If I were to guess I'd approximate about 85 to 90% of my leads. If I can get them to the stage where they want a legal consultation, I would say at that point it's about 75% to 80% surety that I'm going to get the client.
I'm developing professional relationships and a lot of them spend a great deal of money marketing their legal services each month. Although I do have to pay a fee as well, it's much more reasonable in comparison to when I talked with them. The ability to go in and have so many clients to choose from, and to be able to have me marketed out there so that I am getting these clients. It's just had a really positive impact on my business.
I love that I have a personal representative in LegalMatch. I appreciate that when I first started on this platform, they helped me develop the templates. But then I have, as I've gotten more experience, I had the opportunity to go in and tweak those templates, and add new templates as new cases and issues come up. I love the fact that there's a place to put notes if I need to do that. I love the fact that you organize it, where we have the reply section. We have a consultation section, the ability to note that we've engaged or that we've archived. It helps organize the progress of a case.
It’s all done online and because of the type of marketing and everything that it has, it was easier to transition into electronic signatures on attorney retainer agreements. It was easier to do a cash app, Venmo, transfer of money or mail, a check instead of having to do the one-on-one in person we could do via Zoom and things like that. LegalMatch helped that transition because they were already online.
As a newer firm, I would say most of my leads still come from LegalMatch. If I were to guess I'd approximate about 85 to 90% of my leads. If I can get them to the stage where they want a legal consultation, I would say at that point it's about 75% to 80% surety that I'm going to get the client. I was just starting out and LegalMatch caught me at a really good time. So, I thought I'd try it out and I did, and I've been so completely satisfied with it. I haven't felt a need to go out and research, or take a look for another lead-generating system.
I get the most out of it by tailoring my templates specifically when I see an issue come across my computer. If I feel like the templates I already have are not close enough to their issue, I will create a new one. I really like the ability to do that because then I can tailor each of my templates to the client and their particular issues. And, it's a marvelous tool to be able to do that because it makes me more effective as a legal advocate and it makes them feel more like they can trust me that I know what their issues really are.
Lawyers definitely need to consider a marketing platform. The nice thing about LegalMatch is you get more than just the platform. You get a personal representative that can help you. You certainly get a lot of leads and for a new attorney opening a new practice, your bread and butter is the clients, and you've got to be able to access those clients and word of mouth takes a while.
You need to reply immediately, as quickly as possible, and offer complimentary legal consultation. Some attorneys do that. Some do not. I feel that a 30-minute complimentary legal consultation is the reason why I get my clients and make sure to bother to tailor and develop various templates. Start off with having the personal representative from LegalMatch help you, but then you tweak them and get them where you need them to be. Document in the notes when you can because you may have a consultation with that client and they may feel like they can’t afford you right now. They will wait six weeks or whatever and come back to you. You need to make sure that you can recall and remember who they were.
One of the things that I have learned through trial and error is to make sure that I've always documented everything. But to make sure that I develop habits of the way I document or the way I organize my day. In other words, have a certain time of day that you look at all your LegalMatch. You have a time of day when you call and negotiate with clients, or you negotiate with attorneys, or you talk with the courthouse and support staff.
If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to look for certain characteristics in a client. The reason why I say that is sometimes we get clients that have a skewed view. They're not necessarily lying, but they have a skewed view of the issues. You've got to make sure that you watch for certain characteristics so that you don't end up getting a client that ultimately you can't represent because they'll commit perjury on the stand or they won't pay. They won't honor the attorney retainer agreement. I was not quite as picky in the beginning because I was opening up my practice. But if I could go back and really do that, that's something I would say: quality versus quantity.