In this episode, I cover the topic of giving free legal advice. I’m sure we all have received the felicitation that we roll our eyes at but somehow feel compelled to address. This request can come in many different forms from various sources. It could be from an old friend who is hardly keeping in touch with you or even from family members. 

We all know the frustration that arises when the question occurs since we are put into a position where we have to choose: either risk harming a relationship if we decline to answer, or we decide to accept and bear with the feeling of resentful ourselves. So today, I’d love to share four response strategies to the free legal advice request. 

Tune in and find out how you can respond when people ask you to lawyer for free!

 

In this episode we discuss:

• Different approaches to telling someone you don’t give free legal advice.
• The legality of giving advise outside of your practice area.
• Overcoming the fear of declining to give free advice.
• How providing free advice once, can set an unwanted precedence for the future.

 

Bio:

Allison C. Williams, Esq., is Founder and Owner of the Williams Law Group, LLC, with offices in Short Hills and Freehold, New Jersey. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, is Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Matrimonial Law Attorney and is the first attorney in New Jersey to become Board-Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy in the field of Family Law. 

Ms. Williams is an accomplished businesswoman. In 2017, the Williams Law Group won the LawFirm500 award, ranking 14th of the fastest growing law firms in the nation, as Ms. Williams grew the firm 581% in three years. Ms. Williams won the Silver Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017.  In 2018, Ms. Williams was voted as NJBIZ’s Top 50 Women in Business and was designated one of the Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners. In 2019, Ms. Williams won the Seminole 100 Award for founding one of the fastest growing companies among graduates of Florida State University.

In 2018, Ms. Williams created Law Firm Mentor, a business coaching service for lawyers.  She helps solo and small law firm attorneys grow their business revenues, crush chaos in business and make more money.  Through multi-day intensive business retreats, group and one-to-one coaching, and strategic planning sessions, Ms. Williams advises lawyers on all aspects of creating, sustaining and scaling a law firm business – and specifically, she teaches them the core foundational principles of marketing, sales, personnel management, communications and money management in law firms. 

 

Contacts – Social Media

Contact Law Firm Mentor:

Scheduler: https://meetme.so/LawFirmMentor  

 

Snip-Its

00:21:18 (24 Seconds PLUS 29 Seconds)

When you bastardize your service and you reduce your value to nothing more than something that can easily be given away at any given time without any level of investment from another person, you're not just saying to the person to whom you give the free legal advice that it's not worth much, that you're not worth much, but you're telling the universe you're not worth much. …….

00:22:16  So our goal is to get you into a place where you can with firmness, with confidence, with a level of certainty that defies any level of question mark in your mind, say to any person who asks, you know, I give legal advice for a living. That is how I make my earnings. If you would like to come back to my office for a consultation, I'm more than happy to engage in that type of business transaction with you in my office.