19 Steps to Building a Regional or National Law Practice by Trey Ryder
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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
Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 227, 2022
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
