5 Growth Hacks for Small Law Firms
Tips from Neda Shapourian, partner at Smith Shapourian & Mignano.
One of our favorite things at HyperDraft is interacting with attorneys and law firm owners. We are constantly impressed by the innovative strategies attorneys use to grow their practices. We loved chatting with Neda Smith Shapourian, a partner at Smith Shapourian & Mignano (SSM), on our ongoing Fishbowl LIVE series.
SSM is a woman- and minority- owned law firm in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and Oakland that uses innovative technologies to provide high-touch service to venture capital funds and technology companies During our conversation, Neda walked us through SSM’s continued growth including a few growth hacks.
In case you missed it, here are 5 growth hacks for small law firms.
- Ask for Help
Since law school does not teach attorneys how to run a law firm, being able to ask for help is a key skill for small firm owners. Neda said that she and her partners interviewed many attorneys before they made the jump to starting their own firm and that they have found immense value from hiring a business coach.
“We solicited the help of a business coach who’s still helping us to this day on issues, which I think has been instrumental in keeping things smooth and kosher …. We worked with our coach in developing our firm’s values to implement in our practice. It’s hard to set aside time to think about what’s important to you and what you want your mission statement and values to be, so you have to set aside time and invest in the process.”
2. Don’t Take Every Client
It’s tempting to take on any client that comes your way. However, SSM found that investing in systems that attract and retain good clients is the key to using resources effectively to facilitate growth. Neda said that while building SSM, she and her partners invested a lot of time in establishing an intake process that worked for them, and continue to assess how they can better the process.
“We’ve gotten very good at sussing out red flags at intake and, and being able to identify, ‘okay, this this person sounds like they might be unreasonably demanding or have certain expectations that we know that we can’t meet’ and just passing them to a colleague that we know can deal with it.”
3. Require a Retainer
Neda explained that the toughest but most important lesson the firm learned early on was to always collect a retainer, even if it was small, before beginning representation.
“I think the most important lesson we learned as a firm early on was to take a retainer upfront. We learned the hard lesson that sometimes clients skip out on their bill. We very quickly implemented a small retainer policy. We are not willing to take the risk of someone skipping out on their bill so our sell to our clients is ‘sure you could go get your fees deferred, but they’re going to end up being significantly more than what you will pay upfront to hire us.’ That has worked well for us.”
4. Have a Personal Life
SSM is committed to providing high-touch client service while maintaining work-life balance for their attorneys. While this combination can be difficult for some attorneys to achieve, Neda explained that SSM has found that it is possible and has been key to the firm’s growth. What’s the secret? Clear expectation setting and relating to clients on a personal level outside of the law.
“We do a lot of work in setting expectations with our clients, which I think sets the tone all around for the work. We attract clients who understand us as whole humans, not just lawyers at their beck and call. Sometimes that means some very high paying clients will not be the right fit for our firm. But we’ve discovered that there are plenty of folks who want to work with us who enjoy working with us, who are respectful of our demands outside of work, and are careful to sort of give us lead time on projects.”
5. Learn from Non-Legal Businesses
The legal industry is not the most innovative. Looking to other types of businesses for inspiration for effective systems and technologies can yield results for small firms. Neda mentioned multiple times the role that technology has played in the growth of SSM, including legal tech and technologies not commonly used by the legal industry.
“I have a lot of friends who do things outside of the law and they seem to be running their teams a bit more efficiently. So I’m like ‘what do you guys do over there? Give me some tips.’ And we’ve implemented a few that we have come across and have found value … We try to be ahead of the curve. We made the choice to be a remote firm in 2016. I remember early on we were going to some networking events and meeting other small firm attorneys and they were horrified. But we committed to that year and it just worked. When the pandemic happened, we were ready because we decided to be creative and do what works for us, not just follow what everyone else was doing.”
This article is brought to you by HyperDraft. Our team of lawyers and engineers have developed simple, powerful automation solutions for law firms and legal departments.
Curious as to what HyperDraft can do for you? Click here to book a demo and learn more.
