Fake lawyers stealing your name and reputation

February 25, 2015 by
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In the “oh my, that’s not good” department comes this report about fake lawyers who put up websites pretending to be real lawyers. They copy the real lawyers’ names, photos, bios, and other information, but change the contact information.

Presumably, the goal is to bring in clients and steal their money, or set up fraudulent cases and rip off insurance companies with “you” as the attorney.

Don’t laugh. It happened to me.

This was many years ago, in the dark days before the Internet. I got a call from a fraud investigator who wanted to talk to me about one of my cases. I didn’t recognize the name of the client, however, and had never had an office at the address on the letter of representation.

How long had this been going on? How many other clients had this impostor represented in my name?

The fake lawyer was quickly caught and shut down and that was the end of the situation, but it was still very unsettling.

What I could to prevent this from happening again, I asked myself. I couldn’t come up with anything. But (as far as I know) it never happened again.

Today, where you can set up a website in ten minutes and get it indexed in search engines within hours, what’s to keep bad guys from impersonating you?

Nothing.

They may not get away with it, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try.

How can you protect yourself? I don’t have a good answer, other than constant vigilance, i.e., regularly searching your name and your firm’s name to see what’s out there, something you should probably be doing anyway.

And, just in case, you might want to ask your errors and omissions carrier and bar association about  your exposure if it does happen.

If it does happen to you, take a look at how the fake lawyers are marketing you. If they’re good at it, you might want to steal some of their ideas.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Legal industry

Do you look like a professional?

February 16, 2015 by
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I love watching a professional do his or her work. When I see a studio musician, a house painter, or gourmet chef doing what they do, I admire their skills and how they deploy them. There is a grace to what they do. It is effortless and efficient.

They look like a professional.

If I was planning to hire them, seeing them work would inspire confidence. I’d know I was getting someone who knew what they were doing. I wouldn’t worry about them making mistakes. I would know they were worth every penny they asked. Once I gave them the job, I’d get out of their way and let them do what they do.

Wouldn’t it be great if our clients could watch us work and have that same confidence about hiring us?

But a lawyer’s work isn’t visual. We work in our heads, mostly, and on paper. When we talk to people, it’s nothing like what lawyers do on TV. What we do looks boring. Watching us work is unlikely to inspire anyone.

You might not want to show people what you do, but you can do the next best thing. You can show them what it looks like after you have done it.

Show people photos of your office, your library, and your staff. Show them photos of you coming out of court, shaking hands with clients, and speaking in front of a crowd. Make sure you’re wearing the uniform (suite and tie) clients expect you to wear.

Make sure your website looks professional. You don’t need fancy (which can actually work against you), just not amateurish.

Let your content do most of the heavy lifting. The quality, depth, and quantity thereof should leave no doubts about your experience and ability to help your clients.

Make sure people see you doing things professionals do. Speaking, writing articles and books. Teach a CLE class (even once), because if you teach other lawyers, you must be good.

Promote the fact that you have forms and systems for everything. The chef has his tools, you have yours.

Don’t hide your light under a bushel. Highlight your awards, honors, and milestones. Post testimonials, endorsements, and positive press.

Clients and prospects are watching you. Show them the professional they want to hire.

How to earn more than you ever thought possible. Click here.

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Filed Under: Image, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services

Being a sole practitioner doesn’t mean doing everything yourself

February 10, 2015 by
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In response to yesterday’s post about taking the day off, a subscriber asked, “So how does a sole practitioner disconnect on vacation and turn off the phone? I haven’t had a real vacation in 15 years”.

Of course the short answer is you just do it. You have someone else answer the phone, something you should always do, and you have some else talk to clients and prospective clients and take care of the office.

In other words, you have people.

Being a sole practitioner means not having partners. It does not mean doing everything yourself. You have employees or virtual employees or assistants and outside lawyers who handle appearances and other things only lawyers can do.

Yes, this does add a layer of complexity to your practice. You have to supervise your people, or supervise people who supervise your people, and you have to be comfortable with delegating work. But this complexity gives you something even better in return. It gives you freedom. You can take vacations. You can sleep late. You can go to the movies in the middle of the day.

Having people also allows you to earn more money. If you do things right, you earn enough additional income to pay your people and have more net income after you do.

But there are a couple of additional things you need to do to make this work.

First, you need to specialize. You can’t expect to be good at “everything”. Nor can you make a compelling case to prospective clients as to why they should hire you instead of someone who specializes in what they need.

The email I received asking the question at the top of this post ends with a list of the attorney’s practice areas, to wit:

REAL ESTATE

** Residential Closings
** Commercial Closings
** Short Sales
** Loan Modifications
** Reverse Mortgages
** Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure
** 1031 Exchange
** Escrow services
** Property Tax Appeals
** Foreclosure Defense
** Motions to vacate foreclosure sales
** Mortgage Reinstatements
** Landlord Tenant

COMMERCIAL LAW

** Civil Suits
** Business Incorporations
** Debt Settlement

FAMILY LAW

** Divorce
** Child Support
** Modification of Settlement Agreements
** Mediation

CRIMINAL LAW

** Federal/State Defense
** Felony
** Misdemeanor
** Traffic Tickets
** License Suspension

It’s too much. No wonder she hasn’t taken a vacation.

Pick one practice area. Clients prefer to hire lawyers who specializes. They’re also willing to pay them higher fees because lawyers who specialize are perceived as being better, and they usually are. When you do lots of one thing, you tend to get better at it.

You also find it easier to keep up with changes in the law, new forms, and best practices. You spend less time (and money) on “compliance,” which gives you more time (and money) to invest in doing things that lead to more profits and growth.

Yes, you have to give up work that isn’t in your specialty. But you can refer that to other lawyers who send you business that’s outside of their specialty.

In addition, marketing is easier and more effective for lawyers who specialize. Which leads me to the last point. If you want to be able to take vacations, earn more and work less, you have to get good at marketing. Not great, necessarily. Good enough is good enough, as long as you do something on a regular basis.

Specialize, delegate as much as possible, and get good at marketing. Those were the three things that allowed me to go from being overworked and overwhelmed to quadrupling my income and reducing my work week to three days. You can do the same thing.

Learn more: The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Filed Under: Continuing Legal Education, Law office management, Legal industry, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Specializing, Time Management

Put all your eggs in one basket, just make sure it’s YOUR basket

January 28, 2015 by
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I constantly beat the “focus” drum–do a few things and do them well, don’t spread yourself too thin, don’t try to be all things to all people.

I agree with Mark Twain who said, “Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.”

On the other hand. . . you’ve got to be smart about things.

You shouldn’t rely on one client for 100% of your business, no matter how much business they give you.

Things happen. You think you’ve got it made in the shade and then the client hires someone else. Or they grind you on fees, knowing you have no choice. I spoke with an attorney yesterday who is now “starting over” because this very thing happened to him.

Neither should you rely on one marketing platform or methodology.

Also yesterday, I learned that a Facebook friend of mine had his account shut down. I don’t know what he did to incur the wrath of the Blue-and-White Devil. Insulted someone? Promoted something “too much”? All I know is that hundreds of his Facebook “friends” have signed a petition asking that he be allowed back.

It’s touching to see this outpouring of love, pleading for this man’s digital life. It’s also frightening to imagine that if he loses his appeal, his business might be in big trouble.

I thought about what I would do if this happened to me. If my account was shut down, would I lose business? Go out of business?

No. Not at all. I don’t depend on Facebook, or any other social media platform. I get some business through social media, but I don’t depend on it. Having my account shut down would be inconvenient, but not insurmountable. I would open a new account and start over.

Or not.

Truth be told, I find social media to be depressing. I really wouldn’t miss it.

I’ve got my blog and my email list and I have complete control over them. Nobody can tell me what I can and can’t post. I can insult anyone I want to. Nobody can shut me down.

So yes, put all your eggs in one basket. Just make sure you own the basket.

Want a simple marketing plan for your law practice? Get this.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Social media, success Tagged With:

If John Wooden managed your law practice

January 22, 2015 by
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Basketball coaching legend John Wooden was known as a perfectionist. He believed that planning and preparation and attention to detail were the keys to winning. He expected the best from his teams and usually got it.

In his long career, Wooden proved that his methods worked. He left a legacy unmatched in the field of sports and we can learn a lot by studying his methods and his life.

But how much of what he teaches can we use to build a law practice? Can we demand as much from ourselves and our staff as Wooden demanded from his teams?

