Speaker 1: Hey David, thanks for joining me. We're talking about, and this is crazy because we run associates through a marketing program at our firm at DBL, that whole multi-week marketing program where they have assignments in the real world to develop client business and develop their marketing skills. So we're going to go through the five fast facts and five things you can do as an attorney today to build your business. And this is coming from two attorneys with decades and decades of experience and a lot of clients, frankly. So these are things that work and things that are important. And we've kind of scraped the flack. We've cleaned out the, separated the wheat from the chaff, the chaff from the wheat, whatever that archaic conviction metaphor that I'm trying to get to is. So let's start with, what's the first thing of our five fast facts you need to do to be a successful business developer as an attorney?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think most attorneys already know the first one, but it bears repeating and that's just networking. You got to get yourself out there and meet people. Clients don't know that you exist if you're not out there kind of talking to people and educating them about who you are and what you do. And also beyond clients, really referral sources. Networking is the best. One of the best ways you get clients is not by meeting them directly, but by being referred to by another lawyer, by an accounting professional, some realtors, believe it or not.

Speaker 1: I mean, everybody is a potential referral source. Your neighbor's a potential referral source because they know what you do. You've got to put yourself out there. So that leads me to the second point, David. And that is what they say that riches are in the niches, riches are in the niches. So develop a specialization. If you're an attorney and you're out there networking, as David pointed out, very important, you can't say, Hey, I do everything. Just call me. I'm a lawyer. I mean, I get that call. I get a lot of people calling me and saying, Hey, I got a speeding ticket. And I'm like, Hey, here are five lawyers that are good at speeding tickets. That's not me. I do intellectual property and government contracts. Develop a specialization and use that as part of your networking. Super important. And again, that whole, that's where the riches are. That's where skill is as well. And I think that speaks to clients and it speaks to your network when you start developing your business relationships. David, what's the third thing you can do?

Speaker 2: You've got to go online. A lot of older attorneys still think that the internet is not where it's at, but everybody kills me online. It's not. You have to develop an online presence. You've got to be on LinkedIn. You've got to be active on social media. You've got to write some blogs and you've got to really, but wait out there.

Speaker 1: Is it enough just to be on LinkedIn or does your profile have to be up to date? Talking to some people I know out there, you need to update that stuff. And I didn't say the other word, but that stuff, it's really important. You need to keep it current. So if you have case wins, case examples, summaries of things you've done, that's what people want to see. They don't want to see that you were a magna cum laude in college, you're a lawyer with a job now. They want to see what you've done for your job. So keep that stuff up to date. And that kind of brings me as it will to the fourth thing, which is you've got to have happy clients. The absolute best source for new work for me throughout my career have been current clients. And why is that? Because current clients look like the clients you want in the future. If I work for a government contractor and CEO of a company and I've been his attorney for 10 years and he's doing 50 million a year, you know who he hangs out with? Other government contractors, CEOs who do 50 million a year and have a hundred employees and have the same problems that this friend of mine now has, this client of mine. So it's really important that you keep those clients happy. But the easiest thing you can do, this is the secret sauce to being a lawyer, is just return calls and emails within 24 business hours. It's shocking how many people can't do that, but that is the simplest. You will blow people's minds if you do that as a lawyer. I don't think I'm going to change the world tomorrow and get all lawyers to do this, but that is a huge secret to client satisfaction. David, what's the fifth and final thing that we have for fast facts today? There's lots of other things, but fast facts today that you can do to be a lawyer business developer.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the thing that stands out to me is really being outstanding in your field. We talked about developing a specialty. Thought leader. Yeah. Being a thought leader. Not just doing the job, not just being another intellectual property lawyer, but making a unique contribution, being somebody that is valued for having a unique opinion on various

Speaker 1: aspects. Like, I don't know, doing recordings like this and telling people about stuff. You're being a thought leader, writing a white paper, writing a blog post. I don't know, David, you and I teach the annual IPCLE to the Virginia lawyers and the Virginia Bar. Those are ways to be thought leaders. And people are like, I don't want to teach a CLE. I don't want to put that effort in. I don't want to write a blog or a white paper. But clients read that and they say, wait, this guy's the guy who wrote chapter eight of the Virginia lawyer's desk book on intellectual property? Yeah. And it's actually both of these guys. But point is, that's thought leadership. The Lexis practice guide to trademark portfolio management sounds really boring and they're never going to read it. But it shows that you know what you're talking about and you've deep dived, deep dove, you've gone deeply into your subject matter and you're very comfortable with it. So if you take those five things to start, I think those are five fast ways, five, maybe not fast, but five good ways to become a lawyer who is a business developer. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, David.