Clienting

Kelly Street was joined this week by lawyer Erin Gerstenzang, a trial attorney with a law practice in Atlanta, Georgia. She provides concierge-level service to clients facing drug and alcohol-related offenses. In addition to running her boutique criminal defense law practice in Atlanta, Georgia, Erin Gerstenzang is dedicated to helping other attorneys succeed in their practices. She is a regular speaker at CLE events across the country and helps lawyers understand legal ethics in a technology-enabled world. She also lectures on women mentoring women, design-thinking for law firms, and using social media to build a legal brand. Erin Gerstanzang has been public speaking since before she had a trial and has legal in her blood as a second generation lawyer in a family full of lawyers.  Speaking has allowed Erin to introduce herself to new attorneys, gaining referrals and making a national name for herself and her firm. Erin speaks about everything from blood testing and criminal defense issues to women and divers

Your ears are not deceiving themselves, Kelly interviews attorney Taymoor Pilehvar without Gyi Tsakalakis in this episode.  Taymoor Pilehvar is an immigration attorney out of South Florida whose clients are athletes, entertainers, investors, workers, and family members.  He markets his services primarily using social media and engages his audience with methods considered unorthodox in the legal field. Taymoor moved to Florida specifically to practice immigration. Taymoor uses Facebook and Instagram primarily to attract clients. Kelly saw one of his posts about working with a sports influencer client and was intrigued by how he is using social media for client development in that particular client niche. Claudius Vertesi - scooter pro Is Taymoor getting clients for all of his efforts? Yes! He makes sure to include his Instagram handle on his business cards to passively market to his followers.  Taymoor had not used social media prior to starting his law firm and learned while starting his firm, that he needed

Gyi Tsakalakis and Kelly Street were joined by Joseph Wilson, an Atlanta-based trial attorney who uses Instagram for client development. Joseph Wilson is a personal injury trial attorney at JL Wilson Trial Law, and specializes in motor vehicle collision cases, trucking collisions, as well as negligent security cases.  Joseph started his law firm in January 2018 and as a bootstrapping entrepreneur-attorney, was looking for methods to inexpensively promote his law firm and cases. As a young lawyer, he turned to a method that was familiar to him, Instagram and Facebook. Joseph was a lead lawyer on the case against the "Rapping Doctor" and utilized the PR from that case to promote his law firm and help find other potential clients who may have been affected. He takes the approach of educator and shares his knowledge and life on his online social media profiles. He does not use his posts as outright advertisements but as "added value" for his followers and potential clients. He strives to make his posts a

Gyi and Kelly were joined by Aastha Madaan, owner of Madaan Law Firm and Concierge Wills & Trusts, both located in Southern California. Aastha runs a traditional law firm and a secondary, 100% virtual law firm. She came up with the idea for a completely virtual practice after realizing that the traditional model was inconvenient for a large portion of her clients and that going virtual would make them happier, leading to more referrals and reviews. She used design-centered thinking to build out and iterate the process of going virtual. Aastha started small with virtual consultations and built her secondary practice from there. Education is the key with this new type of practice-- her clients understand what makes this process and firm different, based on the video on their website homepage.  Empathize - explore and find the pain points for your clients. Aastha surveyed clients to see what they would have liked to be different in the process. Define - Outline the pain points; Aastha's client's pain points

Gyi Tsakalakis and Kelly Street were joined by Justie Nicol, owner of Nicol Law Offices, a Criminal Defense Attorney in Fort Collins, Colorado. She is a savvier than average solo attorney who used technology tools to make her practice run smoother and create better work/life balance.  Justie has even taught a CLE on tech tools as a solo to boost client experience! When you look at the list of tools below and listen, keep in mind that Justie is a regular lawyer who implemented these tools over time, as she saw a need. She starts with a low-cost or free solution What Justie uses to streamline her firm and client experience: Wisestamp for email signature (appt scheduler, tweets, etc) Copper CRM Connects with Zapier to her email and more Typeform for intake/conflict check Prior to client consultations, have them fill this out. Send a post-consultation form to see why a potential client didn't choose your law firm Send a post-case form to get client feedback for reviews Zapier, to connect apps and servic

