Launching a New Practice Straight Out of Law School: Overcoming Fear, Streamlining Intake, and Improving Access to Justice by Eliminating the Upfront Retainer

Episode 46: Launching a New Practice Straight Out of Law School: Overcoming Fear, Streamlining Intake, and Improving Access to Justice by Eliminating the Upfront Retainer

Lauren Kelley started her own practice two days after graduating law school. Fueled by Unbundled Attorney leads, Lauren acquired over 20 new paying clients in her first two months. During this period, she also built systems to streamline her intake and enrollment process. Today, she joins the show to walk us through what every new lawyer can expect when launching a new practice. We also discuss how Lauren has almost completely eliminated the need to charge an upfront retainer. She describes how making her services affordable and accessible for clients also makes them more profitable for her.

To read a complete transcript of this interview, click here

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Some fears attorneys face when starting a new practice and how to overcome them
• How lead generation services like Unbundled Attorney can be extremely valuable when launching a new practice
• A walk through of steps involved in starting your new practice including marketing, sales, and online branding
• A list of the podcasts and resources Lauren recommends to attorneys who are considering starting their own practice
• The unexpected challenge Lauren faced when launching her practice and how she overcame it
• The value of taking time to build a streamlined and systematized intake process
• How to create leveraged income by outsourcing document preparation to a virtual assistant
• The value of taking time to quantify the different phases involved with each type of case, and breaking them up into “micro-steps” that can be billed separately
• How Lauren has eliminated the need to collect upfront retainers by allowing her clients to “pay-as-they-go”
• Advice and guidelines for offering limited appearances, and billing for appearances as a separate discrete task
• Why judges and courts are supportive of attorneys that are willing to offer limited appearances and unbundled services
• A walk through of the streamlined process Lauren developed from consult, to intake, to enrollment, to document preparation, to filing, court appearances, and beyond
• Why Lauren uses virtual receptionists to calendar her appointments, answer calls, and follow up with clients
• And much more…

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Unbundled Attorney Mastermind Retreat
• Podcast Episode 23 with Andrew Burgess: Launching a New Solo Practice: From Law School Graduate to 65 New Paying Clients in 3 Months
• Podcast Episode 14 with Zoe Garvin: Building a Law Practice from Home: Virtual Offices, Legal Tech, and Enrolling Clients Over the Phone
• Building a Law Firm Podcast
• New Solo Podcast - Legal Talk Network
• Podcast Interview with Dave Aarons on New Solo Podcast
• Gen Why Lawyer Podcast
• Lexicata
• LawPay
• Podcast Episode 40 with Anthony Saunders: The “Try It Before You Buy It” Enrollment Strategy: A Unique Sales Approach That Could Skyrocket Your Lead Conversion Rate
• Podcast Episode 41 with Thomas King: Delivering Unbundled Services Safely and Ethically: Guidelines for Retainer Agreements, Limited Appearances, and Being Proactive with Traditional Courts
• Microsoft One Drive
• Acuity Scheduling
• Smith.ai Call Answering Service

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For more information about Unbundled Attorney and how our Lead Generation services help grow your practice, visit: https://www.unbundledattorney.com