3 Words That Explain Why Many Attorneys Struggle

A lot of attorneys are struggling right now.

Struggling to get enough phone calls. Struggling to attract potentials who have a decent case and are willing to invest in their legal matter. Struggling to attract the kind of fees they need to live the lifestyle they rightly deserve.

Not all, though.

Some attorneys are thriving right now.

Not only are they getting through this COVID-19 pandemic unscathed, they are making it their opportunity. They are coming out of it stronger.

Stronger, as in:

• They now receive more calls, LiveChats, and email inquiries (in some cases, more than their team can realistically handle)…
• Potentials come to them pre-sold on retaining them, before they even get on the phone (so they get to qualify rather than having to sell)…
• Commanding higher fees (some are now, de facto, among the most expensive solos and small firms in their metro/practice area)…
• A personal brand that’s so powerful, theirs is often the first name to immediately come to mind when someone needs a lawyer…
• Taking on more staff (even when others are letting go).

What do they have that most other attorneys don’t?

Why aren’t they struggling?

I shared the reason in a previous post. It was about the movie Gladiator, and the important lesson it holds for solo attorneys and small firms who want to use this pandemic to take their law practice to the next level.

Here’s a quick summary:

“A hero will rise.”

That’s the tagline of the Gladiator movie.

Near the beginning, Maximus is captured by slave traders and forced to fight in the arena. He lost his status as Rome’s greatest general. He’s now “just a gladiator”. A piece of meat to be butchered for the mob’s entertainment. But around halfway through the movie, he becomes “the Gladiator”. An icon. A hero. And the mob starts rooting for him, and puts him on a pedestal.

Even to the point where Lucilla, the Emperor’s sister, remarks to Maximus: “Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.”

Of course, Gladiator is just a movie.

A solid movie. But just a movie nonetheless.

However, it illustrates how a shift in positioning can quickly, completely, and dramatically change your fortunes. How it can be the making of you.

The reason so many attorneys are struggling right now:

Because they are positioned as “just another attorney”. For better or for worse, whether fair or undeserved, regardless of their actual merit and seniority as an attorney. This is how the market perceives them.

It’s how potentials who call perceive them.

And it’s how referral partners perceive them.

As “just another attorney”.

Those attorneys I mentioned above — they found a way to shift this perception and elevate their positioning. In short, if you’ll excuse the corny metaphor, they found a way to become “THE Gladiator of lawyers”.

Over the coming days, I’ll show you how they did it.

And how you can do the same.

There are three specific things you need to have in place. I call them the three pillars of “hero” positioning. One of them is a change in thinking. One of them is a physical asset. And the other is a result of leveraging that asset.

We’ll talk about the first one tomorrow.

For now, let me ask you a simple question:

How would your practice be different — if potentials, clients, and referral partners put you on a pedestal, and if your personal brand was so powerful, every man, woman, and legal person wanted you representing them or taking care of their legal matter (even if it’s nothing to do with your practice area)?

Tracy Merda

Tracy Merda is the Senior Project Manager of Jacobs & Whitehall Publishing, a publishing house that helps respected professionals who are too busy to write a book the “traditional” way author their own book, ethically, in just 2-3 hours using a proprietary interview method. Since 2018, Tracy has helped 70+ attorneys, dentists, physicians, consultants, engineers, and other professionals become published authors.