Making 2016 the Best Year of Your Law Practice

2015 is out and 2016 is in…does your firm have what it takes to make 2016 the best year of your law practice?

Most of us are reflecting on what we accomplished compared to what we had hoped. What will you tackle next time around? How will you brave the storms? If you’re thriving, how do you maintain momentum? If you’re struggling, how do you build a reliable foundation?

Headlines can discourage.

“Law Firm Suddenly Shuts Down, Leaving Nearly 100 Jobless”

“Struggling Firm Will Close Its Doors By Year’s End, Leave Its Lawyers Jobless”

We cannot linger on news that arouses fear. We have a choice today. We can move through 2016 with fear as our guide, making decisions based on loss. Or we can lean into the entire year and be guided by carefully weighed possibilities, creating opportunities for ourselves and others.

How to Build Your Future through Diversification

At the recent Mass Torts Made Perfect conference in Las Vegas, one of our founding partners, Edward Lake, delivered a presentation titled “Diversify, Diversify, Diversify.”

You can download the slides here.

There are many ways to diversify a practice. Mr. Lake highlighted four essential categories: (1) acquisition of leads/cases, (2) the types of cases in your inventory, (3) whether to litigate or involve co-counsel, and (4) how you follow up on prospects and clients.

The bottom line was this: to thrive during the ups and downs of the marketplace, your firm must diversify, diversify, diversify.

Do you rely so heavily on certain elements of your firms’ processes that, if they disappeared, you could not continue without a sense of doom?

Here’s an example of diversification: If 90% of your advertising is on TV, you might want to diversify your case sources.

Another example is inventory. Are you concentrated on a niche market under threat of legislation that could deeply impact your profits? Can you diversify your case load so that if one practice area begins to run dry, you can tap another for good revenue?

Do you leverage co-counsel? Many firms don’t. They want to keep everything in house. That works okay for many firms, but it will strap you to your litigation. Your firm can most likely leverage co-counsel to add stability to your future.

Finally, examining your follow-up processes can increase your margins. How often are you calling? When are you calling? Are you using different forms of media? Simple changes can increase sign-up rates by 5 to 10%, which for many firms means hundreds of thousands of dollars in new profits.

3 Ways to Invest In Your Future

• First, invest in yourself.

This could mean seeking out a coach for your personal life or joining organizations like the National Trial Lawyers, the American Association for Justice, or practice-specific organizations like PILMMA, NOSSCR, and MTMP.

• Second, invest in your business.

This is the area on all our minds as business owners. We want to set up for a bigger, brighter future. What projects can we take on in 2016 to provide greater intrigue and pride? How can we protect the future of our employees?

• Third, invest in your portfolio.

Some people like to micromanage their portfolio, and others like a more hands-off approach. Whatever your style, a licensed attorney can invest in mass tort litigation for a participation fee.

• Investing for an Attorney Participation Fee

Only licensed attorneys are eligible to co-counsel. The individual or firm can allocate money to invest in litigation. Here at Gacovino Lake we co-counsel with dozens of firms across the country in many different capacities, including investment.

Mass torts is a high-risk, high-reward industry. Many attorneys see nothing but high reward in it and are a little too eager to get in on the action.

The fact is that mass tort marketing and litigation is expensive. You get paid two to seven years down the road, depending on the type of litigation and when you get in. Mass tort marketing can be frustrating too. Signing cases takes enormous persistence. Dealing with medical records can be a great burden. And a case that looks promising one day can seem dismal the next.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve developed and refined methodical systems, evaluating them every day, because we deal with tens of thousands of clients and we have to insist on a well-oiled system that meets our clients’ needs.

Many attorneys are now investing in mass torts for the procurement process and then receiving a sizeable participation fee in accordance with ethical guidelines. This diversifies their personal portfolio and their business at the same time.

Here’s how attorneys Ken Hardison and Christopher Bragoli describe it:

“Where do I start?”

Any new investment should be preceded by due diligence. We have numerous cases and articles that will help you understand mass torts and decide what types of cases to invest in.

Sooner or later you’ll ask one of our representatives to help you walk through the process so you can decide whether this kind of diversification makes sense for your firm.

If you have any interest at all, pick up the phone and call us now. Our business development team helps lawyers around the U.S. more quickly understand the process and how to decide what cases to invest in.

Let us boil it down for you.

We know this industry.
We work with attorneys every day.
We can help you decide if investing in mass torts is for you.

Call today at (877) 785-5800.

You can also fill out the form below and one of our team members will contact you.