How to Build a Large, Influential Law Firm (Part #6)
My Insatiable Ego Almost Drove Us Off a Cliff
This series lifts the kimono and exposes the unvarnished details on how we built Sterling Law from scratch to be the largest, most influential family law firm in Wisconsin in less than 3 years.
I hope our story and the lessons help you build your practice or business.
Strong Client Interest from the Start
On launch day, June 23, 2014, our phones started ringing and have never stopped.
We had spent eight months of continuous work on our website before launching the firm. Now, our focused efforts on building the website paid off — and continue to do so.
We knew our online presence was the key to our success in attracting clients. So we went “all-in” to build our site deep and fundamentally sound from the beginning.
Our first attorney, Dan Exner, also brought around a dozen clients with him from his previous firm. Within two months he had a full case load.
Explosive Firm Growth = My Ballooning, Destructive Ego
Then we began to add attorneys at a growth rate of about one attorney every two months. By the end of the first 18 months of our existence, we had 9 attorneys on our team.
My ego was feeling great, and I thought we were a great firm—or at least on our way to becoming one. I am not positive that we were the fastest growing firm in Wisconsin, but I was pretty sure we were in the conversation.
Like most instances in my life, my ego exuberance was woefully misplaced, as we shall see below.
We initially started with family law, which I understood well. It was my primary practice area. I learned to practice from my first lawyer-mentor, Eric Zaeske.
Also, Dan’s experience was strictly in family law. So, family law was a natural starting point.
As we grew with new clients and attorneys, we added practice areas. First, it was criminal law. Then we added probate, estate planning, and personal injury.
Each new attorney seemed to bring another skill set and opportunity to add practice areas to our firm.
Our Greatest Strength Almost Choked Us to Death
We were and are very strong at getting the online attention of potential clients. My business partner, Tony Karls, is a digital marketing genius. He designed and executed our marketing strategy.
I pushed him as hard as I could to generate more and more client interest.
He delivered.
As all the new clients came into our firm, Tony expressed reservations with our take all clients approach. He felt that we should focus on one practice area.
He could sense before I did that we were headed for a cliff.
I considered his suggestions for about two seconds. Somewhere deep in the left ventricle of my heart, I knew his warnings were right.
But, candidly, my ego and emotion blinded me. I wanted so badly to build the biggest firm in the state and prove all the naysayers wrong.
So, I pushed us to keep doing more and growing bigger.
Then, the cracks started to appear. The firm started to break down. My ego was driving us toward a hopeless disaster.
Failing in the Quality of Our Service
While we were definitely getting bigger, we were not getting better.
The bigger we got, the worse we performed.
Law firms are in the business of serving clients. And frankly, we weren’t good at that. Each week seemed to bring a new client complaint. Our service quality sucked.
To make matters worse, we seemed to have a bar complaint against one of our lawyers every couple months. That is the kiss of death for lawyers.
We dread bar complaints, even if they are unwarranted. They are distracting at best and can destroy a career at worst.
Some of the complaints against our lawyers were valid. That was stressful at the highest degree and was an existential threat to the firm.
To better understand our client problems, we implemented the Net Promoter Score (NPS) feedback system. The NPS process is to ask clients one question: “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our service to a friend?”
If the client answers “9 or 10,” they are a promoter. If they answer “7 or 8,” they are neutral. If they answer “6” or below, they are a detractor to the business.
The average law firm is in the low 40s. We were in the low 20s.
We sucked. No doubt.
Our Takeaways from the First 18 Months of Growth:
1) Build a system of checks and balances for your ego. Every growing, impactful business needs a driver–someone who sets high expectations for the team. Effective drivers have strong egos. There is nothing “wrong” with a strong ego. However, there is something really wrong with an unrestrained strong ego. Business drivers need self-awareness to surround themselves with truth-tellers. Then, they must have the humility to listen.
2) Your super power can kill you. Our greatest strength– the ability to get the attention of potential clients, en masse, nearly destroyed us. Had this happened, it would have been my fault, of course. I was greedy for more clients. I overused our super power by demanding that we accept more business than our competence allowed.
3) Say NO way more often than you say YES. This is all about focus, focus, focus. Less is more. Greed is a killer.
An interviewer once asked Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to write down the one word that most described why they were successful. They both wrote down the same one word–“FOCUS.”
4) Quality service is not built fast. Excellent service teams are built one person at a time. I have not discovered a faster way to do this. Sure, a great set of processes is essential. Effective recruiting is a must. But, being great at service demands patience.