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10 SEO Specialists Share Their Best Tips for Lawyers
Chris Dreyer
The Wrong Approach to Selling Professional Services
Tom Trush
Look in the Mirror: Associates Hold the Key To Their Own Happiness
Jay Harrington
Disrespectful Clients Don’t Get to Stay Clients
Ruth Carter
14 Marketing Misconceptions That Cost Lawyers A Fortune
Trey Ryder
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2017 EDITION—NO.172
TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 Fourteen Marketing Misconceptions that Cost Lawyers a Fortune
by Trey Ryder
12 16
8 Disrespectful Clients Don’t Get to Stay Clients
by Ruth Carter
12 Look in the Mirror: Associates Hold the Key To Their Own Happiness EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Brian Topor EDITOR Wendy Price CREATIVE SERVICES Skidmutro Creative Partners CIRCULATION Angela Watson PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Griffiths STAFF WRITERS Dan Baldwin Jennifer Hadley
by Jay Harrington
ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH
16 Bill Bender, Bender & Gritz, APLC, San Diego Improving the Profession’s Image by Improving Clients’ Lives by Dan Baldwin
8
24 Ten SEO Specialists Share Their Best Tips For Lawyers
CONTRIBUTING EDITORIALISTS Jay Harrington Chris Dreyer Ruth Carter Tim Mullane Trey Ryder WEBMASTER Mariusz Opalka ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Info@AttorneyJournal.us SUBMIT AN ARTICLE Editorial@AttorneyJournal.us OFFICE 30211 Avenida De Las Banderas Suite 200 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 www.AttorneyJournal.us ADDRESS CHANGES Address corrections can be made via fax, email or postal mail.
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by Chris Dreyer
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE OF THE MONTH
28 Frank J. Johnson, Johnson Fistel, LLP, San Diego by Dan Baldwin
30 The Wrong Approach To Selling Professional Services by Tom Trush
Editorial material appears in Attorney Journal as an informational service for readers. Article contents are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of Attorney Journal. Attorney Journal makes every effort to publish credible, responsible advertisements. Inclusion of product advertisements or announcements does not imply endorsement. Attorney Journal is a trademark of Sticky Media, LLC. Not affiliated with any other trade publication or association. Copyright 2017 by Sticky Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without written permission from Sticky Media, LLC. Printed in the USA
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14 Marketing Misconceptions That Cost Lawyers A Fortune by Trey Ryder
You must have a huge, expensive website and blog to attract desirable cases and compete head-on with other lawyers. Wrong! If you want a formal, corporate-looking website for all the world to see, fine. But please don’t think you must compete in this arena. Every week I get calls from lawyers who are unhappy because they have spent huge dollars on their websites, search engine optimization, and ongoing maintenance hoping they can break even on their investment. And when they talk with their web company account rep, the answers are usually the same: You need to pay us more money so we can ... (insert here whatever service they think you need). Handsome websites and search engine rankings are not the only answer. A website is only one piece of your marketing mosaic, and you can attract highly desirable cases without spending a fortune with your website company.
q
Common marketing methods don’t work in today’s competitive environment. Wrong! Common methods—such as advertising, publicity, seminars, newsletters, websites, social media—can be highly effective when used correctly. If they don’t work for you, more than likely you’re sending an incomplete marketing message or using an outdated approach. The method you choose is only as good as the message it delivers. If your message lacks any needed components, you’ll lose clients to other lawyers who deliver a complete educational message.
w
Your marketing’s most important function is to promote your services. False! The most important function of your marketing program is to establish that you can be trusted. Most of us don’t do business with people we don’t trust. While your prospect is considering whether to hire your services, he is also trying to determine whether he trusts you.
e r 6
All you need to do is get the word out. No! You must both get the word out and get a response back. This
Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
is the meaning of “direct response marketing,” often shortened to “direct marketing.” As our media society grew in the 1950s and 60s, marketers had no need to measure direct results, so they used institutional advertising. But today, your marketing efforts must be built on proven principles that cause prospects to respond. Because if you don’t get an answer, you can’t be sure your prospect even received your message. A public relations program that generates feature articles and broadcast interviews will attract new clients to your practice. Maybe not. In most cases, p.r. programs bring exposure, but exposure does not always bring new clients. Attorneys routinely report, “We were happy with the number of articles about our firm, but we didn’t get even one new client!” A good publicity program can be an important part of your marketing effort. But whether your publicity program generates only exposure or solid marketing results depends on the experience and know-how of the person carrying out your program.
t
The toughest challenge you face is to persuade your prospects. No! Your toughest challenge is to find potential clients. Your marketing program should attract qualified inquiries so you start to build a trusting relationship with genuine prospects. You could have 100 new clients tomorrow if prospects knew how you could help them and where to find you. But, in most cases, prospects don’t know you even exist. So you must assume the burden of getting your message into your prospects’ hands.
y
Word-of-mouth referrals will bring you all the new clients you want. Usually not. Every lawyer wants good, qualified referrals. But when you rely on referrals as your only source of new clients, you allow third parties (referral sources) to control your flow of new clients. In addition to attracting referrals, you should have an ongoing marketing program that generates inquiries directly from genuine prospects.
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The most effective time to start delivering your marketing message is when your prospect is in your office. Wrong! The most effective time to deliver your marketing message is when your prospect first thinks about his problem and wants to know what solutions are available. You have a significant advantage over other attorneys when you have a packet of materials you can mail to your prospect, regardless of his location. You can offer your information packet any number of ways, such as through advertising, publicity, newsletters or direct mail. When your prospect thinks about his problem, he sees that you offer material on the subject. He calls your office and requests your information. Then you send your materials by mail or email. In many cases, this puts your marketing message into his hands before he calls other lawyers.
i
You should mail your newsletter to clients and prospects quarterly. Not even close! Every day— when your prospects are knocked over with an avalanche of advertising—you’re fortunate indeed if you can create an impression in your prospect’s mind. If you hope to make your impression stick, you should send your newsletter at least monthly. The more often you mail to prospects on your mailing list, the more new business you will likely attract. The frequency with which you deliver your newsletter is much more important than the number of pages.
o
Prospects will go out of their way to do business with you. Hardly! You must go out of your way to attract their business. Lawyers often think a small obstacle, such as having to pay for a long-distance phone call, will attract calls from more qualified prospects. And this is true when your prospect comes to you by referral. But if your prospect does not have a personal recommendation— and has not yet received your marketing message—he may have no greater interest in hiring you than in hiring any other lawyer or law firm. So the small barrier that you hope will qualify him actually causes him to call someone else. I urge you to provide an email address, toll-free number, business-reply envelopes (where you pay return postage), and other conveniences. These increase the likelihood that your prospect will contact you before he calls your competitors.
a
By lowering your fees, you gain a competitive advantage that you can make up in volume. In your dreams! When you lower your fees, (1) you undermine your credibility because prospects wonder why your services are no longer worth what you once charged, (2) you attract clients who know the price of everything and the value of nothing (people who are loyal to the dollar are never loyal to you!), and (3) you lose money because it is
s
usually impossible to achieve the volume of cases you need to make up for the profits you lose. Instead of lowering your fees, leave them alone—because it’s easier to justify why you charge so much than to explain why you charge so little. If one person can make good marketing decisions, three people can make great decisions. Wrong! Your marketing program needs one quarterback who calls the shots. The more people involved in making the decision, the longer it takes to make and the more watered down it becomes. Marketing is like football. Can you imagine how long it would take if the entire team offered their ideas and everyone had to agree before they could make the next play? If your marketing program doesn’t bring you the results you want, change methods or change quarterbacks. But don’t compound your quarterback’s problems by bringing in more people to help him make a decision.
d
You make your marketing more efficient when you cut out the bells and whistles. Usually not. Often, what lawyers think are bells and whistles are actually the essential steps that make their programs successful. Here’s what happens: After their marketing plans succeed, lawyers trim back their programs to make them more efficient. Their attempts to “streamline” their marketing—aka make it cheaper—seem like a good idea until they realize their marketing no longer works. You’re wise to test different steps in the marketing process to see if they’re necessary. When conducting a test, change only one variable at a time and track results closely. If your results start to decline, you’ll know that variable is important to producing the results you want.
f
To attract new clients, you should promote your services. No! When you promote your services, you take on the role of a salesperson, which undermines your credibility. This is called selling-based marketing. Instead, promote your knowledge using Education-Based Marketing. This allows you to attract new clients, increase referrals, strengthen client loyalty and build your image as an authority without selling. Education-Based Marketing gives your prospects what they want, information and advice—and removes what they don’t want, a sales pitch. n
g
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.treyrider.com.
Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
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Disrespectful Clients Don’t Get To Stay Clients by Ruth Carter
You know what feels good? Firing a client. My firm was hired to help a client with multiple applications for registering their intellectual property. We tell every client there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to get them everything they want. This client got upset about the status of one of the applications, and then refused to pay the balance on a project. I explained that their feelings didn’t negate their obligations, and if they didn’t pay, we’d be constrained to withdraw as counsel from all their pending applications. They refused, so I withdrew as the attorney of record and the firm disengaged from all their projects.
Disrespect Shouldn’t Be Tolerated in Lawyer-Client Relationships This situation wasn’t about money. It was about the lack of respect for me, my work and the firm. And a client who doesn’t respect me doesn’t get to be my client anymore. I would have had the same response to a client or potential client who was rude to me or anyone else at the firm. I can handle clients who are high-drama, but I have no tolerance for disrespect. I’ve learned as a lawyer that we teach clients how to treat us. We set the tone and the boundaries of the relationship. We get to decide how we handle payments, whether we are accessible after hours or on weekends, and we set the expectations for how clients communicate with us. A young lawyer wrote a blog post about dealing with an irate opposing counsel. When she wouldn’t stop screaming at him, he told her to call him back when she calmed down and he hung up the phone. She immediately called him back and continued screaming, and he hung up again. The same rule could easily be applied to a screaming client. We’re no one’s punching bag. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with clients asking questions about their bill, of course. It’s refusing to pay what the lawyer is reasonably owed that I take issue with.
One and Done Clients A few times in my legal career to date I’ve worked with clients who weren’t so problematic that I felt the need to disengage from 8
Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
the representation, but I won’t let them hire me again once their case is complete. I’ll tell them that I’m unavailable to assist them and send them to the county lawyer referral service (because friends don’t send friends bad referrals). In my contact database, I have a group called “Black Ball.” These are people I will not work with or for, and people to whom I will never refer work. This list is for all types of professionals, not just lawyers and prospective clients. I don’t tell anyone they’re on this list; it’s something I keep just for me.
“You Never Regret the Client You Didn’t Take” This is one of the best pieces of advice I heard during my first year in practice. If a prospective client is causing headaches, they don’t get to become a client, because they’ve already shown how they will treat the firm. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t go to law school to be miserable as a lawyer. I don’t mind challenging clients much of the time, but no client is worth my peace of mind. Circling back to my story, once I decided to disengage from this client, I respectfully closed out their file, sent them copies of the documents they might need to continue to pursue these matters on his own, and wished them well. (Note: Be sure to follow your jurisdiction’s rules when declining or terminating representation.) I wasn’t angry—it was a matter-of-fact thing I had to do. I have better things to do with my energy, like work on other projects and for other clients, than to be angry with this person. n Ruth Carter is a lawyer, writer and speaker. She is Of Counsel with Venjuris, focusing her practice on intellectual property, social media, First Amendment and flash mob law. Named an ABA Journal 2012 Legal Rebel, Ruth is author of the ABA book The Legal Side of Blogging for Lawyers, as well as Flash Mob Law: The Legal Side of Planning and Participating in Pillow Fights, No Pants Rides, and Other Shenanigans. Previously published in AttorneyatWork.com. In Nothing But the Ruth, she writes about the lessons she’s learning while building her practice. She blogs at UndeniableRuth.com. Follow her on Twitter @rbcarter.
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Look in the Mirror: Associates Hold the Key To Their Own Happiness by Jay Harrington
In a 1955 essay in The Economist, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British historian, described a phenomenon that would come to be called “Parkinson’s Law.” His key insight: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In other words, if something must be done in a day, it will get done in a day. If something must be done in a year, it will get done in a year. Work takes as long as we allow for it. If you believe that achieving success as an associate takes 3,000 hours of work per year, then it will. It’s Parkinson’s Law of being a lawyer. Working hard, working long hours, working late into the night—too many of us accept the inevitability of a life driven primarily, if not exclusively, by work. Author Seth Godin has remarked on the fact that lawyers, in particular, find a way to fill the vacuum of their time with work: “Busy corporate lawyers spend 12 hours a day at work, and somehow, are busy the entire time. It’s easy to imagine that they could get their work done (most days) in 8 hours, but the container they’re using is size XL, and so the work expands to fit.” Stop and read that quote again. Is your immediate reaction to dismiss it as the ramblings of an ignorant idealist nonlawyer, or the considered commentary of a thoughtful outsider to the profession? I hope it’s the latter because Godin is onto something: When it comes to the pain of the legal profession, much of it comes from self-inflicted wounds.
The Roots of Dissatisfaction Among Young Lawyers As a hardworking associate, it’s easy to pin the root causes of career dissatisfaction on someone or something other than yourself: a partner or client, your law firm or the profession, more broadly. But there’s clearly more to the story. Money does not seem to be the issue. Those earning $160,000 per year as first-year lawyers at top firms are battling many of the same issues as those earning less. And while firms still have a long way to go to adapt to the changing preferences of talent in the marketplace, many are taking steps to offer more flexible work schedules. The surprising thing is that associates don’t seem interested. A recent survey by the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance found that while more law firms are offering perks and programs intended to enable associates to work a more flexible schedule, such as the ability to work remotely or craft a more 12
Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
convenient work schedule, only 8.8 percent of associates are taking advantage of these programs.
What Makes a Fulfilling Legal Career? What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us So what gives? I think the answer lies in a fundamental lack of awareness and understanding of some principles that add perspective to what makes a career—in the law or otherwise— fulfilling and satisfying. Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Who am I to quibble with Mr. Twain? But here goes anyway. We don’t understand what makes us valuable. Yes, law firms place a high value on billable hours. But they place a higher value on excellence. Ask any partner what they’d prefer: An associate who bills 2,500 hours per year and does average work, or one who bills 1,800 hours and does exceptional work. It may not seem obvious, but if you can make a partner’s job easier, give them peace of mind, and make them look good in the process, you’ll be considered invaluable even if your billable hours don’t stack up against others. It’s easy to bill hours—you just need to be busy. It’s far harder to be valuable—it requires focus and intensity. But if you can muster the intensity required, you can maximize the results you produce, and therefore dramatically increase your perceived value. Being valuable provides leverage for all types of things, such as confidently requesting a flexible work schedule during a time in your life when you really need it. We don’t know who to say no to. It’s fashionable in thought leadership circles these days to extol the virtues of saying “no” more often. This is good advice, as saying “yes” to everything leads to being overwhelmed, and creates lack of focus and dispersion of effort. But this advice requires context: We need to learn what to say no to. Yes, we should say no to work requests if we can’t possibly take on more. But we need to start with low-hanging fruit— saying no to more trivial, non-work requests that we too readily say yes to. We say yes to lunch, yes to chitchat around the water cooler, and yes to the distractions of social media and the internet. We say yes to happy hour, which leads to dinner and more drinks, which results in us saying no to our alarm clock and an early, productive start to our days.
By learning to say no to what doesn’t matter, and yes to what does, you can make room for the deep work required to make a big impact while working a normal schedule (even by nonlawyer standards). We don’t think long term. The typical associate treats their job as a job. But the key to success lies in treating it as a journey. And in most cases, it’s a long one. We burn out because we’re always sprinting, when, instead, we should be seeking more balance, and giving ourselves time to recover. Just as top athletes train in intervals allowing for intensity and recovery, we must do the same if we expect to make it over the long term of a successful legal career. In almost every professional endeavor, it takes years of practice, persistence and patience to gain mastery. Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, once said, “Timing, perseverance and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” There are no shortcuts. There’s not some trick or hack that will have any meaningful impact on your career or the satisfaction you derive from it. We come to enjoy what we’re good at. And we’re good at what we practice over the long term. We don’t pursue enough (or any) outside interests. Shortly after I started my own law firm, I had lunch with a practice group leader at one of the top firms in the city. He was a bit of a local legend, powerful and successful. I was young—in my early thirties—and he was at the tail end of his career and approaching retirement. I asked him what he intended to do with his newfound freedom. “I plan to work,” he said, without irony or a hint of sarcasm. He went on to explain that he didn’t have any hobbies because he spent the last 40 years focused solely on his practice. “Work is my hobby,” he said. I think this speaks for itself, but in case you need the meaning of this anecdote distilled more clearly: Work will take over if you let it, and if all you have is work, you have very little.