Let’s think about that in the context of the first client interview.

I suspect that Wooden would have us regularly drill on the questions we ask and the things we say, continually improving how we sound, our body language, and our timing. He would have us study the client intake form to the point where we could recite it in our sleep. He would have us practice everything several times a day.

Every minute would be scripted, every detail drilled to perfection. He would evaluate us not just on whether or not the client signed up but on how many referrals we got before they left the office.

Is that the standard we should seek?

Not in my book.

I’m not saying we can’t learn by paying attention to detail. We can, and we can use what we learn to sign up more clients and get more referrals. But I don’t believe we need to work that hard to get every detail right.

According to the 80/20 rule or The Pareto Principle, in anything we do, only a few things make a difference; most things don’t. If we get the few things right, we don’t need to obsess over everything else.

Let’s say that body language is one of the few things that make a big difference. (I believe it is). If we make eye contact, smile appropriately, and otherwise show the client that we are listening to them and sincerely care about helping them, we’re more than half-way home.

But this doesn’t mean we need to drill on every word we say, where we place our hands, or how we time our gestures. If you truly care about the people in your office, none of that is necessary. If you don’t, none of that will help.

With most things we do, good enough is good enough. Get the important things right, the 20% that delivers 80% of your results, and you won’t need to sweat the small stuff.

Wooden would probably disagree . He said, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

Yes, but what if you don’t need to do it at all?

Want to sign up more clients? Get this

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Filed Under: Client relations, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship Tagged With: , ,

Don’t break the chain

January 9, 2015 by
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You know a lawyer whose practice is rocking. More business than she can handle, lots of money, busy as all hell. Three years ago, she had just opened her doors. No clients, tiny office, nothing happening.

How did she get from a standing start to where she is today?

Many factors could have contributed to her growth, including talent, connections, hard work, and luck. But one factor may be more important than you might think.

Momentum.

When she started her practice, she did some things to bring in business, and then she kept doing them. She got better at them, and did them faster. She got progressively bigger results. Those results compounded and she continued to grow, until her practice reached the tipping point and became the juggernaut it is today.

Momentum is a critical factor in anything we do. Creating it is the hardest part of anything we do.

It’s like pushing a car from a dead stop. It takes a lot of effort to overcome inertia, but once the car starts rolling, it gets easier, and then easier still, until you have to do little more than lean on it to keep it going.

Alrighty then, how do we create momentum?

We do it with consistency.

Whatever it is you need to do, you do it regularly. You don’t “do” some marketing this week and pick it up again in six months. You do a little bit every day or every week.

You get better at it. It becomes easier. You do it faster and get better results.

Your results affect other areas of your life. If you build momentum with an exercise program, you get more energy to do other things. You might finally be able to read that book you’ve been wanting to read, or start that new website project.

When you write a blog post or newsletter article each week, you become a better writer, of course, but you may also become a better speaker. You may get better at networking, too, as you reach out to other professionals to invite them to do a guest post for you and as they do the same for you.

When Jerry Seinfeld was starting out, he promised himself that he would write one new joke every day. Every day he did it, he made a mark on his calendar. As the marks piled up, he kept going because he didn’t want to “break the chain”.

In any area you want to improve, find something you can do and do it. Walk for ten minutes three times a week. Write two paragraphs every morning. Invite one professional to lunch every week.

Get started and don’t break the chain. Consistency breeds momentum, and momentum breeds results.

If you need a marketing plan that really works, get this. 

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With:

You need new clients every month, not every day

December 23, 2014 by
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If you don’t get a new client today, I’m sure you’ll be fine. If you don’t get a new client this month, however, you may have a problem.

I don’t know what your client quota is, or what it should be. I just know that you should have one. Whether that’s weekly, monthly, or daily (if you dare).

Whatever this number is, use it measure your performance and growth.

It’s not a mandatory minimum, mind you. It’s an average. A target to shoot for. A number to watch.

Let’s say you have a target of one new client per week. If you go a week without a new client, you notice that, but you don’t worry about it. Two weeks without a new client and you should try to figure out why. Three weeks without a new client and you need to DO something.

You can’t let things go too long without taking action.

Of course you might have three new clients this week and zero for the next three weeks. That’s why these are averages.

