In Episode 72 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 4.5 Reasons Why MSOs Have Arrived to the Legal Industry   

During the course of Ep. 72, Poock explains the following reasons why Management Services Organizations (MSOs) have arrived to the legal industry in the mid-2020s.

Reason No. 1: Today’s clients search for lawyers online

Reason No. 2: The emergence of Digital Rainmaker law firms

Reason No. 3: Today’s lawyers want a Reliable, Predictable & Safe Job

Reason No. 3.5: Legal Tech delivers better work-life balance for today’s lawyers

Reason No. 4: Opportunities for Profits & Exits

During Ep. 36 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following question:

What is a Law Firm to Law Firm Sale?

As Poock explains,

“The predominant sales of law firms continue to be Law Firm to Law Firm sales.”

Typically, Law Firm to Law Firm sales involve the following:

The sale or merger of law firms lead by Senior Attorney founders to Growing Law Firms who seek the following 3 resources that selling law firms offer:

Poock also shares the following 2 typical components to Law Firm to Law Firm Sales:

(a) Earnout Purchase Terms: In most Law Firm to Law Firm sales, payment terms involve earnouts based upon the owner(s) of a selling law firm receiving a percentage of collections attributable to a selling law firm’s Book of Business, payable over a negotiated period of time.

(b) The Importance of Trust Transfer: To maximize earnout payments, sellers need to transfer the trust of their long-time clients to lawyers at a purchasing law firm.

As Poock, states, “The importance of Trust Transfer . . . cannot be underscored. When a law firm sale happens, the seller should really have an expectation that the purchasing firm is going to need the selling Rainmaker Attorney or attorneys to transfer the trust of the clients to lawyers at the growing firm. And then, the consideration is fee sharing over a negotiated period of time.”

During Ep. 33 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following question:

I am tired of running my law firm, but I still want to practice. What options do you recommend?

Poock begins by pointing out that many of today’s Senior Attorney law firm owners have become tired of running and managing their offices.

After explaining succession planning options that Senior Attorneys have, Poock shares the following preferred option:

Selling to or merging with a Growing Law Firm, which typically provides Senior Attorney law firm owners with the following:

A pathway to transform from Tired to Inspired to Retired

By joining a Growing Law Firm, Senior Attorneys become inspired by:

1. The relief of no longer managing the day-to-day affairs of their law firm; and

2. Joining a Growing Law Firm that wants and needs the clients, experience, and know-how that Senior Attorneys have developed over the course of their careers.

After joining a Growing Law Firm and typically continuing to practice during a negotiated time period, Senior Attorney sellers can then retire with the pride and peace of mind of leaving a legacy that includes:

(1) Ensuring that their clients will continue benefiting from ongoing, competent representation;

(2) Securing ongoing employment for their talented lawyers and non-lawyer staff with a Growing Law Firm purchaser; and

(3) Sharing a career’s worth of experience and knowledge, together with providing treasure chests of Subject Matter Knowledge for a Growing Law Firm purchaser to convert to Digital Content to attract the attention of new clients who search online today for lawyers and law firms to retain.

During Ep. 33 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following question:

Why should I consider selling my law firm within the next 1-2 years?

Poock begins by sharing the following 5 typical reasons for why “now” presents the right time to sell a law firm:

(1) Low probability of selling to an Internal Successor a/k/a a key employee lawyer

(2) The arrival of growth by acquisition to the legal industry

(3) The need to spend more time outside of “the office”

(4) Not generating as much new business as yester-year

(5) Upcoming lease renewal

When contrasting key employee lawyers as buyers to Growing Law Firm buyers, Poock distinguishes between key employee lawyers who want a reliable, predictable, and safe job to Growing Law Firms who view growth by acquisition as presenting the following 3 benefits:

(a) Instant client growth;

(b) Adding experienced lawyer and non-lawyer staff to their workforce; and

(c)  Opportunities to convert decades of Subject Matter Knowledge into Digital Content to publish to multiple channels of digital marketing to attract the attention of today’s clients who search online for lawyers and law firms to hire.

Poock concludes by sharing the following non-financial benefits that Senior Attorney sellers of law firms experience after they sell to or merge with Growing Law Firms:

(1) The joy of spending more time outside of “the office,” including more time with family.

(2) The dual satisfaction of knowing that clients will continue to receive ongoing representation, together with the satisfaction that a Growing Law Firm often hires a selling law firm’s lawyers and support staff.

(3) The ability to continue practicing, often as Of Counsel attorneys, benefiting from having the time to focus on what Senior Attorneys enjoy (egs. business development, drafting, litigating, etc.).

In Episode 71 of the State of the Market for Law Firm Sales in 11 Minutes, Senior Attorney Match’s Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following:

Why Senior Attorneys Smile after Selling to a Growing Law Firm   

Poock begins by sharing the following 2 popular reasons for why Senior Attorneys decide to sell their law firms to a Growing Law Firm:

1. The need to no longer manage the law firm that they have built over the course of their careers.

2. Frustration regarding their key employee lawyers not expressing interest to purchase their law firms.

Turning to the end of the sale cycle, Poock explains the following 3 reasons for why Senior Attorneys smile after selling to a Growing Law firm:

(1) Achieving 4 wins: Senior Attorney achieve the following 4 wins by selling to Growing Law Firms: (i) Monetize their law firms; (ii) Encourage Growing Law Firms to hire their lawyer & non-lawyer staff; (iii) Ensure continuous, competent representation for clients; and (iv) Facilitate growth for a Growing Law Firm.

(2) Gaining More Control of Their Lives: By no longer managing “the office,” Senior Attorneys can finally take a 3-week vacation, or even go away for months at a time. Also, for those Senior Attorneys who continue practicing (and many do), they can pick and choose which clients with whom they want to work.

(3) Benefiting by Leaving a Legacy: By selling to a Growing Law Firm, Senior Attorneys sellers benefit by transforming from their law practices, defining their identities to leaving a legacy of: (i) Taking care of their clients; (ii) Taking care of their employees, and (iii) Sharing the experience and knowledge that they have developed over the course of their careers.

As Poock states, “So, when [I] go on to the websites of the Growing Law Firms that our clients join, I am just not surprised anymore at all that our clients smile when they take . . . the pictures for their bios at the Growing Law Firms to whom they sell.”

During Ep. 35 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, guest Dennis Meador, Founder of The Legal Podcast Network (LPN), turns the microphone around asks the following question to Senior Attorney Match’s Jeremy E. Poock, Esq.:

What is the “sweet spot” age for lawyers to sell a law firm?

Poock responds by distinguishing between the sales of Senior Attorney-led law firms and Start-up Law Firms.

Regarding law firms owned by Senior Attorneys, that is, attorneys who have practiced for 30+ years, Poock shares the following:

Ages 55-75 present the right age for Senior Attorneys to sell their law firms.

Why?

As Poock explains, “We find that lawyers between ages 55 and 75 . . . [are] in the MVP years of their careers . . . meaning that they have the knowledge to know one or more practice areas super well that attracts clients to their firm. They've developed a reputation in their community, in their state, regionally, sometimes even nationally. They close on matters regularly.”

Based upon typical earnout terms tied to a selling law firm’s Book of Business, Senior Attorney law firm owners realize maximum value during the MVP years of their careers by presenting the following to a purchasing law firm:

A Book of Business filled with clients and referral sources

When Senior Attorney law firm owners wait too long to sell, though, the value of their law firms decreases due primarily to the following:

Originating less new clients than yester-year, which results in offering a less valuable Book of Business to a purchasing law firm.

In contrast to the sales of Senior Attorney-led firms, Poock points out the following new trend in law firm sales:

The sales of Start-up Law Firms, whose value relates to Digital Value and Brand Equity, as compared to the Book of Business value of Senior Attorney-led firms.

As Poock points out, purchasing law firms will pay “real money” at a closing table in consideration for Start-up Law Firms because purchasing firms want and need the following during today’s Digital Era for the legal industry:

1. Clients;

2. Digital Value; and

3. Brand Equity

During the guest appearance of Ep. 35 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Dennis Meador, Founder of The Legal Podcast Network (LPN), discusses the following:

Podcasting as an Example of Brand Building & Thought Leadership for Today’s Digital Rainmakers

Since founding LPN in May 2024, LPN has grown to host over 200 legal podcasts and publish over 400 podcasts each month.

Addressing the growth of lawyer hosted podcasts, Meador distinguishes between:

1. Community building podcasts in which lawyers interview guests for the purpose of providing community type value by interviewing guests and essentially becoming a center of influence; and

2. Authority podcasts in which a lawyer can exemplify subject matter authority by publishing content geared toward the client profiles of a podcast host.

Meador elaborates about the value of authority podcasts from the standpoints of digital content delivery, personal branding, client development, and establishing “know, like, trust” relationships via content-rich podcast episodes.

Poock and Meador also discuss the following value that legal podcasts offer from the standpoint of law firm sales:

1. The development of brand value based upon the authority derived from content-driven podcasts;

2. Client attribution data when new clients credit a legal podcast as the reason for contacting a lawyer or law firm; and

3. The interest of law firm purchasers to succeed to the Digital Value and Brand Equity that established legal podcasts present.

In Episode 70 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 Rising Importance of Digital Value in Law Firm Sales

As law firms continue investing in Multi-Channel Digital Marketing to originate new clients, their Digital Value continues to rise.

This episode addresses:

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.

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

Why should I track digital originations at my law firm?

As Poock explains,

In the mid-2020s and as we head toward 2030, more and more law firms continue recognizing that the norm for developing business today involves Multi-Channel Digital Marketing, as compared to yester-year’s Word-of-Mouth dependent Rainmaker attorneys.

As law firms transition to becoming Digital Rainmaker law firms, Poock points out the following 5 digital windmills that generate clients for Digital Rainmaker law firms:

1. Google

2. AI

3. Social Media

4. Law firm websites

5. Audio, Video & Webinar mediums

“If you are spending the time, the effort and the money to be developing clients digitally, it is vital to be looking at the data analytics to understand how the clients are coming into your law firms from those different digital media venues in which you are investing,” Poock states.

Poock also explains Law Firm Sales 2.0, which consists of law firm buyers paying:

(a) Fixed pricing attributable to the Digital Value and Brand Equity of a selling law firm; plus

(b) Earnout terms attributable to a more traditional Book of Business that consist of a selling law firm’s clients and referral sources.

As Poock states, “[W]hen you're able to show the data analytics that can support that predictability of how clients are coming into your practice, then you're going to be able to have a fixed payment at a closing table . . . So, just to say that very succinctly, in terms of why should you be tracking digital originations for your law firm? It’s because, if you want to receive a . . . higher fixed payment at a closing table in Law Firm Sales 2.0, please be prepared with data to show that you have become a Digital Rainmaker law firm that has real Digital Value, real Brand Equity.”

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.