Practice News

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. Our firm is a 6 attorney firm in downtown Chicago. Our practice is a litigation boutique focused on representing individuals in personal injury and divorce matters. We do a fair amount of advertising and have had mixed results. We tried radio and limited TV ads, have an innovative website, have done some pay per click ads on the web and are now considering a lead referral service. Do you have any suggestions concerning what we should be investing in marketing and what we should be doing to maximize our results?

A. Studies that have been conducted indicate that law firms that provide services to business firms (B2B) spend approximately 2.4% of fee revenue on marketing. However, law firms that focus on individual consumers (retail law if you will) spend much more - 10%+ of fee revenues on marketing - especially if strong referral networks are not in place. I have several PI, SSDI, Elder Law and Estate Planning firm clients that are spending 10%+ of their fee revenue or greater on marketing. I have some extremely successful PI firm clients spending 20% of their revenue on marketing.

The amount of appropriate investment can depend upon referral networks in place. I have successful PI and Estate Planning firms that are getting all of their business from their referral networks and spending next to nothing on marketing and advertising. (By referrals I am speaking about professional referrals not involving a referral fee and client referrals. If referral fees are involved they should be considered a marketing cost) So it depends upon your situation, the type of cases you are going after, etc.

Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Friday's Illinois Supreme Court opinion in the Criminal case People v. Hackett.

People v. Hackett

By Kerry J. Bryson, Office of the State Appellate Defender

Chief Judge John T. Elsner has announced that the Court is accepting applications to fill a vacancy for the Office of Associate Judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit of Illinois, DuPage County. This vacancy is a result of the retirement of Associate Judge Cary B. Pierce.

Judge Elsner added that applications to fill this vacancy will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2012. Applicants must be a United States citizen, licensed to practice law in this state and a resident of DuPage County. Two original applications, submitted on the prescribed application form, must be filed with:

• Michael J. Tardy, Director
• Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts
• 3101 Old Jacksonville Road
• Springfield, IL 52704-6488

Applications can be obtainted from the Chief Judge's Office, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts or from the Supreme Court's website: www.state.il.us/court.

Applications may not be submitted electronically or via facsimile.

ISBA President John E. Thies wrote a letter to the editor (below) in response to the Chicago Tribune article last Friday on the difficult legal job market and high debt load facing recent law school graduates. President Thies has made examining the impact of high debt load on the future delivery of legal services a key theme during his presidential year.

Dear Editor:

As suggested by your Friday article about the grim picture facing law school graduates, these are difficult times for recent law grads and the law schools that gave them their diplomas.  The current employment statistics and debt amounts for new lawyers are simply unsustainable. 

At the Illinois State Bar Association, we place a great priority on making sure that the members of our profession – through a variety of practice settings - can continue to meet the legal needs of the citizens of this state.  Especially in difficult economic times, the process of meeting legal needs is frustrated by, among other things, the unhealthy (and costly) zeal with which American law schools race to maximize their respective U.S. News & World Report ranking, sometimes with terrible (and predictable) consequences.  We need to focus on lowering the cost of legal education, ensuring that we continue to have bright students interested in obtaining their JDs, and having “practice ready” lawyers from the moment they leave law school.