Patricia: Marketing Planning

We work with Patricia who is a trusts and estates lawyer on her individual marketing planning.

As a young lawyer, Patricia joined a large-ish corporate defense firm (of about 125 attorneys)
immediately out of law school and soon found her passion for working with clients to help them with often difficult estates planning decisions and protecting their end-of-life wishes.

When Patricia was assured early on from her practice area leader that she was not expected to develop new business, she focused on learning as much as possible about the expanding estates and elder law practice and delivering superior client service and work product.

Fast forward a few years. As the legal profession is undergoing a dramatic paradigm shift and firm management is analyzing firm financials as never before, Patricia found herself in a bit of an untenable situation. She had no clients of her own, had not concentrated up to this point on building a network which could refer work to her, and didn’t know where to begin.

Enter KLA Marketing Associates. We helped Patricia develop a marketing plan to evaluate her current workload and create action steps to increase the number of new matters from existing client work she was already handling. We identified specific activities in which Patricia could engage to build and grow a referral network and to establish herself as an expert in her area of law.

As Patricia began to establish her reputation, she was invited to speak at area business and community groups which led to some surprising public relations opportunities. When firm management learned of her new business development efforts, they began to view her in a different light as a business developer and good things began to happen for her within the firm.

She worked with our public relations team to evaluate and measure the results of her activities. We tweaked a few things, added others, and reduced the amount of time Patricia spent on activities which proved not to be effective.

Patricia is developing a marketing mindset and helpful spirit which enables her to recognize business development opportunities that once she would have missed. Though Patricia is pleased with originating a couple of new matters, she understands that the business development process is an ongoing one for as long as she is in private practice and requires a certain level of discipline and consistent follow through.

Through this marketing planning exercise, Patricia finds a renewed sense of commitment to her profession and professional empowerment she has not known before.