From: Jeffrey Sussman, Inc.
Marketing Public Relations
249 East 48 Street
New York, NY 10017
For: Jeffrey Sussman, Inc.
Contact: Jeffrey Sussman
212-421-4475
HOW TO MARKET AND PROMOTE YOUR LAW PRACTICE
By Jeffrey Sussman
Every lawyer wants to attract new clients and increase revenues. They may try a variety of tactics, but the results often fall short of expectations. What to do?
To attract new clients, one must be positioned as a leading expert. No one wants to retain the services of mediocrities. One begins to be perceived as an expert by publishing bylined articles, being the subject of press releases and of direct mail solicitations, and by putting on seminars and webinars. One’s years of accomplishment, skills at achieving results, and creativity in overcoming obstacles can all be highlighted and, where possible, made the subject of valuable media stories.
Here’s a concrete example of what I did for one of my clients, a nationally well known labor relations lawyer. When he originally contacted me, he represented numerous small businesses such as auto dealers, restaurants, and nursing homes. He wanted to represent Fortune 1000 companies. I was able to get him a major story in The Wall Street Journal. We obtained reprints of that story, and I wrote a covering letter. Both pieces were mailed to presidents, CEOs, and senior HR executives at the 20,000 largest companies in the United States. The covering letter invited the recipients to contact my client with any questions they might have. As a result, he had numerous conversations with several companies and eventually got three of those companies as clients, and each paid a substantial retainer. As new labor issues popped up, I continued to get him coverage in major media, such as national television news programs and major business and trade magazines. In addition, I regularly wrote articles that appeared under his byline on important labor relations topics. All articles and news stories were reprinted and regularly mailed to prospective clients. In addition, we put on a series on seminars in the spring and fall. I wrote ads and brochure copy for those seminars, and he attracted many new clients from those who attended. Not only did he conduct his own seminars, but I put together seminars for him that were sponsored by major trade magazines in a wide variety of industries. As a result of my efforts, he not only enlisted a large number of major corporate clients, but he also became well known as one of the foremost labor relations lawyers in the United States.
Here’s another example. A small boutique law firm of litigators had won a couple of major legal actions. The awards were substantial, and the firm wanted to attract more clients based upon its recent successes. We discussed their bringing a class action law suit on behalf of victims of corporate negligence. The subject was timely and provocative. After they were appointed attorneys for the class, I went to an editor at The New York Times and explained who the victims were and why the story was important. He assigned two reporters to cover it, and their story appeared on page one of The Metro Section. As a result, various interested parties contacted my client and asked that they be represented by the firm. The principals of the law firm had become leading authorities on a particular kind of negligence and so were frequently called upon by the media for commentary.
I have also represented numerous litigators for whom I have been able to generate media publicity to help them reach favorable settlements with their adversaries. No company, after all, wants to be held up to ridicule in the media, especially if the likelihood is that they will lose their case in a court of law. The court of public opinion can bring in implicit guilty verdicts that require years of good will to erase.
In today’s hot real estate market, many lawyers want to make a name for themselves and carve out a niche of specialization so that landlords, building management companies, and buyers and sellers of real property will turn to them to handle all of their legal work. One way to focus the attention of potential clients is to write series of articles for prominent real estate publications. I have written or helped write countless articles for lawyers, under their bylines, which have been published in various real estate publications. Upon publication, I obtained reprints and mailed them, with covering letters, to targets of opportunity. Many such endeavors have resulted in increased business.
Whether one uses a public relations – marketing professional, or takes advantage of one’s own creativity, one should develop a strategic PR/marketing plan that will be effective in producing results. Not to do so means that one will be an “also ran.” And if you’re not a triple-crown contender, you will run with the pack, not ahead of it.
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Jeffrey Sussman is president of Jeffrey Sussman, Inc. a marketing public relations firm in New York City. He is the author of the best-selling book, POWER PROMOTING: How To Market Your Business to the Top! His website is www.powerpublicity.com, his e-mail is marketingpro@aol.com and his telephone is 212-421-4475.
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