Nominees Sought for ABA Young Lawyer Award

The American Bar Association Young Lawyer Division is seeking nominees for its National Outstanding Young Lawyer Award, which will be presented at the February 2009 ABA Midyear Meeting in Boston. The award is presented annually to a young lawyer who exhibits professional excellence, service to the profession and the bar, service to the community, and/or a reputation for the advancement of legal ethics and professional responsibility.

To qualify, nominees must have been a member of the ABA YLD for the 2007-2008 bar year, which means that he or she was born after Aug. 31, 1971 or was licensed to practice law for the first time after Aug. 31, 2002, and has paid his or her ABA dues at the time of their nomination. Members of the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award Board, current and past ABA YLD Officers, and Constitutional Representatives are not eligible to receive the award. Click here for additional information.

Got NO clients-Fill your calendar with referral source meetings! by Stacy West Clark

Hi Lawyers! This month’s marketing tip is: Got NO clients-Fill your calendar with referral source meetings!

Summer is over and you have decided to tackle marketing. But you have no clients. Roll up your sleeves folks –here we go.

Remember that little ‘ole contacts list I asked you to create a few months back (Amy can you put in the link here)? Start working it. Focus on those who are in a position to refer you work or make an introduction for you to a potential contact or client.

Where to start?

1) Go through your law school alumni directory and identify classmates who work at firms that do NOT compete with yours.

2) Identify classmates who work at huge firms where conflicts may exist.

3) Identify classmates who are solos who may need help when larger matters come in.

4) Meet with these wonderful people! In setting up the lunch or breakfast meeting, tell them you are putting together a referral network and would like to hear about their practice, their firm and what an ideal client or case would look like to them.

5) After you have listened to their answers, describe your practice and situation to them.

6) Conclude by ASKing for referrals. If you do not ask, you will not get!

7) Follow-up and stay in touch. Look for ways to help your referral sources in their professional and personal lives. Make introductions. Refer work. Send them articles of interest or congratulatory notes. Stay on their radar.

8) Identify other service providers to clients you would like to represent. Who are their accountants, brokers, planners, IT, printing needs providers and more? Meet with them and repeat steps 4-7.

9) Make of list of everyone you buy something from and network with them. These referral sources could include your physician, dentist, broker, accountant, car salesman, mortgage banker and more. Create a regular email communiqué or tickler you can send to people to keep your name in front of them.

10) For more ideas ( on this and other subjects), go to my good friend Tom Kane’s blog on legal marketing. Better yet, sign up. http://www.legalmarketingblog.com/marketing-tips-no-client-base-start-working-referral-sources-now.html

You CAN do this and do it well within your comfort zone. Start small. Try to meet with one referral source a week.

As I like to say: get set, get up and get GOING!

Stacy West Clark, Esq. is President of Stacy Clark Marketing LLC, a firm dedicated to helping lawyers and law firms grow their business. She can be reached at: www.stacyclarkmarketing.com.

Stacy is on the Steering Committee of the Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group, a free group that holds monthly lunch programs for lawyers and marketers on important marketing topics. If you would like to receive invitations to upcoming events, please email Stacy or go to www.dvlawmarketing.org.