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ICYMI
The lawyers doing interesting work this month weren't all at large firms with full support staff. One left a statewide firm for a town of 1,400 people. Another replaced the free consultation with a $500 paid hour and has been booked solid ever since.
This past month, our writer Emily Kelchen spoke with Chris Sbrusch, a solo personal injury attorney in rural East Texas, about what practicing in a place where you'll run into your clients at the feed store does to how you practice. She also spoke with Jennifer Horwitz, a criminal defense attorney in Seattle, about why she turned the paid consult into the product and hasn't looked back. Both pieces have something worth your time, whether or not your practice looks anything like theirs.
—Bianca Prieto, editor
P.S. We want Raise the Bar to cover the stories and topics that matter most to you. Hit reply and let us know what you want more of! We read every note.
Reputation is the whole game
Chris Sbrusch, attorney and founder, PINEYWOODS LAW, Grapeland, Texas
Sbrusch left a large statewide injury firm to open a solo practice in a Texas town of 1,400. The concern from outside was always the same: you're leaving volume, infrastructure and a steady paycheck for somewhere most people in Texas have never heard of. What outside observers underestimated, he says, is what happens when you know your market that well. In a small community, word travels fast in both directions. Do right by a client and their whole church hears about it.
He's also selective on intake: he only takes cases where he can stand beside his client in court and tell a jury with complete honesty that this is a good person who was harmed. That selectivity isn't only about ethics. On contingency as a solo, carrying a weak case for years prevents you from giving stronger clients the attention they actually deserve.
Make the consultation the product
Expert: Jennifer Horwitz, criminal defense attorney, Seattle, Wash.
Horwitz replaced the free consultation with a paid $500-per-hour rate and has been booked solid since. Her argument: the free consult is designed for the lawyer, not the client. It's a vetting session to determine scope, fit and whether the client can afford to retain. What clients actually want is an hour to talk through their problem with someone qualified to help. The gap between those two things is what she fills.
She compares it to Drybar: not everyone can afford the full treatment, but a lot of people will pay for the affordable, focused version of what they actually need. The intake form on her site serves as the fee agreement, conflict check and filter all at once. Paying, she says, is the filter. She wants the clients who are grateful she carved out an hour on short notice, not the ones who resent paying at all.
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J. David Hammond transitioned from the Army JAG Corps to private practice and learned fast that trial skills and business skills are completely different. His fee-setting advice: stage fees by phase of the case so the client and lawyer are aligned at every step, not arguing over scope creep mid-case. His firm also keeps investigators on staff, and one of them helped exonerate a man who had spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. → This firm hired an investigator and it paid off
Nick Cady, in-house counsel at a nine-person environmental nonprofit in Oregon, has shut down old-growth logging by actually going out to verify what the federal government says is in the forest. Government data is often 20 years out of date. Judges notice who knows what they're talking about. Small organizations beat well-funded opponents regularly in this space, and it's rarely because of a single brilliant argument. → The nonprofit attorney fighting to save Oregon's oldest forests
Benson Ridge, Elliott State Forest, photo credit Francis Eatherington
You’re all caught up!
That's what we covered this month. If you know a lawyer who should be featured in a Raise the Bar Q&A with Emily, we want to hear about it. Hit reply and introduce yourself.
