Standing out is hard to do in the legal industry. And it might seem impossible for your law firm, depending on your firm’s location, size, practice areas, and age.

This is where a legal marketing plan comes into play. A successful marketing plan, regardless of the size of your law firm, can help you stand out from the competition and help clients find you. A lawyer's marketing plan will serve as your law firm’s road map to long-term growth. By creating a plan, your law firm will build repeatable, consistent processes while eliminating guesswork regarding its developmental goals.

To properly visualize future growth, it’s critical that your law firm establish a marketing plan. A typical legal marketing plan covers topics like social media, blogging, SEO, and digital marketing and advertising. Of course, it can be tricky to decide where to invest your firm’s resources and money, especially if you’re just starting out. Keep in mind that your firm’s marketing plan will vary based on its budget, size, and stage in the business development process.

Whether your firm is new or old, big or small, we promise that developing a legal marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated or painful! This article will walk you through what you need to know to get your plan in motion.

What are some key legal marketing terms?

Before we get too deep, you need to get the basics down pat. So, we recommend starting by reviewing this glossary of key marketing terms.

Call to action (CTA)

A CTA entices your lead to take the next step. CTAs typically come in the form of dynamic and relevant phrases or buttons that encourage website readers to “contact us now” or “click here for more information.” CTAs are intended to make it easy for website visitors and other leads to get more information or contact your firm.

Conversion rate

At its core, your conversion rate helps evaluate the effectiveness of your law firm’s website. Your conversion rate is the ratio of people who visit your firm’s website (or click on an ad) to people who convert into a lead. With the right reporting tools, your law firm can track how long a visitor stays on the firm’s website, which pages they view the most, which pages have the highest bounce rates (visitors leaving the site), which visits result from organic searches, and how many visitors turn into leads.

Landing page

Landing pages are webpages created for specific marketing campaigns. These relatively simple pages have just one goal: converting visitors into leads. Generally, a visitor arrives at a landing page after they click on a link from a marketing email or an ad from a search engine or social media post. For this reason, landing pages are a powerful targeting tool.

Lead and lead generation

Put simply, a lead is a potential client — someone who can benefit from your law firm’s expert legal advice and who is willing to pay for that advice. When we use the term “generate a lead,” we mean catching a potential client’s attention. For more details, see our lawyer’s guide to lead generation.

Pay per click (PPC) and pay per lead (PPL)

With PPC advertising, your law firm will pay for the number of clicks it receives. Generally, your law firm’s ad pops up, someone clicks it, and then your firm pays for the click. It seems simple, but getting the best results from PPC requires a sound strategy and regular re-evaluation of that strategy.

With PPL advertising, the amount your law firm pays for an ad depends on the number of leads acquired from the ad. Usually, with a PPL agreement, your law firm will set the parameters of what constitutes a lead and will pay only when those specific requirements are met.

Return on investment (ROI)

ROI is a performance metric. When your law firm puts money into an investment (like a marketing plan), ROI helps your firm understand its profit or loss from that investment. A popular tool used in connection with calculating marketing ROI is Google Analytics. Many businesses use an ROI formula of subtracting marketing expenses from sales growth and then dividing the balance by marketing costs.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to boost its online visibility. To improve your visibility, you must make your website relevant to users’ searches. That means your website content has to reflect the terms that users type into the Google search bar. The more relevant your content is to a user’s search terms, the more likely it is that your content will appear at the top of a Google search page.

What are some steps toward developing a law firm marketing plan?

Although each law firm will differ based on its individual needs, you should keep in mind the following four steps to ensure that your law firm’s marketing plan is a successful one. (We’ll get into the nitty gritty of common marketing practices in the legal space later.)

1. Knowing your law firm

The first step of developing a legal marketing plan is figuring out your law firm’s current positioning and core messaging. Your core messaging should address your clientele and emphasize your firm’s strengths. With a clearer idea of where your law firm stands, it’ll be easier to determine its trajectory.

As you get started, you may find it helpful to outline the types of legal services that your law firm offers, including its practice areas. Questions to begin with should include the following:

• What type of clients does your law firm usually serve?
• How many clients do you serve per year?
• What are your law firm’s strengths?
• What are your firm’s weaknesses?

The answers to these questions will help you determine your lawyer marketing strategy.

2. Defining your target client

Defining your target audience is pivotal to developing the foundation of your firm’s marketing plan. Without identifying the folks who might need your law firm’s services, it’s hard to know how to tailor your marketing activities. Having a good understanding of who they are will help focus your law firm’s marketing efforts.

Important factors to consider regarding your target clients include geographical location, age, gender, income, and occupation. If businesses are your law firm’s bread and butter, consider your typical client’s size, geographical location, and industry.

3. Defining your marketing goals

The key question to ask is what you want your law firm’s marketing plan to do. We recommend thinking in terms of three-, six-, and twelve-month increments. Set SMART goals for each of these timeframes.

Factors to consider when defining your goals include the number of new clients you want, the number of retained clients you expect, the firm’s projected and current revenue, the firm’s practice area expertise, and the number of team members you plan to hire and retain. To envision your goals, you should consider questions like these:

• Is your firm focused on generating new leads?
• Do you want to expand your firm into a new state or practice area?
• How much of a concern is your firm’s bottom line?

Once you’ve determined your law firm’s marketing goals, you can decide where to focus your efforts and how to get the most out of the capital that you spend on marketing.

4. Executing on your goals

When devising your firm’s legal marketing plan, consider who at your firm will be in charge of marketing and who will be on your marketing team. We highly recommend outsourcing the legwork to marketing agency experts who can help you craft and implement your legal marketing strategy (and who won’t blow your budget).

Remember to keep your target client in mind when determining the right marketing channels. For example, if you practice elder law, a Twitter campaign might not be the most fruitful channel. However, if your firm practices in the technology space, a LinkedIn campaign might be the right place to advertise.

How can your firm measure the success of its marketing efforts?

Regardless of your firm’s marketing plan, it’s important to keep your eye on the prize (your marketing goal, that is). To do this, you’ll need to monitor certain data. Without doing so, your firm won’t be able to determine which of its efforts are winners and which might be losers. If some of your initiatives don’t achieve the desired outcomes, it’s okay to adjust! That’s the whole point of measuring. We’ll also note that you’ll likely be updating your marketing plan over time as you refine your law firm’s goals.

We recommend tracking and measuring the following marketing performance indicators. (Better yet, make them part of your law firm’s regular reporting process.)

Source of clients

Your law firm should track data about how newly acquired clients learned about the firm (e.g., from your firm’s website, social media, word of mouth, or referral). You can start by simply asking clients how they heard of you or including it in your client questionnaire at the start of the engagement. We recommend reviewing this data bimonthly and adjusting your cadence as needed.

Client retention and referrals

Your law firm should also be tracking client retention and referrals specifically. By creating an internal system for tracking client retention and referral data, administrators gain valuable awareness of firm performance. Happy clients stay on, and they tell their friends.

Conversion rate

As discussed above, your conversion rate is a key indicator of how well your firm’s website is performing. We recommend running this report three to four times a year so you can evaluate and adjust your firm’s website. Your firm’s website is an integral part of its marketing plan.

Return on investment (ROI)

Your law firm’s revenue growth provides a look into the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. By comparing the amount of increased revenue with marketing costs, your administrators will feel empowered to make informed decisions about the firm’s marketing plan and tactics.

Note that it can be deceptive to directly attribute sales growth to a marketing campaign. However, by reviewing your ROI monthly, your firm can gain some helpful insight into a campaign’s success.

What are some common marketing practices in the legal space?

Your firm’s growth will be driven by your marketing plan. Below are a few marketing tactics to get your law firm started.

Content marketing and strategy

Content marketing is the process of creating quality content that showcases your law firm’s work, practice areas, and lawyers and sharing it with intention through multiple mediums. To build a long-lasting online presence, your firm needs to integrate content marketing into its overall marketing tactics.

To get started, we recommend asking what questions your target audience and leads might have. For example:

• How does New York law address personal injury lawsuits for slips and falls?
• How do I handle estate planning without a will?
• What does my state’s family law say about joint custody?

Then create regular content addressing these questions, such as blog posts, social media posts, videos, and even webinars. This content will grow your directories and gain your law firm new business.

Your law firm marketing strategy should also include building new landing pages. A landing page should be persuasive and move your visitor to take a specific action, like signing up for a newsletter highlighting positive past client testimonials and recent wins and case studies from particular law practices. We highly recommend outsourcing the legwork to the marketing experts.

Website optimization and SEO

The best content marketing strategy will generate new leads, engage prospective clients, and boost your law firm SEO. While the content your firm produces should, of course, be legally and factually correct, it should also be optimized for search engines. Your firm’s website should include dynamic and relevant CTA buttons to make it simple for prospective clients to become paying clients.

Boosting your website’s online visibility is a top priority. As we noted above, the more relevant your firm’s content is to a user’s search terms, the more likely that your content will appear at the top of search results.

SEO is also measured by the quality of your firm’s website. When assessing the quality of your site, consider its layout, accessibility, keywords used, quality and quantity of traffic, backlinks, and even the quality of written content. Overall, your firm’s website should feature a clean and interesting web design, high-quality photos and content, and information on how to get into contact and follow up with your law office (including your address, email, and phone number).

Local SEO is also an essential online marketing strategy. Your law firm likely practices in a specific geographical area where it wants to generate leads. Optimizing your firm’s Google Maps, Google My Business, and Yelp presence can help establish your firm as the reputable, go-to law firm in the community.

Social media marketing and campaigns

Social media is an effective and low-cost marketing tool for your law firm. We recommend starting with Facebook, a Google Business Profile, and LinkedIn. Through a friendly and robust social media presence, you’ll encourage prospective clients to get in contact with you by demystifying the legal process. In addition, with a solid social media presence, your law firm can engage directly with current clients and leads, marketing its expertise while building stronger community relationships.

Your firm can purchase paid advertisements like PPCs, PPLs, and Google ads or you can post organic advertisements on your firm’s social media page. As with your overall content strategy, your firm’s social media posts should be helpful, legally sound, visually appealing, and link directly to your firm’s website to capture any leads. While there are many marketing services, we recommend the services of an A+ marketing team to get your firm started on its social media campaign.

Email marketing

Email marketing is another cost-effective and useful tool to build your law firm’s online presence and portfolio. You’ll start by building an emailing list, which your firm can do by offering a free weekly or monthly newsletter. You can collect email addresses from prospective clients this way while also staying in contact with current clients (and updating them on how wonderful your law firm is).

Another way to start is to build lead magnets that visitors can download directly from your law firm’s website. Lead magnets are a free service or item given away to gather contact information (like emails and phone numbers). We recommend offering guidebooks, white papers, or webinars to entice website visitors.

Once your law firm has a solid email list, you can start effective email marketing. The emails sent out through this list should be targeted and positive. Showcase your firm’s expertise and how your lawyers make life easier for their clients.

Get started on your legal marketing plan today

With the tips mentioned above, your law firm should be on its way to creating and implementing a thoughtful legal marketing plan. Through marketing tactics intended to enhance your firm’s visibility, including increased website traffic by using SEO and improved content generation, your firm will be better prepared to hit your marketing goals. The right tools, solutions, and marketing experts will help your firm build awareness and, with it, a more profitable client list.

Lead generation: it’s the lifeblood of your law firm, whether you have a solo practice or are part of a major global firm. We understand that this might be a strange concept. After all, you didn’t go to law school to run a marketing agency on the side. And you certainly don’t specialize in sales tactics.

But hear us out. The only way to serve clients is to first recruit them, and lead generation is your firm’s best bet to acquire new clients.

Like most other aspects of modern life, law firm marketing happens online now. To compete in and win the legal marketing game, your firm needs to know how to generate leads from online sources. A reliable lead generation pipeline is as important to your firm’s growth as expanding its legal expertise.

Having a business development plan that includes digital marketing strategies to generate and capitalize on leads is how you can set your firm on a path that leads to sustainable growth. The good news is that lead generation is something that technology and the right team can help you with — without blowing your marketing budget.

Let’s get started by discussing what we mean when we say “lead generation.”

What is a lead? What is lead generation?

In the simplest terms, a lead is a potential client. A lead is a person or a business that can benefit from your firm’s legal services and that is willing to pay for those services.

The way the definition of lead narrows from there will be specific to your law firm and its needs. Maybe it’s someone who clicks on your paid advertisement, a company that signs up for your firm’s monthly newsletters, or traffic to a legal blog post showcasing your firm’s expertise.

When we use the term “generate a lead,” we simply mean catching a potential client’s attention. The next steps of turning that attention into actualization and a brand-new client for your firm is where the growth happens. But don’t put the cart before the horse. Knowing how to generate leads and creating a concrete strategy comes first.

We’ll start with common lead generation strategies for lawyers, then we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of how you can apply these strategies.

How does lead generation apply to the legal industry?

The application of lead generation to the legal industry isn’t that different from other industries. It all starts with awareness and relies on high-quality content to reel in potential clients.

Lead generation is the process of piquing interest and finding potential clients — and it all begins at the top of the sales funnel. The sales funnel guides your firm’s leads through their decision-making process before they select a law firm (and hopefully it guides them right to your office).

There are some basic phrases in a sales funnel and lead generation pipeline, which we break down below.

Awareness

This is more existential than we usually get, but the world needs to know you exist. Brand awareness is key, and unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just yelling into the void.

Building awareness involves improving your law firm’s search rankings through search engine optimization, developing an interesting and user-friendly website design, having a social media presence, and creating content. By maximizing the ways that your firm can be discovered by internet searchers, either organically or through paid advertisements, you’ll also start to optimize the number of leads that you generate.

Intrigue and interest

Now that your lead is aware of your law firm, the second step is to keep their interest. Accessibility and content are critical here. The longer website visitors stay on your firm’s website, the more they learn about what your firm can offer, and the more likely they are to contact you.

We recommend having a well-structured, welcoming website and regular blog posts showcasing your firm’s expertise to attract your target audience.

Decision

Congratulations, you now have your lead’s attention! This is the part of the sales funnel where your prospective client decides whether to use your firm’s services.

Your part in the decision-making process is demonstrating everything your law firm has to offer, including your first-class lawyers, subject area expertise, and client-oriented service. Your website should include all of this information and more to coax your lead into saying a resounding “yes.”

Action and success

This is the part of the sales funnel where new leads initiate contact. This initial contact might look different for each law firm. However, it usually includes the lead filling out an online form with their information, calling to schedule a free consultation, or reaching out for more information about your firm’s services. Make sure your website offers different options for initiating contact; some people prefer an online form to a phone call or vice versa.

Lead generation protects your firm’s financial health, ensuring that the sales funnel is regularly replenished with new inquiries and therefore potential for growth. Your firm has a lot that it can actively do to make sure it’s putting its best foot forward with lead generation.

What are some common lead generation strategies lawyers can use?

Without a lead generation strategy, your firm will likely rely on referrals and word-of-mouth to grow. You can do better! Below are some common lead strategies that your firm can use to get started.

Build a comprehensive website

We cannot stress how important your firm’s website is to generating leads and converting those leads into paying clients. As discussed above, your website is pivotal to establishing your firm’s brand. You want your website to be polished, professional, and user-friendly. It should also be compatible with both mobile devices and desktops.

Your firm’s website must be personal. Potential clients love to review attorney bios, so make sure those are drafted consistently and highlight the expertise and experience of your lawyers. We also recommend including positive case results and client testimonials on your website so leads can better understand what makes your law firm stand out.

Your website should include high-resolution and high-quality photos, and the headshots of your lawyers should be consistent and professional. Your firm is unique, and your website should showcase that.

Implement email marketing

Email marketing is another useful tool to help your firm generate quality leads. To begin, your law firm will need to build an emailing list. We recommend that you start in one of two ways (or both!).

The first is to offer a weekly or monthly newsletter free of charge. You’ll collect email addresses from prospective clients this way while getting the opportunity to directly share your firm’s expertise and wins with those clients.

