Best Practice: Marketing a personal injury plaintiff practice

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am a partner in a five attorney PI plaintiff law firm in Central Kentucky. We have three partners and two associates in the firm. We are first generation. Our practice is focused 100% on PI plaintiff cases. While we focus on all types and sizes of PI cases we are not a high volume advertising PI practice. Our practice has been built upon our successes and referrals from past clients and other lawyers. We have never done much in the way of other forms of marketing and advertising other than a small yellow page ad and a Martindale Hubbell listing. We are finding it harder to obtain a sufficient quantity of quality cases as a result of increased competition from the advertising PI firms, statutory changes, tight fisted insurance company claim managers, etc. We believe that we may need to being doing more to market our practice. What are your suggestions? A. We are hearing similar stories from our PI plaintiff law firm clients across the U.S. Case counts are down, quality of cases are not what they used to be, competition is fierce, and cases are getting harder to settle. The strategy is different from a firm that wants to build a high volume practice (build a factory) from a firm that desires to build a reputation-based practice. In essence you need to determine whether you want to build a high volume practice (a factory) or continue with a high quality reputation-based practice. Assuming that you want to continue your reputation-based practice here are a few suggestions:

1. Develop a long range strategic business plan - 10 pages or less
2. Enhance and broaden the firm-wide marketing program to increase market awareness (referral sources and potential clients) and generate new client business. Review ROI from the firm’s marketing expenditures. Consider increasing marketing budget to 5%-10% of fee revenue.
3. Develop the firm’s marketing infrastructure to include:
4. Adequate budget
5. First Rate Web Site
6. Appropriate directory listings
7. Inside Marketing Coordinator
8. Relationship Management Database
9. Capability Materials
10. E-News Letters via Service
11. Articles
12. Testimonials
13. Public Relations
14. Accountability by all attorneys and staff
15. Develop a program for increasing the firm’s exposure to the newer younger generation non-PI and solo attorneys and small firms.
16. Provide excellent client service
17. Keep your yellow page ad for now but reduce investment
18. Understand the power of PR in Trial Strategy.
19. Develop a formal lead tracking process and invest in resources
20. Organize to maximize contact with potential clients.

Click here for our blog on marketing Click here for our published articles John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC, (www.olmsteadassoc.com) is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.