The Challenge of Hiring an Attorney
So why is it so hard to hire an attorney, and what can you do to make that process easier? Hiring an attorney, you might think, is like hiring any other business. If you want to, let’s say, hire somebody to fix your roof, you call a roofing company, you say I want to pay you money, they come fix your roof. Attorneys deal with clients a little bit differently. What happens is law firms are very selective about their cases, and here’s why.
The Uncertainty of Legal Outcomes
If you hire somebody to fix your roof, they know they can fix your roof. They fix roofs for a living, they know that the end result is going to be a fixed roof. An attorney doesn’t know if the end result is going to be a success for you. You can’t hire an attorney and say I want you to win my case because they don’t know if the case is going to be won. They don’t know if your case is valid, they don’t know if it’s any good, they don’t even know if you have a case. Even if you do have a case, you could still lose. You’ve seen many court cases in the news that you believed 100% this person should be guilty, they get off. This person should be innocent, they get convicted. Lawsuits—this person should win, they lose. So attorneys don’t like to work on cases that they feel like they’re going to take your money and, at the end of that case, there’s a chance that you’re not going to win and you’re going to be disappointed. They don’t want to be in that position; they don’t want to put you in that position. So they’re very selective about what cases they take, and it’s not about the money. They have plenty of cases they can take, there’s plenty of money that they could take for a retainer and billable hours.
The Criteria for Selecting Cases
So they have to select the cases that fit three criteria. First of all, it fits what’s called their practice area. Practice area is the type of law they work on. So if an attorney is, let’s say, a criminal defense attorney, they defend people that have been arrested. They’re not going to take a case for corporate law. Let’s say a divorce family law attorney, they’re not going to take a criminal case. Civil litigation that does lawsuits, they’re not going to take maybe a bankruptcy case. So every attorney has practice areas. They don’t necessarily have to have one; they can have two or three different practice areas. Many times, law firms—companies that are larger, that have more than one attorney—cover a wide array of practice areas. But your case has to fit into their practice area, and we’ll talk about how to find an attorney that matches all of these three categories.
Matching the Client
Second of all, they want to make sure that you as a client match their type of client they like to work with. Some law firms like to work with corporate clients, some like to work with consumers, some are more selective on the type of vibe or personality of the client. One of the things that’s very common for law firms to do is to filter out clients that seem like they’re going to be very difficult to deal with. And what is their indicator? Red flag is if the first time you talk to them or email them, you dump your whole case on them. If you send them an email that’s four paragraphs long that describes your entire case, they’re going to think, like, this person doesn’t have the social skills to be able to deal with somebody. It’s kind of like if you walked into a room with strangers you didn’t know and told your whole life story before you got to know them and before you got permission to have that conversation. So don’t dump your whole case on them in the first conversation or even the second conversation.
Let the Attorney Lead
They also like to feel like you’re letting them ask you the important questions. Not every detail you know about your case is going to be needed by that attorney, especially at the beginning. They’re going to need certain information but not every last detail, and if you spend 20 or 30 minutes describing your whole case, you’re wasting their time and yours talking about things that aren’t important. And if you don’t let them ask the important questions, they’re going to feel like, you know what, it’s going to be too hard to communicate with this client, so let’s just pass.
Evaluating the Case’s Chances of Success
The third thing is what we talked about at the beginning—what is the probability that you’re going to win your case, right? They want to work on winning cases, not losing cases. Now, there’s no guarantee, obviously, you’re going to win any case, but they want to see that the probability is there that, a) you know you have a good case and what you’re saying would prevail, and b) even if you’re in the right and you should prevail, that the reality of that case is that it’s going to win because you have the evidence. And, you know, some cases can be won if you spend too much money on them to get evidence and expert witnesses, and they don’t want to take a case that’s going to cost more to win it than you would gain. So they’re going to do some evaluation—it’s not always going to be right—but they’re going to do some quick evaluation because, like I said, they can’t take every case, and they have to do a quick analysis of what cases they should be taking that’ll best help the client and also help them.