The second is to build lead magnets that visitors can download directly from your firm’s website. Lead magnets are a free item or service given away to gather a web visitor’s contact information, including their email address and phone number. Popular resources that are worth exchanging emails and digits for include white papers, guidebooks, and access to webinars. The lead gets the valuable resource, while you get their contact information.

Once your firm has built a solid email list, you can follow up with current and prospective legal clients. The emails to your mailing list should be targeted and focus on the services your firm can offer and how those services solve problems for your clients.

Expand your reach through social media marketing campaigns

Your law firm must also have a polished and engaging portfolio on social media, particularly on Facebook, Google Business Profile, and LinkedIn. Contacting a lawyer can be intimidating for a prospective client, and social media can help you close that gap. In addition, with a solid social media presence, your law firm can market its expertise while building stronger community relationships by engaging directly with leads or current clients.

Your firm can purchase paid advertisements (discussed in more detail below) or use organic advertisements posted to your firm’s own page. Social media is the best way to show how unique and personal your law firm is, a key component in building reputation and trust with your audience. Social media posts should be interesting, visually appealing, and link directly to your firm’s website to capture any leads. Social media is also the place where your law firm can have a bit of fun — for example, you can conduct polls or host Q&As with the community. It’s the ideal platform for community engagement and the humanization of your lawyers and firm.

Follow a robust content strategy

To build a long-lasting online presence, your firm needs to integrate content marketing into its overall business strategy. A sound content marketing strategy will generate leads and boost your law firm’s search engine rankings.

The best way to start is by asking what questions your legal leads may have. Then create regular content addressing those questions for your target audience, such as blog posts on subject matter where your firm has expertise or a webinar on a developing area of law. As discussed above, these lead magnets are a great resource for growing your firm’s contact list and reputation.

You’ll also want to build landing pages, which are web pages created for specific marketing campaigns. Landing pages have a single goal: converting visitors into prospects. A visitor arrives at a landing page most often after they click on a link in an email or in an ad from a search engine or social media.

To be effective, your landing page copy has to be persuasive and centered around getting your visitor to take a specific action. Say, for example, that you want to set up a landing page promoting a particular practice area. You could advertise your lawyers’ personal injury expertise by offering a downloadable guide explaining the steps a plaintiff should take if they’ve been involved in a car accident.

The content your firm produces should, of course, be legally sound and helpful, but it should also be optimized for search engines. Creating a content generation strategy that answers clients’ common questions ensures that prospects find your website. Including dynamic, relevant call-to-action (CTA) buttons like “contact us now” or “click here for more information on how to file” make it easy for visitors to follow through to the next step and contact your firm.

Optimize your website for search engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) improves your firm’s website to boost its online visibility in search engines. Google and other search engine result pages show the top results of a user’s search based on the content of your webpage. The more relevant your content is to the Google search, the more likely that your content will appear at the top of a Google search page.

SEO is also measured by the quality of your law firm’s website. Quality takes into consideration things like your site’s layout, accessibility, keywords, the quality and quantity of web traffic to your website, backlinks, and even the quality of your content. Yes, that means that Google, like your high school English teacher, is judging your grammar and syntax and assigning you a grade.

Considering and improving these SEO components will increase your firm’s overall SEO, leading to increased searchability and visibility and therefore increasing the quality of your leads.

Local SEO is also an essential marketing strategy. Your law firm likely has an ideal geographical area that it wants to generate leads from. Optimizing your firm’s Google Maps and Google My Business presence can help establish your firm as the reputable, go-to law firm in the community.

Employ pay-per-click advertising, pay-per-lead advertising, and Google advertising

Paid search campaigns are a great tool to enhance your law firm’s visibility. There are three main types of paid advertising: pay per click, pay per lead, and Google’s Local Services ads.

Pay per click (PPC)

With PPC advertising, your law firm pays for the number of clicks it receives. Your ad pops up on the platform (search engine, social media, or another website), someone clicks the ad, and then your firm pays for the click.

It seems simple, but getting the best results requires a sound strategy and regular re-evaluation of that strategy. You’ll need to research and pick the right keywords and platform to host your ad, organize those keywords into ad groups, and then link to the right portions of your website to hook the lead quickly. As with your website, ad design and copy are also important.

Pay per lead (PPL)

As the name suggests, with PPL advertising, the amount your law firm pays for an ad depends on the number of leads acquired. Usually, with a PPL agreement, your law firm will set the parameters of what constitutes a lead and only pay when those specific requirements are met.

PPL is generally quantified by the number of leads who provide their contact information — think of the call to action, lead magnets, or newsletters discussed throughout this article. PPL advertising is a particularly good option for solo practitioners or small law firms that want to grow their law practice but don’t yet have the capacity to open the floodgates to many new clients.

Google’s Local Services ads

Local Services ads are Google’s first PPL program. With Local Services ads, your law firm can connect with people who search on Google for the services your firm offers. Your firm’s ad will show up for these customers in your geographic area. Similar to standard PPL, your law firm will only pay if the lead calls or messages directly through the advertisement.

These Google ads are relatively new and require multi-step verification. As with other advertisement strategies, Local Services ads should be optimized to showcase your law firm’s expertise.

Start generating more qualified leads for your law firm today

The legal market is booming. To stay at the top of the heap, your law firm needs an online advertising strategy complete with a well-considered lead generation process. By implementing tactics to improve your firm’s visibility, including building out your website using SEO and stepping up your social media and content marketing efforts, you can start getting the word out on just how great your law firm is and begin attracting more qualified leads.

The prospect of taking on lead generation can be daunting. But you don’t have to be an online marketing expert to build a pipeline of leads. The right tools and solutions, including lead generation services, will help you get off to a fast start and accelerate your lead conversion rate in no time.

 

It’s no secret that the last two years have been filled with unprecedented challenges. But, navigating these challenges has armed attorneys and legal operations professionals with valuable lessons about providing legal services in the midst of difficult times. Moving into 2022, the legal industry as a whole is taking those lessons and turning them into resources to support a successful year to come.

Firms want tools that help them handle routine tasks in a more efficient manner so they can save time and drive revenue. As such, two words will define the legal industry in 2022: streamlined and convenient.

Keep reading to explore some of the trends that will drive these concepts and shape the industry in 2022.

Client Focus

As consumers in the larger economy, legal clients have come to expect convenience from every business they patronize, and that includes law firms. They want a seamless client experience that meets them where they are without requiring what they perceive as unnecessary steps. With a goal of maintaining positive client relationships, firms will increasingly rely on technology to meet that objective.

Tools like virtual meeting platforms, client portals, and electronic payment capabilities will maintain their prevalence among law firms in 2022. Even as some firms have returned to in-person meetings and proceedings, many clients still expect the convenience of conducting business from the comfort and security of their homes. To remain competitive within the industry, firms of all sizes will have to meet this expectation.

Electronic Discovery

Discovery is often one of the most convoluted tasks that a law firm handles, requiring time-consuming contributions and coordination between all parties to a matter. It can be a complicated process that drives industry efforts to make the process easier to handle. E-discovery uses artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology to collect and produce data in response to formal requests within a legal proceeding. Not to mention, it is a $2B industry that helps law firms pull relevant information from volumes of various types of records. A cost-effective alternative to traditional discovery methods, e-discovery is expected to continue growing and helping firms increase revenues in the year ahead.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing has become a widely accepted practice for law firms in recent years as they look for ways to complete administrative, and even legal, tasks in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Outsourcing involves the identification of tasks and practice areas that can be best handled by outside service providers. According to experts, the outsourcing of legal processes will continue to be a growing industry in the year ahead, providing law firms with services related to accounting, legal billing, and various tech functions.

By outsourcing some necessary non-legal duties, firms can spend more time and resources on their most profitable tasks. But some firms are even choosing to outsource some of their more intricate legal processes. The use of contract paralegals will continue to expand during 2022. Firms benefit from bringing in these professionals to work on specific matters without the extra overhead costs that come along with hiring a new employee. Particularly within small and mid-sized firms, paralegal outsourcing can help drive revenue in an efficient manner.

“New Law”

“New law” is taking outsourcing to another level with many big firms hiring contract attorneys to handle matters on an as-needed basis. This innovative way of providing legal services is largely in response to consumer complaints about high costs and hourly fees. Firm leaders have discovered that the use of contract lawyers can help them control their costs. They can then pass some of those savings onto their clients, while also maximizing profits.

In 2022, “new law” offers law firms and individual attorneys the flexibility they need as the uncertainties of the pandemic persist. They can pivot quickly to remain competitive while continuously meeting client needs and driving revenue.

Automation

Automation is a major driver for streamlining the practice of law, and any reduction in repetitive law firm tasks equates to more time for work that drives revenue. Automation technologies are evolving the basic administrative functions of a law firm through the use of AI innovations. They take on various forms, and each can significantly ease the day-to-day functions of a law firm. In 2022, firms will look for the repetitive tasks that create bottlenecks within their workflows and seek out automation options that can better handle them. Tasks like calendaring, client onboarding, conflict checks, and even the creation of some court documents can be effectively handled through automation.

Evolving Remote Work

Remote work was a quick necessity at the start of the pandemic, but moving into 2022, firms will look for ways to evolve these arrangements, making them more efficient, seamless, and responsive. The “make it work” perspective will be replaced with one that embraces serious thought and strategy. Firms will revisit their policies to identify areas for improvement.

As better technology adds to a more effective remote working environment, communication will play a large role. Firms will seek improved communication systems to remove obstacles that thwart both collaborations between firm members and effective communications between the firm and clients. The use of cloud-based softphones and texting platforms will expand in 2022, along with client portals. From lead management to collections, firms will seek ways to raise the communication bar.

Embracing Technology

The wave of legal technology will not come to an end in 2022. Many courts and jurisdictions recognized the efficiency of processes like remote hearings and no-appearance proceedings when they became a necessity, and even as the world reopens, they will continue utilizing these tools. The access to justice will expand and legal technologies will keep evolving to meet these needs. As such, law firms will also continue embracing new technologies as the year progresses.

Data Focus

For law firms to thrive in 2022, they will need to pay close attention to analytics and reporting. Information related to revenue, profits, expenses, and practice area performance will be key to making decisions about the direction and growth of firms. Over the past year, attorneys and law firm administrators have put a lot of thought and effort into transforming their practices and working to make them pandemic-proof. 2022 will be the year of determining whether these new processes have actually translated into real profits. To do this, firms will need technologies that make the capturing and reporting of data quick and easy. With a data-focused perspective, law firms will be able to make informed decisions in the new year.

Part-Timers

Part-time work generally does not come to mind when thinking about jobs within the legal industry, but experts suggest that this will be a trend in the coming year. Many employees enjoyed the work-life balance that they experienced during shutdowns. They will seek ways to continue that flexibility in 2022 and part-time opportunities offer a viable solution. Firm members can earn enough money to meet necessary expenses and even pay down some student loan debt while maintaining a level of freedom within their personal lives.

Increased Demand

Experts suggest that the increased demand for legal services that started during the pandemic will continue into 2022, especially for the following practice areas:

• Corporate
• Real Estate
• Domestic Relations
• Litigation
• Cryptocurrency

Firms can meet these increases in a number of ways. They should first recognize the potential that lies within these practice areas and the types of prospective clients that they may bring through the door. Firm leaders can identify which of these practice areas best align with the strengths of their firms and how to best leverage existing resources to serve these clients. With an understanding of increased demand within the legal industry, law firms can take advantage of this trend in the coming year.

Tis the season for law firms to give back and expand on their charitable endeavors! For some firms, this may be a one-time holiday event, while others may choose an initiative that continues into the new year and beyond. Whatever the case, giving back helps firms solidify themselves as members of their communities with a vested interest in their people and their wellbeing, and also provides a powerful brand-building tool.

Let’s explore the various aspects of law firm humanitarianism, including the benefits of giving back and some ways that law firms can serve their communities in the holiday season and throughout the year.

Why Give Back?

It should go without saying that the best reason for giving back to the community is helping those in need. Legal professionals should take an interest in the communities in which they work and the people they serve, which includes taking steps to address unmet needs. A charitable spirit is a perfect reason to give back, but it is far from the only one.

A 2019 Forbes article discussed the value of corporate philanthropy. It talks about the “do-good renaissance” currently taking place within the business world, where brands increasingly seek ways to do good in the world. This expansion into community giving is partially due to the industry pressure of keeping up with their competitors, but it also occurs in response to consumer expectations.

Consumers want to patronize businesses positively impacting the world, and that includes law firms. They appreciate when companies take on these endeavors as their responsibility.

This is particularly true among younger consumers who see their patronage as an indirect way of also giving back, so they choose businesses that engage in charitable ventures towards social good and actively support causes they also care about. Giving back helps firms increase client and lead engagement.

Community involvement also helps law firms to:

• Promote a strong firm culture by encouraging employees to get involved in the community service process. Firm members should be asked for their input as to which initiatives the firm will pursue. They should also be encouraged to actively take part in the planning and execution of the project. These activities build stronger workplace relationships that translate to positive firm culture. Firmwide community projects can promote teamwork, communication skills, and problem-solving. The firm will collectively experience a sense of pride and satisfaction in having done something that benefits the community and assists their neighbors.
• Gain free publicity as local media covers the event and reports about it to the public at large. To encourage media coverage, firms can send out press releases that announce the event and include important firm details. In addition to media coverage, a successful community event can also result in the type of valuable word-of-mouth buzz that money cannot buy.
• Improve website performance through the increase of traffic to the website, especially if the event requires participants to register on the firm website. In addition, as the firm publishes information about the event on the site, search engines will recognize the increase in content pertaining to the local area. This strengthens local search engine optimization (SEO) so that firms rank higher in the results when potential clients search for law firms within their particular geographic area.
• Grow the firm’s professional network by partnering with organizations that have already established themselves as community resources. For example, if your firm decides to participate in a holiday food giveaway, you may partner with the local food bank. In doing so, your firm leaders may meet and engage with other community leaders who also partner with the food bank. These connections can prove to be valuable opportunities for business growth.

Implementing a Charitable Plan

When developing and implementing a community service plan, your law firm should consider some important factors. First, take a serious look at your community to identify opportunities to provide assistance. For example, is there a large homeless population in need of assistance? Perhaps childhood hunger is a major concern, or the local sports league needs sponsors. You should evaluate your practice and employee strengths and interests, then select activities that capitalize on them.

Once a community need is identified, you can establish a goal and get firm employees invested in the plan. It’s easy to write a check and walk away, but law firms benefit much more by involving employees in the giving back process.

By providing employees with an opportunity to give, law firms promote morale and collaboration among the team. For a single event, firms can divide tasks among firm members. For an ongoing initiative, firms may set aside a certain number of hours for employees to volunteer annually.

An important part of execution is sharing the charitable plan with your law firm’s clients and the public at large. These stakeholders want to see the impact of your community investments, so make it easy for them to find it. Include a page on your website that highlights the firm’s commitments. It could display the number of volunteer hours donated by firm members or the number of people helped through firm initiatives. Some firms choose to highlight the amount of money donated throughout the year.

This promotion may feel a bit unethical and against the charitable spirit, but the more profitable a law firm becomes, the more it can give back to the community. Highlighting the firm’s impact on the world helps to attract new clients and satisfy current ones. It all comes full circle, your firm should not shy away from sharing its work within the community.

Ways to Give Back

Every law firm brings different skills and passions to the table, so it’s important to find initiatives that fall within your practice culture. Here are some ways that law firms can make a difference within the communities they serve:

• Pro Bono Work

This is probably the most common form of law firm community investment. Many firms maintain a system for choosing and handling pro bono cases. Some do so through legal volunteer organizations that specialize in a specific practice area, while others allow their members to take on pro bono cases internally within their firms.

• Monetary Donations 

Most nonprofits and community organizations need monetary donations to keep their operations running and continuously providing services, so a check is always greatly appreciated. Your firm may choose to identify a single organization for a donation or it may choose a particular cause and give donations to multiple agencies working within that space.

You can also sponsor a fundraiser with all proceeds going to a nonprofit. For the active members of the firm, a charitable sports tournament or race could be a great way to raise money while promoting teamwork. Your firm could also offer to match monetary donations that firm members individually make to their favorite nonprofits.

• Volunteering 

Pro bono work is not the only form of volunteerism available to attorneys. Every community has organizations that need volunteers in order to maintain their operations. Firms can encourage members to find a cause that they personally care about and allow them to use a set number of firm hours each month to further that cause. Alternatively, the firm can identify one collective cause or organization for members to volunteer with on a regular basis or at a designated firm “day of service.” Both options provide law firm members with an avenue for volunteering their time to the community.

• Mentoring

Law firms can provide valuable guidance to young people through mentoring programs. This may look like time devoted to school-aged children’s programs or college student internships. Firms may also develop mentoring programs that assist adult community members, such as resume writing workshops or life skills training courses.

Community members look up to legal professionals and many would welcome an opportunity to learn from a law firm partner or associate. Through mentoring programs, law firms can give back to the community in the short term while positively impacting participants for years to come.

Authentic Community Giving Helps Law Firms Meet Two Needs

Whatever endeavor a firm undertakes, it must be done with a spirit of authenticity. Clients are savvy, especially within today’s environment, and they can easily recognize actions that are done for the purpose of furthering a firm’s agenda rather than uplifting the community. No matter how big the effort, a lack of sincerity can result in a negative pushback. The greater visibility that results from a law firm’s community actions are added benefits, but marketing should not be the driver behind community engagement.

Community engagement helps law firms meet two important needs: contributing to making the world a better place and strengthening the firm’s reputation while bringing in more business.

Especially during the holiday season, law firms should embrace a charitable mission and craft a plan for giving back.

Wellness is not an adjective often used to describe the legal community. Studies show that mental, emotional, and physical health issues have become more common among legal professionals as they struggle to deal with the demands of their chosen careers.

In 2019, The ABA and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation conducted a national study on attorney substance abuse disorders. The project, which included 15,000 attorneys from 19 states, highlighted some shocking statistics among licensed, employed attorneys:

• 21% are problem drinkers
• 28% suffer from some level of depression
• 19% reported anxiety issues

In comparison to other professions, lawyers are reportedly three times more likely to suffer from depression, according to the American Psychological Association. Additionally, the legal industry has the 11th-highest incidence of suicide among professions.

Why is Wellness a Problem Among Legal Professionals?

Legal professionals typically deal with numerous demands on any given day. The myriad of cases, clients, deadlines, and expectations seemingly never end.

When working in a stressful law firm environment, some attorneys feel they need to sacrifice their own self-care in order to succeed in their professions.  This decision can have detrimental effects on legal professionals, potentially leading to mental health challenges and substance abuse.

The entire legal industry is notorious for unhealthy work habits. It’s no secret that attorneys commonly clock 70-to-80-hour work weeks and these practices may extend to operations and support professionals like legal secretaries and paralegals. Working this many hours leaves little room for personal time, family, physical activity, or even sleeping. It also contributes to a pattern of poor eating choices and elevated stress levels.

Studies show that the stress of working too many hours raises cortisone levels within the body, increasing the risk of stroke, diabetes, and cancer. According to a study done by The University College London, the risk of heart disease increases by 67% for people who work long hours compared to people who work a standard eight-hour day.

Another report, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, suggests that long work hours can lead to long-term brain damage or dementia. Researchers found that middle-aged workers who clock more than 55 hours a week develop diminished mental skills at a higher rate. These deficiencies show up as short-term memory loss and the reduced ability to recall words when compared to those working a standard 40-hour week.

The ABA has started to recognize how problematic the lack of attention to individual wellness has become. In 2017, the ABA House of Delegates approved Resolution 106 which amended the ABA Model Rule for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) to include at least one hour of mental health and substance abuse credit every three years. Several states have followed suit with mandatory mental health or substance abuse CLE courses.

Achieving Wellness Within the Legal Community

Wellness is not a one-size-fits-all concept because different people need different strategies to help them feel healthy and at their best. Wellness includes an improved work-life balance, better stress management, and a positive mindset that prioritizes self-care. Unfortunately, many law firm environments make it difficult for legal professionals to achieve a level of wellness. Demands for billable hours coupled with demands from numerous clients can make a work-life balance impossible.

The Individual Approach

For the individual, the path to wellness is a very personal journey. You may have to practice different strategies before finding a routine that builds positive habits within your life. There is no magic pill or secret recipe. Wellness requires a holistic approach that touches various aspects of your life to craft a more sustainable and healthy work-life balance. This may include some of the following elements:

• Nutrition – Working long hours often means a lot of fast and convenient food, which can equate to unhealthy eating habits. By taking steps like preparing healthy meals at home, you can greatly improve your health. If you find cooking to be too time-consuming, healthier take-out options or a meal delivery service can also be helpful.
• Mindfulness – Taking time each day for self-reflection is an important strategy for overall wellness. Whether it’s meditation, yoga, or prayer, quieting the mind is a powerful tool that brings relaxation and calmness into your daily routine. The tech world is filled with apps to help with mindfulness using guided meditations or calming sounds. Taking a pause to check in with yourself each day proves highly impactful for wellness.
• Physical Activity – Wellness must include some aspect of physical activity. Studies show that sitting at a desk day after day increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. Whether you spend your lunch break taking a walk or shut your office door for an impromptu afternoon dance break, any level of physical activity is better than a sedentary lifestyle. It improves physical health while also strengthening mental wellness, promoting a sharper memory, better sleep, and improvement of your overall mood.
• Mental Health – With so many daily demands, legal professionals need mental health resources and support. Unfortunately, this is an industry where vulnerability is seen as weakness instead of a natural part of life. Attorneys do not feel safe seeking assistance or talking about their feelings out of fear that it could have a detrimental effect on their careers. So, instead, they suffer in silence. This is why an industry-wide conversation about wellness is so necessary. With open and honest conversations, individuals feel more empowered and secure about reaching out for the help they need.

The Law Firm Approach

Many law firms fail to classify employee well-being as integral to the firm’s existence, but the legal industry has a responsibility to promote wellness among its members and employees. Lack of transparency about wellness promotes the stigma that exists around attorney mental health. Firms are uniquely situated to address these issues by making wellness an aspect of their overall firm culture.

Wellness policies have become a common expectation among job seekers, so firms can better situate themselves competitively to attract new talent with these policies in place. They also promote a more enjoyable workplace, which can improve the firm culture.

Law firms need policies in place that include some of the following provisions:

• Encourage time off and leave – Attorneys often give up their paid time off in exchange for more working hours. Law firms can discourage this type of behavior by addressing policies that punish attorneys for taking time off. Firms can also allow sabbaticals for associates and partners every few years as an opportunity to recharge.
• Promote acts of service – Attorneys can become unfulfilled by feelings of cynicism and burnout, making them question their choice of professions. You can help fight against these feelings by encouraging your professionals to take on acts of service like pro bono cases or volunteering at legal clinics. These small actions can make attorneys feel more fulfilled and counter feelings of depression.
• Provide wellness education – Develop a firmwide program that provides education and encourages conversation about health and wellness. This could come in the form of monthly forums or regular fitness challenges. Lunchtime conversations about nutrition, healthy habits, and employee resources also prove useful. Firm members need awareness about the mental health services and benefits that are available to them so that they know how to quickly access them in times of need.

10 Quick Strategies to Promote Wellness

• Talk to someone you trust to alleviate feelings of isolation and loneliness.
• Recognize when you are overwhelmed by negative thoughts and feelings.
• Trade in the stress of constant multi-tasking for the focus of working on one task at a time.
• Park further from your building and get your steps in walking to the office.
• Practice mindfulness for at least 10 minutes each day.
• Download a health app that helps track physical activity, sleep, and water intake.
• Spend some time outdoors each day.
• Declutter your surroundings.
• Pay it forward with volunteer or pro bono work.
• Stand up while working.

The landscape of law firm recruitment is changing dramatically. Whether seeking to attract new attorneys out of law school, entice lateral hires, or retain current members, law firms are taking unprecedented steps away from tradition in hopes of engaging and keeping top legal talent.

The Candidate Perspective

Over the past year, many law firms have sought to entice new firm employees with signing bonuses, but these financial incentives proved to be only one piece of evaluation criteria for candidates.

When considering a move to a new firm or the merits of staying put, candidates are basing their decisions on much more than the firm paying the biggest bonus.

Conventional considerations like compensation, promotion potential, and bonuses remain part of the equation, along with some new metrics of comparison:

Reputation

The social and financial challenges brought on by the pandemic created an environment where candidates are increasingly evaluating potential employers based on their reputations. They classify socially responsible firms as those that took steps to protect their employees during shutdowns. They may have cut partner compensation to maintain associate salaries or provided vast support for remote work.

Candidates view these actions as real-world examples of a law firm’s values and they factor them in when making employment decisions. They want more than a large paycheck. They want to work for law firms that align with their own values and beliefs.

Firm Culture

Law firm candidates have also become more cognizant of the culture that a firm offers. With the added stress of the last couple of years, candidates want an environment that makes them feel valued for more than their billable hours. They seek opportunities with firms that promote a healthy work-life balance and prioritize the mental health of firm members.

Today’s candidates do their homework, researching “Best Places to Work” lists and searching social media for insight into a firm’s culture. Working within a positive environment has become top-of-mind among law firm prospects. They have a new appreciation for the things they find most important and they are willing to hold out until they find them.

Flexibility

It took a global pandemic, but the legal industry has finally accepted the value of remote working arrangements, and even with the return of some sense of normalcy, many candidates are simply unwilling to return to a traditional office setting with traditional office hours.

According to an American Bar Association (ABA) survey, the vast majority of attorneys report feeling this way, with no desire for pre-pandemic office arrangements.

Of those lawyers surveyed, 36% stated their preference for the ability to set their in-office schedule from week to week. With this greater demand for remote work, candidates prefer law firms equipped with the technology to offer these options.

How Law Firms are Responding

Law firm leaders and administrators are taking note of these candidate expectations and are making adjustments to their recruitment and retention efforts. A look at trends in the general legal landscape reveals increased usage of the following strategies:

Flexible Work Arrangements

Even the most traditional of law firms have recognized how critical flexibility has become in attracting quality candidates. That does not mean that 100% remote options need to be made available for every candidate. Instead, firms can craft various hybrid options to meet this need, which might look like two days of remote work and three days in the office each week. It may also mean that some attorneys work mornings in the office and remotely every afternoon.

The traditional 9-to-5 has quickly become an unpopular option. Legal professionals have gotten accustomed to spending more time with their families and having more control over their work-life balance. By offering at least some level of flexibility, law firms better leverage initiatives to recruit and retain talent.

Flexibility offers an additional value. Remote working arrangements can substantially widen the candidate net for new hires. Geographic limitations are lessened so that firms can seek talent from broader markets with lower salary averages.

Diversity Initiatives

Corporations are not the only entities ramping up diversity efforts. Law firm leaders are also recognizing the value of these initiatives. Internally, it creates a more enjoyable workplace where attorneys from various races, genders, abilities, and sexual orientations feel valued. Externally, a significant percentage of candidates consider the diversity of a firm when making employment decisions.

The customary practice of solely recruiting from top law schools ignores a vast market for incredible and diverse talent. Along those same lines, it may not benefit firms to only seek lateral hires from the biggest law firms. Substantial talent can be found at legal practices of all sizes and law firms are beginning to recognize that fact.

Redefining Ideal Candidate Profiles

Law firms use Ideal Candidate Profiles (ICPs) to identify qualities, characteristics, and achievements they desire in a potential hire. These tools have been used for years, but recent changes within the legal recruitment realm have brought about a need for adjustments.

Law firm recruiters are taking a serious look at their current ICPs and making changes to meet this new normal. Consider criteria such as technical skills or a proven track record of success working virtually.

Make Mental Health a Priority

Stress, overwork, and burnout have long been associated with the legal community. While some industry conversations have taken place over the years about the dangers of these working habits, discussions about employee mental health really began to take center stage during the early days of the pandemic.

In response, many law firms have implemented programs aimed at preventing burnout and promoting mental wellness. Tools like regular check-ins, free access to mental health resources, and greater flexibility are being used to demonstrate a commitment to the emotional, wellness, and development needs of firm personnel. Recruiters should highlight these initiatives to attract potential candidates, and firms can leverage them to keep their top talent happy within the firm.

The Takeaway

In order to remain competitive in today’s legal recruiting environment, firms need to step outside of the traditional sign-on bonus and instead look at other benefits of interest.

By offering flexible work arrangements, improving diversity initiatives, reevaluating ICPs, and prioritizing mental health, you put your organization in the best possible position to attract and retain top talent.

Attracting new clients is critical to maintaining a successful law firm, but there must also be a coordinated effort to maximize the client service experience once representation begins. Yesterday’s level of customer service is no longer enough to meet the expectations of today’s legal clients. They expect innovation, convenience, and consistent communication.

With a client-centered strategy, you can work to deliver the level of value and quality that meets client needs. This starts from the initial consultation and continues even after representation ends.

Let’s discuss some strategies that law firms can implement to create a client-focused environment where all clients feel valued.

Setting Expectations

As the first substantive communication between firm and client, the intake process is a perfect opportunity to solidify a client-centered approach to legal services. This begins with gaining a clear understanding of the client’s needs and expectations, which can be done by asking the following questions:

• What concern led you to seek legal services?
• What criteria did you use when evaluating potential law firms?
• How did you decide to choose this law firm?
• What do you hope to accomplish from your legal representation?

The answers to these questions reveal a lot about a client’s journey, while also providing insight into enriching their experience. Once this information is gathered, firms are able to assist clients with managing their expectations.

Intake is the perfect time to establish clear guidelines for client communication, including acceptable methods and what frequency of communications clients should expect. Some law firms choose to provide this information as part of a welcome packet that includes communication guidelines, firm information, and data specific to their legal matter.

The intake process should also establish the firm’s commitment to the truth. Clients need and deserve honest assessments about their legal matters, even if it is not what they want to hear.

Transparency builds trust and strengthens the client relationship, which is essential in a client-centered practice. By establishing clear and reasonable expectations from the start of representation, law firms lay the foundation for a successful client relationship.

Another strategy for improving the client intake process is to eliminate tedious repetition and inefficiencies. Legal practice management software helps with streamlining procedures such as client intake and CRM automation. With a faster intake process, casework can start as soon as possible.

Law firms should also insert calendaring into the intake process by immediately adding all pending court dates or events to the schedule. This prevents missed deadlines or appearances, which is a major impediment to a client-centered approach.

Setting Rates and Fees

Client service should also be evident in a firm’s rate and fee setting, which does not necessarily mean offering the lowest prices in the industry.

Yes, being competitive with other law practices is important, but you also need to be careful about undervaluing your services. Potential clients want top-notch skills and expertise when seeking legal counsel, and many are willing to pay more for those services. So, law firms need to set prices that are fair and in line with the level of service that their clients receive.

Payment options are also an important aspect of pricing. Alternative fee structures, like flat fees and unbundled legal services, have become increasingly popular within the legal industry over the past decade. Clients prefer these options because they allow for a more transparent fee agreement sans unexpected fees and costs.

Firms should also consider the client experience when determining what types of payment methods to accept. Today’s clients want the ability to pay their legal fees electronically with credit cards and/or ACH transfers. They appreciate the ease and convenience of these payment options, along with the extra layer of security that they offer.

Managing Communications

Communication is key in a client-centered law practice. The busy nature of a law firm atmosphere can negatively impact client communications when calls and messages go unanswered, so law firms need a system for ensuring timely responses to client inquiries. Even without an immediate solution, a quick response can calm concerns and strengthen the client relationship.

In establishing a communication plan, law firms should consider the following:

• Investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) technology that tracks client contacts and communications
• Implementing a client portal that allows clients to independently access matter information and communicate with firm personnel
• Practicing active listening that focuses more on understanding than responding. After listening to clients, firm members should repeat what they heard back to the client and request clarification for any uncertainties.
• Scheduling routine check-ins through emails, calls, or the client portal; this helps keep clients up to date on the status of their matters.

Legal matters can be mentally and emotionally draining for clients. By committing to regular communications and outreach, a law firm can provide much-needed support while strengthening the client relationship.

Adequate communication also extends to written communications. To make sure that clients get the most out of all correspondence they receive, law firms should avoid unnecessary legal jargon and use plain, easy-to-understand language instead. You can also improve the readability of their writings by using shorter sentences and avoiding lengthy paragraphs. Consider using techniques such as headings, subheadings, and bulleted lists.

Get Feedback

The client-centered approach does not end after representation. To be truly dedicated to a high-quality experience, law firms need to honestly assess their performance and make improvements where appropriate. Feedback is a great way to accomplish this task, and the following are some ways that you can secure it:

• An exit survey is sent out at the end of the representation to ask clients for honest feedback; when employing this tactic, law firms should use a platform that is easy for recipients to utilize. The simpler the process, the more likely it is that the surveys will be completed.
• A simple question goes a long way. Attorneys and staff members should ask clients about their experiences throughout the representation.
• Social media is another useful tool for securing client feedback. Firms can ask clients to leave reviews on websites like Yelp, Google, or a law firm review site.

Once the feedback is collected, law firms should take steps to act on it. If clients were not happy with some aspect of their representation, firms should implement strategies to address change.

Information gathered from positive responses is useful to reinforce the procedures that make clients feel valued.

Create a Client-Centered Law Firm

Client satisfaction should be an ongoing goal for law firms as they craft a client-centered experience. This starts with asking what clients need and ends with an honest evaluation of whether or not those needs are being met.

By implementing these strategies, law firms add a considerable amount of value to their client service, resulting in happy customers and repeat business. Happy clients also mean potential referral sources for a law firm, helping you grow your business and bring in more revenue.

Attorneys often view succession planning as solely applicable to retirement, but disruptive events can occur at any time, forcing a law firm transition. While some of these occurrences can be forecasted, others come with no warning at all. A sudden illness or disability can leave a firm leader unable to manage the regular legal operations of the practice, which makes succession planning a priority within a law firm’s business strategy. Without it, firms and clients can suffer significant setbacks as they deal with the uncertainty of the firm’s future.

These risks are particularly heavy for solo and small law firms. Many of these practices operate without succession plans and have no continuity plan should a disruption occur. These situations leave firm members struggling to handle disgruntled clients or aggressive creditors in the midst of disorganized transition.

While many states do not require law firm succession planning and offer no specific guidance, there are useful considerations and tips law firms can use to craft a comprehensive succession plan.

Types of Transitions

Depending on the goals of the practice leader or leaders, law firm transitions can take a variety of forms. Whether considering retirement or preparing for an unforeseen disruption, attorneys need a clear understanding of what they hope to achieve, so they know the best direction to take. They should ask themselves whether they want to remain somewhat active in the firm or completely move away from all firm operations. Attorneys must also decide whether they want the firm to continue after the transition or if dissolution is more appealing.

The answers to these types of questions help firm leaders make effective decisions about which of the following transitions they hope to achieve:

Firm Dissolution - For attorneys who do not want to invest additional money or make an effort to transfer their firm to another attorney, closure can be an attractive option. But closing a firm is no easy feat. Attorneys must create a plan that addresses their ethical obligation to leave all clients in the best position to secure alternate legal representation. This includes providing access to all necessary files, documents, and relevant data. Attorneys who prefer to sell their firms also need to obtain professional valuations to maximize profits while following all ABA rules related to the sale.

Partnering with Another Firm – This transitional option is often used by attorneys who prefer a slower movement away from the firm. Instead of walking away, the attorney chooses to form a partnership with another attorney or firm. As part of the merger, the attorney helps navigate a more gradual and smooth transition. This type of transition theoretically allows the attorney to lessen the inconvenience felt by firm clients. The time frame for these partner agreements can vary greatly depending on the terms of the agreement.

Choosing a Successor – Attorneys that hope to maintain the basic structure of their firm with a new leader at the helm may decide to choose their own successor. This option may allow the attorney a significant amount of time to groom the attorney who will lead the firm in the future.

Succession Plan Components

Every law firm succession plan differs depending on the desires of the attorney and the specific details of the law firm. But the following are some components typically included within succession plans:

1. Client Services

Clients are the backbone of any law firm, so a comprehensive succession plan must include strategies to maintain excellent client service to address client needs during and after transition. This includes providing written instructions on how and where client data is stored, along with the necessary credentials for access.

Client notification should also be part of the plan. For firms remaining intact after transition, giving clients plenty of notice makes it less likely that they will seek representation from another firm out of frustration. For firms that are dissolving, attorneys should give clients as much time as possible to make alternative arrangements at a different firm if necessary.

2. Compensation Structure

A succession plan should include a compensation structure addressing how the transitioning attorney (or the attorney’s estate) will be compensated going forward. For instance, if the practice is being sold, the attorney should have the firm valued to ensure a fair purchase price. If the plan is to transition clients to a new partner, the attorney may need to maintain some client files and data. When this is the case, attorneys should be compensated appropriately for their time and effort.

3. Business Records

When the need for transition arises, those involved will need access to all relevant business records, including:

• Firm member names and contact information
• List of staff authorizations for highly confidential and encrypted files
• Office space leases or mortgage information
• Third-party vendor contracts and payment information, including utilities, software providers, and office equipment
• All law firm insurance information
• Banking account information and signature cards

4. Estate Planning Documents

Documents like a will and power of attorney should also be included within the succession plan, along with detailed instructions for your family or estate executor. Family members are often named as estate executors, so it is important that at least one trusted family member has access to any estate planning documents related to the firm’s transition.

5. Safeguard your Succession Plan

Once a succession plan has been created, attorneys should make sure to store it in a highly secure manner. The sensitive nature of the included data can be detrimental in the possession of the wrong person. Be extremely careful about your chosen method of storage, as well as anyone you choose to provide with access in case a disruption occurs.

Law Firms Need a Succession Plan in Place

Crafting a succession plan can feel like an overwhelming task, but attorneys should do it to protect their law firms and clients. No one knows when a crisis will occur, so it is important to be as prepared as possible. For law firms with a large number of retirement-age attorneys, it is even more critical to maintain a comprehensive succession plan.

Legal technology can play a major part in crafting a succession plan. It can be a time-consuming process, but legal technology can help attorneys save time by quickly providing necessary data. Legal practice management software keeps the firm’s various business components in one centralized location, which can make a transition easier and efficient to navigate. With a few clicks of the mouse, transitioning law firm members can access reporting pertaining to matter progress, invoice status, revenue, accounts receivable, and more.

Quick Succession Checklist

Taking the time to solidify your firm’s succession plan is a daunting task, but is one that is critical to both your firm’s future and the happiness of your clients. If you’re not sure where to begin, start by compiling the below information in a secure location. A legal document management system can help keep this sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands, while also serving as the source of truth as future generations of lawyers need to access client data to keep the firm running smoothly.

• Client and matter details related to the type of case, matter status, fee agreement, and invoicing status
• Passwords, logins, and multi-factor authentication for devices, software, and online accounts
• All firm financial data, including business accounts, client trust accounts, and firm credit cards
• Information related to the firm’s malpractice insurance
• External vendor information, including account numbers, payment data, and contact person
• Physical office information, such as mortgage company or leasing information

It doesn’t matter who you talk to. Check-in on any firm administrator or managing partner communication platform, and you will find conversations regarding the challenges of finding help. There is a shortage of good talent and the difficulty in recruiting that talent is felt across the board by firms of all sizes and locations.

The reasons for today’s hiring challenges are as varied. However, as the number of firms faced with this roadblock increase, there are some common themes.

Lack of Available and Experienced Attorneys

There was a significant decrease in law school enrollment from 2010-2015 due to the shortage of law firm job opportunities during that period. Result: if you are looking for a mid-level attorney, you are going to be competing for a very small pool of potential candidates.

And Unstable Future Leads to Hesitancy in Moving to the Unknown

With the pandemic, many firms experienced an uncertain future. Firms with practice areas that were impacted by temporary changes in the legal climate saw layoffs and downsizing. With the fear of the unknown, many attorneys are loathe to making any change if they feel their current position is secure, even if they would have been planning to make a change before the pandemic hit.

Lack of administrative staff

Gone are the days when a large number of women went into the secretarial and paralegal fields if they wanted to work in a professional office. The legal secretary as a profession is a dying art. The fact that more women are finding other professional fields more available to them is a good thing; unfortunately, the result is a much smaller pool of qualified individuals to fill these administrative positions.

Higher expectations from younger applicants

Today’s young professionals expect a positive work-life balance. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing – maybe they are onto something. They also have high expectations from their employer and what the employer will do for them and their career. If firms are to continue to exist into the future, they need to find ways to address these needs and expectations but still be financially viable.

How Can We Overcome These and Other Recruiting Challenges?

When challenges arise in business, they can be looked upon as an opportunity for improvement and growth. The improvements you can make are endless – below are just a few.

Start with your job posting

Think of your job posting as a marketing opportunity. It should include more than just the expectations of the candidate – it should also include all or many of the reasons someone should want to work with your firm. (Take your pick from any of the ideas below!) The best places to post your attorney positions are with LinkedIn, your state bar association, area law schools. For administration and staff, you can also use indeed.com, paralegal associations, Facebook.

Your interview process should be well developed and organized

Good candidates want to work with sharp people. Your process should show your firm has its act together. Communicate with the candidate as to what the process will look like – they will likely meet first with an HR manager. That manager should then let them know what the next steps will look like so that they know what to expect and are not left in the dark wondering what, if anything, will happen next.

Allow firm stakeholders to interview candidates as appropriate. Allowing an associate to meet with a candidate they could be potentially working with does two things. It fosters your internal culture by showing your existing employees that what they think matters. It also shows the candidate that you value your employees enough to allow for this meeting. In addition, a happy employee’s attitude will add to the candidate’s desire to work with your firm. With the influx of Zoom and other video platforms, it is easy to make these meetings happen with little time commitment for either side.

Make sure to share your firm’s culture during the interview process

Allowing the candidate to see that your firm cares enough to have core values in place is great. Showing them that you live by those core values through your authenticity and genuine caring throughout the interview process is even better.

Consider non-monetary benefits your firm may want to incorporate

Money alone is no longer enough to recruit and retain good employees. In addition to positive core values, think about what other benefits you can share. Some things you might consider:

• Professional development program
• Advancement opportunities
• Flexibility in work hours
• Ability to work from home all or part of the time

Hire Smart

With the potential hire pool so small, it can be tempting to hire someone who is “good enough” instead of waiting for someone who is a great fit. Bear in mind that if you settle, you will suffer lost productivity among your higher performers as they make up for the lack of performance in an underperformer. In addition, always remember that stellar employees want to work with stellar employees. If you lower your expectations, you stand to lose your high performers to a firm that will give them a high caliber of fellow team members.

One method you may want to consider in your hiring program is to use data analytics to determine what attributes are shared among your firm’s highest performers. You can then make objective hiring decisions based on those attributes.

Consider alternative working arrangements

With the smaller pool of administrative professionals and the challenges firms face with the desire for work-life balance among young attorneys, alternative arrangements can be a win-win. Some alternative arrangements to consider:

• Job sharing
• Outsourcing
• Contract arrangements
• Freelancers

Your back office is an area that can benefit from outsourcing. Your firm may not need a highly paid administrator full-time, but you want someone with the experience and skill to oversee your firm to ensure its success. Outsourcing a qualified, experienced administrator can be a great resource for you, allowing you the resources of a highly experienced professional without the full-time salary and benefits that go along with it.

Allowing attorneys to work on a contract basis can be a win-win as well. You pay only for the hours they bill, and they work when they want to work.

Once you secure a great hire, don’t forget to focus on retention

Just as it is easier to keep a client than it is to find a new one, it is easier to keep a good employee than it is to find a replacement. In addition, turnover is expensive and extremely time-consuming.

When it comes to your attorneys, consider how your firm’s policies may impact your retention. For example, if your partnership has an origination-based financial system, it may hinder the incentive for senior partners to transition clients to up-and-coming attorneys. As a result, younger attorneys may leave out of frustration. You will lose good attorneys and have no clear succession plan in place to manage client relationships to keep them from leaving when a senior partner retires.

When it comes to non-lawyer employees, consider how they are treated in your firm. If they are made to feel they are second-class citizens because they are not an attorney, you will lose your top-notch professional staff to a firm that shows them the respect they deserve for what they bring to the table. The deep background and experience of your firm managers and staff is invaluable. Also bear in mind that clients will have a higher level of comfort with and loyalty to your firm if they are dealing with the same individuals year over year.

The Takeaway

While the lack of potential candidates is a challenge we are all experiencing, there are many actions you can take to make your firm stand out above the rest. By doing so, you will find candidates choosing your firm over the others and staying put for the long haul.

The Importance of Strategic Planning

We’ve all heard it before – “fail to plan, and you plan to fail.” And we have all heard it because it is true. Without a plan for where you are headed, you will never arrive at the desired destination.

Where to Start

It is important to make time to plan. With the many demands of your practice, it can be very difficult to tear yourself away from your firm to work on your business in addition to working in your business. It is important to recognize that despite the fact that those hours spent on working the business are not billable, they will pay big dividends in the long run. Firm leadership should set aside at least one day per year to work on your business plan and define how you plan to get there. These meetings should be held off-site, away from the demands and distractions of the office.

Timelines

Goals should be broken down into timelines: you should identify ten-year, five-year, three-year, and one-year goals. Goals should be quantifiable and SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. Examples of goals can be team size, gross revenue, profit, number of new clients, addition of new practice areas, etc.

Start at your end goals – those that are farthest out. By working backward from your ten-year point, you can break your goals down into chunks so that you can identify how you will get there. Breaking those larger goals down in this way makes them seem more attainable and will keep you from just giving up.

Your one-year goals are considered short-term goals. Reaching these goals should help you to attain your three-year goals. For example, if you want to increase your attorney size from 5 attorneys to 10 attorneys within three years, you know you need to add 1-2 attorneys per year over the next three years in order to get there. This feels manageable, and by working toward that goal gradually over three years, it won’t feel unachievable. Your three-year goals should lead you to your five-year goals, etc. By setting shorter-term goals as mile markers along the way, you will have a road map to guide you to your final destination.

To go one step further, one-year goals should be broken down into 90-day chunks. Otherwise, you will find yourself at the end of a year wondering how the time passed so quickly and nothing accomplished as you had hoped. By setting 90-day timelines for specific tasks to be completed that lead to your one-year goals, you will stay on task. Your leadership team should meet at least quarterly to review the progress of these goals. Without this accountability measure, the goals will likely fall prey to the other demands your team has to meet.

The Process

Leadership may want to consider involving multiple levels of team members in your process as you work on your plan. While they do not have the final say in your decisions, by providing them the opportunity to have input, you will increase the chances of buy-in and success. Different teams in your firm may have different goals created for them that lead to the bigger picture goals, and it will be important that they meet regularly to review progress just as your leadership team will.

You will also want to identify your firm’s particular strengths and potential obstacles and how you plan to overcome them. This is referred to as a SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. By bringing these areas to light and focusing on playing to your strengths and addressing how you will overcome your weaknesses, you will be better for it.

The Takeaway

• Take time to work on your business.
• Give yourself permission to step away from your office and plan for your future.
• Set big, hairy, audacious long-term goals, and then set short-term goals that will drive your firm to those longer-term ambitions.
• Create regular mile markers along the way to stay on track.

Business planning does not come naturally to all attorneys. If this planning and follow-up feels foreign to you and you are not confident you have the bandwidth to navigate the process among all your other responsibilities, there are many consultants available who specialize in law firms. These specialists are familiar with your challenges and can help guide you through the maze and help you stay on task. By taking the time to plan for your future in a very intentional way, you will be surprised to find that what once felt like unattainable pipe dreams can truly be a reality.