During Ep. 34 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following question:

What does “Just Don’t Fumble the Ball” Mean in the context of a law firm sale?

As Poock explains,

Most law firm sales include the transition of a selling law firm’s Book of Business from its Rainmaker attorney lawyers to lawyers at a purchasing law firm (the “Growing Law Firm”).

Considering that selling Rainmaker Attorneys have developed deep trust with their clients, Poock shares the following advice to the lawyers at a purchasing law firm who want to continue representing those clients:

“Don't fumble the ball.”

Similar to a quarterback handing-off a football to a running back, Poock explains the following 3 methods of Trust Transfer that results in successful client transitions in law firm sales:

1. In-person meetings

2. Virtual meetings via Zoom or another virtual video platform

3. Via social media in which clients of a selling law firm receive digital content from lawyers at a Growing Law Firm (egs. e-newsletters, LinkedIn posts, podcast links, video content, and more).

When Trust Transfer successfully results in transitioning clients from a selling law firm to a Growing Law Firm, Poock explains that the following 4 winners benefit, as follows:

1. Senior Attorney sellers benefit by selling their law firms

2. Key Employee Lawyers and Para-Staff at a selling law firm benefit by Growing Law Firms that typically hire them to continue providing legal services to the clients of a selling law firm who transition to a Growing Law Firm.

3. Clients of a selling law firm who benefit from ongoing, competent representation

4. Growing Law Firms who benefit from: (1) New clients; (2) An experienced workforce; and (3) The opportunity to convert the subject matter knowledge of attorneys at a selling law firm into digital content.

During the Poock’s Post segment of Ep. 34 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following:

Why Digital Marketing Analytics Present More Value than Lawyer Portables   

As Poock explains:

Pre-2020, and certainly, pre-Google, Rainmaker Attorneys developed Books of Business that represented their “portables” while practicing and their primary asset when selling their law firms.

By limiting portables to a Book of Business, sale prices have tended to result in a circa 1x of gross revenues, derived from a defined Book of Business and paid via an earnout per fee sharing attributable to clients in a Rainmaker Attorney’s Book of Business who continue retaining a successor law firm.

As Poock points out:

“In the mid-2020s and heading towards 2030 . . . firms are heading to becoming Digital Rainmaker firms.”

Digital Rainmaker Law Firms continue developing new business via multi-channel digital marketing, supported by data analytics.  By focusing on multiple marketing channels, Digital Rainmaker law firms have also begun developing brand equity, the features of which include: (i) Digital presence; (ii) Brand awareness; (iii) Trade names; and (iv) Quality Perception (ex. multiple 5-Star Google reviews).

Unlike the volatility of the Book of Business pegged to a Rainmaker Attorney, data analytics that support a Digital Rainmaker law firm’s digital client originations introduce greater predictability for originations and revenues.

“And hence, those digital marketing analytics are becoming more valuable than lawyer portables as we head towards 2030 and as the legal industry continues to transition from being led by traditional Rainmaker Attorneys to law firms that are becoming Digital Rainmaker Law Firms.”

In Episode 69 of the State of the Market for Law Firm Sales in 11 Minutes, Senior Attorney Match’s Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following:

The Growing Importance of Tracking Digital Originations

As law firms continue transforming to becoming Digital Rainmaker law firms that originate clients via Multi-Channel Digital Marketing, their sale values will continue to increase because of greater predictability for client originations, as compared to depending on a limited number of traditional Rainmaker attorneys.

This episode addresses:

During Ep. 32 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following question:

Why Do Key Employee Lawyers Want a Boss & Do Not Aspire to become Law Firm Owners?

As Poock explains,

“What is it that key employee lawyers want? What they really want is a reliable, predictable, and safe job.”

Rather than aspiring to owning a small business law firm, most key employee lawyers want a boss because a boss will provide them with a reliable, predictable, and safe job.

Until Senior Attorney owners of law firms recognize the likelihood that their key employee lawyers prefer a boss, rather than becoming the boss, Poock explains the possibility of a collision of expectations, namely:

The goal for a Senior Attorney owner for key employee lawyers to succeed to ownership often collides with a key employee lawyer’s goal to maintain a reliable, predictable, and safe job.

When those goals collide, unfortunately, the following “Random Tuesday” event can (does) occur:

Key employee lawyers give their longtime Senior Attorney bosses 2 or 4 weeks notice about joining another law firm that can restore their need for a reliable, predictable, and safe job.

Rather than colliding, Poock shares that their respective goals align when a Senior Attorney owner, together with key employee lawyers, join a Growing Law Firm.

In that collaborative scenario, the following 4 winners result:

1. Senior Attorneys win by establishing a viable succession plan that includes sale terms.

2. Key employee lawyers win by maintaining their need for a reliable, predictable, and safe job.

3. The clients win via assurance that they will continue benefiting from ongoing, competent representation.

4. The Growing Law Firm wins by benefiting from new clients, an experienced workforce, and succeeding to decades’ worth of Subject Matter Knowledge to convert into much-needed Digital Content in today’s 3.0 Digital Era for the legal industry.

During the Poock’s Post segment of Ep. 32 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. shares the following warning:

Warning to T&E Attorneys: Clients Do Not Necessarily Hire the Same Firm that Prepared an Estate Plan for Probate & Trust Administration

As Poock explains:

“What we continue to see with Trusts & Estates attorneys is that when the clients for whom Trusts & Estates attorneys prepared wills and trusts - when they pass away, their children [and] their named fiduciaries, they will go to Google [and] ask for ‘Best Trusts & Estates attorney near me.’”

In terms of why children and fiduciaries ask Google, or their preferred AI thought partner, to suggest the best Trust & Estate attorney to hire, Poock shares the following:

Beneficiaries and fiduciaries want to hire a Trusts & Estates law firm that features multiple 5-Star Google Reviews and that publishes compelling content on their websites, as well as social media, as compared to returning to the law firm that prepared the original estate plan per the following mindset:

“Just because Mom or Dad trusted them, doesn’t mean that we need to.”

What can Senior Attorney T&E attorneys do now to preserve a significant, valuable aspect of their T&E practices, namely, the future probate and trust administrations on behalf of their Trusts & Estates clients?

Poock offers the following suggestions:

1. Consider Your Wills Cabinet as Estate Plans under Management: Please consider the estate plans that you have prepared as “Estate Plans under Management.”

Similar to financial planners who maintain Assets under Management, maintaining Estate Plans under Management involves: (a) Regularly updating client contact information; and (b) Periodically contacting T&E clients to offer to update their plans.

2. Establish Relationships with Named Beneficiaries & Fiduciaries: As a proverbial antidote to named fiduciaries and beneficiaries searching online for T&E attorney when a need to probate a will or trust arises, Poock suggests that T&E lawyers proactively establish relationships with both beneficiaries and named fiduciaries.

As Poock states, “Let them know who you are . . . You care about the people for whom you wrote the estate plans, and you can let [beneficiaries and fiduciaries] know: ‘We're here for you.’”

3. Update Your Website & LinkedIn Profile: Considering the likelihood that named fiduciaries and beneficiaries will search online for a T&E attorney to administer their loved one’s estate plan, Poock suggests the following:

That Senior Attorney T&E lawyers update their websites and LinkedIn profiles to establish a digital assurance that the firm that prepared the estate plan for their loved one has the experience and capability to administer the plan, as well.

Regarding the significance of this warning in the context of selling a T&E law firm, Poock explains the following:

In Law Firm Sales 1.0, purchasing firms pay a selling law firm upon an earnout basis, namely, fee sharing upon revenues derived from a selling law firm’s defined Book of Business.

Importantly, if estate planning clients do not return to a purchasing law firm when the need arises to administer a will or trust prepared by a selling law firm, the following negative consequences will occur:

1. The potential value of a selling law firm’s Estate Plans under Management will become unrealized; and

2. The expected earnout will not match a selling law firm’s expectations, despite having prepared hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of estate plans.

As Poock advises, “If you want to get as high of an Earnout as possible when you sell your firm, [i]t is just so important to keep in touch with your clients.”

And, as Poock suggests, “[R]each out to your clients; get that updated contact information; learn more about who the beneficiaries are, who the fiduciary is; keep in touch with them and let them know your firm is here for them and their families for years and decades to come.”

During Ep. 32 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following question:

What is a Digital Rainmaker Law Firm?

As Poock explains, during a very short time period between the “Digital Pivot” that occurred worldwide in 2020 and now in the mid-2020s, Digital Rainmaker Law Firms have “e-merged.”

The e-mergence of Digital Rainmaker Law Firms resulted from the attention of today’s and tomorrow’s clients shifting to searching for lawyers and law firms online, as compared to the pre-2020, pre-Google Word-of-Mouth Era for business development for lawyers.

As Digital Rainmaker Law Firms continue growing, Senior Attorney-led firms offer the following 3 resources to boost that growth:

1. Book of Business: The Books of Business of a Senior Attorney-led firm present instant client growth.

2. Experienced Workforce: Senior Attorney-led firms offer experienced lawyers and para-staff who can capably produce the sophisticated legal services that Digital Rainmaker Law Firms need to provide to their clients.

3. Digital Content: The Subject Matter Knowledge that lawyers at Senior Attorney-led Firms have developed over decades presents treasure chests of content to convert into digital content to attract the attention of new clients to a Digital Rainmaker Law Firm.

Poock also explains that those 3 needs will become less valuable over time as:

(i) The cost of Digital Rainmaking for new clients becomes less than paying consideration for a Senior Attorney’s Book of Business;

(ii) Homegrown talent and AI decrease the need for lawyers and para-staff from a Senior Attorney-led firm; and

(iii) AI produces sophisticated, digital content without the need of the decades of experience that lawyers at Senior Attorney-led firms offer.

