundamental step toward growing a business, it should be clear that without an effective sales process in place, growth will not come very easily.

This is why having a salesperson, whose sole job is to bring in revenue, is such a good idea. Failing to establish a sales process is also a common reason why many law firms may be struggling to grow.

Without a clearly defined sales role, no one is directly responsible for one of the most important aspects of growing the business!

What Does a Law Firm Salesperson Actually Do? Ok, so we have established that placing an emphasis on sales and carving out a specific role for it in your law firm are important steps toward growth. But what does a law firm salesperson actually do on a daily basis?

Law firm sales is quite different than other industries. The salesperson won’t be making cold calls, but there are still some important things which need to be done. Here are the key parts of a law firm salesperson’s job:

Manage Leads One of the most overlooked, yet critical parts of the legal sales process is managing the leads (i.e. potential clients). If nobody is assigned the responsibility of tracking leads at the firm, it’s a near certainty that some potential business is slipping through the cracks.

A core part of the salesperson’s job should be using some type of CRM system in order to input the contact information and notes about the legal matter of every single lead that comes in the door. This will ensure that people are getting the attention they deserve, and no business is lost due to poor organization.

Screen Calls and Set Consultations At most law firms, a major step in the sales process is the consultation. This is typically where an attorney assesses the client’s legal issue and decides whether or not the firm should take on the client.

Getting potential clients to book a consultation is the first key step in the conversion funnel, so this is an excellent job for the salesperson to perform. They should be contacting leads, screening out bad cases and clients, and setting appointments with attorneys for the viable clients.

Follow Up Regardless of the industry, it has been shown that persistence works in sales. In fact, one study found that potential buyers are ready to make a purchase after the first meeting only 2% of the time. The other 98% required multiple conversations before sealing the deal.

The same study also suggests continuing to follow up until you hear five “no” responses. The point is, if you only follow up once or not at all, you are letting paying clients slip away.

A major part of the salesperson’s role should be following up with every potential client in order to maximize your conversion rate. The follow-ups should happen both pre-consultation, in

order to get them to schedule, and post-consultation in order to get them to hire.

Build Trust and Drive Conversions Each firm may operate very differently in terms of its approach to marketing and its client intake process. Ultimately, the salesperson’s role is to manage the pipeline of potential clients throughout this entire process.

The goal should be to represent the firm well, build rapport with potential clients, establish their trust, and do whatever it takes to close the deal when it makes sense for the firm.

If no one is tasked with this responsibility, or it is shared by a bunch of staff members, it’s inevitable that things will slip through the cracks. You’re only hurting your own chances of success as a result.

That’s why smart law firms are hiring salespeople to get ahead in today’s competitive legal industry. n Aaron George is a technology entrepreneur with a background in law, having attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Currently he is co-founder and President at Lexicata, the legal industry’s leading CRM and client intake software. At Lexicata he focuses on product design, content marketing, and business operations. Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwgeorge.

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

To schedule, contact Haward Cho: (619) 231-1323 or haward@adrservices.com

Organized, succinct summaries of EVERY new published California civil and family law case, published every month for $50.00 a month. Subscribe at www.cacasesummaries.com

Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 227, 2022

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19 Steps to Building a Regional or National Law Practice

by Trey Ryder

M

any lawyers are expanding their practices beyond state boundaries, building a regional or national practice. In some cases, they provide narrowly focused services; in others, they offer broad-based skills with the hopes of attracting a handful of the best cases in the country.

If your practice area is suited to going beyond your state boundaries, here are four reasons to consider a regional or national practice: Reason #1: You have more opportunities to attract the types of cases you want. When you draw clients from 50 states, you have a much greater selection than when you limit your field to your home state. If every state has three really good cases, you can compete for the three in your own state—or you can compete for your share of 150 from across the U.S. Reason #2: You have many more opportunities for media publicity. Gaining publicity outside your state is often easier than getting attention in your own state. This is because nearly every business wants to be featured in your local newspapers. But when you pursue articles in regional and national publications, you often find yourself competing with fewer businesses and fewer lawyers.

Most businesses and lawyers get customers from within a few-mile radius, so they don’t need attention beyond their local boundaries. Plus, businesses often assume that gaining national publicity would be much harder than gaining local attention.

But, in fact, when you go beyond your state’s boundaries, you have access to hundreds of additional publications at the state, regional and national levels, all of which could be suitable targets for your publicity effort.

Reason #3: The “mystery of distance” results in your being perceived as the authority in your field because you’re from out of town. You have probably heard of this marketing principle, but you may not have used it as part of your marketing strategy.

The mystery of distance says: The farther you go to get a product or service, the better and more valuable it is. Here’s an example: You can buy a pair of binoculars at your local sporting goods store. Or you can buy them online from a company in Switzerland. Which pair is better? Obviously, the binoculars from Switzerland.

There’s no logical reason to believe that something that comes from far away is better than something that comes from 26

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down the street. Still, subconsciously, we think it is.

Reason #4: You can live wherever you want. Many lawyers don’t need to meet their clients face to face. If you can service clients by phone, fax, mail and email, then you don’t need to work with them in person. And if you go to trial in their state— or if you need to meet with them—you can always travel.

Technology has changed how we market and deliver services.

Here are 19 steps to building a respected regional or national practice.

Step #1: Identify the niche you want to fill and the services you want to market.

When clients hear your name, you want them to associate you with a specific type of legal services. For example, John Wilbanks is a personal injury attorney. Karen Ambrose is a tax lawyer. Mark O’Connor is a corporate lawyer. Consider whether any lawyer in your market area immediately springs to mind when you mention your area of law. If so, that lawyer owns a very strong position. If no lawyer comes to mind, an effective marketing program will help you build the perception that you are the leader in that practice area.

Step #2: Identify the type of clients you want to attract.

You must know where to aim if you expect to hit your target.

List the types of people or companies you want to attract that are ready, willing and able to hire your services. Identify your prospective clients by who they are and what they have.

For individuals, consider things such as gender, age, marital and family status, education, occupation, income and home ownership. For companies, consider things such as industry, gross sales, number of employees, level of risk or whatever makes a client attractive to you.

Step #3: Identify how you and your services differ from those of your competitors.

Positive differences are your competitive advantages. Negative differences are your competitive disadvantages. Identify both so you’ll know your strengths and weaknesses. Evaluate your qualifications, background and experience. Evaluate how you

serve clients. Evaluate the environment in which you serve clients. Look at your strengths and weaknesses from your prospects’ point of view because prospects evaluate you based on what is important to them. Every time you talk with prospects, make sure you emphasize your competitive advantages, so prospects appreciate how you differ from other lawyers.

Step #4: Identify ways you can add value to your services so prospects eagerly choose you over all other lawyers.

What can you add to your services to make them more attractive than they are now—and more attractive than services offered by competitors? If you were in your prospect’s shoes, what could your lawyer provide that would cause you to choose him or her over every other attorney? Review how you currently provide legal services. Then ask yourself how you could provide services more efficiently, more effectively, more completely, or faster— with your client benefiting from less risk and more value. Then, in addition to what you listed in step 3, the ways you add value to your services now become more competitive advantages.

Step #5: Compile and keep on computer a comprehensive mailing list.

Your most important business asset is your mailing list. It’s your own personal area of influence. It should include your current clients, past clients, prospective clients, referral sources and prospective referral sources. Whether your list contains 20 names—or 2,000 names—these people are the core around which you build a prosperous firm. As you attract an ongoing flow of new inquiries, keep all of the names and addresses on your mailing list.

The critical element in your marketing program is your ability to add new names of prospective clients to your mailing list. You want to attract names at whatever rate will bring you the number of new clients you want. How long you leave names on your mailing list will depend on how long your prospects need to make their decision and at what point, if any, the list becomes unmanageable.

Step #6: Make sure prospects and clients can reach you easily and without hassle.

As distance increases, prospects often grow concerned about their ability to contact you. To reassure them, explain the many ways you invite contact from clients, like these: Direct line, email, cell phone, pager, fax, mail, courier, as well as intake and contact forms on your website.

Step #7: Compile your information and advice into your own unique educational message, built on this proven five-part framework.

• Part #1: Identify and explain your prospect’s problem.

People won’t pay for a solution until they understand their problem. The bigger the problem—and the greater the risk of allowing it to persist—the more they will pay to solve it.

• Part #2: Prove the problem exists. Prospects know you earn your living from solving problems. Skeptical prospects may think you are overstating the depth of the problem. You can overcome this sometimes-hidden suspicion by taking time to prove the problem exists and to prove that it is serious enough to warrant your client hiring your services to solve it.

• Part #3: Identify and explain one or more solutions.

