Most of your clients and contacts know you don’t handle everything. If they don’t, you should tell them because you also want them to know that you know other lawyers who handle the things you don’t.
You want to tell them this because you want them to think of you and come to you whenever they have any kind of legal issue or question, so you can refer them to (good) lawyers who can help them.
You earn the appreciation of your clients and contacts for saving them time and sparing them the risk of trying to find a lawyer on their own.
And you get the appreciation of the lawyers to whom you refer them, who may reciprocate with referrals to you, say nice things about you to their clients and contacts, introduce you to centers of influence they know, and otherwise work with for your mutual benefit.
It also gives you a reason to reach out to lawyers you don’t know and learn about them, so you can expand and deepen your network.
In a nutshell, you want to position yourself as the “go to” lawyer in your market for anyone who needs legal help. (And yes, you should also do this with non-lawyers who serve your market).
In sum:
- Tell everyone that you know a lot of good lawyers and encourage them to contact you when they have a legal issue or question of any kind
- Create a database and collect information about the lawyers you know and want to know
- Periodically connect with your lawyer network to (a) get updates about what they’re doing and how you can help them (and their clients), and (b) update them about what you’re doing and how they can help you (and your clients)
- Ask your growing network “who do you know I should know?” and ask them to introduce you
Your success doesn’t depend on what you know so much as who you know (and… who they know).
How to build and grow your lawyer network
