Un-Billable Hour: Business Management Strategies for the Busy Lawyer Around the Community Table

Guest Joey Seeber prides himself on bringing out the best in his team in the courtroom, at his legal firm, and as an elected public official. He says finding the right person for the job starts with understanding yourself and your organization’s values.Seeber reflects on what went right and what went wrong when assembling teams. At his company, Level Legal, he focuses on culture and fit by identifying core values and living by them: “Give a damn. Get it done right. Show respect.” Everything starts with the interview, asking important questions that align with the organization’s values instead of checking boxes.What interview questions are you asking? Do they connect to your values? Before you seek a new team member, do you understand what makes your organization work? Hear how Seeber focuses on indicators of success and learned the difference between a “job description” and a “role description.” As he says, “look beyond the resume.” Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.

Host Christopher T. Anderson meets with lawyers from around the country to discuss issues they are currently facing in their practices. Featured on this episode: How do I format my invoices so they convey value? How can I better teach systems to my team? What should I do when a job candidate has a few red flags? What is the most efficient way to have my virtual assistant write out processes and procedures?  Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion. 

For guest Jason Levin – author of “Relationships to Infinity” and founder of the firm Ready, Set, Launch – keeping in touch with past connections, friends, and mentors is a lifelong passion and the bedrock of networking and relationship development. Through his work, Levin has developed an intense interest in helping people develop and maintain personal and business relationships. Business, after all, truly comes down to who you know.Levin’s firm Ready Set Launch applies corporate brand management principles to personal and corporate relationships. It’s the stuff they don’t teach in law school but is a pillar of any successful law firm. Hate networking? Learn to overcome. Think you are doing a great job at networking? Maybe you aren’t. Levin helps professionals make new and maintain lifetime connections. Keeping in touch is foundational. “Let’s do lunch” and “keep in touch” have become meaningless phrases, but the art of maintaining relationships has never been more important. Go beyond social media, events, and transactions and start getting real with steps you can take right now. Today is the day.    Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.

Host Christopher T. Anderson meets with lawyers around the country to discuss issues they are currently facing in their practices.Featured on this episode: How should I market two different areas of focus for my law firm? How do I find the right call intake employee to hire? What is the best use of marketing dollars when starting a practice in a new state? What are the pros and cons of training a new hire vs. hiring an already-experienced candidate? How do I deal with understaffing as I’m about to go on maternity leave? Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion. 

This special episode of Un-Billable Hour goes to the heart of your firm’s existence: attracting and signing new clients in a digital world. Guest Jason Hennessey of Hennessey Digital built his company through reverse engineering the Google algorithm. He’s a respected leader in law firm marketing and offers valuable tips you can put to work today. Learn core principles successful firms use to climb Google search rankings. Embrace the variables that help them adapt and shape their marketing to reach more potential new clients. Hennessey’s book, “Law Firm SEO” explains how search engine optimization works and empowers firms when they look to hire a marketer. The book is written for the layperson, explaining in plain language the principles of SEO. If you don’t want to do it yourself, at least hold the teams you hire accountable. Confused by SEO vs. Paid Search? It comes down to understanding marketing spend and outcomes. Learn what potential clients are looking for and how to hook them. Plus, insights into website functionality, purposeful content strategies, and brand awareness. Attract more prospects and convert them to clients. Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.

Our first episode of 2022 is kind of about everything. It’s about trends, helping law firms leverage tech, outsource routine tasks, and grow their business. Guest Chad Burton is a highly-regarded legal practice futurist. Through his work with Modern Law Practice and CuroLegal, he works one-on-one with practitioners to help them understand what they need and how to engage existing solutions to move them forward. Understanding the capabilities of today’s tech isn’t intuitive. It takes work. Burton shares insights into emerging trends in 2022. Hear what he thinks will happen with non-lawyer owned law firms and the introduction of non-lawyer licensed legal practitioners in specific legal sectors. Other trends include alternative business structures (ABS) such as LegalZoom, Elevate Services, and fee-splitting providing legal services to a vast pool of underserved Americans. He also offers thoughts on outsourcing routine work through emerging enterprises such as Lawclerk, UpWork, and GetStaffedUp, not only outsourcing tasks but offshoring them.  Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.

We know the pillars of marketing: acquisition, production, and purpose. But in this episode of the Un-Billable Hour, class-action guru Gerald Maatman gets down to basics and talks about your marketing bedrock: your brand.Building your practice starts before you ask for a client’s business. It’s about your brand, what you’re already known – and respected – for. Hear how developing expertise, building knowledge, public speaking, and thought leadership earns you the business before you even make the call. There’s a lot to work on here, from giving every case your all, to learning to see the challenge from your client’s perspective, to creating lasting relationships. It’s not easy, and it’s not fast. But a thriving law practice is not about luck. It’s about hard work that never ends. Learn valuable lessons from a true business leader.  Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion. 

Struggling to find joy and fulfillment in her work at a prestigious law firm, guest Ali Katz thought striking out on her own was the way to go. But she found herself battling the same demons, too busy producing paperwork to achieve work/life balance and find satisfaction by fully serving her clients. Then it hit her. There’s nothing wrong with the legal profession, what’s wrong is the way lawyers run their practice. Author of the new book, “The New Law Business Model: Building a Lucrative Law Practice That You (And Your Clients) Love,” Katz teaches lawyers how to reinvent their practice, build enduring client relationships, and bring the love back to lawyering. Learn the difference between “money debt” and “time debt.” Explore new ways to engage clients and show them the value you provide. Stop doing things the old way and focus on superior client outcomes.  Special thanks to our sponsors Law Clerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.

With today’s tight, post-pandemic labor pool, trained, quality legal intake professionals are scarce. Law firms are increasingly turning to outsourced intake, receptionist, and onboarding services. Jeff Mosler, CEO of Nexa Receptionist Holdings LLC (you probably already know their Alert Communications brand) explains how law firms leveraging the flexibility of a turnkey, pretrained outsourcing platform can maximize marketing investments, answer calls in just three rings, and carry potential clients from a curious call to a signed retainer. Stop wasting marketing dollars on lost leads.Even for established firms, an outsourced platform – with the ability to engage by phone, web chat, email, and text – can help firms engaged in one-time, mass tort cases as needs ramp up then scale back. For big firms or small, a trained, on-call pool of legal intake specialists could be the answer.Special thanks to our sponsors Law Clerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.

Guest Mark Rockwell helps lawyers and law firms build purpose, passion, and profit. Learn the five biggest – and crazy simple – mistakes lawyers make every day that undermine their business.Rockwell helps lawyers understand what they want, who they are, and where they want to go. Without structure and vision, what’s the point? When lawyers find themselves spinning their wheels, busy without achieving goals, Rockwell helps create structure and processes that build order and direction.For the first 10 listeners to reach out at (503) 784-7205 or Mark@CoachRockwell.com, Rockwell offers a free one-hour coaching session. He also offers a free e-book, “Five Mistakes Lawyers Make That Kill Their Career,” at www.CoachRockwell.Com.Special thanks to our sponsors Law Clerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.