How To Make Seven Figures At Your Law Firm
Claudia King
Author Kiarah Grace Kelly
Claudia was introduced to us as the Retreat 2019’s second speaker. Claudia is described as a fashion and branding superstar and is a self-confessed diva- Claudia doesn’t like to be told what to do. Claudia spoke to us about scale, figures, and how to make it all happen!
Who is Claudia King?
Claudia is the bright-orange-clad, Forbes listed, tech firm founder here to teach us all how to scale a law firm to seven figures. Claudia shared that earlier in her ‘law land’ life she at times struggled with all that comes with it- Claudia worried each month whether she’d billed enough, she felt that she had to take on every client that walked in the door, she also felt that despite all of this, she wasn’t contributing as much as she could. Does that sound familiar?
Claudia looked to the experts around her for help, she wanted to make more, but work less. These ‘experts’ told her it was impossible, consultant after consultant said that the key to a successful law firm was to- network, build referral systems, hire lots of lawyers, set astronomical billing targets for those lawyers. Rinse. Repeat.
Inspiringly, Claudia refused to fit the mould. In my favourite takeaway from her presentation Claudia said- “nothing motivates me more than someone shitting all over my goals.” And so, just like that, the fun started from there. Claudia created her own plan; to develop a scalable, profitable, online solution to her client’s problems. Claudia vowed to use this solution to scale her law firm in a way no consultant could ever foresee.
How do you scale your law firm?
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Queen of the ‘model’, Claudia introduced us to the incentives, forces and then the mechanisms that will allow us to sclae our law firms.
Why scale your law firm?
Claudia’s incentives for scaling are brave and bold, I think they’re something we can all relate to as well. Claudia’s three incentives? Money, freedom, impact. Claudia encourages us to really dig deep, to think about what makes us tick and then we might feel better about making them happen. It might be your family, passions, politics that make you crave money, freedom, impact- whatever it is for you, Claudia calls for us to grab it with two hands. My take home from this portion of Claudia’s presentation is that money doesn’t need to be a dirty word, the reality is that with money we can do what we love.
What will scale your law firm?
There are three things to make the above happen- promotions, productising and performance.
But, how do you scale your law firm?
Claudia has, through trial and error, (and over the course of founding New Zealand’s first legal tech product to getting a mention from Forbes) determined the nine key steps to scaling your law firm. They are-
- Amplify your authority;
- Tell your target- you can master this by focusing on one traffic source at a time;
- Build your brand- otherwise, how do you drive people to what you really do. Do you have a website and a stack of products but no giant, flashing, neon sign pointing to it? Let your neon sign be your brand;
- Make your model;
- Design your solution;
- Leverage your automation- if you’ve not automated yet, how can you (Claudia says it’s okay to start small, at one time her one and only piece of automation was her contact form);
- Work your strengths;
- Hire your team- and let them work your weaknesses! Remember: your team is those at work and at home, Claudia used the example of making sure you’re not spending your only, precious hours to reset in the laundry;
- Standardise your systems – this must include your self-care systems!
The Sweet Spots
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Claudia generously went on to explain the key things to implement right now(!) to get you on your way to scaling your law firm.
Claudia tells us that we should pick a number that will motivate you, and know it! Claudia spends much of her time talking all things #sevenfigures, a lot of Claudia’s work is all about helping law firms hit the million dollar mark. From that flows the numbers- to be a million dollar firm, you need to hit $80,000 months and $20,000 weeks.
If you want to get started, Claudia has (amazingly) prepared a scale up workbook for us all to enjoy, let’s get to it at the link below!
Thank you to our partners for helping us bring The Retreat 2019 (a law conference like no other!) to you!
THIS SESSION WAS SPONSORED BY
Joining us all the way from WA is the lovely Sarah from the team at LawCPD. Something us lawyers always need are those CPD points and our friends over at LawCPD have made it super easy for us. All their programs are online and available anywhere at anytime! How simple is that!!
As a partner of the Club Retreat, LawCPD is offering all attendees their first online CPD course – worth 1 CPD point – for free! LawCPD’s online courses offer lawyers a fulfilling learning experience with every course packed full of informative and interactive legal content.
Keep making the best of your law life with this great #clubretreat offer. You can access your first CPD point for free today by heading over to the LawCPD website here.
Hi! I am Kiarah Grace Kelly, I have just finished a dual Bachelors degree in Law and Government and International Relations at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. I tested my legal toes in the water at a boutique Gold Coast law firm before starting as a Law Graduate at Brisbane Family Law Centre in November 2018. I’ve just been admitted here in Queensland which makes me a Brand New Lawyer or #babylawyer as the BFLC gang likes to say. My sole practice area is Family Law.
I’m looking forward to writing about and sharing with you all that I can at this crazy-exciting but daunting stage of my career. I think there’s a need to talk about our experiences as early career lawyers so that we can all lean on each other as much as we can.
I would love to connect with you on Linkedin and Instagram!