#189: Underused Growth Strategy for Law Firm Lawyers

[00:00:58] Hello everybody. This is Heather Moulder, host of the Life & Law Podcast. I’m excited to have you with me here today because we are talking about one of the most underused growth strategies for law firm lawyers.

If you are part of a decent-sized law firm – a mid-sized to bigger law firm – you really need to be using this strategy.

In my experience as a business coach to lawyers, most law firm lawyers do not do this or they don’t do it to the extent that they could. Basically, they think they are, but they’re not. So internal networking is what we are talking about.

[00:01:45] We’re talking about cross-selling, but we’re talking about internal networking in three very distinct ways. I have found through my clients that most lawyers, when they think of internal networking, only think of it in one specific way and not in all three ways.

That’s why we’re getting into this today. I have many clients who have very effectively utilized this strategy and within about 18 months to two years of them starting this, their businesses really do blow up. This can be incredibly effective. You want to do external networking and there are marketing activities to be doing as well. But this is one of those things that if you are lucky enough to be in a decent-sized firm, it’s a lot easier to do this.

Internal networking takes some time and energy, but it is not as much time and energy as external networking because usually you are not following up with as many people and you don’t have to go around and see these people in person all the time.

Now, I do recommend when you do start to implement an internal networking plan, you initially go around to the offices. If you are in a large firm, and there are 20 offices with five or six offices where there are attorneys you’re targeting, you want to visit those offices in person initially. Over time, you can visit them on occasion. But you don’t need to do it all the time.

You do it at the outset and then you keep up relationships via email and phone, and phone is probably preferable. Then you visit upon occasion. And if you’re going to be in a city where somebody is, you always make sure you see them.

Yes, it takes some time, yes, it takes some travel sometimes initially. But then once you set the stage, you often don’t need to do that so much anymore.
Let’s get into the three ways in which to use internal networking as a growth strategy for law firm lawyers.

Strategy #1

Number one, you want to get to know lawyers in areas that your clients need help in and sell them to your clients. So you’re cross selling other people to do work on behalf of your clients.

[00:04:17] What this does for you is it helps you grow your book of originations without you needing to do hardly or maybe even any work at all, which is a huge win win, because in most law firms you need originations. Originations is how you become equity partner. Originations is how you really make the big money. But there is only so much time in the day. There is only so much work you can actually do. So this is one of the best ways to grow originations.

Now, some of this depends on your practice area and your clients. But most attorneys in bigger law firms have clients that they do a very specific niche type of work for. And if they are your clients and you’ve already grown a bit of a book, this works the best.

Once you’ve worked on your external networking and you have some clients of your own that are truly your clients who have other needs, you start to introduce them to other lawyers. First off, you want to understand your client’s business incredibly well. You need to understand what they do, you need to understand their business needs, and you need to understand their legal needs based on those business needs. That’s really important. You need to understand both.

That way you can properly identify the people who would be the best fits for them, because you do not want to just introduce them to any old lawyer who could do their work. You want to introduce them to a perfect fit to somebody who has the disposition that works for them, who has the risk tolerance that works for their culture and for their goals and for their business.

[00:05:58] So you do want to think about this carefully, but it works really well once you get to know people. This is also another reason, if you’re not yet a partner and you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, I don’t need this. You do need this if you plan to become a partner one day.

The reason why I would actually listen to this now, if you’re not there, even if you’re early in your career, is it will really reap big dividends later in your career if you start to network internally very early on. There’s lots of ways to do it. Step up to do projects for others in other offices. Step up to help people in other sections. Get to know people, both your peers and then those above you in other practice areas become known by them. And you get to know them because it will develop strong foundations for this later on.

So number one was getting to know lawyers in other areas that could help your clients so that you can help sell them to your clients and grow your book of business without you having to do all the work.

Strategy #2

This is something that I actually see more often, but still not enough.