They ended up in law school by default as a result of a decision, she explains, “made for reasons having nothing to do with the actual practice of law and without diligence about whether the profession is really a fit.” That may be true for some, but I think it’s a fairly cynical view. It suggests that, for many associates, career dissatisfaction is a fait accompli. I believe that, regardless of whether you consider the profession a “fit,” there are things you can do to make your legal career more enjoyable and satisfying over the long term. Don’t accept the notion that, when it comes to life as a lawyer, you just need to grin and bear it. Instead, grab hold of your career, and by doing so discover a life rich with significance and meaning both inside and outside of the office. It all starts with looking in the mirror and embracing the fundamental truth that no one is more responsible for your happiness than the person staring back at you. n Jay Harrington is co-founder of Harrington Communications, where he leads the Brand Strategy, Content Creation and Client Service teams. He is author of the book One of a Kind: A Proven Path to a Profitable Practice, as well as the e-book How to Start Fast as a Law Firm Associate. Previously, Jay was a commercial litigator and corporate bankruptcy attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Foley & Lardner. He earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Previously published in Attorney at Work. Follow him on Twitter @harringj75.
Is Unhappiness as a Lawyer a Fait Accompli? In 2014, Leigh McMullan Abramson, an Ivy League law grad and former Big Law litigator, wrote a piece for The Atlantic in which she discussed the fact that the law is the only profession that has spawned such a large cottage industry devoted to helping members of the professions quit. She highlights all of the “specialized career counselors, blogs, books, and websites offering comfort and guidance to wannabe ex-Esqs.” Citing her own experience, Abramson writes: “I spent my first year as lawyer holed up in a conference room sorting piles of documents wearing rubber covers on my fingertips that looked like tiny condoms. Eventually, I was trusted with more substantive tasks, writing briefs and taking depositions. But I had no appetite for conflict and found it hard to care about the interests I was serving. I realized I had never seriously considered whether I was cut out to be a lawyer, much less a corporate litigator. After a few years, I just wanted out, but I had no idea where to begin.” Abramson argues that many lawyers aren’t cut out for their career because they entered the profession somewhat mindlessly. Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
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“I’ve come to believe I’ve helped turn peoples’ ideas around about what attorneys are. There are a lot of people who just don’t like attorneys, who think attorneys are bad, or there is too much litigation. So, by taking legitimate cases, by taking cases with strong facts, I feel proud to say that I’m a personal injury attorney,” says Bill Bender, Esq., Managing Partner of Bender & Gritz, APLC.
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Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
provide for their family or they’ve lost a family member. You become more than an attorney to them. Their case is more than just a case. Sometimes it is literally life and death and I feel responsible for making things right.”
A Mother’s Dream Becomes a Son’s Vocation
The seed to become an attorney was planted early in his life. His mother grew up on a farm along a dirt road—a woman who never had the opportunity to attend college. She always held the profession of law in high esteem and believed it was the ideal career choice for her son. She even encouraged him to watch
© Bauman Photographers
T
he firm, Bender & Gritz, handles personal injury, workers’ compensation, and social security disability claims. Bender is admitted to the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of the State of California and all California District Courts. He is also a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Super Lawyers. Bender believes strongly that his work improving the lives of people who are often living through the most challenging times of their lives also enhances the image of the profession. “I help people who need it, who are deserving. I’m an easygoing guy, but the work I do is serious. Most people who come to us are at their lowest point. They’ve been severely injured. They’re not getting a paycheck. They’re not able to
ATTORNEY
OF THE MONTH
2017 2016
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To Kill a Mockingbird often when he was young. “She was a very intuitive southern lady and she recognized that law was the place for me. She knew it long before I ever did.” Bender was not really on track for a legal career until he became involved in the Special Olympics program in college. “Working with Special Olympics was an eye-opening experience. I realized that there are a lot of people out there who really can’t effectively advocate for themselves. That’s when I started taking life more seriously, appreciating what I had and realizing that I had the ability to make a difference.” Law school became a wakeup call for Bender. Until then, he hadn’t had to work hard to succeed academically. “The very first week of classes it became clear that I was not going to be able to coast through law school. It really tightened up my purpose. The stringency of law school was good for me. I matured quickly.”
When he turned 18, those funds provided his tuition for what became a Stanford education. “That letter, from a young boy I represented 18 years ago, really touched me and it brought things full circle. This was again concrete evidence of what a significant difference I can make in someone’s life,” Bender says.