Wayne Pollock is the founder and managing attorney of Copo Strategies (www.copostrategies.com), a national legal services and communications firm.  Wayne helps other attorneys and their clients ethically, strategically, and proactively engage the Court of Public Opinion to help those clients resolve their legal disputes favorably, and to help those attorneys build their practices.  Serving as a consultant to law firms or as limited scope co-counsel to clients, Wayne's counsel incorporates legal strategy, media strategy, ethics compliance, and defamation avoidance. How to get your message out in the court of public opinion. The public, your clients, and the media are not digging through court files so how do you get your client's story out of the courtroom? The answer: PR Ethics of PR: Model Rule 1.6- not disclosing case or client information publicly; Ethics Opinion 480- must have client permission to publicly reveal any case-related information publicly Rule 3.6: Trial Publicity, cannot make statements ou

From large law firm lawyering to legal coworking to blockchain lawyer, this week's guest, Yev Muchnik, has a really cool perspective on future-forward law practice.  Yev makes some great points about how the traditional law practice model isn't working for many attorneys in 2019 and how coworking spaces focused on legal can help solve this issue.  Ethics of legal coworking:  Many state bar associations have decreed that coworking is ethical for lawyers and law firms to do. Make sure conference rooms are enclosed and bring your own white or blue noise machine to keep conversations private.  Blockchain Lawyering: Currently focused on securities and corporate law 'Smart contracts' Engaging in a new practice area and becoming the go-to expert:  Meetups Collaboration & 'distributed lawyering' Conferences within that niche Speaking engagements Facebook groups, Slack channels, etc Stay away from being 'salesy' and focus on providing information or being a resource. In this practice area and moving into

Gyi and Kelly celebrate their first year as podcasters and talk about the trends from last year and what to expect in 2019 as you market your law firm.  Flashback to 2018, what we talked about then:  Voice search Mobile-friendly everything GMB updates Visual Search (video results) Changes to Google proximity, hyperlocal 2019 Marketing Trends:  AI & intentional advertising (FB/Instagram algorithms) Messenger Ads Video Ads Smarter, targeted content Personalization  More data-driven content Ad copy segmented more to specific groups or interests as a response to Social Media Ad algorithms Chatbots, the digital concierge Disclosing that your chatbot is not a human when people interact with it Voice Search: By 2020, it’s expected that 50 percent of all searches will be voice searches, and by 2022, voice commerce sales will reach $40 billion. - Chief Marketer Rand Fishkin Google marketshare article Video It's still a thing and evolving to Instagram and FB TV, and Live videos Video search res

This episode is all about ethics! Gyi Tskalakis and Kelly Street were joined by Will Hornsby to discuss the challenges legal ethics bring to a solo and small law firm. We also learn how Will became a go-to legal marketing ethics expert.  After serving as staff counsel in the American Bar Association’s Division for Legal Services for 30 years, Will Hornsby now maintains a solo practice that helps lawyers, legal marketers and innovators maximize the potential of their communications and delivery models while understanding and complying with the ethics rules. His practice focuses on working with clients to explore opportunities to expand their marketplaces. Will is also an Illinois disciplinary hearing officer, an adjunct professor at Chicago Kent College of Law and a member of the Board of Directors of the Justice Entrepreneurs Project, a Chicago-based lawyer incubator. What's it like to go solo, what Will has been up to, and how unbundled services are still an untapped market.  Delivery of services and the cha

Gyi Tsakalakis and Kelly Street were joined by attorney Shreya Ley. Shreya Ley is half of the lawyer-human duo at the Lay Roots, an asset protection law firm based in Seattle, WA that focuses on estate planning, intellectual property, business law, and more.  Lay Roots and life-business partners Colin & Shreya carefully thought about what their law practice should look like to work best within their lives and for their ideal clients.  Colin and Shreya have taken on the mantle of Lawyer-Humans both as a joke and as branding, to separate themselves from lawyers sitting behind mahogany desks in a law library.  Defining your clients through your marketing, instead of letting your clients define your marketing and firm. Shreya finds inspiration in Seth Godin and his perspective on finding your tribe. As a result, Lay Roots has built longer-term, deeper relationships with clients which have led to more referrals and repeat business.  Clients through volunteering and personal networking.  Lay Roots looked at pod