Anyway, figure out what your current average is. How many clients are you signing up right now? Then, choose a bigger number for your next goal. If you get one new client per week now, your goal might be 1.5 new clients per week (on average), within 60 days. Or two new clients per week within 90 days.

Then, all you have to do is figure out how you’re going to hit that goal.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services

The perfect time management system

December 11, 2014 by
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If you ever find yourself emotionally caught up in the need to get organized, if you continually try new techniques or apps only to abandon them in favor of something else, if you are on a never ending quest to find the perfect time management system, stop.

Just stop.

The perfect time management system doesn’t exist.

There are many productive, happy people in the world who use almost no system at all.

The have a calendar. They make a list of what they need to do for the day. They have files they can turn to when they need something. And. . . that’s about it.

The don’t make elaborate lists, with tags and contexts for every task. A post it note is usually enough.

They don’t obsess over goal setting. They might not set any goals at all.

But their system works. They don’t forget things. And they never worry about having too much to do.

Their system works because they trust their subconscious mind. They know that it knows what’s important and will tell them what to do next.

Don’t hate on them. Learn from them. They’re right, you know. Your subconscious mind knows what you need to do.

I know, you’re life is complicated and you need more. You can still use your favorite tools and techniques. Just don’t obsess over them, or spend so much time tweaking them that you don’t have time for anything else.

The new year is almost upon us. That’s a good time to re-think your system. Get rid of things that aren’t serving you and simplify everything else.

You might want to mentally start over. Pretend you have no system. One by one, add back things that work.

No system is right for everyone. Find the one that works for you.

What me worry? Nah, I use Evernote to organize everything.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management

Keeping it simple

December 3, 2014 by
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Look at your phone. How many apps do you have? Now, look at your hard drive and answer the same question.

If you’re like most people, you have many more apps and programs (and tools in your garage) than you use. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever use them, or if you used them once, use them again.

But we can’t help ourselves. We like new. New apps, new techniques, new ideas. Even if we never use them, and even if what we’re already using works just fine.

There’s nothing wrong with looking. I do it, too. But I don’t spend a lot of time on it because what’s new today is often gone tomorrow. I’ll wait until others have vetted the app or the process and recommended it. Then I’ll look. Maybe. I might be too busy using what I’ve already got and getting some work done.

Anyway, the point is that simple is better. A few apps. A few tools. A few techniques. If you’re not keeping it simple, the odds are you’re not getting things done.

Take marketing for example. If it’s not simple, the odds are you won’t do it. True or true?

According to the 80/20 rule, “a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards”. Figure out which inputs (efforts, tools, apps, techniques) are producing most of your results and do those. Don’t worry about (most of) the rest.

For a SIMPLE marketing plan that really works, get this

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing Plan, Productivity Tagged With: , ,

How to eliminate 80% of your law firm’s past due accounts

November 17, 2014 by
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According to a survey by LexisNexis, 73% of law firms report having past due accounts. Lawyers in small firms reported that up to 39% of their total client base is past due.

What causes this? And what can be done about it?

More than 80% of the law firms surveyed said that client financial hardship was the biggest cause. This suggests that the best way to reduce past due accounts is through better client selection. If you refuse to accept clients who are having financial issues, you will eliminate the number one reason clients fall behind.

Make sure clients have the ability to pay you before you do any work. Ask them to submit a financial statement before you accept them as a client.

This is not always possible of course, and financial statements don’t always reflect reality, so in addition, make sure you get a sufficient retainer at the time of the engagement, and make sure this is replenished when it falls below a certain threshold. You can also request collateral and personal guarantees, and get set up to accept credit cards and other financing arrangements.

Next, make sure that you bill promptly and frequently. A delay in billing is one of the biggest factors in clients’ falling behind. If you want to get paid on time, send a detailed invoice no less than every 30 days.

Finally, if you want to avoid large unpaid receivables and write offs, make sure you have procedures in place for addressing late payments immediately after they occur. Don’t let a small unpaid balance become a big one.

These three strategies, better client selection, sufficient retainers, and prompt and frequent billing, should help you eliminate 80% or more of your billing and collection problems and increase your cash flow. For more strategies, get my ebook, Get the Check: Stress-Free Legal Billing and Collection, as a PDF or on Kindle.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Law office management, Legal industry
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