by Kisha A. Brown, Esq. - Founder and CEO of Justis Connection

Since starting Justis Connection, I've talked to hundreds of attorneys in all different stages of their career and practice areas. After analyzing hundreds of conversations, I've noticed three common mistakes that separate attorneys who struggle to bring in new clients consistently from attorneys with a steady flow of high-quality clients.

Mistake #1: Relying too heavily on word-of-mouth referrals

This strategy has the highest risk of uncertainty because you rely on others to send you high-quality clients when you need them most. It's what I call the feast-and-famine approach because there are times when you may be getting a lot of referrals and times when you don't hear from anyone.

You can't build a sustainable practice on something unpredictable and passive.

Never mind the time you spend searching for referrals on listservs and GroupMe chats when that time could be used use to bill a client.

Mistake #2: Taking every case that walks in the door indiscriminately

Not all money is good money. If you don't have a way to bring in new clients consistently, you may have to take on lower preference cases to meet your numbers.

When I say "lower preference," I mean a case that is outside your preferred expertise, overly complicated, lower-paying, or has a longer timeline than you prefer.

However, once you have a reliable way to bring on prospective clients, you get to pick and choose the cases you want to work on.

Mistake #3: Not investing in themselves

Although they don't teach the ins and outs of running a law practice in law school, you must quickly learn the fundamentals needed to build a successful practice.

One of those fundamentals is that you will have to spend money to make money.

Successful attorneys know this, which is why they invest in hiring support, advertising, and marketing. When you invest in the right areas, you get a return on your investment that far outweighs the money you think you're saving by trying to do everything yourself.

Conclusion

Overall, these are not only the mistakes I've seen other attorneys make. In full disclosure, I've made these mistakes too, so there's no judgment here.

As the saying goes, "When you know better, you do better." By addressing these mistakes you can improve the quality of clients you attract and increase your business.

Kisha A. Brown is the founder & CEO of Justis Connection, the premier Black attorney referral platform making high quality client connections & offering first rate promotion to Black attorneys in the DMV.