And, regarding sales of Digital Rainmaker law firms, Poock shares the following:

As Digital Rainmaker Law Firms continue developing measurable Digital Value and Brand Equity, they will benefit from higher sale prices per Law Firm Sales 2.0.

Unlike Law Firm Sales 1.0 in which law firm value relies upon the transfer of the good will of 1 or more Rainmaker Attorneys, the value of Digital Rainmaker Law Firms involves greater predictability, attributable to data analytics that show and measure digital sources of a selling law firm’s revenues, including (i) The submission of website contact forms; (ii) Calls and texts generated by phone numbers assigned to particular digital marketing campaigns; (iii) Rankings for key phrases; and (iv) More.

In Episode 68 of the State of the Market for Law Firm Sales, Senior Attorney Match’s Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. welcomes Boris Ziser, Esq. of McDermott Will & Schulte to discuss Management Services Organizations (MSOs) and the benefits that MSOS offer to Personal Injury Law Firms.

During this episode, Attorney Ziser addresses:

1. What is a MSO?

2. Insights about the benefits for certain Personal Injury Law firms to set-up a MSO

3. The role for MSOs as Private Equity firms continue entering into the single event Personal Injury Law marketplace

While explaining the functions of a MSO in the legal industry, including for certain Personal Injury Law firms, Attorney Ziser points to the value that MSOs provide by separating the non-legal functions of a law firm from the practice of law.

Addressing the potential concern for unauthorized practice of law by non-lawyer owners of a MSO, Ziser points out that lawyers will presumably not violate ethics rules and risk their bar licenses by permitting non-lawyer involvement in decision making about a law firm’s practice of law.

As Ziser says, “[T]he notion that Private Equity, which owns a service provider, is somehow now controlling the law firm, I just don't think that's true. And, by the way, it isn't good for business for the Private Equity firm either, because if there is such a violation . . . if the law firm goes under, for example, there's nobody to pay the service provider. That's not going to help grow the enterprise.”

In his concluding remarks, Poock reiterates Ziser’s point that MSOs will enhance the enterprise value of law firms as MSOs improve the business of law, which will result in higher prices for law firm sales. 

Poock also points out that Private Equity has expressed particular interest in Personal Injury Law because of the volume of clients that Personal Injury law firms can represent, plus the predictability of revenues due to many Personal Injury Law matters involving insurance companies paying on behalf of defendants.

During the Poock’s Post for Ep. 31 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. shares the following:

For those Senior Attorneys who do not adopt Multi-Channel Digital Marketing for business development, Poock suggests considering selling their law firms during the second half of the 2020s while their firms continue offering the following 3 resources that purchasing law firms want and need:

1. A Book of Business that presents instant client growth

2. Experienced lawyers and para-staff

3. Subject Matter Knowledge to convert to Digital Content to attract the attention of potential clients who search online today for lawyers and law firms to retain.

Poock also points out that Growing Law Firms will soon have a lesser need to purchase Senior Attorney-led law firms because of the lower case cost acquisition that Multi-Channel Digital Marketing presents, as compared to purchasing a Book of Business from a Senior Attorney-led law firm.

And, as a warning to those Senior Attorneys who do not adopt Multi-Channel Digital Marketing to grow their Books of Business, Poock quotes Shooter Flatch’s famous line from the 1986 movie, Hoosiers, in the context of Growing Law Firms that continue to want and need the 3 resources outlined above: “Don’t get caught watching the paint dry.”

During Ep. 31 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. shares the following 4 trends to expect for law firm sales in 2026:

1. The phaseout of Law Firm Sales 1.0 for Senior Attorney-led Law Firms

2. The increase of “unexpected” key employee departures from Senior Attorney-led Firms

3. The normalization of Digital Rainmaker law firms

4. The rise of Law Firm Sales 2.0 & 2.5

In Episode 67 of the State of the Market for Law Firm Sales, Senior Attorney Match’s Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. welcomes Seth Deutsch and Jordan McMillian of Samson Partners Group for an in-depth focus on the entry of Private Equity to the Personal Injury Law marketplace.

This circa 45 minute podcast episode involves a Q&A format, in which Seth and Jordan discuss the following:

1. Why did Samson Partners Group identify Personal Injury Law as ripe for opportunities for Samson’s Private Equity Legal Alliance?

2. Could you please share 5 factors that Samson considers when valuing a PI law firm?

3. As sales of PI firms continue to buzz throughout the industry, what range of multiples of EBITDA do you observe and foresee?

4. What is a MSO, and what role do you foresee for MSOs in the sales of Personal Injury Law Firms?

5. What do you foresee as opportunities for platform acquisitions and tuck-in acquisitions during the next 5 years?