A Profitable Family Law Practice

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HOW TO RUN A PROFITABLE FAMILY LAW PRACTICE

By Pippa Colman

Beginning with the end in mind

The enemy of change/progress is FTI – Fail to Implement. With that in mind can I ask you please, as you are listening to me/reviewing this seminar paper, if you strike what you regard as a good idea, mark it with an asterisk?.

If it is a really good idea, maybe two asterisks.

A three asterisk idea means you are going to implement it.

If you do not do this then the end result of listening to me or reading this seminar paper will be that you have wasted your time.

Running a profitable practice

Running a profitable practice whether it is in family law or any other area of law means that you must: -

1. Get work;
2. Do work;
3. Get paid;
4. Do all of this as often as possible and as fast as possible.

1. GET WORK

In the past 34 years, since I began work as an articled clerk in January 1974, I can remember only clearing my desk once, apart from before going on holidays/leaving a practice.

For most of us getting the work in is not a problem. But if it is, here are some of my ideas, in no particular order: -

• 99% of my work comes from referrals – past clients/solicitors on the SunshineCoast and other areas. With that in mind, keep in touch with your clients and referees. If you do not know who your referees are/how you are getting business, then you must find out. On our new client details form (attached) there is a section for clients to tell us who referred them. As soon as we know how the client came to consult us, we act on this by adding the referee to our database of referees and sending them a thank you card;

• Do good work - care for your clients, keep your word to your clients, push the matter on to a reasonable conclusion and the referrals and the work will pour in and keep coming in. My experience is the standard of practice in family law is fairly low and if you do good work you will stand out;

• Seminars for clients. We do free seminars for clients; I try to make them monthly, on a variety of family law topics and also question and answer sessions. We email our database of clients to let them know about these seminars which include a cup of tea/glass of wine and nibbles. The most popular seminars are generally Wills and Estates, which is not a big part of my practice but clients are interested in these areas;

• Solicitor’s seminars. I am a CPD provider approved by the Queensland Law Society. I run seminars for solicitors and as a result I email solicitors on a regular basis. I do not do what I regard as “high level seminars”. They are generally fairly basic. I do breakfast seminars where we provide breakfast as well and in general I am the speaker, evening seminars where in general I am not the speaker and occasionally one day seminars/half day seminars. The benefit of doing these things is that you look like an expert and you must do research beforehand to keep you up to date, so, on the day, you are an expert;

• Speaking at seminars – like I am today. From memory I think I have been speaking at seminars for about 20 years. It got started by chance. I was enrolled for a seminar on advocacy, a speaker dropped out and someone from the Law Society rang me to enquire could I stand in their place. At first it was terrifying but now I really enjoy it and after all my years in practice, I feel that I have something to offer, especially to younger practitioners. The benefit is that your name appears on seminar programmes which go all over Queensland, and sometimes beyond;

• Client newsletters – make them interesting and relevant to your clients and send them out regularly;

• White papers/news flashes to your fellow solicitors;

• Endorsements and strategic alliances. The theory is that you look for businesses that have client bases that would be interested in what you have to offer and join forces with them to promote each others services. The reality is I am very, very careful about who I promote and who I refer my clients to. I generally give clients a panel of three to chose from. I have solicitors who regularly refer me work. I try to refer work back to them but this is not always possible. I have had a frank talk with most of my referees along the lines of “the best I can do is return a happy client to you” because I do not do any work save mediation and family and so clients rarely come in for other legal work;

• Client clipping services – clipping newspaper or magazine articles that you feel might be relevant to your client and send them with a with compliments slip saying “I thought this might be of interest to you”;

• Networking – your business comes from the people you meet. Get to events that you think the clients you want are likely to be. Mingle, hand out cards and get good at talking to people about what they do. Listen to them. They will be so surprised that someone actually listens to them that they will remember you. Don’t go to every event – you will wear yourself out and it is not worth it. Do not join clubs just because they ask you. Do not take on honorary work, eg honorary secretary/honorary treasurer unless you are really interested in the club. A better way, I think, is to make a donation. Your name will be read out and you will get a tax deduction. I am not saying do not become involved in your community but you need to watch where you spend your time because there are only 168 hours in every week;

• Birthday/special events cards – this is my favourite. I send hand written cards all the time. It only takes 30 seconds to write a greeting in a card. I carry these cards with me wherever I go and when I have down time, eg waiting at Court, waiting at an airport, on a train, etc I fill them out and send them. If I go away somewhere interesting – I go overseas to assist at mediation seminars - I have with me a list of pre-addressed sticky labels of names and addresses of referees and “A” clients and I drop them a post card. I often write these at the airport/on the plane. Clients and other solicitors get a kick out of it and they always mention it when they see me, even if it is months later.

My receptionist has a birthday book – all our clients have their birthdays entered in the birthday book. We send them all a birthday card; it is an excuse to write to them every year. For some clients,it the only card they receive and they like to be remembered.

I remember when we were doing a divorce and property settlement for a client who turned 80 during his time with us. He actually had an appointment with us on his 80th birthday. Our receptionist (without reference to me) arranged a cake and we all stood around and sang him happy birthday. It was a great surprise for him; cost us almost nothing and my receptionist actually adopted him as a grandparent for her children. You can guess what he talked about with his friends for the next week or so. You can also see that I have great, client focused team members.

Each month I read the Proctor and I send a card of congratulations if someone I know:

• Has joined a firm;
• Has changed employment;
• Has changed the name of their firm.

If I hear of a death, I send a sympathy card. If I heard of a birth, I send a congratulations card. My favourite baby present is a money box with a few gold coins and a book about investment. The cost is very little. The return is great

All of the above comes easy to me because I am a people person. You will have your own style that works for you. Try something different occasionally. If it works for you then do it, if it does not, then don’t do it.

Paid advertising has not worked for me. Every time I have done it I have regretted it. The telephone book and yellow pages entries for my firm are very small.

“Relationships” are what work for me. I expect them to work for you – see diagram below. Who are your strategic relationships?

If you do nothing else this conference then do this alone - fill in the relationships diagram and then answer these three questions: -

a)Who are your most important business relationships / relationship groups?

b)What have you done in the last 90 days to build a stronger relationship with them?

c)What can you do in the next 90 days to get closer to them?

In my diagram I refer to “A” clients. You will encounter in your legal practice A, B, C and D clients.

A equals awesome clients. These clients love you, they love your office, they love your team members, they pay your fees on time, they are a delight to deal with and, best of all, they refer other A clients.

The B clients are your basic clients. You can educate / cultivate them and turn them into Ase.g. by ensuring that they always have $ in trust and that they give instructions on time.

Your C clients are C for “can’t make a profit”. Every now and then you need to review your client list, and if you have Cs, you may need to ask yourself whether you are the person who should be dealing with them or someone with a lesser charge out rate in your firm should be, or whether you should be acting at all.

D clients are “don’t want to deal with them”. You must not take these clients on. You know at the first interview when you are in the presence of a D client. We do not have to act for everyone and you should not act for these clients. If you get that sense then refer them away. Clients who are a D to you may be someone else’s A.

When I was speaking at a conference in Townsville last year, it seemed a practitioner was very annoyed with me when I talked about A, B, C and D clients. He said we are in a profession and we should give service and act for everyone who consults us especially in small communities.

I do not agree with that. Your Cs and Ds are someone else’s A clients. There will be another legal practice who will take them on, where they will be happier and better served than in your practice.

I have a theory that you attract clients who you deserve, who like you and who are like you. In general, I am only consulted by As and Bs. My high fees tend to deter the Cs and Ds. When I hand over a disclosure notice which requires a significant sum into our trust account, Cs and Ds often go somewhere else. I do my fair share of pro bono work, always have and always will. I pick the matters where I do that pro bono work.

I well remember a matter where I had done really good work, very quickly for a certain client. During the interview, she was running down her previous solicitor; it should have been a warning of things to come. Within 10 minutes of her leaving, my office, she returned, barged into my office and began berating me at length for my poor service, and suggesting I was ripping her off. I was gob smacked! I was also very distressed because it simply was not true. I also thought to myself – if she was not happy with my best service, then she was never going to be satisfied.

