Legal Management Tips: 5 Areas Where Lawyers Should Get Help Now

Back in May, we got the chance to speak with Dina Eisenberg— a former prosecutor who now runs a delegation & automation consulting/training firm —as part of our Let’s Talk Legal Marketing series. One of the things that really stuck out about our conversation with Eisenberg was her emphasis on the power of delegation. She reminded us in the piece that “just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you should.”

Why Should Lawyers Delegate?

For those tasked with both managing a law office and actually practicing law at the same time, it can be quite easy to become overwhelmed. Putting your all into case work can be challenging enough on its own. Tack on additional duties like marketing, social media promotion, content creation, administrative assignments, and phone answering, and your daily docket becomes simply overloaded. “Lawyers stress constantly and don’t earn as much because of overwork and fatigue,” says Eisenberg.

Trying to manage a law office without some kind of outside assistance is an almost impossible balance. Eisenberg’s new business, Dina’s Rolodex, aims to educate attorneys about the benefits of delegation and put them in touch with business professionals who can help them better manage their office on a day-to-day basis.

For all of the overwhelmed, stressed out, and exhausted attorneys reading this blog post, it’s time to take a step back and realize you don’t have to go about managing our law practice alone.

Check out Dina Eisenberg’s takes on five great places for lawyers to begin reaching out for help.

Marketing Your Firm

Lawyers need to be active in advertising and getting the word out about their firm, but shouldn’t dive into today’s complex online legal marketing world without some proper guidance.

Dina’s take: “Lawyers have so many options for marketing that it can be confusing. Your first step should be to work with a market research firm to help you identify and understand who your ideal best client is and why they want to work with you. Most legal marketing takes a shotgun approach that expects the reader to know which practice area is best? Ridiculous! Use a neutral 3rd party to interview your best clients, the ones who inspire you to do your best work and who appreciate and pay you, about why they selected your firm. Learn about their concerns and the language your clients use to describe their legal problem. Ask what social platforms they frequent. Once you have that raw data, seek out a writer or copywriter to transform it into copy that resonates with the people you want to hire you.”

Social Media Posting

Having a strong social media presence is an absolute must for law firms these days. But all too often, lawyers attempt to take on social media posting themselves, fail to see any immediate results, and just about give up on the process.

Dina’s take: “83% of legal consumer search Google for lawyer recommendations. They are looking at your profiles and social media. So, you want to keep things updated, accurate and fresh. Look for a social media manager on sites like Upwork to take over your social. A good social media manager can help you with the 3 phases of social media: curation, production, and promotion. Most lawyers make the mistake of trying to do the curation because they want the content to be in 'their voice'. The trouble with that is you get behind on curating content that delays production and promotion. You'll be paying your help to wait for you. Instead, create a Project Legend, the story of how your firm does social and where, so you only have to explain once to get great content that sounds like you.”

Creating Visual Content

Much like social media, the concept of using videos and graphics for online platforms, offer lawyers a lot of promise in garnering online attention for their firm. But, actually creating high quality and professional looking videos and graphics can be difficult and time consuming work.

Dina’s take: “Visual content is all the rage in marketing now. Video converts better than any other media. Graphics must be eye-catching yet functional. A lawyer should turn to graphic designers and video professionals to create content that attracts clients. For instance, changing your social media covers is a simple and fast way of giving your audience fresh content or information about you. Change your Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram covers with the seasons or to announce the firm news. Freelancers on Fiverr offer covers and cover bundles starting at $25. One huge mistake I see lawyers make is using tools like Canva and Picmonkey to craft their own graphics. Such a waste of billable time! Unless you went to school to be a designer first, it's very likely that what you produce won't be as nice as something an experienced graphic artist could do in half the time for way less money.”

Administrative Tasks

The daily life of a solo or small firm attorney unfortunately often includes doing a lot of receptionist or office assistant type tasks. With limited staff to lean on, these attorneys are forced to dedicate large portions of their day to performing tedious administrative duties, delaying the completion of actual case work that could be making them more money.

Dina’s take: “Lawyers should delegate those administrative tasks as soon as possible. While it seems virtuous to do all the data entry or follow up calls yourself, it is actually a very poor use of your time. There are excellent virtual assistants on sites like Upwork or Time etc who will take over the grunt work for you.”

Phone Answering

A 2017 report showed that resuming work after being interrupted by an unrelated task, such as a phone call from a client, can take an average of 23 minutes. Not only will fielding calls to your office eat away large chunks of your work day, they’ll often provide you with unnecessary stress and aggravation. As an attorney you simply do not have enough time to be your own receptionist. Legal phone calls can be absolute day killers.

Dina’s take: “Phone answering is one of the best things to delegate for a solo or small firm lawyer. By using a professional phone answering service, you know that you are putting your firm in the hands of dedicated professionals who are well-trained and trustworthy. You can expect more than simple phone answering.”

Related: Hear from more attorneys about how an answering service can help improve your firm.

Interested in Dina’s Rolodex? Eisenberg breaks down her new service below:

“Dina's Rolodex is an on-demand resource library for professionals (lawyers, accountants) and entrepreneurs to find hand-picked delegation resources and effective training. This library enables lawyers to get more done without burning out, wasting time learning things they'll never use again or getting stuck in decision-fatigue. The step-by-step Outsourcing Plans tell you exactly what information you need and the process for finding the right VA and managing the gig well without costly mistakes. Then, we take it one step further and 'open our kimono' to share the names and contact information of freelancers who we deem professionals. Clients rave about getting things done faster and better than if they had done it themselves.”

For more information visit: https://www.outsourceeasier.com/