In this episode, Jim & Tyson interview Talitha Gray Kozlowski, a lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy and is the Co-Founder of Lawclerk.Legal, a firm that helps small firms to elevate the practice of law by engaging talented U.S. freelance lawyers to assist you on an as needed basis. They will go over her business and her new company, built from scratch. Listen as Talitha shares all about this new venture; how to make it possible and how to focus your time and energy so as to improve your life and practice.

Register to MaxLawCon19, June 6 and 7 in St.Louis.

Reminder: Early bird pricing MaxlawCon expiring payment last day of February. After that price going up!

Please subscribe to our Youtube Channel

[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/maximumlawyer/Episode_134.mp3" social_linkedin="true" ]

Topics:

• About Talitha
  • Bankruptcy lawyer in Las Vegas
  • Co-Founder of Lawclerk.Legal
• About Lawclerk Legal and how Talitha got there
  • LawclerkLegal > A marketplace that connects busy attorneys with freelance attorneys
  • Have over one thousand four hundred freelance attorneys/Do written work
  • Developed to:
  • 1)Help low and small firms elevate the practice of law
  • 2)Provide access to specialization, better products for clients at lower costs and all the business side increasing products
  • Started with six offices, and one in DC/Lobbying
  • Legal business broken/Improving the quality of practice of law
  • Nine members broke off and opened small shop in Las Vegas
  • Specializing in distinctive areas of law and better serve clients
  • Missed expertise of additional areas of law and sets of hands
  • Law clerk idea/Small firm taking on bigger cases
  • Access to huge talent of other attorneys
• Moving away from day to day practice of law and growing something else
  • Corporate bankruptcy are unique practice
  • Helping companies re think about their business
  • Three co-founders/Two with same background
  • Many years thinking how businesses can improve and how other attorneys can improve as well
• What partners do to make it work
  • Long time together practice
  • Mutual respect
  • Willingness to advocate for their position
  • Very good communication
• Case > Process for assignment/An Immigration lawyer in St. Louis - Person in Washington facing deportation after having been caught with bag of weed/Someone in Lawclerk research immigration consequences of that conviction
  • As user friendly as possible/Attorney’s time is their most critical resource
  • “To post project need research invocations of a bag of weed in Washington”
  • Setting application period, fee price for project>controlling ultimate cost, initial draft, deadline for final draft, area of law and general description of what has been looked for with no confidential information
  • Hitting post of conflict information/Security site
  • Freelancers application/Selection/Provide information/Signment of confidentiality agreement
  • Time card and product/Payment tendered
• Off the ground: Getting lawyers to want to trust and getting them into system to do work
  • “Markets are delicate and have to balance both sides”
  • Internally testing and marketing
  • Once an  attorney has posted one project they begin to post multiple projects/See value
  • Pool of talented attorneys looking to practice law differently
  • Platform offers freelancers flexibility for unique situations
• Data on how the job posting attorney builds the client for the law clerk like an average of charge percentage wise or dollar wise”
  • Location/Reasonable market value
  • At Lawclerk ⅓ for freelance attorneys, ⅓ for profit and ⅓ for overhead
  • Build out freelancers somewhere towards low end of couple of associates/Own big profit and big value for clients
• A case > A lawyer hiring a law clerk to write a brief/Another law clerk to write opposition/Ready for oral argument of the issue - Other scenarios
  • Critical feedback on briefs to prepare oral arguments
  • Discovery front/Attorneys getting interrogatories from opponent council/Off to client to fill out/Framing up with appropriate objections and responsive to request
  • Good way to get through discovery in a cost effective manner
• Ethic issues/Term clerk
  • Freelance attorneys work in a paraprofessional capacity/Model Rules both 5.3 and 5.4/Can legalize paraprofessionals to provide work as long as under supervision
  • Lawclerk is compliant with all fifty states ethical rules
  • Totally safe on unauthorized practice of law issues/Ability to have incredible specialization
  • Supreme Court > Able to upcharge for the contract paralegal work, for freelance attorney work and contract attorney work as long as dealing services with reasonable market rates
• Interesting success stories
  • Military spouses moving in high frequency
  • Mechanism in finding meaningful employment
• Practicing law in different states
  • Type of work been done
  • Federal practice
  • Finding somebody in one’s jurisdiction
  • Pool of freelance attorneys
• Balance running practice and building side business
  • Scaling practice
  • Plan and schedule

 

Register for the MaxLawCon19! Reminder: Early bird pricing MaxlawCon expiring payment last day of february/After that price going up - Interesting topics and soon coming up Michael Lander on Linkedin

 

