Solo and Small Firm

The Practitioner Winter 2020, Volume 26, Issue 2

Three Steps to Building & Maintaining a Strong Network

By Christopher Walters

Chris Walters is a business litigation attorney. He was a partner at an international law firm before starting his own firm in 2014. He represents business owners in contract/business disputes and has extensive experience with business divorces (disputes within a company between partners/shareholders).

There are several different ways to develop business. Some lawyers use advertising like billboards and advertisements in magazines. Other lawyers use the internet with Facebook ads, pay per click, and search engine optimization. There are definitely benefits to these methods, including that it does not require a lot of time by the attorney (although it may be costly) and if done correctly, it can make the phone ring. The question is whether or not those potential clients are the right clients for your particular firm. I have personally chosen to develop business by establishing and nurturing a network of contacts. Overall, this requires more attorney time than some of the other methods (I need to personally attend and interact with my colleagues), but I have found that while the referrals are not high volume, they are often more appropriate for my practice and firm.

I am a business litigation attorney, with previous experience as a partner at a large, international law firm before I began my solo practice six years ago. I position myself as an alternative to the larger (more expensive) law firms and my goal is not a high-volume practice but to instead attract fewer clients with larger litigation matters (twenty new clients per year). All of these affect my networking efforts.

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