Law Firm Growth Management
Whether you employ several lawyers and paralegals or run a one-person show, operating a law firm as a sustainable business can be complex, multi-faceted, and often stressful. Things can get even more complicated if the time comes to expand your firm’s share of an increasingly competitive market for legal services.
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to guarantee your firm’s short-term and long-term success, there are several best practices and priorities that you should keep in mind during every stage of the law firm growth management process. Our marketing team can help you understand the importance of delegation, know what roadblocks to avoid and how to navigate them, and have a clear brand identity that you leverage effectively through a comprehensive business and marketing plan.
Organizational Stability Should Always Come First
Few legal professionals achieve any level of success without possessing a strong work ethic and the ability to apply it judiciously. The idea of being a “self-made” businessperson is certainly a common and enduring image in the United States. However, no man or woman is an island. No business—especially a law firm trying to grow sustainably—succeeds for very long if its owner cannot identify what tasks they should assign to qualified employees.
Disorganization and inefficiency stemming from a failure to delegate effectively are common roadblocks when trying to grow a law firm. As a law firm grows, it is impossible for anyone—no matter how talented or hardworking—to handle every aspect of multiple cases themselves. Designing a detailed workflow that takes full advantage of firm employees’ various talents and capabilities is essential to keeping things on track as more clients come in.
Avoiding Common Obstacles to Sustainable Growth
Of course, there are various ways that law firm growth can become sidetracked, delayed, or cut short. Other potential issues to keep in mind include the following:
- Setting up systems and company infrastructure that cannot scale well to handle additional clients and cases
- Committing to substantial growth before a firm is ready to handle the increased workload and pressure
- Lacking clear goals that the entire firm can pursue and lines of communication to facilitate that pursuit
- Hiring underqualified employees or ones who are not good organizational fits just to avoid turning down potential business
- Refusing to pivot when necessary in response to new information
Put simply, successfully growing a law firm is a holistic balancing act—if any component is out of balance, the whole business is at risk of collapsing.
Growing a Law Firm with Strong Brand Marketing
Even if your business has a comprehensive plan establishing a functional and adaptable organizational structure, failing to market it appropriately could hurt you. This is a holistic process that can change significantly with the market—buying TV ads or billboard space is not always the best place to focus your advertising dollars, nor should it be your sole marketing strategy, even if it does make sense for your business.
In addition to understanding and establishing clear guiding principles for your brand, it is also crucial to supplement your online presence with search engine optimization and a consistent process for generating, pursuing, and converting leads. Every law firm is unique, and your strategy for helping it grow effectively should be as well.