Way Outside: How to Rebuild Your Law Firm Practices

Attorneys seeking inspiration or advice on reconfiguring or revising their business practices often seek out colleagues or friends for advice.  Most attorneys maintain other attorneys as colleagues and friends.  So, when they’re seeking business advice, they’re getting it from other attorneys.


There are a couple of problems with relying on that strategy, however.  The first is that law firm managers tend to rely entirely on their own experience.  If you ask them what to do in a specific situation, they will invariably say: ‘Well, this is how we do it . . .’  But, there is no one size fits all model for law firms, which means that lawyers should refer to various scenarios, before determining which option works best for them.  (And so, that’s a good conversation to have with a law practice management consultant *AHEM*, who regularly speaks to different law firms, to gauge their perspectives.)  The second problem with that strategy is that law firm owners are generally not business gurus.  When lawyers say that other attorneys are great lawyers, what they mean is that the referenced attorney is great at practicing substantive law.  But, how many attorneys do you know who are marketing gurus?  Or technology whizzes?  Exactly. 

That’s why it pays for lawyers to seek outside opinions when revamping their law firm practices.  Find somebody who is a marketing guru, or a tech whiz.  Many of those folks promote themselves online, and so offer a good deal of basic, free advice.  That’s a great place to get started.  It also helps to look at other industries for inspiration: 

A lawyer friend of mine was once revising his website, and he was looking for other law firm websites to base his redesign on; but, he told me they all sucked.  So, he set out to determine which set of professionals had the best websites.  He decided that it was architecture firms, and so built his law firm website to look like an architectural firm’s website; and, it was one of the most unique and resonant law firms websites I have ever seen. 
. . .


Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia's Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors' Bar Association members now have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discount rate.  To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.

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