Prospects want a clear understanding of what you recommend solving their problem.

• Part #4: Prove the solution works. Prospects may be skeptical as to whether your recommended solution will actually do what you claim. You can expect a higher level of skepticism if the solution you recommend is perceived by your prospects to be expensive.

• Part #5: Build yourself into the solution. You don’t want prospects to agree they have a problem but then hire another lawyer to solve it. You must do everything possible to make sure that your prospects conclude you are best equipped to provide the solution.

Your marketing message is the same as your educational message. You build your message on a foundation of information that explains your prospect’s problem and the solutions you can provide. Then you support your message with proof documents that further add credibility to everything you say. Proof documents include your photo and biography, article reprints, schedule of services and fees, and references.

Testimonials and letters of recommendation help a great deal, but some jurisdictions do not allow their use. Check your rules of professional conduct before using comments from clients.

In this way, you create a powerful, persuasive message.

The result is that your message is much more compelling and credible than messages used by other lawyers.

Step #8: Educate your audience with written information and advice.

Write your marketing message in a form that you can send to anyone who calls your office. Then, by offering to send copies without charge, you attract calls from genuine prospects. When prospects call, they give you their names and addresses (or email addresses). Then you add these prospective clients to your inhouse mailing list.

Important Note: The longer your materials, the better.

The longer you keep your prospect’s attention—and the more facts you provide—the more likely your prospect is to hire your services. Fortunately, prospects will read long materials, provided they are well written and relevant to their problem.

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The fact kit I used for 15 years varied from 40 to 50 pages in length. And many lawyers told me they read every word. I have now included all this information on my website and in the article packet I send by email.

Step #9: Define the geographical area from which you want to draw clients.

Geographics identify individual prospects by where they live, where they work, and where you can find the prospective clients you want. Geographics identify companies by where they are based, where they have facilities and where they do business.

Step #10: Compile a media list of the newspapers, magazines, newsletters and broadcast outlets you want to receive your news releases and query letters.

You should choose national media outlets, as well as regional and local publications in states where you hope to serve clients.

You can usually find current media lists online and at the library reference desk.

Step #11: Launch an aggressive publicity campaign by sending news releases, feature articles and query letters to media outlets on your list.

If you send articles 4 or 5 times each year, you could have an ongoing flow of articles appearing in various parts of the country.

Step #12: Contact high-profile publications and interview shows on an individual and exclusive basis to gain the highest level of nationwide publicity.

Offer to write ongoing columns for publications and appear as a periodic guest on interview shows. You might offer to host your own legal, news-talk or interview show.

Step #13: Compile a list of trade associations that serve the prospects you want to attract.

Keep these trade groups on your mailing list. Offer to present seminars that are sponsored or co-sponsored by these trade associations, in hopes they will mail seminar invitations to all their members.

Step #14: Compile a list of referral sources and potential referral sources in the states you serve.

Send them your packet of information so they understand what you do. Invite their referrals and offer referral fees, if appropriate. Keep referral sources and potential referral sources on your mailing list.

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Step #15: Compile a list of past clients.

Send them a letter announcing your regional or national practice and a copy of your information packet. Most people have friends and colleagues in other states. Keep past clients on your mailing list and invite them to refer family members, friends and colleagues.

Step #16: In all of your marketing materials, make sure you tell prospects the geographical area from which you accept clients.

If you don’t mention the area you serve, prospects could easily conclude that you limit your services to your city or county.

Step #17: Establish a website.

The easiest way to reach prospects in different states is to establish a website. This puts your materials at everyone’s fingertips 24 hours a day. Generally, the more information you provide, the more likely you are to win a new client. So be generous with the information you post. Also, make sure you spell out the cities, counties and states from which you accept clients because this helps improve your search engine rankings when prospects look for a lawyer in their local area.

Step #18: Market your seminars and speaking engagements nationwide.

Make sure everyone on your mailing list knows you offer seminars. While they might not be the contact person, they can make your seminar known to the right people, who may get in touch with you. This is the most common way I receive invitations to speak to lawyers. Also, thanks to technology, now you can offer seminars over the telephone, by video conferencing, and over the internet.

Step #19: If you collect email addresses from people on your mailing list, send an email alert or briefing every week.

The more often you stay in touch with everyone on your mailing list, the newer clients and referrals you’ll attract.

