Gideon Legal

Automated Intake for Law Firms

Intelligent Messaging

Marketing, Messaging

On the Regular: Why Your Law Firm Should Maintain a Marketing Publication Schedule

The key to effective marketing, really, is consistency.  And, that’s because the goal of marketing  is the creation of awareness.  And, over time, as human attention spans devolve to the level of gnats’, maintaining awareness is more and more about consistent production.  Think of the famous brands you know: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Amazon.  Those brands are imprinted on our brains because we see and hear about them so often.  If you have children between the ages of 2-12, you’ve probably seen every Disney and Pixar movie that came out in the last decade.

But, consider how those brands have also evolved over that same time frame.  The amount of content and the number of platforms to which it is released is staggering.  Every successful large company is now a media entity unto itself.  And, the most successful small companies create a miniature version of that approach.  This is why small businesses, like law firms, are so keen to engage on social media.  Because everyone’s attention is spliced, and it’s difficult to discern where your potential clients and referral sources will engage your marketing, it’s better to be in all the places — or as many places as practicable.  But, it’s also about being in all those places consistently, and that requires regular content: yours and others’, but much of it should be yours, because that is an essential measure for establishing your expertise.  If you can speak and write eloquently about why and how you solve client problems, that’s the first step to winning business.

The problem most law firms have in this regard is content production.  If you hire a company to create and manage your content, that’s a potential viable solution; but, some lawyers (especially solo and small firm lawyers) would prefer to generate much of their own content, in large part because your own voice tends to resonate better with your potential clients than does the generic content you buy.  No one knows your business better than you; consequently, no one knows how to talk about your business better than you.

So, if you’ve made the decision to create your own marketing content, the challenge is always keeping that product churning out.  And, it’s very easy to lose the thread, as you put out the fires that keep cropping up when you run your own law firm.  The best way to ensure that you keep building content on the regular is to create and manage a publication schedule for yourself, or for your law firm.  A publication schedule is essentially a content calendar.  Figure out what kind of content you want to produce — because you’ve got options.  Then, set deadlines for producing that content.  Finally, settle dates for when each type of content gets published, and where.  And, stick to the calendar.  If you don’t deviate, people will begin to expect that your stuff is coming out, and you’ll begin to build an audience.

Do that well enough, and maybe you can be the legal version of Netflix, with less chill.

Marketing, Analytics, Messaging

Feels Like the First Time: Why Your Law Firm Needs to Develop a Client Journey

Law firms work vigorously to convert leads: to get those leads to pay retainers and sign engagement agreements.  That all makes sense: winning business is essential for any organization.  However, once law firms convert clients, there is often a dry spell before the new clients hear from their new law firms again; and, because many cases start with potentially significant periods before anything of note actually happens, new clients may go for months, or even a year, before they hear from their lawyer again.

This paucity of response is one of the reasons that law firms have a bad reputation for customer service.  Keep in mind that, while you deal with the legal field every working day of your life, for many of your clients, it will be the first (and potentially only) time they ever have an interaction with the legal system.  So, it’s essential to keep them informed of what’s going on, even if you know exactly what’s up.

And, that’s why your law firm should adopt and utilize a client journey.

A client journey is a series of interactions that are scheduled for onboarding new clients.  Even if these are automated, as part of a drip campaign for every new client, that’s a site better than just letting your new clients twist in the wind, wondering what happens now.  And, while you should maintain regular, personal contact with your clients (a good rule is to check in with each of your active clients via phone or email every six weeks), it helps to automate an initial rollout of information, in order to keep your clients engaged, and to make them feel cared for, while you can tend to more pressing substantive legal matters.

What you construct is entirely up to you; but, whatever it is, it should be a consistent demonstration of your investment in the attorney-client relationship.  By way of example, the client journey you build out might look like this: (1) a short video welcoming the client to the law firm, sent by email; (2) a follow-up email listing the various ways that the client can contact the law firm; (3) a text message to see whether or not the client has any questions; (4) an email notifying the client that you’ve signed her up for your enewsletter, which will follow on a schedule; (5) your first check-in call, six weeks into the representation.  In all likelihood that’s five more additional touches than most law firms get on new clients.  This listing assumes that your law firm is like most law firms in that it collects only the most basic client contact information: email and phone number; but, if you’ve got more than that, feel free to communicate with your client via other or alternate media.  No matter how you contact your new clients, set up a schedule, and follow through; that’s the only way to instill an effective system.

