Consultant Touts 6 Systems Lawyers Need to Build a Dream Practice #ABAChicago
Want to build a moneymaking, dream law business that clients love while working part time? Escape the outdated business model that has lawyers working too many hours for too little? Make clients out of nearly everyone who comes into the office for a consult?
Then you need a system—or six, says Alexis Martin Neely, a Los Angeles-area lawyer turned entrepreneur and relentless self-promoter.
Neely’s six recommended systems are aimed at (1) attracting, (2) engaging, (3) serving and (4) retaining clients, then (5) keeping a lawyer’s staff accountable and (6) managing the lawyer’s business.
Neely, who presented a program Saturday at the ABA Annual Meeting, maintains that these six systems transformed her career. The program was co-sponsored by the ABA’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division and the Section of Family Law.
Neely left a big Los Angeles firm after three years of practice to start her own firm. Neely grew that firm into a purported million-dollar-a-year business in only three years. She has since sold a majority stake in her firm to focus on her existing clients and spend more time teaching her business and law practice management techniques to other lawyers.
At her session, Neely detailed her transformation from disillusioned big-firm lawyer to struggling solo practitioner, then finally to successful businesswoman, author, motivational speaker and cable TV personality.
When Neely first decided to become a lawyer, she says, she wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. But she quickly learned that the hourly billing model of the traditional lawyer didn’t match up with her dream of creating a personal relationship with clients.
So she set out on her own and struggled to bring in clients and pay the bills. In the midst of her struggle, it dawned on her that everything about the traditional business model of the small-firm lawyer was broken.
That’s when she began building a new model—one she crafted together from other types of businesses. It’s a model that she says allows her to have a lifelong personal relationship with her clients, make a good living and not kill herself doing it.
On her site, Alexis Martin Neely’s Law Business Revolution, Neely promotes herself as “the commander in chief of the law business revolution.”
Neely’s systems-based, membership-driven, business model leaves little to chance. The model gets down to the nitty-gritty of who should answer the phone and what he or she should say, depending on the nature of the call. She also has a system for keeping the staff on their toes and one for managing the books.
More on the Annual Meeting ‘09 here:
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ABA Journal’s Annual Meeting coverage at this link.
Flickr Slideshow: ABA Journal snapshots from Annual Meeting.
Interactive updates on the Annual Meeting from ABA Media Relations at ABANow.org.
