Before and After Using Answering Legal: A Case Study on the Law Office of K. Lawson Wellington

By popular demand, we at Answering Legal have decided to study one of the accounts of a long time customer, friend, and successful businessman and defense attorney, K. Lawson Wellington. Mr. Wellington has been a long time advocate on behalf of Answering Legal, largely because of the drastic effect we have been able to create for his firm.

We’re going to break down the impact Answering Legal has had on Mr. Wellington’s law firm, and even tell you in his words exactly why Answering Legal is so important to him.

K. Lawson Wellington Before Using Answering Legal

For background, Mr. Wellington is a one man operation; running a highly revered criminal defense, personal injury, and DUI defense firm in the heart of Washington D.C. When we first got in touch with Lawson, he was working entirely off of his cell phone, fielding all of his calls himself, and letting the ones he could not answer go to his voicemail. Being that he is a popular choice for individuals needing a defense attorney in D.C., Lawson spent a majority of his time meeting with his clients, going over defense strategies, and appearing in court!

Trying Answering Legal

To analyze the following data, we will explain that before having Answering Legal, K. Lawson Wellington only picked up the calls that he could, so the rest of his calls would go to voicemail. Mr. Wellington uses our rollover call forwarding method with Answering Legal, meaning he always has the opportunity to answer his call first, before it comes to us at Answering Legal. After using Answering Legal for only 10 days, he used 100 minutes of legal intake receptionist time. Being that Mr. Wellington’s average call time was approximately 1.45 minutes in length, this amounts to roughly 207 calls per month that were not being answered!

Mr. Wellington uses our rollover call forwarding method with Answering Legal, meaning he always has the opportunity to answer his call first, before it comes to us at Answering Legal.

After using Answering Legal for only 10 days, he used 100 minutes of legal intake receptionist time.

Early Results From Having a Live Person Answer Lawson’s Phones: Analyzing The 10 Day Free Trial

Being that Mr. Wellington’s new client caller percentage was approximately 15% during his free trial, he may have been missing over 30 new client callers per month! Now, because these calls weren’t actually being picked up before Answering Legal took over the overflow of Lawson’s calls, these are only assumptions, so let’s go over the hard data we pulled from Mr. Lawson’s account:

Let’s Discover the Hard Numbers On Mr. Wellington’s Usage

Over a 3 month period, Mr. Wellington received 310 phone calls for a duration of 430 minutes.

• 9/1 - 9/30: 80 calls; 110 minutes
• 10/1/ - 10/31: 148 calls; 241 minutes
• 11/1 - 11/30: 82 calls; 79 minutes

Callers identifying themselves as new clients numbered 65.

• 9/1 - 9/30: 8 new clients
• 10/1 - 10/31: 39 new clients
• 11/1 - 11/30: 18 new clients

Out of 310 phone calls, 65 callers were potential new clients. That’s almost 21% of the calls that Mr. Wellington didn’t answer! By sending these calls to voicemail, Mr. Wellington may not have gotten any of these 65 callers to hire him. Fortunately, Answering Legal handled those calls, performed the legal intakes, and either patched the calls to Lawson or sent him the messages so that he could call these potential clients back as soon as possible.

*It should also be noted that as we write this report, the day is December 14th, 2017, and Mr. Wellington has already had 17 new client callers reach the answering service.*

Interviewing K. Lawson Wellington

We wanted to hear about Mr. Wellington’s experience with Answering Legal, since the numbers can only tell some part of the whole story. Here’s what he had to say:

“How difficult was it to be a one man operation before using Answering Legal and how has your daily work life improved?”

“What I’ll say is this: Answering Legal is a vast improvement in terms of logistics and in terms of responding to clients. Callers used to be shocked that I was answering my own phone, because they didn’t expect the attorney to answer the phone right away. Now, when Answering Legal takes the calls and transfers them over to me, the new clients are much more eager to come in and speak with me about their case, and much more eager to hire me to represent them. Looking back, I should have gone this route (Answering Legal) much earlier.”

“Have you noticed an increase in new leads? In new customers?”

“I’ve noticed that potential client is more inclined to sign up with me. As I said before, there is a client base that, when they call, was perhaps taken aback because they reached the attorney right away. They wanted a buffer between the attorney and themselves. Once they agree to hire you they want to speak to you all the time, but in the beginning they are baffled why the attorney answers his own phone.”

“It has made me more at ease, as well, because I now know that these potential new clients are going to speak to someone when I’m in court, on the other line, or with a client. I can take two minutes to send them a text message or an email letting them know when I will be calling them back”

We then asked Mr. Wellington if he had done anything differently in the month of October, because of his enormous spike in new customer calls. His response was laughter, followed by:

“I laugh only because I know that October was a very good month, but I did nothing differently. My colleague said to me, ‘the Google gods have smiled on you.’” What this shows is that the typical law firm experiences extreme fluctuations, and without having the proper systems in place, they won’t be able to cash in on their good fortune! Thankfully, because he has Answering Legal behind him, Mr. Wellington was able to keep the month of October in the win column.

Mr. Wellington and I laughed because this previously would not have been possible without Answering Legal. A large portion of these callers would not have left a voicemail, and would simply have called one of his competitors for help who had someone answer the phone as soon as they called. Instead, Mr. Wellington received patched calls and messages for all 39 new clients in October.

“Have you received any comments on your answering service?”

“Let me tell you how good you guys are. My daughter, who called me, and was put through to my cell phone by one of your receptionists said, ‘Ooh Daddy, who is that?’ My colleague, who is a very critical person, not begrudgingly, is even impressed with the service. And my partner of 20 years also compliments the service regularly.”

Bringing It All Together:

K. Lawson Wellington is no longer a one-man operation, as he has the full power of Answering Legal at his helm whenever he needs. He now has the luxury of not worrying about the hundreds of calls he’s receiving every month that were going unanswered! He also is picking up new clients, providing better customer service to his existing clients, and is making more money without having to hire additional on-site help.

If you identify with K. Lawson’s story before he hired Answering Legal, consider giving our 24/7 live answering service a try! You’d be surprised how many calls you’re missing, as we normally see our new customers obtaining 20% more new customer leads than they had been seeing without Answering Legal!

After using Answering legal, Mr. Wellington’s existing clients are kept happy, new clients get the help they both need and deserve, and K. Lawson continues to help defend the District of Columbia with diligence, honesty, and the sharp intellect that has carried his career to extreme popularity.

It is with extreme gratitude that we humbly recognize K. Lawson Wellington, and thank him for his participation in this case study.