A Unique, Comprehensive Practice
Bender’s firm, Bender & Gritz, APLC has a unique niche in the San Diego legal market. They have nine attorneys and 14 staff members who are solely dedicated to three main injury and disability practices. “I’m not aware of any firm in town that practices personal injury, worker’s compensation and social security disability at our level; there are many tremendous attorneys who practice each of those areas, but few that understand how all three sometimes work together.”Recently, Following His the firm represented an individual in a serious personal injury case. The incident occurred on a construction site and there Own Moral Compass was an underlying work comp claim—but another law firm Bender’s first job out of law school was handling insurance represented the injured worker. “The worker’s compensation defense and medical malpractice defense for an 80-person law attorney resolved the comp claim firm. He says the experience while we were still litigating the taught him a lot from a technical civil claim. The client’s injuries and practical application point “Coming out of law school, were severe enough that he of view, but he was not satisfied I was not super excited with the work. qualified for social security about working for someone “The bottom line is that I benefits and we took on his case else. I knew that might be a was not happy doing what I for SSD benefits and notified his was doing.” He felt like he was worker’s compensation attorney. necessary evil, but I always Settlement documents were just “punching the clock” but wanted to do my own thing. executed in the comp matter and ultimately did not feel as if he Having the autonomy to was doing the right thing. He unfortunately, the other attorney work on my own and strike decided then to open his own did not consult with us. He failed my own path was my goal,” firm with his law school friend, to include a “Hartman Formula” Eric Gritz. He says, “having (Sciarotta v Bowen (1988) 837 Bender says. my own firm, taking the cases F.2d 135) as part of the work comp settlement. When settling I want to take, and feeling good a work comp case, the attorney can attach an addendum that about what I do allows me to follow my own moral compass.” allocates amounts for future medical care versus permanent Bender relates a case in which that moral compass paid off in disability monies. The permanent disability money can then an emotional and unexpected manner that has become typical be amortized over the worker’s anticipated remaining lifespan in his firm’s practice. He recently received an email from a on a monthly basis. This is important because spreading young man who said he had just graduated from Stanford. payments out over time is less of an offset if the person is The letter included, “I don’t really know who you are, but receiving social security disability benefits. In this instance, you represented me when I was three years old and I wanted the other work comp attorney did not include a Hartman to let you know what I did with the money.” The writer had Formula, and the Social Security Administration took credit been attacked by a dog. Bender resolved his case and made for the entire amount of the work comp settlement up front. specific savings arrangements for his settlement money.
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© Bauman Photographers
Bender & Gritz Attorneys: Carl Kreibich, Tyler Campbell, Brandi Kurlander, Bill Bender, Eric Gritz and Lisa B. Hernandez As a result, the worker’s Social Security Disability benefits will not be payable for several years. This could easily have been avoided had the work comp attorney used the Hartman Formula. The cost to the injured worker in Social Security benefits was substantial. This is a very basic issue affecting an injured worker’s rights to social security payments, but we discovered from that work comp attorney and several others we spoke to, that they were unaware of the Hartman Formula and how to employ it.” “So, when potential clients ask what makes our firm a better choice and what makes us different, it’s really the diversity and breadth of our very unique practice. There are deceptively complex issues that affect the interplay between personal injury, worker’s compensation and social security law that no other firm in town really has the experience or knowledge to identify and handle.”
Two newer additions to the firm, Lisa Hernandez, who was recently named a partner, and Tyler Campbell, a new associate with tremendous potential, are helping propel the firm to greater heights.Eric Gritz is a founding member of the firm and partners Carl Kreibich and Brandi Kurlander have been with Bender & Gritz since 1998 and 1999 respectively. Bender makes a point of stating that he never uses the term ‘work for me’ in reference to his employees. “I work with these people. To some degree they’ve invested their future with me. I take it seriously. These people have families. They have their own lives and they’re looking to work in a place that values them, that cares about them beyond work.” He says he fosters the attitude that ‘we’re all in this together’ and he tries to hire people who really want to help people as well. That understand the importance of what they do.
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Bender says that a majority of his clients live paycheck-topaycheck. They do not have the luxury of not being able to work for months at a time and often do not have health insurance or other resources. That kind of responsibility puts tremendous stress on the attorneys representing these people. “But I do feel that we, as firm, make as profound a difference as possible,” Bender says. “A lot of attorneys I know do not enjoy their job and tell me ‘I would never want my child to do what we do.’ But if my daughters can experience the job satisfaction that I have as an attorney, I would be so fulfilled. I really want my daughters to feel that same satisfaction in their careers. I’d want that for anybody.”
EXPERIENCE
Helping Those in Most Need of Help
“But I do feel that we, as a firm, make as profound a difference as possible,” Bender says. Bender lives in the La Playa area of Point Loma in an historic architectural home built in 1954 with views of the harbor and downtown skyline. He has two daughters, Bailey, age 17, and Riley, age 14. He enjoys playing and watching sports. The firm has season tickets to the Padres, Aztecs and Gulls and they often go to games together and provide hundreds of tickets to employees and clients a year. He collects fine wine and has a collection of 3,000 bottles. “If there is one thing that I’d like people to know about our area of law, it is that for those who do it the right way, there is no more pure form of law. People can think what they like about personal injury attorneys and call us ambulance chasers all they want. I know in my heart that we do the right thing, the right way.” n
» EDUCATION
• Thomas Jefferson School of Law, J.D., 1993 • San Diego State University-California State University, 1985 – 1989 • Business Administration, Marketing
» HONORS & AWARDS
• Super Lawyers - 2015 – 2018 • AVVO Rating - 10 • Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Member • Bar Admissions
» BAR ADMISSIONS • California
• U.S. District Court Central District of California
Contact Information Bill Bender, Esq. Bender & Gritz, APLC 350 10th Avenue, Suite 900 San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 515-0222 bbender@bendergritz.com bendergritz.com
• U.S. District Court Southern District of California • U.S. Supreme Court
» PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIPS
• The Orange County Trial Lawyers Association • American Association for Justice • The San Diego County Bar • The State Bar of California • Consumer Attorneys of California • Consumer Attorneys of San Diego
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Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
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Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
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SEO SPECIALISTS
Share Their Best Tips for Lawyers by Chris Dreyer
“IF YOU WERE WORKING WITH AN ATTORNEY TO IMPROVE A LAW FIRM’S SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR #1 TIP TO GET RESULTS?”
T
his is the question we posed to more than 50 SEO specialists who have done SEO for lawyers. Their answers will provide you with good direction whether you’re formulating your own law firm SEO strategies or just looking for general advice. If you want to improve your own website rankings or your clients’ website listings in the search engines, then this expert Q&A roundup is what you’re looking for. Enjoy and share it with others. Thank you!
1
SEAN SMITH
simpletiger.com twitter.com/snsmth
Having worked with plenty of law firms, I would say typically the thing they fall short on the most is producing high-quality answers to questions their potential clients might have about their services as a means to attract would-be clients. There usually isn’t a lot of local competition for these types of phrases and typically, visitors are pretty intentional when it comes to law, so they usually convert well once they’ve read content like this. There are plenty of other law firm SEO strategies, but this is just one where I see firms fall short.
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ROBBIE RICHARDS
robbierichards.com twitter.com/robbierichmktg
Regardless of the client, I always start with an audit. This tells me a lot about the client, their specific practice areas, as well as the competition they are up against. From this initial analysis I’m able to quickly identify the opportunity areas that will provide quick wins for the client, and solidify enough upfront trust to establish an ongoing relationship. Most of the legal clients we work with are local SEO projects, some with multiple locations, others with multi-lingual targeting within a single geographic location. We are even working with a defamation attorney right now that has international clients. As a result, the strategy and approach vary a bit. That’s why I always start with the audit. The insights save us a lot of time spinning our wheels, instead of getting shit done. All that said, we look across the following areas: Google My 24
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Business, website and landing pages, content audit, citations, link analysis, reviews, social media, structured data, and competitor analysis. From there, we can usually find quick win opportunities. Knowing that this is kind of a “duh” answer so far, I’ll list out the tactics that move the needle the most for legal clients. Each of these tactics fall under what I like to think of more as a single “framework” that delivers short- and long-term results. Content audits: Basically—we analyze all the indexed content on the site, and look at four key metrics—links, organic traffic, conversions and engagement. We map data points across these four areas down to the page-level and make one of four recommendations … (1) Keep, (2) Remove, (3) Improve, (4) Consolidate. After we have executed on this, the client will often see immediate organic traffic gains, and have a really solid content base to build all ongoing efforts from. We recently did this with a client in the defamation law space. In seven months their site has gone from ~3,500 organic visits and 130 online leads a month, to ~10,000 organic visits and 299 leads in August. And, that was without writing a single new post or page on the site. This strategy works well in legal, because clients often come to us with a ton of content already on their site after working with other companies for years on their SEO. Existing KW research: Once we have established the base, we identify all the low-hanging fruit on the website. I’ve written in-depth about the process here. Basically, we emerge with a shortlist of pages with existing rankings 6-20, that with a little promo can make some quick gains. Citations & Reviews: Citations have long been known as a staple in the local SEO ranking factors. We get the client listed or updated on the top 50 directories, then run a manual submission campaign using Bright Local to build out the profile and get some more niche relevant listings. On top of that, we use our in-house review management system to collect positive reviews across the major review sites and sync a live feed to the client’s site. This social proof is massive for conversions. Google My Business: It amazes how many clients come to us with a poor GMB page, or none at all. This is the centerpiece of the local search presence. We spend a lot of upfront time optimizing that profile, and building links to it. BONUS: Legal is an incredibly competitive space. So, if
a client has some budget, while they are working on SEO, I often recommend running a small local PPC campaign to get immediate visibility in the SERPs, and get the phone ringing. This is particularly effective now that you can run ads in the map pack. I usually start with Click-to-Call only campaigns on mobile devices.
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MICHAEL MOGILL
crispvideo.com/legal-video twitter.com/mmogill
“If you were working with an attorney to improve their law firm’s search engine optimization, what would be your #1 tip to get results?” Invest in videos that provide value to prospective clients. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is often considered one of the most important strategies to utilize when marketing your law firm. If you’re not on the first page of Google, chances are potential clients won’t even end up on your page- in fact, less than 10% of internet users even venture to the second page of search results. SEO differs from paid marketing in that it relies on organic growth, which relies almost exclusively on targeted content marketing. To have an effective content marketing strategy, you must first have valuable, desirable content—that’s where video comes in. Video marketing is a proven strategy to enhance your brand, but that’s not all it does. Videos have become a dominating force in online activity, and companies are responding by making their content more visual and interactive. HighQ predicted that 2017 will be the year of video marketing, and there’s a reason for that. Generating website traffic can be a tough component of your firm’s marketing strategy, especially in the age of paid advertisements. With an average of 3 to 4 homepage ads coming from sponsored companies, getting your company to the first page of Google can be a daunting task. However, having relevant and high-quality videos on your site is proven to boost your search rankings more effectively than organic content alone. Google rewards relevance and quality, so if your firm adds videos to your site, it could significantly improve SEO. Here are a few statistics to highlight the positive impact videos can have: • Video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic • Video leads to a 105% increase in time spent on your site • 65% of decision makers will click through to your site after viewing a branded video • Embedding a video in your firm’s landing page can increase conversion rates by 300% • Video can also influence metrics such as your bounce rate— by improving the overall content on your page by including quickly digestible content like video, you can increase the odds that visitors stay on your page. Numbers don’t lie, and search rankings don’t either. Videos are truly an impactful way to gain the upper hand in the competitive law industry, and can exponentially increase traffic to your firm’s website.
