Gary J. Ross
“Where do you get your clients?” is the first question I get from my former Biglaw colleagues. Friends and family, too. (But not strangers — the first question I get from strangers is “Who are you?”) Folks imagine there must be some secret location from which clients emerge, or some easy trick I’ve figured out to round up clients. I never have a good answer, partly because I don’t track our client origination like I should, beyond knowing they don’t come from my ATL posts, and partly because for most clients, it’s hard to really pinpoint exactly how and where I got them.
I used to go to every event under the sun in the quest for clients. Cocktail hours at fashion stores, random book signings, intimate VIP events that I didn’t really get invited to, if I found out about it, I was there. But then after a couple of years, I started to get a feel for the best places to meet clients. Random Meetup attended by 500 recent college grads? That would be a no. Nightclub where you have to scream at the person next to you to be heard? Probably not. Family reunion? Maybe if your last name is Musk or Rockefeller, but mine is neither.
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But there are some places where you just might have some success in landing clients. Here are five of them:
Jail. Depends on what you’re in for. Don’t get arrested for something creepy like child endangerment. But getting arrested for something like protesting could be okay, and even drunk driving or prostitution could work to your advantage, because if any politicians are in the holding cell, the two of you can commiserate over your identical charges. I don’t know if they take your business cards when you go to jail, but if they do, maybe you could smuggle them in somehow. (Maybe roll them up?) Since everyone winds up in jail at some point, you can encounter a nice cross-section of humanity behind bars. And you already know these people have legal problems!
Church. This can go right along with the above. When you’re begging for forgiveness for whatever it is that landed you in jail — perhaps the shady stuff you pulled the week before to get your clients off –- make sure you pay attention to who is on each side of you and whether that person could turn into a client. Because some religions discourage their members from associating with non-believers, churches can be fertile ground for client development. For example, if someone’s a Pastafarian, they may only trust other Pastafarians to handle their business. Think about it: you could become the go-to Pastafarian lawyer in your city. Just make sure you don’t get paid in spaghetti.
Dates. Sounds like I’m about to make a bad joke, but I’m serious. It can happen, though it’s tricky. The key is quickly moving the person to the “client zone” (and yourself to the “lawyer zone”). A couple of dates at most is all you can spare before you have to make the move. Marrying a potential client is clearly taking things too far, at least without some guarantee you’re eventually going to get the work, and that you get to keep it after the divorce.
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Fundraisers. People will assume you’re successful if they meet you at a fundraiser — after all, you can afford to be there — so generally you can just explain what it is you do and not have to worry about bowling people over with a long list of accomplishments. There could, however, be other lawyers there, so you may have to differentiate yourself a bit. I usually do that by telling everyone I’m a Pastafarian.
Client events. My personal favorite. I think client events are great. Conferences — I’m at a client conference right now, as I type this — sponsored golf or tennis tournaments, client happy hours, whatever it is, I try to be there. At most networking events, I’m rarely the only lawyer, but at a client event, even if there are other lawyers, I’m the only one that can say I’m the host organization’s lawyer (or outside general counsel, depending on how I feel like putting it that day). It’s immediate respect, at least until they start talking to me. And it goes without saying that the more successful the client, the easier it is to get folks to use my firm. I’ve had people I met at client events want to use us as their counsel specifically to curry favor with the client. I’m like, I don’t know if that’ll work, but here’s our engagement letter. Sign it and find out!
Honorable mention: TSA pre-check line.
Of course, once you saddle up next to a potential client, you have to know what to do. I can lead you to water, but I can’t make you drink. For that, please stay tuned for a future column.
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 [email protected].