For this episode of Clienting, Gyi and Kelly answered marketing questions from former Clienting guests. Audio questions:  Alex Barthet- Blog called the Lien Zone about construction topics- trying to show up on SERP's as the featured snippet. Single best thing to do to appear in the snippets? Should he care about showing up in the snippets?  How? The content should answer a question, must be high-quality (comprehensive, entertaining/engaging, etc), has to be 'the best answer.'  Search for what you want to rank for, see what comes up. Also look at the People Also Ask box Create something better Already showing up in page 1 is a good place to start Keep paragraphs short (40-50 words) and structure the content with bullets, etc. Should you care? https://moz.com/blog/optimize-featured-snippets Jared Correia-   Lawyers are flummoxed by social media- can lawyers pick one medium for social media and which one should they choose?   Jared's son, Joe: How do I get other kids to trade me their good pokemon car

Gyi Tsakalakis & Kelly Street are joined this week by attorney Rob Schenk to discuss his firm's content marketing strategy and their use of data to understand their audience.  Rob Schenk is an Atlanta trial lawyer representing families with loved ones who have been severely injured or killed in nursing homes. He is the co-host of the Nursing Home Abuse Podcast, a weekly program providing education on nursing home safety and accountability.  Keywords, title tags, etc. are a great way to capture potential client questions- as long as you actually answer them! Know who your 'real' clients are and market to them.  Marketing a specific practice area to become the 'expert' in your field. As Rob says, "The riches are in the niches!" Why video vs. just audio? More options for people to engage with the podcast.  Marketing is a long-term strategy, so create the content and know you will have to build an audience.  Thinking about starting a podcast? Decide if you have enough time to DIY or enough money to outsource

Gyi and Kelly connected with Kim Bennett on her approach to marketing with a non-traditional law firm model. This episode bridges the gap between business development and marketing, which is how Kim approaches her own business as well as her work with clients.  K Bennett Law LLC is a boutique trademark, business, and employment law practice providing subscription and on-demand, flat fee virtual general counsel services focused on helping clients protect their brands and grow profitable, sustainable businesses. Virtual, subscription-based firm. What does that mean, how does one do that?  Creating a firm with unique differentiators sets you apart but also provides a new type of service level.  Looking at your client's issue holistically- is this 'bigger' than the issue they are coming to you for? This can build more goodwill with clients and create a longer-term relationship than just a one-time issue.  Lead nurturing- educating clients far in advance of retaining them as a client.  Working in a shared space, o

Gyi and Kelly talk with Chris Gober about his unique practice areas and clientele.  Most of The Gober Firm's clients come through referrals and PR appearances, which holds interesting challenges for marketing. To help with this, Chris has used TV appearances to become a go-to Republican legal commentator and boost his credentials while reinforcing his brand.  Chris shares his perspective on Networking vs. Development and how he does both to add different elements to his life and business.  Chris uses Twitter and social media to share his political perspective and do authority marketing, newsjacking, create authenticity and maintain relevancy.  Chris Gober is the founder of The Gober Group, a 3-time Inc. 5000 law firm that represents changemaking companies, causes, and influencers across the United States. The firm’s clients include dozens of U.S. Senators and Representatives, professional sports franchises and leagues such as the Houston Texans, NBA, and PGA Tour, and disruptive companies and organizations su

Gyi & Kelly talked with immigration lawyer Greg Siskind about his firm's marketing efforts. Greg launched the first small law firm website by teaching himself HTML coding in the early 1990's.  Greg shared his process for breaking down legal content for blog posts, social media, and gaining PR.  Greg wisely points out that legal marketing doesn't have to be for potential clients only, you can target other lawyers, journalists, law schools, and more with your content.  Advocacy marketing works well for immigration and legislated fields of consumer-facing law.  Greg Siskind is a founding partner of Siskind Susser and has practiced immigration law since 1990. He writes several books including the annually published LexisNexis J-1 Visa Guidebook, the ABA’s Lawyers Guide to Marketing on the Internet, the Physician Immigration Handbook and the I-9 and E-Verify Handbook. In 1994, he created the first immigration law website and in 1998 he created the world’s first law blog. He was listed by ABC News as one of the

