Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

Why Small-Firm Lawyers Need To Have A Killer 'App'

The killer app gets your name out there. Go find yours, today.

By  
on

Thumbs up diveI was recently on a long flight and saw the movie The Infiltrator, about a federal agent who goes undercover to bust a drug ring and those willing to help launder the profits from the drug ring. The agent poses as a big time money-launderer, and after he becomes known for laundering large amounts of money, he no longer has to hunt down the bad guys — they find him, making his job a lot easier.

It occurred to me when I was watching it that there’s a lesson in there somewhere. Maybe it’s that if you want to earn the really big bucks and pay off those student loans quickly, go into the illegal drug trade. No, that’s not it. Maybe it’s that if you want a hot, make-believe spouse, join the U.S. Customs Department (who knew??). Or maybe it’s that it is a far better strategy to set yourself up as the person to see in a field and to have people seek you out, instead of your having to chase down clients and convince them to hire you.

In other words, have a killer app. There needs to be something that you do better than anyone else, and this goes for Biglaw as well as SmallLaw. I once worked with a person whose killer app was broker-dealer regulations, and the person knew the regs so well that he would call up FINRA and point out errors they had made in their press releases. Think the firm was ever going to get rid of him? Of course not. He didn’t exclusively handle broker-dealer issues — a little unusual at a large firm — but somehow he had acquired more knowledge of the regs than anyone else. A killer app makes you necessary, whether to the firm (if you’re in Biglaw) or to clients (if you’re in SmallLaw).

The killer app gets your name out there. It can get you speaking opportunities, it can get you invites to publish — and one thing that I’ve learned is that it is much better to have publications contact me on the front end as opposed to my writing an article and then trying to peddle it around to every publication that could be interested (who’s got time for that?). The killer app can get people talking about you. Think of it as a crowbar, breaking you into places heretofore unknown.

Financially, having a killer app is a godsend. It is very hard to make a decent living as a generalist. Telling potential clients, “I’m the best generalist ever!” is a losing proposition. And, since generalists are a dime a dozen, it’s next to impossible to aggressively price your services. But, if you have a killer app and it happens to be squarely in the ballpark of what someone needs, you can approach potential clients from a position of strength or, hopefully, they will approach you.

With a few exceptions, nobody wants to do one thing over and over and over again, and often newer attorneys will resist potentially getting pegged into a niche practice. But having a killer app won’t necessarily pigeonhole a lawyer as much as one might expect. If a client likes and respects you, they will give you more and more work, even if your killer app is just one small slice of the work. Maybe the client only has the budget for one attorney (or one firm), and really needs your killer app, but the rest of the required work consists of stuff like negotiating contracts and the like that any competent lawyer can handle.

When potential clients that aren’t necessarily interested in your killer app are looking at your bio, they won’t always take the time to read the title of all of your publications or speaking engagements. More likely, they’ll see the list of publications and say, wow, this person really knows her stuff — look at this long list of publications! Not necessarily realizing that all of your publications are on something like sex toy law in India.

Sponsored

You can’t always control what your killer app is going to be. Maybe a client knows someone who knows someone that has a sex toy law issue in India, and you get the referral and then you start getting more referrals because no one else would touch it, and before you know it, you become the person to see for sex toy law in India. I say go for it. If that opportunity to develop a killer app comes along but you’re hesitant because you can think of many more interesting things you’d rather be working on, forget the other stuff and embrace the killer app. We’d all rather be doing something more interesting, which is a big reason lawyers get paid so much.

Get good. Get that killer app.

gary-rossGary 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.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , ,