Recently, I was talking to a lawyer about the ideal mix of business with pleasure, in the context of successful business development. This attorney observed that a lawyer in his firm with lots of clients seemed to devote most of his life to his practice. All of this successful lawyer’s social and community activities revolved around clients or potential clients. His personal life was hardly separate from his work life.
This lawyer I was speaking with wondered if he should take the same approach. Should he be marketing 24/7? I hate to sound like a lawyer, but the answer is both yes and no. First, I’ll provide the “yes” answer. Then, I’ll provide the “no” answer.
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The life of an attorney can be filled with WTF moments—many of which are avoidable.
The advent of social media (combined with a tough legal economy) has made some attorneys overzealous in their marketing attempts—resulting in chasing potential clients.
That can also lead to attorneys providing legal advice when they simply do not have enough information to render a professional opinion.
Rendering haphazard legal advice creates all sorts of problems—and none of them are of the good variety.
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I handle traffic violations. It is a volume business, and I have spoken to thousands of potential clients over the years. Over time, I found myself starting to slip into the ‘seen one, seen them all’ mentality, often thinking “let’s just cut to the chase.” Speeding is strict liability and my clients usually have the same defenses, which means variations in the facts rarely matter.
The challenge is to treat each client and their circumstances as unique (which they are). This will make you a better lawyer, and it will also help you turn more potential clients into paying clients.
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Many baby boomer lawyers are approaching retirement and considering succession planning options. Owners of small law firms with a handful of non-equity partners or associates frequently wonder if it is a realistic expectation to get bought out by the other lawyers. If so, how do you then decide the amount and structure? Like many law firm valuation issues, there is no simple answer to either question. The answers depend upon a variety of factors.
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“Are Your Clients Making You Crazy? How to Avoid Drama with Maddening Clients” is an article in the March 2011 issue of Bench and Bar of Minnesota by lawyer and psychotherapist Elizabeth Wittenberg that starts with this eye-opening pull quote:
Statistically, over 9 percent of American adults have a diagnosable personality disorder … .
In other words, it is not your imagination; some of your clients really are crazy. In fact, depending on the kind of law you practice, I bet the percentage of your potential client base that has a diagnosable personality disorder is substantially higher than the average.
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Let’s say you are a lawyer who happens to be a white supremacist who wants to revoke the citizenship of all non-whites and deport them. Like oh, say, William Daniel Johnson. Would you sign up for your state’s lawyer referral service? And if you did, would you feel the need to mention your white supremacist views to your clients? How about the non-white ones?
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