Growing from Solo Lawyer

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

One of the things I am certain of is that if I had not found a way to change the way I practice I would have gone from solo lawyer to something altogether different, something that probably would have had very little to do with lawyer.

I know this because I took one year off to go into financial services. That was a total failure as a business, even as I spent two-plus years laying the ground work for it while I continued to practice.

As a lawyer, I have always known: 1) I didn’t want to work in firms; 2) I didn’t want to do rote work, and 3) I didn’t want to just manage. Granted, there are rarely those cases that present a challenge worthy of an Atticus Finch—and I certainly don’t think of myself even close to that ideal.

But I’ve come to learn that it’s the details of people’s lives that will provide the most challenge when it comes to the practice and finding solutions for their problems. This in itself can and often does provide a challenge of sorts.

Thanks to that abysmal failure in financial services, I was able to finally merge what I wanted from the practice with a way of doing it that compliments the other parts of my life. In trying to make that failed business work, I learned quite a bit that I implement in my practice today. But, it’s an evolving thing; and provides its own challenges as well.

I know that I will not grow beyond my assistant because it doesn’t serve my purposes. But it is interesting to see the progress of those around me when they decide do decide to grow beyond solo.

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The Business of Lawyering

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

Besides knowing why we do it, sometimes it’s just a way of keeping it simple.

“Figure out the people part and the technology gets a whole lot simpler” as Seth Godin says in this post about having a people strategy.

If you’re starting a solo practice, things are originally simple because it’s just you…with a whole lot of ideas, fears, ambition, etc. And then we really complicate it more than we have to.

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Solo Lawyer Practice: Why Do It?

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

In an earlier post, I talked about a solo lawyer practice growing a client base when starting a solo practice.

Like any other business, we look for the marketing advice to do this.

But perhaps our search should start looking at the “why.” Why become a solo lawyer? Not the immediate reason, which I think is obvious that it’s to make a living. I mean looking at the intangible “why” and how this can help us create better practice for both the client and ourselves.

Below is a Ted video from Simon Sinek on how great leaders inspire action. It’s very interesting from the point of the psychology of human beings and marketing, but my ears perked up when he mentioned law firms, and it started me thinking about the way I practice, and the way we all try to build our solo law practice.

He says that “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” He goes on to say that “if you talk about why you do it, you will attract others who believe what you believe.” And finally he says that “What you do serves as the proof of what you believe.”

A lot of marketing talks about targeting clients, and I’ve taken some of that information in and applied it to my own practice. I’ve had some degree of success, which has provided benefits beyond the tangible money results. Now, if I can only articulate my “why” maybe that will also result in something interesting, profitable too but not just that by building something more comprehensive yet simple (I don’t know, is this phrase and oxymoron?).

Perhaps for corporations, this might not seem important (although Sinek gives a lot of corporate examples), but for us lawyer who essentially sell a personal service perhaps our inarticulate “Why” is showing all over the place and we don’t even know it.

If you watch the video, consider sharing your thoughts below.

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Growing a Solo Lawyer Practice- Thinking About the Client Base

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

With the much-talked about free-fall in the legal jobs market, more newly-graduated lawyers are considering or going solo.

In the beginning we must work at whatever is available. But eventually, we are better served by having some idea of what we want our practice to look like in the long-term. That will depend on the kinds of clients we want to have. Otherwise, we will always feel like we are still starting a practice.

If we are starting, then we need to get into the habit of looking just beyond making payroll (in this context I mean paying the new solo only, not assuming that a new solo will have any support staff to meet payroll for, of course).

The link above to the MSNBC article mentions the virtual shingles. Whether virtual or brick-and-mortar, all shingles need a plan to keep it up. Law marketing, whether online or off, is an integral part of growing it.

Having a wider perspective of what clients we want once we are out of the starting phase, regardless of however long we think that phase will last, will help us in creating the marketing plan that will help us do that.

My advice for those just hanging up their shingle:

1. If you offer free consultations, look for a way to get out of them as soon as possible.
2. If you can find ways to tier your services sooner rather than later, do so.
3. Start thinking now about the kinds of clients you want to attract, whether that is I the area you are starting out in or in one you eventually hope to practice full time.

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And Still More on Law Marketing Information – Having a Focus Creates and Keeps Momentum

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

Picking up where I left off yesterday, I think that part of the lack of action is all the stuff that comes at us.