After your publicity starts to appear, you’ll get inquiries from prospective clients and increase referrals. Trade and professional associations will invite you to speak. And, one by one, you’ll start getting clients from throughout the geographical area you wish to serve. Soon, you’ll have a profitable, prestigious nationwide practice. n Trey Ryder specializes in Education-Based Marketing for Lawyers. He designs dignified marketing programs for lawyers and law firms in the United States, Canada and other English-speaking countries. Trey works from his offices in Payson, Arizona and Juneau, Alaska. To read more of Trey’s articles, visit the Lawyer Marketing Advisor at www.treyryder.com.

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20 Frustrating Things Lawyers Do While Delegating

by Dina Eisenberg

S

olo lawyers who want to scale their law practice must delegate.

Yes, as a lawyer you have the brainpower to do pretty much whatever you set your mind to do. That’s the problem. You are doing too many things that are outside of your genius zone, which is practicing law, in case you forgot!

Delegating is the best way to increase your capacity to get administrative work done while leaving you time to focus on providing excellent legal services for your clients.

Hiring a virtual assistant or legal assistant to aid you with non-legal work makes the difference between having a satisfying, profitable experience as a lawyer and being overwhelmed and battling to make ends meet. However, many lawyers strongly resist creating or delegating to a virtual team.

What prevents lawyers from delegating more? That answer is difficult to pinpoint. Maybe lawyers resist delegation because of a deep sense of responsibility to personally deliver only the highest quality work.

Maybe the issue is an inability to ask for help. We tend to be the problem-solvers, so it can be difficult to be vulnerable or admit to a weakness by asking for help.

Maybe the reason more lawyers don’t delegate is the impostor syndrome, the fear that someone will discover you’re not the lawyer you say you are. Many lawyers, even amazing lawyers like Jeena Cho, admit to struggling with confidence.

I am on a mission to encourage lawyers to design their law practice to fit your life and create a better law experience for yourself and your clients. I don’t believe lawyering should be so hard.

Delegation is a crucial skill for solo lawyers and small law firm owners. You simply don’t have enough hours in the day or energy to give your full attention and talent to every task your law practice requires. Nor should you. You are a lawyer not a [fill in the blank].

Delegation makes good business sense. However, that’s not the key reason to begin to outsource. Failing to create systems, process and have a team you can rely upon puts you, your law practice and your family at risk. How many days could your practice stay afloat without you—7 days, 30 days or maybe not even 2 days?

Delegation is not hard to learn. There are some behaviors that will get you a better result than others, though.

Frustrating Things Lawyers Do to Staff 1.

2.

3.

4.

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No clear vision No deadline set Sending mixed messages Giving contradictory instructions

Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 227, 2022

5. Giving no or very little lead time 6. Expecting rush service 7. Dumping and running 8. No ongoing communication 9. Not available for questions 10. No direction given for problem-solving 11. No authority given to solve problems 12. Not prioritizing the work 13. Having no preferences 14. Long, confusing explanations 15. Missing information to complete project 16. No systems for collaborating 17. Won’t use collaboration tools 18. No easy way to share documents or progress 19. Forgetting to follow up with the project 20. Only commenting on errors but not the good work Of course, this list is not exhaustive. But, the list does give you enough data to determine whether your delegation style is effective or not. If you’d like to talk more about outsourcing or delegation, I’m happy to.

Here Are Three Tips to Help You Be More Effective in Delegation Right Now! Planning Rules. Take 10 minutes and think about why you are delegating that project and what the end goal is for you. Answering the why question helps you to stay motivated because you know at the end you’ll achieve something you desire.

What does success look like? It’s surprising how many times clients say ‘I don’t know’ when I ask what success would look like for them. Hello?! How can your talent satisfy your wishes and preferences when you don’t know what you want. Failure to set expectations is always the beginning of a bad situation.

Be Vulnerable. As a lawyer, you know that it’s very difficult to help someone who does not want to be helped. You have to be vulnerable for delegation to work. Tell your team about the things that you can’t or don’t like to do. The six most powerful words you can say are: I don’t know. Help me, please. They’ll see you as someone confident and courageous! n Dina Eisenberg is the award-winning entrepreneurial lawyer who prepares solo and small firm lawyers to delegate, automate and design a law practice that fits.

Is it time to delegate? Take a quiz to find out at: www. outsourceeasier.com/take-the-quiz.

We’ll help your firm stand out and get the attention it deserves!

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