[00:07:22] Partnering with attorneys from networking and marketing that are tertiary to your business, but who represent the same clients. So this is going out and actually marketing together to get new business as a team. I do see some people doing this really well, but I don’t see enough lawyers doing this.
I think part of the reason is we get afraid that people are going to encroach on us. We lawyers love to have our clients as though they’re our clients. They’re mine. I need to make sure they’re well taken care of. I need to make sure somebody doesn’t say something wrong. It’s really more about you and your ego most of the time.
[00:08:09] Try to flip that and think through.

[00:08:13] What would be a pro of going out as a team, a couple of you, two or three of you together to sell a client, to pitch a client on why they need you guys and why you guys work so well together. When I have seen people do this, it has worked incredibly well, when they go and pitch people, and it’s not as formal as it sounds.

Often, yes, there are client pitches out there. What I’m really talking about is when you’re going to a networking event and you meet somebody, and let’s say you’re a corporate attorney and you meet somebody who has the type of work that you usually do, but then they also have a type of employment work and tax work that gets done by some of your partners that you work with a lot as well. And you know them well and you trust them. And you guys have talked about, let’s sell one another. When we meet somebody, let’s say, I have somebody you need to meet.

[00:09:15] So the way you do that is you go in with that mindset, and when you’re talking to people and you find out they have a tax issue, they don’t have a corporate issue right now. They got a tax issue. I have somebody you need to meet.

[00:09:30] Would you like to talk to them? They actually have this area of expertise, and I think they might be able to help you. Do you want me to introduce you? Always go in with that mindset. I will tell you, this is a rainmaker mindset. This is how most rainmakers get to be rainmakers, because they are not just thinking about creating their own little fiefdom for themselves. They’re thinking about how the firm as a whole can help that client.

And so when those originations come in, yes, they get credit. But often what happens, and this is what a good attorney within the firm will do, is you share the credits. Because you know, yes, I’m the one who talked to this person. But they need that person’s expertise.

[00:10:15] So we’re going to share that credit, and they will share credit when they do the same for me.

[00:10:23] Now, this takes you trusting some attorneys within your firm. Trusting their work, knowing they’re credible, knowing they’re good, and also trusting that you will all share.

[00:10:34] And the mindset behind this is sharing credit is better than not getting any credit. You would be surprised at how much easier it is to bring in work when you think in these terms.

[00:10:45] So that is number two, partnering with fellow attorneys in other areas for networking and marketing purposes and sharing originations. And then…

Strategy #3

This is where you go around and sell yourself to your fellow attorneys who have clients you can also help as the go to within your area of expertise.

[00:11:13] This is an area not enough people utilize. I have seen this work wonders for people. Now, let me just say that usually you do not get origination credits initially on this, but over time, if you become the go to for a number of attorneys in your firm within an area of expertise, and that’s who they think of whenever something like that comes up, they will start handing over origination credits to you for those matters.

Some people don’t, but many do. It increases your billables on your work. It increases your credibility within the firm. It increases your reputation. You become known as that person inside and outside of your firm. You also get known as a really good culture team player, which has its own benefits.

But I will tell you that over time, most people that I work with who do this do start to get the origination credits on those new matters. And let me just say that time period can change. For some it’s six to eight months. For some it’s 18 months. For some it’s three years. It depends on the culture within the firm, on the attorneys you’re dealing with, but it is worth it.

Where I’ve seen this work wonders – personally, litigators, especially younger partners, I have quite a few clients who have gone through their firm, bigger firms, they figure out who does corporate work, who does real estate work. It depends on what their area of expertise is and litigation area. They decide there’s these five or six or eight partners who have clients that will have litigation in these areas. And they go and they meet these people and they establish relationships and they create this relationship of, hey, I want to be one of your go tos when this type of work comes in. Here’s my area of expertise.

They create that relationship over time. It’s not immediate. It takes some time for them to get to know you. Then they’ll send you something, usually smaller. You build on that. But within a couple of years, I have seen business originations for people blow up doing this. So litigators, I’ve seen it in employment lawyers. I’ve seen it with tax lawyers. It can happen in a lot of different areas.

[00:13:40] Think through, who are my perfect clients? Who represents them in other areas? That is your starting point. Utilize these three internal networking strategies. You’re going to see growth in your originations.

All right, that is it for today. We will be back next week with another episode. Bye for now.