When you graduate from law school and pass your state’s bar exam, you might feel like you have crossed the finish line victoriously, but in fact, the biggest challenges are just the beginning. If you apply for a job at a medium-sized or large law firm, you must adapt to the unique culture of your work environment, which is a big job in itself If you are going into business for yourself, you are in for a major undertaking, whether you previously worked for a private law firm or public sector employer, or whether you are fresh out of law school. Providing excellent representation for your clients is the number one ingredient in the recipe for your success, but it is not all you need to do to help your law firm thrive. Here are some tips for new attorneys who are trying to start their own family law practices on the right foot.
New Attorneys Should Start With a Temporary Mission and a Temporary Brand Identity
If you have already decided that yours will be a family law practice, you are off to a good start. Perhaps yours is a solo law firm, or maybe you are founding your law firm jointly with a colleague, and he or she is also a family law attorney. You are wise to do it this way because practicing door law is a recipe for burnout, preventable mistakes, and client dissatisfaction, especially if you are new to the legal profession or to running your own law firm. Door law is when you are open to representing any client who walks through the door, regardless of whether the client needs your help writing a will, modifying a child support order, suing a former business partner for breach of contract, fighting criminal charges for drug possession, or sponsoring a family member’s green card. It makes sense for lawyers in rural communities to accept cases in more than one practice area; representing too many different kinds of cases at one time can quickly become overwhelming.
Especially in a big city, your law firm will need to fill a specific market niche, more specific than “all things family law,” but you have some time to figure out what that is. In the beginning, be open to representing clients in all kinds of family law matters, from prenuptial agreements to grandparent visitation. You will eventually find out which cases play well to your talents and which ones are too much work for too little money, although there is something to be said for being willing to do unglamorous work to meet the needs of clients in your community.
Respond Graciously to Constructive Criticism
For better or worse, we live in the age of online reviews. The more reviews clients write of your law firm online, the more it means that people have heard of you. Of course, not everything your clients will have to say about you will be positive, even if you do everything in your power to help them get a satisfactory outcome in their case. It hurts to read negative reviews online, but you should be gracious about them. Do not exchange insults with your former clients on public websites; it will make you look unprofessional. If there is anything you can do to make your clients feel better at this late stage, you should contact them directly by private email. If you think that your client’s comment reflects a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the law, you should write a response to the post focusing on the legal issues. For example, if your client says, “Because of his incompetence, the court awarded custody of our children to my ex-wife instead of to me,” write a response explaining that custody does not belong exclusively to one parent. Explain how parenting plans and parenting time work, and highlight that they are modifiable.
Capitalize on Inexpensive Forms of Marketing
While new attorneys should put more effort into practicing law than you into marketing a law firm, it is important to let prospective clients know that you exist. Most clients find lawyers through Google searches, so your law firm should have a website. It does not have to be anything fancy, but it should clearly display your law firm’s contact information and contain practice area pages for the types of cases you represent. There is a saying in the world of digital marketing that the most important part of a business website is the NAP, which means name, address, and phone number.
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