Jul 11, 2023
It can sometimes be challenging to know what steps to take to grow your immigration law firm. Do you need new or upgraded tech tools? Does your website need a complete revamp with a unique design or would a refresh to your website copy be better? Do you need to update your sales funnel or your payment processes or is what’s holding you back something else altogether?
It can be difficult to diagnose what your law firm needs to adjust, change, or incorporate to grow, what to do first, when to reevaluate, and how to measure success.
In the same way that a lawyer coach can help you develop a business-oriented mindset and harness your focus and productivity to work with intentionality towards your goals, a law firm consultant can help you evaluate various aspects of your immigration law firm to, over time, become more effective and efficient, achieve your goals and support your clients in their immigration journeys.
Here are six ways a law firm consultant can help your firm grow.
All immigration lawyers running their firms may feel, at different times, that they don’t have a clear picture of the direction their business — yes, a law firm is a business — is heading. A law firm consultant advises clients on this very thing, developing their law firm. Each of these areas addresses a specific area of business development. Let’s take a look.
According to a 2019 survey published by Statista, online searches account for how 34% of people find a lawyer. As a result, the more visible you are online, in ways that show your online audience that you are knowledgeable, experienced, and trustworthy, the more likely your ideal clients will find you.
A law firm consultant can help you evaluate these aspects of your online presence:
Given the number of people who search for services online, addressing this aspect of how you connect with new clients first can be a very effective way to make the most out of your work with a consultant.
Many immigration cases require renewals, status changes and helping family members over time. Ideally, you are capitalizing on each client’s Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and supporting them throughout their immigration journey, and that of their family members. In addition, your clients should be referring new clients based on their positive experience, extending the scope of their CLV.
A law firm consultant can help you evaluate your current retention strategies and rates, explore where you can make changes or improvements to ensure your clients keep coming back, and otherwise help you maximize the revenue you get from existing clients as a growth strategy.
A law firm consultant can help you establish your firm’s mission, set clear goals and ultimately develop a business plan to cover everything from client acquisition and retention strategies to growth plans to financial goals. Your business plan serves as a “roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your firm, and a consultant can help you make the connection between the goals set in your business plans and the daily decisions and actions you take to help you reach those goals.
A consultant can also help you set up employee policies and procedures, whether just for you if you’re a solo looking to operationalize your small practice, or for others if you have employees or are looking to hire imminently. For example, developing an employee handbook can help you set expectations and guidelines for your employees, setting the tone for a company culture that sets employees up for success and protects you as an employer. A law firm consultant can also help you ensure your handbook includes required policies and complies with applicable laws.
Law firm consultants can ensure you track your expenditures and set up payment systems that allow your clients to pay fees quickly, easily, and on time. In addition, a law firm development consultant can help you decide how to follow up with clients in arrears. A consultant can also help you evaluate which expenditures are a worthy investment at different stages of your law firm development and which are not.
If you are a Docketwise user, our integrations with popular bookkeeping software such as Quickbooks Online and payment software such as LawPay can help you achieve further synergy between your immigration case management and your firm’s financials.
Self-improvement includes personal and professional development and can sometimes be challenging to execute without guidance or support. A law firm consultant can help you engage in self-improvement practices or continue to develop self-improvement skills by helping you find professional development opportunities that fulfill your Continuing Legal Education (CLE) requirements but also help you reach your personal and professional goals, help you build connections to professional groups and find speaking engagements or networking opportunities, or apply self-care strategies to hold you accountable for boundaries you establish in favor of work-life balance.
When choosing immigration technology to support your immigration law firm’s work, you must evaluate whether it’s cost-effective for you and your clients. A law firm consultant can help you evaluate the tech tools you have or new ones you want to incorporate or whether a tech product will be user-friendly for your clients. For example, if a product has a client portal, a consultant can work with you to try both ends of the platform (as the lawyer and as the client, possibly logging in with a test account during a demo), and thus help you decide if it’s a good fit for your client base.
If you run a virtual immigration law firm, the tech you use is crucial to making your firm succeed in a purely online environment. And if your virtual law firm has employees, collaboration and communication tools are key to success. Working with a law firm consultant can help you put all these pieces into place.
Working with a law firm consultant is only part of the equation. As your firm grows, you’ll need a case management system that saves you time, keeps you organized, and supports your continued growth.
Docketwise provides a full-functional client relationship management interface, a complete library of constantly-updated immigration forms, easy-to-use client questionnaires, and industry-leading API integrations, so we help you stay current on immigration cases, communicate easily with your clients, and otherwise build and manage your immigration law firm.
If you want to learn more about Docketwise, schedule a demo at the link below!