Finding an Attorney Suited for Your Case
Again, it’s not always about the billable hours because they have plenty of hours to bill, plenty of clients out there. It’s about making sure that it’s a comfortable relationship for them, the case has a high probability of winning, and it’s not going to be too overbearing on all the parties. So how do you circle back around? How do you find an attorney that’s best suited for your case? The way we recommend doing it is starting with, of all things, you’ve heard us talk about it before, Google—Google Maps. Go on Google Maps on your computer—try not to do it on a phone because it’s too small of a screen—and you will be back in your reading in just a few seconds.
Using Google Maps to Find Law Firms
On your computer, put a pin on your address where you live and zoom out about 20 or 30 miles, depending on how big your town is, and then type in “law firm.” Now, if you know what kind of case it is—like civil litigation, divorce, family law, criminal—you can put that in: “law firm, criminal defense,” “law firm, civil litigation.” Hit enter and you’ll see all these little pins pop up, little dots will pop up on your screen of law firms that Google thinks cover that type of case.
Selecting and Contacting Law Firms
And what you’re going to do is you’re going to select 14 of those law firms. 14 of those law firms you’re going to click on. All you’re going to do is get their website—forget their phone number, forget their email, don’t try to call them—just copy their website into a spreadsheet, a document, write it down, I don’t care what you do. Get 14 of them—14 law firms. And then what you’re going to do is you’re going to go to each one of those websites and first make sure they do actually cover that practice area because Google might think that they’re a criminal defense attorney, but they might have it wrong. So look in their website, at the very top of the menu, there will be a link that says “Practice Areas,” right? So click on that link that says “Practice Areas” and just make sure the kind of case you have matches their practice areas.
Crafting a Concise Inquiry
And then, of that 14, if you still have 14, go for it. If you need to replace them with a couple more from the map, make sure you have 14 that cover your practice area. Then don’t call them, don’t email them—well, you can maybe email them—but don’t call them or go in person. Type four sentences in an email, on a spreadsheet, or in a note that you can cut and paste to send to all 14. What are those sentences? The sentences are: “I have a case involving blank”—no more than four words—”a dispute with a neighbor,” “I have a case that involves a criminal arrest,” “I have a case that involves a lawsuit against a business.” That’s it. Don’t say anything more about your case than four words. “What is the best way to talk to you about this case?” That’s it. You’re just asking for permission to talk to them about your case, and you’re saying a little bit about it. The only thing saying more about your case can do is make them give a reason not to take it. If you only put a little bit, now they have to have some curiosity to talk to you more. If you tell them about your case, there might be one thing in there that says “We don’t want this case.” So don’t say anything, just say the basics of what kind of it is. “What’s the best way to talk about this case with you?” Send that same message to all 14.
Maximizing Your Chances of a Response
Now, we recommend not doing it by email. We recommend using, on that law firm website, their form. All websites now have a form on their website that says “Contact Us,” “Free Consultation.” Fill out that form. Type in your name, type in your contact info, and in the little text box, cut and paste those two sentences. Do that for all 14. Now, at this point, 11 of them won’t get back to you, right? So you’ve reached out to 14 law firms that match your case, you’ve done everything right. You’re going to get, probably, one or two responses. The ones that are hungry, the ones that have time on their calendar to talk to new clients, those are the ones you’re going to hear from, and then you’re going to get them on the phone and ask them some basic questions about their retainer and their billable rate, right? And just let them guide the conversation. Now you’ve got two law firms that match your criteria, that want to work with you, and now you can have the conversation.
Conclusion
Now, when you go through this process, it may seem a little tedious, but remember, these law firms are busy. They have a lot of cases to choose from, and by doing it this way, you make yourself stand out as somebody who’s respectful of their time and focused on the essentials. You’re not only more likely to get a response, but you’re also more likely to find an attorney who is well-suited to take on your case, giving you the best chance for a successful outcome.