I immediately wrote to her, returning her fees and giving her the names of three other solicitors who might be able to help her. The solicitor she had defamed was top of the list. Within a week, he phoned me and using a smug tone, told me he had an authority and asked for her file. I had the file hand delivered within 10 minutes. I felt so free and happy.

1. DO THE WORK (PROPERLY)

Pre-interview – first contact with the office

A client’s first contact with the office should run as smoothly as possible. The receptionist should have a script as to how to answer the phone calls and the phone should be answered the same way every time. Ideally the phone should be answered within four rings.

Our phone script reads “Good morning, Pippa Colman & Associates. This is Kate Morrison” (Kate is our receptionist).

You should ring our office on (07) 5458 9000 and Kate will answer the phone, day after day, the same way. The reason she gives her full name is because that encourages clients to give their full name as well.

Our procedure when a client first rings for an appointment is to get their name, the other parties’ name and do a conflict check while the client is on the phone. The client cannot see us doing this because it is done over the phone, and our receptionist is still chatting away to the client. Because we act in litigation (Family Law) and dispute resolution, we must make sure we are not entering a conflict situation where we have acted for a client in the past.

Unless a client is coming to see us immediately, we send out a pre-appointment pack to the client including: -

• How to find us – a map;

• Information about the firm – our guarantee and our mission statement (both of which are attached);

• Brochure called “How to get the best out of your solicitor” – attached.

First appointment

When the client comes into the office, our receptionist immediately lets me know and also lets the support person who will be attending the first interview with me know. The client, when they first come to the office, sees a “new client video” which talks about the firm and what it means to be a client of Pippa Colman & Associates with a heavy emphasis on costs. The reason I did this was that, although I can instruct my team what I want said and done at a first appointment, when I am not in the room, it may not happen. Even when I am in the room, I may forget/overlook things. It is a great intro to the firm and none of my clients could say “I thought this first interview was free” because by the time they have seen me they have spoken to the receptionist on the phone when making the appointment and that day and they have seen the new client video so they have been told three times they have to pay.

Our receptionist talks about costs every time she makes an appointment so the clients know they are going to pay every time they come into the office – we operate on a pay as you go basis.

Waiting…

When I did a client survey a few years ago, a lot of people talked about how much they hated waiting to see their solicitor. We have a policy that you must see the client as soon as possible and if they are kept waiting 15 minutes or longer we take 25% off the interview cost. As a result, we do not keep many clients waiting and they appreciate that. Clients love getting 25% off if they wait, too.

Have a good first interview

If you have a good first interview then the file gets off to a good start. If the first interview is a disaster, you should not take the client on. I have never known a matter that got better after the first interview.

We have our boardroom/interview room set up before the client comes in and before the solicitor comes down for the appointment. There is a glass filled with water on a coaster for every person who will be in the room, chilled water in a bottle on the table and for me, a cup of tea. You will see that our new client details form has a section at the end for the client’s drink selection – tea / coffee, milk, sugar etc. We record that on the file cover and so when the client comes in, we can have their favourite drink sitting on the boardroom table too. Clients think we have great memories and it is a nice touch.

There is pen and paper on the desk. Every morning our receptionist checks the interview rooms and boardroom to make sure they have pens, paper and all that the solicitor will require for an interview. Two of our rooms are equipped with digital dictation and this is set up before the client comes in because inevitably we do something while the client is there.

I have a junior solicitor, a trainee solicitor or my PA present for every interview. Their job is to take notes, complete the next steps form which is attached, and do any running around necessary, eg photocopying/making enquiries on the internet/printing out documents. They also finish off the interview by giving the client a copy of the notes and next steps form and accompanying the client to reception where they ensure that we receive payment, shake the client’s hand and make the next appointment. I do my share of hand shaking and smiling before I run up the stairs to do the work.

The support person also forms a relationship with the client at that interview so that the client knows they have more than one person who they can deal with in the firm. The client knows the support person has a good understanding of what is going on as well.