4
ROB TIMMERMANN
wearetg.com twitter.com/timmermanngroup
From a business owner’s perspective, I would want to promote my law firm through marketing instead of the individual lawyers promoting themselves. What happens when you do this is the firm has a much better chance of longevity because the firm controls the inbound leads. This is because people will have the name of the firm as top of mind rather than the name of the lawyer. They also control the leads by showing up when people are searching for the type of firm they want.
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MARCUS MILLER
bowlerhat.co.uk/ twitter.com/marcusbowlerhat
This is a fiercely competitive industry. So getting the basics of your Local SEO and on page work dialed in is essential here. But it won’t be the competitive difference maker. The difference maker in competitive industries is always authority, so the most important tip is to focus on building authority. This, of course, is easy to say, but not always so easy to do in practice. Create content that truly helps the law firm’s potential customers. Something that is truly useful and authoritative. I would then concentrate on promoting and building links to that content to help raise visibility of that content piece (or pieces) and to build up domain level link authority. This is strategically simple but there can be a lot of moving parts. I covered this approach in more detail in a recent Search Engine Land column.
6
LEXI MILLS
twitter.com/leximills
There are plenty of opportunities to comment on the legal perspective of current news. I would encourage members of the firms to write or dictate their perspective on this. I would craft this into a blog post, with graphics and video where possible, get it signed off, and then promote it to local, national, and trade media to build links and grow the reputation of the firm. Or perhaps create a piece of content or an online app that translate legal speak to ‘human.’ There are many legal terms that may be frightening or difficult to understand. Making a dictionary that explains legalese using videos, gif, famous movie references, and visual examples would be strong promotional and consumer content that could be targeted to specific sectors such as students, families, immigrants, etc. depending on the law firm’s strategy. Creating top tips or mistakes to avoid lists for legal issues could work very well. For example, key things to know to maintain compliance with your O-1 visa. Top considerations for a prenup. How to save money on taxes when you are a dual resident. Attorney Journal San Diego | Volume 172, 2017
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All of these topics can be targets to particular audiences and linked to current news cycles, helping to grow not just domain authority but also brand awareness and conversions.
7
KASPAR SZYMANSKI searchbrothers.com twitter.com/kas_tweets
Working with attorneys, it is vital to look into the physical business location while considering their websites’ SEO signals. In legal business, prospective clients are most likely to search for a lawyer nearby. The website needs to convey that important information to Google and users alike. Ensuring search engines understand the locality of the business is a crucial first step towards creating positive user signals before anything else. Of course, in a vertical as competitive as the legal business, one fundamental signal will hardly suffice to achieve the goal of persistent visibility in search results for relevant, converting queries. It is, however, the first step towards providing a great user experience and to win the SERP game big.
8
JAKE BOHALL
hivedigital.com twitter.com/jakebohall
The legal services space is very challenging for SEO due to competition and investment in the space. Most attorneys have the budget to spend on SEO, so you quickly find that much of the low-hanging fruit typically available in SEO does not provide any real boosts, but simply helps get you closer to “par” with your competitors. Having a mobile friendly site that is well structured, full of great content, easily accessible for mobile, free of errors, and efficient for crawlers is a norm in the space, and authority really becomes the key to setting you apart from competitors for search rankings. To really be effective as a law firm, it’s important that you have the type of in-depth content that will support link growth by being an exceptional resource for others, and even more importantly…that you are seeking out opportunities to have your subject matter expertise highlighted in the media. This is most often through guest appearances on local news networks, contributing legal opinion in articles on major sites, and increasingly by establishing a pro-bono service offering that identifies you as more altruistic than others in your space.
9
MARKO SARIC
howtomakemyblog.com twitter.com/markosaric
My #1 tip would be for the law firm to create some great content and publish it on its website or blog. Without content, it will be difficult to rank in the search engines. 26
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The process would be to analyze the target audience and to find a sweet spot between the services that the law firm offers and the needs/wants/questions from the target audience. That will make it clear what topics need to be tackled. Then it would be all about creating great quality content that answers questions that the audience has in order to attract them to the site, help them, inform them, and educate them. The blog or the website should be optimized to get leads, too, so I would include live chat and other call to actions to get in touch for those who are tempted to take it further.
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MARIE HAYNES
mariehaynes.com twitter.com/marie_haynes
I have done a lot of work helping attorneys who have been the victims of bad SEO work. In the past, it was commonplace to see legal websites that had absolutely horrible link profiles because an SEO company had spent hours building lowquality directory and article links. Many of these websites received manual unnatural links penalties or were negatively affected by Google’s Penguin algorithm. Now, links are still very important, but the only links that really move the needle are ones that have real purpose outside of SEO. If you can figure out a way to earn links rather than build your own, then you have a formula that really should help improve rankings. But who wants to link to their attorney’s website? That makes link earning hard. However, I have seen some attorneys earn some fantastic links. One of the things that works the best is to do something that journalists want to write about. Examples could include doing some pro bono work for a community group, setting up a petition, or bringing awareness to a real problem in our society. Once you have a case or situation that you can talk about publicly, then create content that people truly want to read that describes the situation. This means that someone in the firm who has good legal experience needs to write this content as opposed to a journalist who works for your web design company. Then, start spreading the word via traditional PR outlets, social media shares, etc. If you do things correctly, you’ll often get lots of people talking about this situation, writing about it, and linking to it. A few good links like this can make a huge difference. n Chris Dreyer is the Founder & CEO of Rankings.io, which provides SEO (search engine optimization) services to lawyers, to help them obtain more clients, cases and revenue. To learn more, visit rankings.io or email Chris at chris@rankings.io.
Relationships ARE Paramount by Dan Baldwin
JOURNAL
FEATURED PROFESTSHIOENMAOLNPTROFILE OF
T
2017
H
he firm employs ten lawyers, three paralegals, and one legal assistant working from offices in San Diego, New York City, and Marietta, GA and serves clients in the practice areas of business and commercial litigation. Key to building and maintaining his professional relationships with both clients and counsel is a commitment to core values. Johnson says, “I have always insisted upon five core values from everyone in our firm: trust, hard work, determination, integrity, and excellence in everything we do. These are more than words on a piece of paper. They are part of what we believe and how we work.” Johnson realized he wanted to become an attorney at age ten. As a school project he was required to interview someone in a profession he wanted to pursue. He interviewed his father’s lawyer, an event that led to a lifetime in the law. Johnson credits two life-altering events that have directed his current path in legal and family relationships. The first was leaving his partnership with Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton to form his own firm in 2004. His feelings toward relationships were an essential element of that move. His children were ages ten, eight and six. He says, “I spent more time with my family, particularly with my children. We went on more trips together, from camping in the desert to snowboarding in Mammoth to traveling around the world. But it wasn’t long before I was caught up in growing the firm and working long hours again to meet our clients’ needs.”
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“My favorite adage is that the most important things in life are not things. They are the relationships you have with friends and family. Both in my life and in my practice, it is my relationships that are paramount,” says Frank J. Johnson, Managing Partner of Johnson Fistel, LLP. The other defining moment was a diagnosis of cancer in 2014—Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. “It was actually a blessing, a reminder that everything can be over at any given moment. I’m glad to say that I’m now cancer free and feeling the temptation to get back on the proverbial corporate treadmill and continue growing the firm’s business. But I strive to remember the lessons from these events and focus on my relationships with family, friends, and colleagues,” Johnson says. Johnson, who has lived in San Diego virtually all his life, currently resides in Poway. His wife is Tiffany Johnson, a Deputy Attorney General. They have four children, a son and three daughters, ages 22, 20, 18 and 11 respectively. “My life outside of work has been about what my children are doing. Family is very important to me and I love my children more than anything in the world. Now that three have left the nest, I’ve had more time to meet the demands of running a growing law firm while fostering my personal relationships,” he says. Johnson’s lawyering is also guided by “the Rule of Three-S,” something he credits to his time clerking for the Honorable John S. Rhoades, Sr. “The lessons I learned from him on effective lawyering and integrity continue to imbue my work and relationships today including the Rule of Three-S: Stand up so they can see you; Speak up so they can hear you; and Sit down so they will love you.” n
BAD STRATEGY
The Wrong Approach to Selling Professional Services by Tom Trush
A dangerous epidemic continues to wash through the business community, especially among professionals selling services. In fact, the problem is so prevalent that I gave it a name— “The Juswanem Syndrome.” Sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it? I’ll explain what it means in minute. But first, let’s set the scene ... As I mentioned many times, those who don’t consistently market their services often find themselves in frustrating situations. Time and again, the need for sales leads them to the first marketing opportunity that comes to mind. These days that activity usually involves social media. Resources such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn remain the shiny objects offering promises of almost endless prospects. And rightfully so—social media is an incredible connection tool. The problem, though, is the approach. You see, regardless of the tool, resource, strategy or tactic, service providers often express to me a similar desired action from prospects. And it almost always begins with the same words: I just want them ... (Or, as the quicker spoken version sounds, I “juswanem” ...) The full request might sound like: I juswanem to call me. If I just get prospects on the phone, I know I can convince them to do business with me. Unfortunately, this approach is one of the quickest ways to turn off potential buyers. After all, who does it benefit? YOU! The Juswanem Syndrome leads to marketing messages that show prospects lack of respect. It causes you to protect the information prospects seek. This barrier then pushes prospects elsewhere to find the initial guidance they crave. Instead of a phone call, why not first focus on establishing trust? A positive belief in you is critical when attracting
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prospects and turning them into your clients. Without trust, you have zero chance at generating a sale. So let’s look at the three primary reasons we trust people ... 1. Previous Behavior Past behavior is usually a strong predictor of future actions. 2. Capability We trust people based on what we believe they can do. 3. Alignment If we share a common goal, then there’s a strong chance we’ll work together to get there. Of these three reasons, alignment is the most important (yet most ignored) when marketing. Today, more than ever, you must prove you’re not just someone pushing services. Unfortunately, in most marketing situations, the alignment between buyers and sellers matches as well as oil and water. After all, as a service professional, your goal is to make sales. Whereas a prospect simply wants to solve a problem. So, to create an alignment, you must match your marketing to your prospects’ problems. And remember, your marketing must develop relationships before it can drive profits. n Tom Trush is a Phoenix, Arizona-based direct-response copywriter who helps entrepreneurs and executives craft lead-generating marketing materials. Pick up his latest book, Escape the Expected: The Secret Psychology of Selling to Today’s Skeptical Consumers, for free (just cover shipping) at writewaysolutions.com/blog/free-book-offer.
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