If you can install a client journey within your law firm’s client communications structure, you’ll end up with happier clients, which ultimately means more referrals and less malpractice risk.

Marketing

First Responders: Law Firm Lead Conversion is About Immediacy

In the classic feature film ‘Talladega Nights’, Ricky Bobby learned from his daddy that ‘if you ain’t first, you’re last’.  And, that’s not just true in fictional depictions of NASCAR.  It’s true for law firm lead conversion, too.

Studies have shown that nearly 90% of potential law firm clients will ultimately choose the law firm that first engages with them.  That amounts to a lot of pressure for law firm business owners, and it means that, regardless of how much you spend to get a lead (and it can be a lot), you can lose that lead right at the goal line, if you don’t have an effective method (or methods) for providing a meaningful interaction when your new lead reaches out to your firm.

No law firm will have the exact same intake procedure; but, every law firm should build an intake procedure that highlights effective engagement.

Here are three tips to help you get started:

(1) Be Intentional About Constructing Your Lead Channels.  You should not be foisting your law firm marketing upon the world with a limited idea of how and where it generates leads for your business.  In the first instance, you should have an intimate understanding of your messaging, and how it should resonate with clients.  Next, you should understand how you direct those leads to contact points at your website, and elsewhere.  Even if the major landing spot for most law offices is the law firm website, depending on how sophisticated your marketing platform is, you may have additional places you’re pointing your clients.  You may want your clients to call you, or text you.  Whatever your preferred channels are, make it your business to fully understand the process of how leads are created and filtered.

(2) Get Engaged.  And, therein lies the rub . . . even if you get all of that right, you still need to convert.  It doesn’t matter how many leads you can generate if your conversion rate is poor.  Remember, coffee is for closers.  So, when someone lands on your website, or your preferred landing spot for leads . . . what happens next?  Is there any level of engagement?  Are those leads filling out a form and waiting for a contact back, or is there a messaging option?  Are those leads leaving a message, and waiting for a callback?  Are those leads texting you, but not receiving an autoresponse, as you try to figure to effectively manage SMS communications?  The simple fact is that the vast majority of law firms don’t truly engage their leads, which is the first step of any conversion process.  And, if you don’t engage your leads, they’re going to immediately find another law firm that will.

(3) Staff Up.  Of course, running a small law firm — or even a solo practice with staff — is a team effort.  If you’re practicing at the top of your law license, you’re not answering the phones.  So, you’ve got to be sure to train your staff about how to engage leads effectively, regardless of the stage at which they do so.  The more you can automate your intake process, the better.  But, at some point, your staff is likely to talk with a potential client before that person becomes an actual client.  Make sure they know what they’re doing.

. . .

Don’t leave your clients feeling like they’re ‘stuck in the middle with you’.

(Yes: one blog post, one Stealers Wheel reference.)

Messaging, Analytics, Marketing

What’s Next: Gideon Will Increase Conversion, Predict Case Results

Probably the biggest challenge law firms face is not managing their existing clients, but getting clients in the first place.  Current technologies don’t allow law firms to effectively convert leads.  This is almost universally true for law firms, regardless of their marketing budget.  And, if you spend the kind of money and time generating leads the way that law firms do, it doesn’t make sense to do all that work and then to rely on technology that doesn’t meet the needs of modern consumers — but, that’s just what happens in the practice of law.  Law firms end up presenting leads with barriers, not access.  Come to my website, and fill out a gigantic form.  Call me, and I won’t follow-up with you for a week.  Send an email to my ‘info’ account, and twiddle your thumbs while you wait for a response.  Legal consumers want immediate responses, real-time access and actionable items.  Quite simply, law firms that deliver on immediacy convert more leads than law firms that don’t.

