Every law firm owner wants better, bigger, more rewarding cases, yet few are doing what needs to be done to find them.
If you ask any seasoned law firm owner, they will all tell you the same thing. Your best cases won’t come from Google ads, SEO, or investing more money into the pay-per-click campaigns. The best cases will come from referrals: from past clients, other attorneys, or people in the community who trust you.
So the first step to your success as a law firm owner and the first question on your mind should be: How do I build better relationships?
Unless your firm is inherited, you’re starting at zero. That’s how most great firms are built — from the ground up. Now you have to build up your firm, and for that, you have to build up your network, which means you can’t stay home and wait for your phone to ring.
You have to go outside and put yourself out there.
For introverts, networking is exhausting. It’s a nightmare like no other. But you’ve got to think about what’s best for your firm, not your comfort zone. You can’t hide in your home office and expect your business to take off. You have to go out there and make your name and face known. You have to be intentional about getting into the right rooms with the right people.
So how do you do that? You start by following your passion, so to speak.
The key is identifying who you want to build relationships with and then figuring out where they spend their time. Look up lawyer conferences, legal business seminars, and even state bar events.
Be eager to be out there, but also be strategic about where “out there” is. A single right room will do more for you than a dozen generic networking events.
Alternatively, you can become the expert that everyone calls. You can build a referral base not just by shaking hands but by being so good at what you do that people can’t ignore you.
If you specialize and become the go-to lawyer or a thought leader in a niche area — motorcycle accidents, trucking cases, medical marijuana, animal law, etc. — the referrals will follow.
For that to work, you’ll still have to put yourself out there, but this time, you’ll have to do it in a digital form: blog posts, videos, TikToks, webinars, podcasts, books, weekly emails. Whatever the medium, the goal is the same: to make your expertise visible.
When people see you showing up consistently, teaching, and leading in your niche, you stop being just another lawyer. You become the lawyer for that problem. And when another attorney, past client, or community leader runs across a case in your wheelhouse, guess who they’re going to send it to?
Better cases don’t come from luck or waiting around. They come from better connections, and those connections come from putting yourself out there — whether physically or digitally by becoming an expert in your field.
Referrals, trust, and relationships are earned. So if you want better cases, stop searching for shortcuts and start showing up, building, and connecting. The lawyers who consistently do never have to wonder where their next great case is coming from.