I’ve found that looking first at what I want to do and then looking for the tools (on or offline) that I need to do it reduces a lot of the distraction. I just ignore everything else that will not serve what I’m trying to do. I keep in a swipe file of sorts of ideas that I come across and find interesting; and which get me thinking about ways to use. In this way, when I have some time and am looking at what is working (and what’s not, of course). It’s one way to avoid getting side-tracked in the middle of projects.

The other thing I’ve found useful to keep focused on the projects I’ve got going is to print a one-page reminder and stick it on the wall above my desk. I use a simple cork board, which isn’t exactly decorative but gets the job done for me.

I found these two worked well for me when I decided to work on my law marketing by building the legal site. I took Robert Middleton’s Infoguru Manual (I don’t know if he still offers it) and just used that to build the site back in 2008. I still have a copy, and every now and then I dust it off. The main structure of my website is still based on what I learned from him. (If you want to see what he’s up to today visit him at ActionPlan.com. His marketing newsletter for professionals is something that I continue to read every week).

But it starts with what I want to do or are doing right now. Then, ignoring everything else that will not lead to progress in my project in some way.

If you’ve found ways to tame or filter the information river, consider sharing it below

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Law Marketing – All the Knowledge in the World is Trivia Unless We Do Something With It.

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

Yesterday, I got Dave Lorenzo’s Rainmaker Minute, which he describes as “A weekly business strategy brief for attorneys and law firms”. I always look forward to his emails because, besides the useful information he usually provides, he also manages to deliver it in a rather brash but common-sense way—includes a lot of “wakeup calls” too. (I would recommend his emails and his cd/dvd course, which I bought and found good as well. You can find him at DaveLorenzo.Com).

Anyway, in yesterday’s email, titled “Why We Listen to Idiots,” he talks about all the information out there thrown at us (unsolicited guidance, advice and information) on marketing. He goes on to observe that a lot of this information is not really original, may come from self-styled gurus trying to get your money for programs, etc., for which they may very well not have any hard numbers behind as to effective marketing.

He has a point. But while I think this is a good point, I think the problem with all of this information is not that it may be old, regurgitated or whatever. It is, instead, that this information probably suffers the same fate as a lot of diet information – we may read a lot about it, but somehow never actually look any thinner in the mirror.

In other words, we have a lot of information available, we may even read it but we don’t do anything with it.

Law marketing is no different. We can have all the unsolicited guidance and advice from gurus and experts, but unless we pick something and try it out, play with it, tweak it, etc., it won’t do us any good.

And then there is another thing in play, ubiquitous today: instant gratification. We do it once, expecting a certain result; and if we don’t get what we want right now, the thing doesn’t work; it isn’t for us, etc. (Reminds me of when I started working at getting rid of the 27 pounds I put on over ten years; I had to keep reminding myself at every meal and workout that it might not take another ten years to get rid of it but it was certainly going to take at least six months!)

It’s the same with information on law marketing. We need to pick one thing, just one, preferably something we enjoy doing (because if you enjoy doing it, you will continue doing it and it won’t seem like such a chore). And then, as the Nike logo goes, “Just Do It.” Then tweak it.

A final endorsement for Dave (whom I have never personally met). In one of his emails he talks about tiers of services. I looked around at my practice, and found something that I was already doing which I could tailor to what he was suggesting. Now comes the tweaking; I may have to hire someone to help with a particular part of it, but once it’s in place, it should work pretty well (but I still expect to have to do some more tweaking). I got that particular email near the beginning of the year, but I don’t think I will be finished with the changes until probably mid-May or early June. I could be wrong, it might be a total bomb; but then again, I can go back to what was working before and be secure in the knowledge that I found one way it doesn’t work.

If you’ve had any instances of having implemented any unsolicited advice and it worked for you, consider sharing it below.

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Solo Law Practice – Are We Really Threatened by Technology?

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

Carolyn Elefant has a very good post on law and technology. Jordan Furlong has a post on the future of legal employment which I view as related and is also very good.


Our problem seems to be one of resistance or inertia (are they essentially the same thing?). We lawyers risk becoming irrelevant to the degree we don’t make friends with technology (particularly online tech) when it comes to our law practice; irrelevance of our own making. (I’m reminded on this “creating an environment where your approach determines what’s available to you. “ from a post by Seth Godin, which may seem unrelated but it’s not on second thought).

There are essentially only two things we can do with the rush to the net, market and provide services more efficiently. Marketing can take a bit to learn, but it’s just a question of dedicating some time to get started. Providing services efficiently for our clients is more a question of looking at our clients (how they think, what they need) and finding ways of using technology to deliver our services in a way that is most convenient for them and (of course) solves their problem. Whether we like it or not, we need to use both of them consistently.

Technology may make legal forms ubiquitous, but they are not really a threat to the legal profession unless we are engaging in a rush to the bottom of the barrel. There’s always a need for services provided by professionals; and while forms may be prepared by a professional they will never be able to provide full service—add value, as Carolyn Elefant mentions in her post. For the needs of those who cannot afford a lawyer, forms are not necessarily the best alternative since our profession provides pro bono services.

I’m off to read Richard Susskind’s book, The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, which I meant to get last year but didn’t. If you’ve read it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it and what technology you are using that you like best and why.

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Solo Law Practice – Tips from a 7-Day Cruise

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

Last week we took a family cruise to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas. What a marvel of ship! Mind you, this was my first cruise so I don’t have anything else to compare it with in that regard. But the ship is just beautiful and huge! Over 5,000 guests on board, plus the crew—I don’t know how many crew members they had (I missed that statistic) but they seemed to be everywhere as well.

The attention and service are great, but it got me thinking, how do they run this thing so efficiently? Of course, you can’t help but strike a conversation with members of the crew, especially if you frequent a favorite spot on board—no, it was not one of the 20 bars, but it was close. This is how I learned a little bit about how this floating city runs, so apparently seamlessly.

Checklists, training and one service goal. Those seem to be it. The one crewmember that I spoke often with had a schedule of six hours in the morning and another later that day. His routine only varied on the day we docked back into Port Everglades, when his early hours on deck are cut short so he can help the other housekeeping staff clean up the staterooms once we get off the ship. I only saw a “manager” twice on a particular deck but even then, he seemed to be just passing through.

It ran so efficiently, I started wondering whether there was anything I could learn to help me in my solo law practice; and sure enough there were some patterns that I can easily adapt to my solo law practice:

1. Our services are of a temporary nature. Just like my one week on that ship, my clients only need my services for a short time, when they have the need to go into court for issues related to divorce, paternity or domestic violence.

2. Orientations at the start of the experience are a good idea. The first day at sea, we all had a mandatory meeting to learn what to do in an emergency. I’m thinking this is a lot like the introduction we should, ideally, provide to clients when they hire us. I didn’t need to know how to run the ship to enjoy my vacation, but it was a good idea to know where I needed to be in case of an emergency. Our clients probably benefit from knowing what to expect working with us—best time to contact us, what to do in an “emergency” in their case, etc. I’m thinking I need to take this out of my retainer and do it as a stand-alone, one-pager that is part of the retaining package (I’m still not quite sure that clients read the retainer all the way through).

3. Checklists & Training for Fulfillment. The crew always knew where to be, what to do. Whether it’s just me, or my assistant, I’m thinking my practice still benefits from having these. But, I have to find a balance between having too many and not enough checklists. And I definitely need to bring back the weekly office conference—or maybe just a biweekly one.

4. Survey & Measurements. I’ve never had a survey I can send to clients once we are done with their case. Maybe that’s something I can do; something short. The survey I got at the end of my cruise wasn’t too long, and I had such a good experience I actually wanted to show my appreciation by completing it.

I did enjoy this experience, above all, because I got to spend time with my family, celebrating a milestone that I obviously don’t see anymore in my practice.

If you use any or all of these tools in your solo law practice, I would welcome you comments on how effective you have found them.

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SEO for Lawyers – Case Study: How My 181-Word Blog Post Earned $16.57 Per Word

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

Back in March I posted an entry to my miamidivorcepaternityblog about Florida child support. The entry is an answer to a question most prospective clients with children (in divorce or paternity) often ask. There was only one keyword phrase I used; and that was, of course Florida child support.

When I wrote it, I wasn’t concerned about length but only about answering that one question.

Three weeks later I was hired by someone headed back to court to modify child support payments. It has become my routine to ask how people find me, which I did with this new client at the end of our meeting. I was surprised when they mentioned this exact post, right down to the introductory part about three people having a similar question. I am sure from our conversation that there were other things at play that made this person hire me, but this obviously got their attention. (I don’t even have a call to action at the end of that post, which I should).

The post is 181 words long, and the retainer paid was $3,000.00. That is how I came up with the figure of $16.57 per word. Of course, I didn’t do this calculation at the time, but only last night, when I was reviewing the entries on my fledgling blog (it’s only been up since mid-February). (I track the main website separately so it is harder to get clients to tell me which page specifically they visited before contacting me).

I think most of the entries on that blog have about the same word length. Which is interesting because in reviewing the writings guidelines at AttorneyAtWork.com they talk about sending in items that are no more than 300 to 500 words because the lawyers who read them are busy people. I’m willing to bet that my prospective clients are busy people too. (This post is probably longer than the suggested length, but I think the topic is worth it, you can always skip down to the 5 lessons I learned from this post about SEO for lawyers-at 286 words, it’s just the “right” length).

There are many reasons why us solo lawyers may be hesitant about online legal marketing. Besides ethical concerns, there are also the seemingly complicated principles of SEO optimization, content creation, etc. But the more I do this stuff (4 years now), the more I learn that it boils down to (1) relevant content, and (2) consistency.

To be sure, there is stuff to learn. But it isn’t all that difficult to learn that; the difficulty comes into putting it into practice—making it a priority is really the thing. (Think about it, compared to the practice, law school was a breeze).

Here are the lessons I learned about SEO from this post which you may find helpful:

  • There still is no need for me to write about what most of us Florida divorce lawyers have on our sites, which is the technical stuff of the law. I think our prospective clients want content that helps them avoid a problem or solve a problem. It is no different than when you and I search for a solution. You need to refer to it, etc.; but other than shop-talk with fellow divorce lawyers, I doubt anyone who needs our services cares about this in the beginning.
  • It isn’t the length of the post or content. It is, again, how relevant it is to address a problem. After all, Florida has its statutes online (I use them often); but I’m willing to bet that visitors don’t find what I talk about in my post when they visit the Florida child support statute.
  • Keywords are important but I only need one good one and relevant content for it.
  • Know my target clients. I keep this at the top of my mind when it comes to the blog or the articles I publish. Trust me when I tell you that if you sat down and thought about it, you would begin to see patterns in the questions, fears, and concerns of the people you currently serve. They are each individuals, of course, but as a group, they too have certain things in common.
  • Continue to ask people how they find me. If I don’t do this, I may well decide that this blogging thing that everyone talks about doesn’t work for me; obviously that is not true.

If you have a blog, or other content online that has given you results, I would be interested in what your experience has been. Feel free to post your comments about any of the above.

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Lawyer Marketing – Fiverr.com for legal work or legal marketing?

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Vivian Rodriguez

Legal services are now being advertised/offered on Fiverr.com. Fiverr is a site on which people advertise for “gigs” or things they are willing to do for $5.00. There’s quite a bit of odd things that people are willing to do for $5; some of the gigs are plain silly others seem to offer advice, information or services on many topics.

Clicking on Tips & Advice, I was surprised to find an offering for legal services from what looks to be an individual but also showed as firm logo (don’t know if it’s a bona fide firm though). There are also offerings from paralegal businesses, and of course, people offering advice that have nothing to do with law.

It got me to thinking whether offering legal advice on fiverr.com is was a marketing ploy or just another way to get work. The first ad I saw talks about keeping the offeror being a lawyer and “law clerks” busy so it gives the impression that this is an offer from someone who may not necessarily a solo practitioner.

I can’t help but think that this is a business model that cannot be sustained for long.

This also brings up other issues when it comes to legal services, some ethical, some not; such as:

  • Unlicensed practice of law (UPL) – a search for “legal advice” turned up similar offerings from others who clearly state that they are not lawyers. There were also other ads from lawyers who clearly stated where they are licensed to practice and ads that didn’t specify.
  • Work Opportunity – I don’t think this would be a viable business model for newly admitted lawyers because lack of experience would require more research than is warranted by the “fee” being paid. For more experience lawyers, there’s probably-actually, I am sure there is- a better way to get better paying clients than on Fiverr.

So, to me, this is not a viable way to get work.

What about as a way to do some legal marketing?

I don’t find this helpful either for law marketing. For one thing, it is not targeted enough because as far as I can tell there is no way to make an offer for specific jurisdictions-some of the offerings are so bizarre that any serious offering would get lost in the distraction of looking at what people are willing to do for $5.

What do you think? Is this just another race to the bottom for online legal services? Can it be used in any effective way in the long run?

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