But, even when law firms convert leads, they don’t usually do it in a thoughtful manner.  Most lawyers just want to get clients, whatever clients they can get.  But, the wrong clients can paralyze your law firm for years; and, getting out from under a bad client costs far more than never getting into that client in the first place, even including the marketing outlays to get to that lead.  It’s clear that lawyers can make more intelligent decisions about the way they select clients.  Law firms could use data (their own data and anonymized, aggregated data from other law firms) to predict case results based on historical information.  That is an entirely new method of making client selection choices that empowers law firms to add the clients they want, while avoiding those they don’t. Using data analytics for client vetting removes the guesswork that law firms traditionally rely on for intake, and decreases volatility across the practice, including with respect to revenue, expenses and staff utilization.  Knowing the entire case lifecycle before making the decision to accept or reject a client would equate to much more than an improved client intake methodology.  It means that, in addition to only taking on ‘A’ grade clients, you can make revenue projections that are actually viable.  Knowing when and how your revenue will come in before you make it means you can make better decisions about how you manage your law firm, and reduce the general, underlying panic that lawyers often feel about making things work on a month-to-month basis, including the anxiety they experience about ‘cash crunches’ that seem like unending valleys.  Predictability reduces anxiety; and, less anxious lawyers can focus on running better businesses.

. . .

Gideon is an intelligent messaging and predictive analytics software that answers for the above concerns in a truly meaningful way.  In the first instance, Gideon delivers an intelligent messaging system for attorneys, that features significant user controls.  Gideon’s AI-based chatbots engage a law firm’s web-based leads in natural language, while simultaneously qualifying those leads.  Gideon features a complete bot building environment, which means that lawyers can create their own chatbots, by using simple options to manage logic applications; or, lawyers can use pre-built templates for specific practice areas.  Law firms can turn on the technology, and let it manage client engagement, from initial contact to scheduling meetings.  Lawyers and staff also have the ability to personally engage a warm lead, by using system prompts or their own intuition to jump into live conversations.  Gideon integrates with Microsoft Office and GSuite.  Gideon’s integration for Clio case management software works to convert leads to matters and to qualify leads.  Gideon leads become Clio matters; Gideon conversations become Clio communications; Gideon appointments become Office or Google calendar appointments that sync with Clio.  Modern consumers love real-time messaging; Gideon delivers the most robust chat functionality for modern law firms.

But, Gideon is also a client qualification engine.  It’s true that law firms do use selection criteria when considering whether to take on clients.  The thing is that those criteria are always moving targets, because attorneys don’t apply them consistently.  Gideon combines attorney intuition and big data to build coherent predictions about the cases and clients attorneys are thinking about engaging.  The first level at which Gideon qualifies leads is for attorney preference.  Lawyers design qualifying questions via the chatbot builder in order to elicit answers to relevant questions reflecting on the desirability of a potential case, including with respect to jurisdictional limitations, matter types, ability to pay, necessary claim elements and potential revenue generated.  With Gideon, law firms can systematize traditional vetting questions, and start to create a more complete picture of the initial state of any potential law firm client.  The Gideon difference involves the marshaling of big data to refine law firm intake to a point where accurate predictions can be made about the potential for cases — before a fee agreement is ever signed.  By connecting to your law firm’s existing dataset, as well as anonymized data from other law firms maintained by Gideon and provided by its partners, the system can predict revenue, expenses, length and staff utilization for any potential case, by comparing historical information related to the subject law firm’s and other law firms’ actual experiences in similar cases.  This allows law firms to take advantage of big data, while protecting the confidentiality of their clients’ information, and is similar to the way that other industries (including medical), have addressed the issue.  Gideon’s predictive analytics provide a complete architecture for forecasting law firm revenue.

So much of modern technology is concerned with predicting human behavior and building a revenue model around the ripple effects.  If you use Pandora, how uncannily accurate are its song recommendations for you?  How many internet ads are you served that align with your current interests?  Consider that every consumer interaction you have is actually a reaction to building stimuli provided by smart companies.

