Challenge

• Any bankruptcy practice needs a constant stream of new clients
• A solo attorney in start-up mode needed to increase her exposure to potential clients
• Success depended on controlling overhead expenses and time spent marketing

Solution

• Sponsorship of ClearBankruptcy.com and Bankruptcy.Me sites for consumer bankruptcy education
• Marketing and call center support from Total Attorneys on a pay-for-performance basis

Results

• After only 16 months, the practice is thriving, with numerous inquiries from potential clients
• By following guidance from Total Attorneys, the law office built an effective system for converting inquiries into clients
• Leveled the playing field competitively

By its nature, any bankruptcy practice needs a constant stream of new clients because it has virtually no repeat business. Word of mouth advertising is free and effective, but it must be supplemented by other sources so that the practice can grow. Most of those other sources take time, money and a marketing staff to generate, which is why fortune usually favors large, established firms in the competition for business.

The solo bankruptcy law practice of Carolyn Secor P.A. faced an additional challenge. It was her second law practice in Tampa; the first closed when she married, changed her name, and moved to Japan with her husband, who was on active duty with the military. By the time she returned to Tampa and started her solo practice, Secor had lost touch with her former client base.

"I opened my doors in January 2008—in the middle of a perfect storm, from the consumer bankruptcy perspective," Secor says. "Despite the start-up challenges, I was able to ramp up my practice quickly by sponsoring ClearBankruptcy.com and Bankruptcy.Me."

ClearBankruptcy.com and Bankruptcy.Me are bankruptcy education web sites owned and operated by Total Attorneys, a Chicago-based technology-enabled services provider servicing more than 1,000 small firm and solo practice lawyers nationwide. As part of its marketing effort, Total Attorneys pays thousands of dollars a day for the broad bankruptcy-related internet search terms that consumers use. It also has the marketing expertise and dedicated resources to ensure that ClearBankruptcy.com and Bankruptcy.Me consistently turn up among the top results in all the major search engines. A marketing effort on this scale is uneconomic for even the largest law practice on its own, because it generates huge volumes of inquiries from all over the country whereas the law office can only service those from its own metro area(s).

Secor says, "Before I found Total Attorneys, I did what most attorneys do: network and market. I used all the mediums I could afford: my web site, SEO marketing, internet and phone directory advertising. I also belong to associations that give me exposure to potential clients. That takes a lot of work, and the time I spent on business development came out of the time I had available to serve my clients."

The most valued benefit of the Total Attorneys marketing effort is what Secor sees as “the biggest challenge for a solo practitioner: controlling overhead expenses. ClearBankruptcy.com gets the largest percentage of my marketing dollar, and it is the most productive. I pay only for performance, and I don’t have any long-term contract.”

Total Attorneys not only reduces the amount of time that Secor spends on marketing to generate the volume of local inquiries she needs to support her practice, it also provides call center support and web-based contact and case management tools that reduce the time required to follow up and convert inquiries.

We utilize their call center and customer management system for the greatest retention and the highest growth possible," Secor says. "If you use their tools and follow their guidance, you should be successful."

Secor is "very happy with Total Attorneys," she says. "Total Attorneys has helped my practice a lot. It has leveled the playing field between me and my local competitors with much bigger marketing budgets. I appreciate the power and reach of the Total Attorneys marketing effort, which has helped me grow a thriving practice in little more than a year."