I’m glad the title of this blog post got your attention, because I want to share some important information that could seriously improve your income, job satisfaction, and life away from the practice of law.
Are Lawyers’ Professional Lives Getting Any Easier?
As lawyers, we can probably all agree that the business of law isn’t getting any easier for most of us. Law schools keep cranking out graduates, and competition in all niches of the law seems to be getting more aggressive. I recently read where Walmart is soon to be entering the legal arena – having their own full service law firm in stores.
Most of us would prefer to just get better at whatever niche of the law we practice in, and at the same time, figure out who to wring some happiness, personal satisfaction, and hopefully, some enough wealth and security to comfortable support ourselves and our families.
Sound Familiar?
Are you the kind of attorney that could you use some extra cash to supplement your regular billable hours/income?
Are you the kind of lawyer who would like to go on a family trip, or buy your spouse a special gift or once-in-a-lifetime experience, without having to go into debt or disrupting your budget?
Do you ever get calls from potential new clients with personal injury cases that you know are probably worth some money, but you just don’t have the time (or expertise) to evaluate or handle their cases?
Have you ever worried about handling cases on a contingency fee basis because of uncertainty about fronting the case costs — particularly when it comes to expert or medical witnesses?
If you are already handling a few personal injury cases, has it occurred to you how uneven (and uncertain) the cash flow is when it comes to those cases?
How My Partner, Bob and I Can Help
What if I told you that just by making one phone call — and doing nothing more — you could impress your current and potential clients, remained focused on your core practice, and potentially realize thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars in additional income on a regular basis?
If this sounds appealing to you, we would be interested in partnering with you on personal injury cases.
Winter Park personal injury attorneys Kim Cullen and Robert Hemphill.
My name is Kim Cullen (I am the one on the right), and my law partner, Robert Hemphill, and I have a small, boutique personal injury law firm here in Winter Park, Florida. Bob and I have a combined experience of over 40 years handling plaintiff’s personal injury cases. We are rated AV-Preeminent by Martingale-Hubbell, “Superb” by Avvo, and are members of Super Lawyers, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and numerous other professional organizations. Over those years, we have literally represented thousands of injured people, and have recovered millions of dollars for our clients.
By referring personal injury cases to us, you get to pocket 25% of any attorneys’ fees generated by each case, and you don’t have to do anything else. Literally — all you have to do is call us and refer the cases.
One Phone Call Equals $50,000.00
Don J. is a lawyer in Miami. His practice consists mainly of handling real estate transactions for wealthy investors from all over the world who want to invest in South Florida. One day Don received a call from a young man who had been seriously injured in an accident in Orlando. Don knew the young man had a very good case in terms of damages, but he also knew liability would be difficult. He thought to himself, “I’m pretty sharp. I finished near the top of my class in law school, and I got an “A” in Torts. This seems like a pretty good case. How hard could it be to handle it myself?”
Don wrote a letter to the tortfeasor for the injured young man, and returned to helping his regular investor clients. He never heard back from the tortfeasor, so a few weeks later he fired off another letter. This happened two or three more times before he FINALLY heard back from a claims representative on behalf of the tortfeasor who immediately denied liability and began demanding all kinds of information about the case, and the young man, that Don simply did not have. He soon realized that the time demands of this one personal injury case were going to taking him away from generating the regular cash flow that his firm needed to survive. After all, he had no idea when — or if — this young man’s personal injury would generate any fee income.
Additionally, Don realized that in order to “win” the case, and convince or force the tortfeasor’s insurer to pay his client, suit was going to need to be filed in Orlando, and several expert witnesses would need to be retained. He knew these experts would not be free, and he knew that his client had no money to pay these witnesses up front. Unfortunately, the cash flow of Don’s law firm was not set up to fund litigation in this manner.
Don realized he needed help. He called a friend in Orlando who gave him our firm’s contact information. Don called us and told us about the case. We drove down to Miami the next day to meet with Don and our new client. Six months later, after filing a lawsuit, hiring expert, and taking scores of depositions, Bob and I our were happy to deliver a $50,000.00 referral fee check to Don. We were also happy to reimburse Don for the few dollars he spent on postage and copies early on. Don shared with us his effective hourly rate for the time he spent on this case was about $10,000.00 per hour. Not too bad…
We Love To Pay Referral Fees
We are always looking to expend our referral partner network. We are looking for attorneys who generate quality personal injury inquiries, but for whatever reason (lack of interest, too busy with other work, conflicts of interest, lack of confident or expertise, lack of resources, personal preference, etc.) do not want to handle them. We will consider cases that are brand new, or cases that have already been set up and begun.
You probably already realize that personal injury cases are often much more challenging than they look from the “outside.” Getting good, high value, results in personal injury cases takes skill, experience, and some finesse. Personal injury law is evolving all the time — and particularly, the insurance aspects — and the defense strategies employed by insurers and their lawyers are constantly making things more challenging. Over the last several years, liens and insurance subrogation issues at the conclusion of cases have made closing cases out even more challenging and things perilous.
Despite the challenges, personal injury work is all Bob and I do. It has been our laser focus, and we have thousands of satisfied (all over Florida, and the world) clients to prove it. Unlike the personal injury firms you see on television, we rely upon referrals for the majority of our work — from current and former clients, as well as attorneys — so we have a very powerful incentive to treat our clients like the special people (and long term business assets) that they are. As a result, our attorney referral partners never have to worry about their referrals being unhappy with us or the customer service they receive.
Our legions of satisfied clients also provide us with a side benefit outside of our firm. Because of aggressive follow-up marketing, our clients tend to regularly stay in touch with us. We get calls practically every day from current and former clients who face legal problems and concerns that we are often not equipped to handle, or that do match our skill sets. We constantly need qualified attorneys in a wide variety of non-personal injury practice areas to refer these potential clients to.
We also receive regular inquiries from our state-of-the-art website, and the various other marketing activities we engage in (including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social media.) Many of those are non-personal injury inquiries. We always need qualified and interested attorneys to refer these potential clients to.
Dedicated To Relationships
Outside of the law, Bob and I are proud of our commitment to various Central Florida causes and charities. We sponsor multiple public interest events each year including the Baldwin Park Doggie Derby, the Fiddler’s Green 5K, Out of the Darkness Community Walk, and various local sporting events and youth sports leagues. In addition to working in this community, we are live here and are raising our families here.
At the end of the day, Bob and I realize that it is relationships that make the difference. We value the relationships we have with our referring lawyers, and work very hard to keep those relationships mutually beneficial.
Bob and I would appreciate the opportunity to work with you. If you have a personal injury case that you need help with right now, please call Bob or me at 407-644-4444 or email me. Even if you don’t want to make a referral at this point, we are happy to answer any questions you might have.
If you do not have any personal injury cases pending at the moment, we would love to get together in person, by phone, or video conference to discuss how we can possibly help each other. Please leave your information below, and we will take care of coordinating a meeting.