Law firms’ passivity in the face of increasingly scientific and increasingly sophisticated lead generation and lead conversion tactics endangers the profession.  But, those lawyers who take advantage of technology focused on leveraging data to make marketing decisions will maintain a significant advantage over their competition.

It’s time for law firms to start thinking like the smartest companies.  Gideon will provide law firms with unprecedented access to big data analytics, to help make that possible.

. . .

Request a demo today, and find out what we’re all about: https://www.gideonlegal.com/schedule-a-demo/

Access to Justice

Gideon: A New Approach to Personalized Legal Help

Gideon is on a mission to bring personalized legal help to everyone.

How? Deliver the right help to the right clients at the right time.

Through an integrated legal service delivery platform, we employ messaging and predictive analytics to enable law firms and non-profit legal aid organizations to determine who should get what help, when, and how, in order to maximize client outcomes per dollar spent.

The Legal Crisis in America

Access to justice should be understood as a human right. Yet, we live in a country where this is not the case. Increasingly, more people are going into courts self-represented, and far too many of them are losing their homes, their jobs, custody of their children, and are being victimized by discrimination and consumer rights violations due to a lack of legal representation. 

The World Justice Project’s 2016 Rule of Law Index ranks the U.S. tied for 94th out of 113 countries in “accessibility and affordability of civil justice”. The fact is, 86% of the civil legal problems reported by low-income Americans received inadequate or no legal help. And, an estimated 40%-60% of middle-income Americans are in the same boat. 

For millions of Americans who are just above the poverty line all the way through middle income, quality legal assistance is cost prohibitive and inaccessible. Across the nation, trial courts are seeing increased numbers of unrepresented litigants, raising the concern for equal access to justice even further.

At Gideon, we are inspired by the Civil Gideon movement; a national movement advocating for the right to counsel for civil legal issues. We believe that with today’s technology, it is absolutely possible and necessary to rework legal service delivery to allow the existing lawyers and legal professionals to significantly increase their reach and leverage.   

The Story Behind Gideon

Growing up, I would visit my father, a trial court judge, at his courthouse. There, I saw firsthand how many litigants went to trial without legal representation. I saw the consequences this had on the outcomes in court. In Massachusetts, where I grew up and where my father presides, more than 93% of tenants in housing court do not have lawyers, and the low rates of representation are mirrored in rates of judgment. Tenants only win possession in about 2% of cases. This sparked my passion and interest to investigate issues regarding access to justice.

But it was an experience during my high school years that compelled me to devote my life to these issues. Analogous to the experience of people who cannot access legal help in life changing matters, feeling powerless and helpless is something I know about on a personal level. At age 15, the trajectory of my life took a radical turn when I was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease. Life began to spin out of my control as my symptoms became increasingly more severe and my doctors exhausted all medicinal options. However, a pivotal difference existed between myself and the population I have described above. I had people to turn to for help — a team of expert doctors and surgeons. The expectation that I would be able heal myself or perform a complex surgical procedure on my own would have been absolutely absurd. Yet, that is the expectation for what is required from the millions of Americans who cannot afford a lawyer and are forced to represent themselves in court.

Combining technology with human legal expertise

Solving for Accessibility:

Today nearly everyone is connected via the internet. We believe it is possible to do with law what med-tech companies are doing with health; deliver most of the legal help people need on the devices they already have. We can deliver most of the diagnoses, information, legal assessments, attorney services, and advice people need virtually.

Solving for Affordability:

We build AI that allows attorneys to practice at the top of their law licenses. We harness legal data to spot issues, make case predictions, establish case types and parse cases into segments. The ability to parse cases into segments facilitates the unbundling of legal services, including for fee-shifting applications and for the establishment of value-based pricing, both of which reduce costs and bring more transparency to legal consumers.

We start today

Today, I am excited to announce the launch of Gideon and the release of our product which will enable us to take our first steps in becoming a driving force behind this vision. Gideon is about offering a new way for law firms to connect and communicate with clients while providing them with actionable insights to make the right decisions about which cases to take, or refer, and how best to allocate firm resources to specific cases in order to deliver the greatest value to their clients.

Your Legal Team's True North





Gideon Legal is now Case Compass.



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