Please subscribe to our Youtube Channel

 

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Jim’s hack: Listening to audio from book Marketing Rebellion by Mark Schaefer /Automation/Interaction with client/”Relook at what we are doing in a marketing perspective from a human and recipient approach”

 

Talitha’s hack: “Find what you like to do” “Find what you like in your practice” “Focus your time and energy on that and you will improve your life and practice”

Tyson’s tip: “What are the things I want to remove from my life?”/Removing negative things one at a time will make life easier

 

//

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim & Tyson interview Steven Lefkoff, an attorney that specializes in the Motor Vehicle industry and Fair Business Practices Act. Steven runs his own Law Firm, Lefkoff Law, and he is trying to bring in a new focus and make it his primary business; Small Claims Coaching. Listen as they go through his process and midnset going solo and then starting a new practice area within his law firm.

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/maximumlawyer/Episode_130.mp3" social_linkedin="true" ]

Register to MaxLawCon19, June 6 and 7 in St.Louis.

 

Topics:

• • Steven’s background and reasons going out on his own
    • Introduced to a solo attorney in Law School and interning with him
    • 7 years of experience > reached the growing roof in the firm
    • Discussed going solo with his boss
    • June of 2017 started his own practice
  • The best of running your own firm
    • The Business side
    • Help people while staying within their budget
  • Advice to himself when going solo
    • Take your time and plan
  • The best decision since starting his business
    • The decisions he hasn’t made yet > he is still himself and Ruby receptionists
    • Having fun planning his branding
  • 1st year of practice
    • Automation > documents, emails, follow up
    • A lot of clients came from his previous job
    • Strategy > Growing the firm’s resources
    • Relationship with clients

 

• New Practice Area > Coaching Small Claims Clients

 

• • Lack of counsel in how to present in Court
  • Gap in the market for Civil litigants to represent themselves
  • Tiered system of flat rates > 3 flat rates

 

“A lot of times, it’s actually beneficial for the clients to represent themselves instead of having an attorney there”

 

• • How to get clients
    • Lawyer referrals
    • Lead magnets:
      • eBook, Youtube, Google, educational and information products
  • Developing reputation and relationships with clients and referral partners
    • Working on the process of coaching
  • Scalability > The Market is enormous
  • Figuring out the kinks of the business
  • Having a system in place

 

• Next steps

 

• • Turn meetings from personal meetings to a bit more informal
  • Write how the process works in Magistrate Court
  • Tailor the coaching into materials
• Studying information and education products

 

Register for the MaxLawCon19!

 

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Jim’s hack: A movie: 99 Homes. A recently unemployed single father struggles to get back his foreclosed home by working for the real estate broker who is the source of his frustration.

 

This movie crystalizes what a lot of our clients are going through on a daily basis.

 

Steven’s hack: Slick Deals.People post delas on different products, and you can set alerts for anything you need.

Tyson’s tip: Dan Kennedy’s most recent book: Magnetic Marketing: How To Attract A Flood Of New Customers That Pay, Stay, and Refer, by Dan Kennedy

 

//

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim & Tyson interview Patrick J. Higgins, a Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury and a Litigator Lawyer out of New York who has recently opened his own law firm; The Law Offices of Patrick J. Higgins, PLLC. Listen as they go over this big step after practicing for over 32 years; his mindset, strategy, marketing, challenges and surprises on the way!

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/maximumlawyer/Episode_25.mp3" social_linkedin="true" ]

Register to MaxLawCon19, June 6 and 7 in St.Louis.

Topics:

• About Patrick:
  • Opened his firm in May of 2018
  • Plaintiff Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice lawyer for about 33 years
  • No volume business; 15 or 20 cases
  • A funny story with our friend John Fisher
• Patrick witnessed John Fisher going out on his own
  • “He was ahead of the curb and he was bringing in a lot of cases”
• What changed in 2018 and made Patrick go out on his own
  • “I want to do what I want to do and I have the ability to go out on my own”
• Improvements for his website: http://phigginslaw.com/
• How do he gets his cases:
  • Personal relationships
  • Referral attorneys
  • Referral based marketing
• Content creation
  • Repurposed BAR content
  • Classic and simple questions
• Challenging thing since starting his firm
  • Recognize what he needs to develop as a skill set
  • Work on vision and on strategic goals
  • Books and podcasts
• Good to Great by Jim Collins: “The Flywheel Concept”
• Patrick’s Vision
  • Make X amount of money
  • Serve 15 to 20 clients
  • 3 Legal Services a year
  • Fully automated, top notch website
  • The best manage firm
  • Be in control
• Out on your own with no one to bounce things off of
  • Meetings with people who run their practices
• Advice to himself
  • Developing the client base much earlier
  • Understand what clients understand
  • Chart an independant course
• Surprises going out on his own
  • Less time for legal work
  • 50% of the time working on the business
• One of the most accelerating things about running your own firm is just all the new things you do get to do and learn. GROWTH.

 

SUPER DUPER EARLY BIRD PRICES are still available for The MaxLawCon19

 

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Jim’s hack: When you are working on a brief or any kind of pleading or anything important, right before you are done editing it, when you think you’ve edit it  as much as you can, change the font to a different font and make it bigger. When you read the text again you see things differently.

 

Patrick’s hack: A client communication tip. When you explain something to a new client, ask them to relate back to you what you just told them.

 

Tyson’s tip: Speak to your accountant and reduce your tax bill for next year.

 

//

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Jason Selk. Jason is considered to be one of the top performance coaches in the United States; he trains individuals and teams to develop the mental toughness necessary for high-level success. They will go over the importance of having a performance mindset in your life and your business, and how mental toughness can help you grow your firm.

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/maximumlawyer/Episode_110.mp3" social_linkedin="true" ]

Jason’s Website

 

Are you fighting it out to the very end?

 

The importance of confidence: The perfectionist mindset VS. the performance mindset.

Self confidence is the number one variable for all performers. What that perfectionist mentality does, is it really takes its toll on a person self confidence. If I keep thinking about that error or that missed opportunity, and not focusing also on the things I’ve done well, my confidence is gonna take a beating. We try to train people to develop the performance mentality, that it’s about recognizing what you have done well and relentlessly improving.

 

“Highly successful people NEVER get anything done in one given day, but what they do is, ALWAYS get their most important activities done each and every day.”

 

Plateaus in business

“Plateaus will happen. There will be times where you’re kind of in that phase of doing the work and not seeing the immediate results, but if you stay with it: 30, 60, 90 days, nailing your one most important and usually getting the 3 most important done each day, you are probably gonna find plateaus don’t last very long; that you find ways to keep moving it to the next level.”

 

The mindset of saying no

The first step to saying no is evaluating where your time and energy are going, and in terms or relevance, what’s most important? If right now you are feeling overwhelmed, the next step is to eliminate 10% to 20% of what you are currently doing. The third step, is moving forward. The next time anyone ask you something, before saying yes, identify what will you say no to.

Don’t overload yourself. Prioritize.

 

The book

 

Hacking’s hack: Have a podcast!

 

Jason’s tip: Go back to the 3 most important and 1 must. Identify your 3 most important activities and of that 3 what’s the one most important activity that must get done every day.

 

Tyson’s tip:

1. If you ever had problems downloading and viewing .ZIP files, there’s an app called Browser. The icon is an arrow pointing down.
2. Get the book Organize your team today.

 

//

 

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Karen Caffrey a licensed professional counselor and a lawyer; Karen went from the practice of law to the practice of therapy mainly counseling lawyers. They will go over the importance of wellbeing and health for lawyers, the mindset of wellbeing, and how that wellbeing can be achieved. Also, how therapy works and how it can help your personal and business.

“You can’t be a good lawyer if you are not a healthy lawyer.”

Karen’s web site: http://www.karencaffrey.com/

What does it mean to be healthy?
It’s multifaceted, there’s a physical aspect, a spiritual aspect, a work aspect and a mental and emotional aspect...

Lawyers are reluctant to go to therapy
Because of 2 things: first, stigma; the fear of how are they going to be judged, and the second is fear on confidentiality.

The business of law and psychotherapy
“The nexus between the business of law and psychotherapy Is a lot of the challenges lawyers face in having a good business of law come from psychological reasons.”

“Who we are as people, directly impacts who we are as lawyers and who we are as business owners doing the business of law.”

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: Whenever you can take a day off of the week. Unplug yourself: get away from the phone and the computer, the office.

Karen’s tip: Put your wellbeing on your radar screen and to do this by diaring it. You can dairy it every day, and spend 5 minutes talking about your wellbeing. Prioritize your wellbeing.

Tyson’s tip: Productivity - A website: Activtrak: https://activtrak.com/. It allows you to plug in yourself, your partners and employees, and it shows your productivity level.

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Jay Ruane. They will go over his background, his role in his firm and how he managed to grow and improve it, paying special attention to his Adwords experience and strategies. If you want to start using adwords and pay per click or improve your strategy, this episode is for you.

“Start small, figure how it works, and then grow from there.”

The firm

Actually, Jay is more of an administrator of the firm than ever before, but he is still in the business, he does some court appearances from time to time.

Jay's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jayruane

Some of the topics:
The importance of content:
“We’re no longer advertising generic terms out there to drive people to information on our website, because people are finding our website organically based on all the content that we have”

A big mistake:
“One of the biggest mistakes people make, especially when it comes to adwords is thinking that more money is going to get them better results. That’s a misunderstanding of how the adwords auction system works.”

“There’s a tendency to wanna have the widest net, but the widest net doesn’t necessarily catch the fish that you want.”

How to build ads:
“We need to get in the mindset of the consumer. And those are the ones that are going to get clicks; the ads that resonate with the people who are facing the problem that needs a lawyer..”

How do you tell if an ad is working?:
“One of the things we like to use ourselves is, we direct the ad to a specific landing page on our website that is more sales oriented than our organic pages.”

Facebook vs Adwords:
“Facebook is great, but you have to have the right approach to facebook. You can’t expect it to give you the same type of results as pay per click because it’s just not built that way and the people aren’t there for that.”

Marquis Jackson’s episode:
https://maximumlawyer.com/podcast/legal-hope-pop-up-episode/

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier. how to be a good coach in an office setting!

Jay’s tip: Curate your negative list on Google. Go back and take a list of the 100 top baby names for the last 50 or so years. Male and Female. Because a lot people in this field may hear that their friend got arrested for a DUI. If they are not the person who is looking to hire you don’t want to be advertising to them.

Tyson’s tip: Check out Ryan McKeen’s book: Empower Yourself: A Practical Guide to Connecticut Personal Injury Law.

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson will check in on what’s going on with both of their practices, talk about MAXLAWCON and go over the Sales Prevention Department List; 10 things lawyers and law firms do that prevent the closing of sales.

First, Jim and Tyson will discuss about case management and catch up meetings, Tyson will go over the importance of synergies in a partnership and then they both will go over the difference between own generated leads and referrals of Personal Injury Attorneys.

Also, they will go over next year’s conference. Lessons learned and a lot of improvements! It’s going to be awesome!

And then, our topic; The list of The Sales Prevention Department:

1. Not having a live and empathetic person answering the phone.
2. Not returning calls or taking too long to call a lead.

“When you think about all the money that you spend to get the phone to ring, to not maximize what happens after when the phone rings it’s just waste of money.”

3. Having a slow sales process.

“They never love you as much as they do on the day that they sign you”.

“If you can stop them from looking for other attorneys, then you have done 90% of the battle. Get them to sign the contract”

4. Being too salesy AKA too much “whiskers”.
5. Brand and generic marketing.
6. Not having the knowledge base for the types of cases you’re advertising for.
7. Not following up on clients after an initial phone call.
8. Hiding the ball or over promising; being disingenuous.
9. Not being crystal clear on what it is that you do: NO REFERRALS.
10. Being afraid of walking away from the table.

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: No external information until 11am!

Tyson’s tip: Talk to every person as if you never gonna talk to them again.

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Johnnie Finch, a criminal defense attorney who runs his own law firm. They will go over his background, his business, and how it is like to be a lawyer as a member of a minority. Also, they will discuss about his recently published book “Black Lawyer Confidential”. 

“I wanted to come up with a book or some type of manual for those who are from small towns or minorities that have never had parents who were lawyers, or ever been in the court system before to try to deal with it…”

Their Firm:
http://johnniefinchesq.com/

The Book:
BlackLawyerBook.com

Johnnie’s Twitter

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: https://audiojungle.net/
You can download royalty free music and audio tracks for a Dollar, and you are able to search it by emotions or music type. Great cheap resource.

Johnnie’s tip:
Leave 15 minutes early! For the rest of your life!

Tyson’s tip:
Ride a bicycle in your office whenever you are working or on calls or doing a Podcast!

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this BONUS episode, Jim gives a talk at SLU Law. He will talk about his early days as a lawyer and his journey as a law entrepreneur who now runs his own immigration law firm, going over his mindset, his business, his firm and his marketing strategies.

“This is a lot of work, but to me it’s worth it and it’s fun. I am having more fun that I’d ever would’ve had, and I’ve had three really big law firms in St. Louis talk to me about coming in to that firm and I’ve turn them down every single time, and I laugh when I do it because I would never be able to do half of my crazy shit if I went to one of those big firms. And if I hadn’t agreed to be the plaintiff in that law suite, I don’t know what would’ve happened, I don’t know how many kids I would have. I don’t know what kind of life I would have; I would have a very different life probably. So I’m very grateful for everything that’s happened and I am exactly where I want to be.”

Jim Hacking

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.