I have 25 tips dealing with getting clients, keeping clients and satisfying their needs that I would like to discuss with you in some detail. We are going to be spending quite some time talking about these tips in these weekly articles. Remember, clients are just the first category to address with regard to the concept that every business in the world needs five things to thrive:

   1. Clients;

   2. Administrative procedures;

   3. Procedures for getting the work done;

   4. A method to bill; and

   5. A way to collect the bill.

Also remember that you should be keeping track of your score with regard to how many of these tried and true tips on law office marketing, management and economics that you are actually routinely doing in your firm. Assign yourself five points for each tip that you are utilizing. After you score yourself at the end of each of these columns, keep a running total of your score, and at the end of each of the above categories, we will do a recap so you can add up your score and see how well you are doing from being “In the Stone Ages” — under 50 points — all the way to operating on the “Cutting Edge,” scoring 90 to 100 points.

Last week’s column was about getting involved in community or church activities on an ongoing basis as a way to be involved, give back and make yourself visible to people who may sometime need the services of a lawyer.

This week, let’s take last week’s topic and as Emeril says on his cooking show, “Let’s kick it up a notch. BAM!” Lawyers who want to be “business getters,” “finders” and “rainmakers” need to be involved in at least one professional legal activity on an ongoing basis. I cannot remember the name of the person who made the comment, “perception is reality” but truer words were never spoken when it comes to practicing lawyers. You must be and be perceived as caring, being involved and making a difference if you want to reap any harvest of legal business from professional activities.

One story from my own career is illustrative of this point. I think an experience I had in 1975 convinced me that “the Lord takes care of the deaf, dumb and the blind,” and I am all three of those things. In 1975 a Martindale-Hubbell salesman called upon me to try to sell me an ad in the latest edition of Martindale-Hubbell legal directory because I had just set up my own practice after having been in the prosecuting attorney’s office and with a firm. His comments to me were at the time that Martindale-Hubbell had a rating system for lawyers that would rate the lawyers as non-rated, CV, BV and AV based upon surveys from other lawyers and judges. Five years into the practice of law, I had heard of Martindale-Hubbell, but was unfamiliar with their rating system or any criteria for the same. I was much more interested in trying to figure out a way to make my house payment, car payment and getting ready for my second child to be born in the summer of 1975. I had just gone out on my own to set up my own practice and was sharing office space with lawyers in the downtown area.

The Martindale-Hubbell salesman proceeded to tell me that the first time a lawyer could be rated as a BV lawyer was when they had been out of school and in practice for five years and that an AV rating was only available to lawyers after 10 years in practice. I found his comments interesting but meaningless until he informed me that among all of the lawyers in the Kansas City metropolitan area from the class of 1970, that one other lawyer and myself were the only two people who had received a BV rating the first time around. Needless to say, I was surprised, but pleased. Nonetheless, I didn’t buy a listing. I couldn’t afford it.

What this somewhat startling news did make me do was to think about why, of all the people in this five-year lawyer in practice pool, were two individuals singled out by those doing the Martindale-Hubbell ratings. The other BV recipient was a popular young lawyer in a major firm in Kansas City who had been an outstanding basketball player in high school and whose older brother was also a practicing lawyer. This other young lawyer had excellent visibility among large law firms and apparently had gained the reputation as being a rising star in the firm that he was with.

On the other hand, I do not remember any such things that applied to me. I had been an assistant prosecutor with no particular noteworthy victories, and had been with a medium-sized law firm slogging through the typical associate work assignments and rituals. Nonetheless, the one thing that I had done and had gotten involved with and had met a lot of people through and had come in contact with a lot of judges and older lawyers, was the Bar Association. The Young Lawyers Section of the Bar Association had just been formed, and I was able to become involved with the board in the first year it was formed, and had ended up after two years on the Executive Committee, becoming the President of the Young Lawyers Section of the Bar. I believe that it was this one single thing that ended up with my being visible enough to get the other BV rating.

Another example of my personal philosophy that was driving my involvement in professional activities was the concept of being able to give back to one’s profession at least a full measure of what one has received from being a member of that profession. Whether you look on the legal profession as being a guild, a union, an association or a brother and sisterhood, the benefits that we as lawyers get from being part of this group surely demand of us the obligation of giving back whenever and wherever it is reasonably possible.

Taking these two examples and the concepts they reveal firmly in hand, that being “visibility” and “giving back,” it is easy to see that if involvement in professional activities is done for the right reasons, multiple benefits can be produced, including especially getting legal business form the general public and from other lawyers.

Recently I have commented to several people who have asked me what my greatest source of legal business was. Without question the answer is business from other lawyers.

Everybody likes a winner. Everybody wants to be part of a winning team. Everyone applauds a champion. Eye-popping verdicts get lawyers more business. Successful defenses secure more clients in need of similar services.

Often times, visibility and name recognition will not seem to pay off in the short run regarding being able to get you more legal business, but over the long run the momentum of such activities will build. It’s important to remember that the practice of law is not a sprint, but rather a marathon! As you continue to be involved, as you continue to give back, as you continue to come in contact with other professionals, the building blocks of your legal reputation within the profession will be stacked one upon the other until the time comes and the outlines of a substantial legal reputation begin to emerge and ultimately can become a substantial structure.

The most important thing to remember in pursuing one professional activity on an ongoing basis is the word “yes!” The word yes seems so hard for so many people to say. The word “no” is only two letters and therefore, it seems so much easier spoken. Recently, I have heard various institutions being described as the “land of no,” the “empire of no,” and other such pejorative comments. I have gone so far in recent seminars as to make the comment, “never say no!” On the other hand, I have quickly followed that up with don’t always say “yes!” How do you reconcile these two statements? Think of ways of saying to people: “I wish I could,” or “I would love to do that, but I may not be able to do it justice because …” or “I can’t this time, but give me a rain check.” Of course, where possible, where you can deliver, where you can make a difference, say yes!

As was said last week with regard to becoming involved in one community activity or church activity on an ongoing basis, the moral to the story with regard to becoming involved in one professional activity on an ongoing basis is getting involved! One of my favorite metaphors is to tell people, don’t just take your candle out form underneath the bushel basket. First, burn the basket, and second, put a bottle of oxygen up next to the flame and see how high you can get the flame!

Next week’s column will continue to deal with “tips” dealing with clients: getting them, keeping them and meeting their need by searching out opportunities to write one article or participate in one seminar on a yearly basis. As I am sure you now can tell, all of these client “tips” have a theme that courses through them. The theme is that there is a price to be paid with regard to trying to follow each one of these tips, the price is TIME! You’ve got to take the time to set a plan and work the plan. You’ve got to take the time to set up the system and implement the system. You’ve got to take the time to set up mechanisms where these tips happen automatically where possible with you and your staff. We are all familiar as lawyers with the phrase “time is of the essence.” In the case of implementing these tips, “time is the essence.” The small time that you invest in following these “tips” will pay big dividends over the future. Get started, make it a habit, keep it up!

We will be talking next week about the necessity of writing an article or participating in a seminar at least once a year.

Talk with you next week!

Jim Wirken is a civil trial attorney and the Chairman of the Board of The Wirken Law Group in Kansas City.