Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

Which Client Pitches Work?

Here are some tips and tricks, in order from least effective to most effective. Good luck!

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Gary J. Ross

Gary J. Ross

In Biglaw, I often helped prepare client pitch decks, but I was never in the room when the pitch was made, at least that I recall. In SmallLaw, giving pitches to clients is part of the job. You’re probably not giving pitches every day (unless you have a “consumer practice” like DUIs or divorces), but you have to give them, and it’s more than just occasionally. Typically, a potential client will narrow their choices down to two or three attorneys, and then it’s up to those attorneys to show they’re the best person for the job.

There might be a secret to giving pitches, but if there is, I certainly haven’t discovered it. But I do know a little about the different types of pitches attorneys give, and I’ve learned a bit about the effectiveness of each. These are from least effective to most effective.

I’m a cool guy and you want me on your side. Ever see the hip, guitar-playing, casual lawyer on the show Silicon Valley? You can do that when you’re comfortably ensconced in-house. When you’re trying to get a client to hire you about anything even remotely important, it’s best to leave the “I’m-so-cool” stuff at the door.

We have all these people in common. This will occasionally get you in the door, but once you’re in, you better have something more than this. I’ve been on pitches with people who wanted to spend the entire time walking down memory lane with the general counsel about all these friends and acquaintances they had in common. If I have 20 shared LinkedIn connections with someone, I’m hoping perhaps they’ll answer my message, but once I’m on the phone with them, I’m not going to spend the time talking about those 20 people, with one exception. If any of the shared connections are clients who are in the same space as the potential client, I’ll definitely mention those clients (assuming they’re not currently mad at me for some reason).

We’re sleeping together. This works much better when pitching to small businesses than large corporations. Also, sometimes sleeping with the general counsel isn’t enough and you have to sleep with the CEO too, which can be tricky, especially if they’re different genders and you’re not all that attractive to begin with.

Look at my background! Hey, I went to this school and that school, made law review, and worked at this firm, pick me! Rarely will someone actually pick their attorney solely due to this. You need to tie your background to the client and the client’s situation. You can give your background – nay, you should give you background – but it needs to be the beginning of a story that conveys (hopefully effectively) why your background has shaped you so that you are the best choice to represent the client in this particular matter. If you handled M&A at Shearman and you’re trying to get work handling a company’s securities filings, you need to explain how doing M&A at Shearman makes you the right person right now. Maybe you were the best preparer of proxy filings they ever had. Whatever it is, it needs to be something more than “I went to NYU and worked at Shearman, so hire me.”

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I have handled a lot of other matters just like yours. The most effective pitch. Large law firms are particularly good at this, with marketing departments that put together impressive presentations that detail past transactions the firm has worked on, and how they are similar to the potential client’s situation. This is what clients are concerned with. Can you handle our matter? General counsels have to answer to CEOs and to the board, and if you give a company the wrong advice due to your inexperience or carelessness and as a result it runs into regulatory or other trouble, nobody is going to care where you went to school, or how many LinkedIn connections you and the general counsel have in common.

Blackmail. Oh yeah, I forgot about this one. Remember the episode of Melrose Place when Michael managed to get himself appointed chief resident by showing up at a hospital function with the boss’s mistress? Very effective.

You don’t need to be a showman to pull off a successful pitch, at least not in corporate law. No matter how terrible of a public speaker a person is, just about anyone can talk about themselves. Tying this to what’s best for the client takes some practice, but after a while you get used to it and figure out what works and what doesn’t. But I would leave the guitar at home, at least at first.

Gary J. Ross opened his own practice, Jackson Ross PLLC, in 2013 after several years in Biglaw and the federal government. Gary handles corporate and securities matters for startups, large and small businesses, private equity funds, and investors in each, and also has a number of non-profit clients. You can reach Gary by email at Gary.Ross@JacksonRossLaw.com.

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