Gyi & Kelly talk with Erin Levine about how her company, Hello Divorce, uses "freemiums" to build a sales funnel and customer following. While launching Hello Divorce, Erin was re-introduced to the knowledge that marketing from ground zero takes effort, and requires both a process and a plan.  Erin Levine is the managing attorney of Levine Family Law Group located in Oakland, CA and Founder of “Hello Divorce”, a modern break up service,  offering strategic legal help and wellness support. Authenticity, effort, understanding the buyer's journey, which allows their firm to attract the type of clients they want to work with. Hello Divorce uses landing pages, social media, partnership content, and sending the content directly to their network.  About Page quote: "We take the drama out of divorce." Erin says "You can't look at law in a vacuum... These are people who are in crisis who have the opportunity to make the next chapter of their lives so much better, and happier, and stronger."  Outside help: have a n

Gyi & Kelly wanted to discuss voice search and the pitfalls, how to improve your ability to rank in voice search, and future-proof your online presence by ranking in voice search. They go through what voice search is and isn't, the history of voice search, and the potential future of voice search.  STAT Search Analytics- how to win the featured snippet Who is using voice search? 39% of millennials, 17% of Gen X, and 10% of Baby Boomers. Voice search results are due to good SEO: schema, structured data markup, long-tail keywords, research queries, links, simply written content, consistent business information What gets people a featured snippet? Once you figure that out- do it on your own website. Google Developer Documentation & Actions

Gyi & Kelly are thrilled to chat with a veteran lawyer this week who went from corporate lawyer to solo practitioner 25 years into his career. 10 years later, he has a thriving practice and loves his job.  Thomas R. Fox-the Compliance Evangelist Tom is the author 16 books on business leadership, compliance and ethics and corporate governance, including the international best-sellers “Lessons Learned on Compliance and Ethics” and “Best Practices Under the FCPA and Bribery Act” as well as his series Fox on Compliance. His latest book “The Compliance Handbook” was published in May 2018 and was the No. 1 new bestseller on Amazon.com through its initial run. He writes and speaks across the globe on compliance programs. Tom leads the social media discussion on compliance with his award-winning blog, The FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog and is the founder of the Compliance Podcast Network. Tom's policy: Give away your 'secret sauce', because it will create more trust than lose you money.   Twitter: Retweet your c

Janine Sickmeyer is CEO and Founder of NextChapter, a web application for attorneys to prepare, manage and file bankruptcy cases online. Janine is particularly fascinated in the intersection between law and technology and was honored as one of ABA's Women of Legal Tech 2017. Starting as a paralegal, she saw a need for cloud-based bankruptcy software, taught herself to code, built a team of skilled developers and launched NextChapter two years later in 2016. It's about the people and not necessarily your practice. Share employees, clients, and telling stories.  Instagram & Facebook for developing your brand and help recruit employees that fit your culture. Janine talks about how NextChapter does newsletters, beyond the normal articles or webinar signups.  Facebook ads take time to learn but try them for $10 per day and see what happens. Play around with targeting to find your ideal audience by occupation, interests, and more. Use Facebook pixel to track and retarget website visitors. Twitter for law fir

For episode 18 of Clienting, Keith Lee joins Gyi Tsakalakis and Kelly Street to talk about how lawyers can use online networking to build their practice and referral network.  Keith is a lawyer and author. He is the founder of lawyersmack.com, the leading private community for lawyers. He also has a blue check on Twitter which means he's officially important/obnoxious. Lawyers are Salespeople: Finders, Minders, and Grinders Lawyer-to-Lawyer Sales Being yourself and authentic online Boosting your transparency online to appeal to younger clients. Don't hide behind a username (or your business suit) and just be yourself. Do not be afraid to take a stance on issues related to your practice area or the law.  Find your audience by identifying the people you don't want to work with. Create content in your own voice. Connecting with other lawyers: Being vulnerable with other lawyers to connect over job difficulties. Supporting other lawyers through difficult times. Where are lawyers online? LawyerSmack Reddit: