The Oklahoma Bar Journal November 2022

B USINESSES EXIST TOMAKE a profit. Lawyers often go into practice with the goal of helping their clients with their legal needs. Profits often aren’t the first thing a lawyer thinks about daily, but it should be a primary goal every day. Practicing law can be stressful, and lawyers have enormous respon sibilities. As a business owner, a small firm lawyer wears many hats acting as CEO, CIO, director of mar keting, quality control and labor. Some lawyers do not have practi cal training in business planning, accounting, bookkeeping or finance. If a lawyer wants to be successful and the goal is to make a profit, they need to have a basic understand ing of their financial condition. Technology can enhance a law firm’s ability to develop, understand and maintain financial security. Planning is the key to a success ful practice. Law firms should start with a broad outline and fill in the details as they figure out what pro cesses they will use going forward. A broad outline could start with attracting potential clients, retain ing the client, managing the client file and closing the file. ATTRACTING CLIENTS Today it is imperative that a solo or small law firm have an attractive website that is put together profes sionally and looks good on a phone

have made improvements to their products, making them simpler for everyone to use. By now, most lawyers are familiar with Zoom and how to record on that plat form. Late last year, Microsoft 365 updated its PowerPoint features when recording. It now offers a broader array of features such as editing each slide separately or removing the speaker’s cameo and easily exporting the videos. Loom is another product that offers an easy way to record and publish a video. If a firm wants to get creative, video editors such as Descript and Camtasia are more robust in these capabilities. RETAINING THE CLIENT For solo and small law firms, individual clients usually have something traumatic happen ing in their life. These potential clients need to communicate with someone immediately. In a recent study, the Legal Services Corporation’s 2022 The Justice Gap report found that a shocking 80% of individuals across income lines did not seek legal help for legal issues they faced. Cost, or perceived cost, is a frequent bar rier. Just 59% of moderate-income individuals were confident in their ability to find a lawyer they could afford. Additionally, people reported not being confident that

or tablet. Consumers depend on their phones to search for busi nesses, and lawyers are lagging in this regard. There are products that can help build a profession al-looking website. Companies such as Squarespace and GoDaddy Website Builder are easy to use and will host a website for less than $20 a month. For more support and at a higher cost, companies like LawLytics and Omnizant specifi cally design websites for lawyers and offer hosting and analytics. Besides a website, law firms need to claim their Google My Business profile. This is a free ser vice Google offers, and it is the way for a firm to show up in a Google search. It also gives the firm the ability to change the hours of service and make other announce ments. For instance, a lawyer who decides to work regular evening hours may attract more clientele. Social media is another way to attract clients. Whether a firm uses Facebook, Twitter or another platform, the goal should be to create enough interest that it steers a client to the lawyer’s website. Using short how-to videos is an effective way to get started. Giving out free legal tips helps a law firm engage potential clients. Creating and editing videos has never been easier. Over the last couple of years, companies

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL