A wise man once told me “law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer, but there are some things about being a lawyer that you won't learn in school.” As a young lawyer, the day I passed the bar exam was one of the happiest days of my life. I was finally able to call myself a lawyer. I started my first attorney position at a law firm a few months later. Little did I know, that was the same day I became a salesman. Now I wasn't selling widgets, books or video games, I was selling myself and the legal services that I could provide. I distinctly remember taking contracts, property, civil procedure and torts in law school, but I don't remember having a course on marketing. I'm sure many of you don't remember having a course like that in law school either.

What Is Marketing?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, marketing is defined as the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market; the process or technique of promoting, selling and distributing a product or service; or an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.

The legal industry is a supply and demand industry. Individuals and entities have an issue that requires legal advice and lawyers/law firms offer legal services to those individuals and entities to satisfy those needs. Regardless of your practice area, there are numerous potential clients in the world that need legal advice and there are numerous lawyers/law firms that would eagerly offer their services to meet the potential clients' needs. In order to generate revenue, law firms need to be able to sell their legal services to clients. How do law firms sell their legal services to potential clients? By convincing the potential client to choose their firm over a competitor's firm through marketing.

At the macro level, law firms compete with each other to sell their legal services to potential clients. A similar competition exists at the micro level as well between attorneys. Potential clients have problems that require legal advice. Once they determine that they need an attorney and the type of attorney they need (civil, criminal, family law, etc.), the question becomes which attorney should they retain.

Marketing is how an attorney differentiates himself from other attorneys in an effort to bring in new clients and cases and develop their book of business.

Let's assume that you've already decided you want to be an attorney in the practice areas you are currently involved in. It is never too early to develop your five-year plan or to evaluate your progress toward your five-year goals. Where do you want to be in five years? What do you want to accomplish by then? How do you plan to accomplish those goals?

First, define your marketing goals.

• Generate new clients/cases;
• Expand an existing practice area to new jurisdictions;
• Expand an existing practice area to new industries/businesses you do not currently work with (health care, restaurants or finance companies); and
• Other goals.

Next, take the time to understand your target audience.

As a young lawyer, you will be marketing yourself to primarily three groups of people: partners at the firm you work for, opposing counsel and potential clients.

Partners and Supervisors

In many cases, young lawyers will receive most of their work from the firm's partners. Sometimes associates are assigned to a specific partner/group of partners, while other times they will receive assignments from someone they do not typically receive assignments from. Each assignment presents another opportunity to make a lasting impression with the partner. What impression do you want to leave? The next time the partner or supervisor has an assignment, you want to be the one they turn to.

Due to the nature of the partner-associate relationship, this is a situation where you are competing with other associates in your firm. What makes you different from the other associates in your firm? Why should the partners choose you for an assignment instead of another associate?

• Do you volunteer to do extra work/assignments that others may not be eager to do?
• Do you deliver high-quality work in a timely fashion?
• Do you ask questions about how certain facts of a case tie in with the case overall?
• Do you come in early and stay late?
• Do you make the partner's life easier when you complete an assignment?

Early in your career, a young lawyer's major selling points are that you can make life easier for the partner or supervisor whenever they need you to do something. If you impress them, they will keep you in mind when they have a new assignment and they will be more inclined to introduce you to their contacts. Remember, they were young lawyers once, too. They achieved many of the same goals you are looking to achieve, and they have knowledge and experience that can help you do the same.

Opposing Counsel

I know what you must be thinking, opposing counsel is rarely (if ever) going to be in a position to send you new clients or cases, so why would you market yourself to them? Generally speaking, that is an appropriate response. However, I am not suggesting that you should advertise yourself to opposing counsel with the idea of generating new clients or cases. Rather, I am merely suggesting that you should be mindful of the impression that you will leave through your interactions with opposing counsel.

Whenever I receive a new file, the first thing I look for after assessing the facts of the particular case is who is my opponent? Is it someone I've interacted with before? Was opposing counsel generally reasonable to deal with? Do they do good work?

Depending on your practice area, you may interact with the same opposing counsel more or less frequently than other attorneys. Word travels fast. Don't get a reputation for doing subpar work, being overly abrasive with opposing counsel or being the person that is always late.

Potential Clients

Whenever marketing yourself to potential clients and current clients, be mindful of the applicable Rules of Professional Conduct in your jurisdiction and any other applicable rules. Also, if potential clients are prohibited from accepting gifts due to company policy, don't try to get around their company policy. The handful of new cases you might generate by sending a gift/tickets to a sporting event to the potential client is not worth the potential negative consequences if the violation of that company policy is uncovered.

Unlike partners and opposing counsel, potential clients are where your marketing efforts can get a bit more creative. Your goals when marketing yourself to potential clients should be to develop a personal relationship with the client and demonstrate how you can help solve whatever problems they need your help to resolve.

• Be on time for meetings and conference calls.
• Make the client feel like they are your most important client.
• Return phone calls and emails promptly. This doesn't mean you need to have a complete answer to their questions immediately. A simple acknowledgment message with a deadline to provide a return call and an answer to their question can go a long way.
• Set deadlines and meet them.
• Familiarize yourself with the client's business needs.
• Do high-quality work.
• Develop a personal relationship with the client.
• Meeting a potential client at an event (happy hour is great), but converting that potential client into your client is the goal.
• Follow up with the potential clients that you meet.
• Are you making their life easier by being involved?
• After you develop your relationship with the potential client, don't be afraid to ask them to send you some work. After all, that is the primary reason you interacted with them in the first place.

Every interaction with a potential or current client is an opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Try to look at your interactions from their perspective. If you needed their help/expertise, would you be happy with the frequency/content of your conversations and meetings? Would you feel like you were being given their undivided attention?

It is unlikely that you will win every case you ever have. For that reason, your marketing efforts should focus on what makes you different in how you handle cases. There are other attorneys that can do just as good of a job as you, and they are going after the same potential clients. Your challenge is to convince potential clients to work with you anyway. If you keep your clients well informed, and you make their life easier throughout your interactions, the result will generally not be as significant in determining whether you would be considered for any future assignments. Remember, the client came to you to solve a problem they were having. If you treat them respectfully, do good work, and demonstrate your ability to make their lives generally easier, they will be more inclined to choose you or your firm the next time they need an attorney.

Brian Dunstone is an associate at Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby where he  concentrates his practice on defending employers and insurance companies in workers' compensation matters. Contact him at [email protected].