15 Steps To Get Clients as a Lawyer in 2024

The client is king. Whether you’re an experienced attorney or a fighter for justice in your freshman year, one question is at the heart of your practice: How do you get clients as a lawyer and ensure your practice thrives from one year to the next?

Here are the key strategies on how to get legal clients — adopting measures from marketing and promotion to deploying tools that effectively attract clients for you.

Understanding how to get law clients begins with grasping how prospective clients seek their legal counsel. Most people scout for lawyers either through personal referrals or an automatic Google search.

Although distributing printed mailers to each contact in your address book might reel in a few clients, you’ll find greater reward in performing in-depth research to comprehend how your target audience navigates their attorney selection. To see this process through the lens of the clients themselves and glean a deeper insight, dive into this comprehensive guide on how people look for attorneys. This perspective could prove invaluable in enhancing your client acquisition strategies.

Let’s look at various strategies, such as effective marketing, client marketing, and client management, that are essential and practical for getting business clients. You can start employing these techniques right now to start receiving your first client messages.

Knowing how to find clients as a lawyer means understanding the power of a good website. The first thing you need to do is design a professional and visually appealing website, as this will help you enhance your credibility because your business is like your online storefront.

There is no exact pricing on the website. It depends on who you hire, how you want the website to look, how many web pages there will be, and how many designs and custom solutions you want to have. A website for a lawyer can cost anywhere from almost free to $80,000.

As for resources and professional help, creating a website involves fields like web design, content writing, and digital marketing, which may require hiring professionals:

It’s worth noting that while these prices give a general range, costs greatly vary depending on the complexity of work, the professionals’ expertise, and the law firm’s specific needs. 

What if we told you there’s a surefire approach to how lawyers get clients that can transform your law firm or practice into the go-to destination for users seeking legal assistance online? Well, with strategic search engine marketing, that’s exactly what you can achieve.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) forms the backbone of a successful online strategy, catapulting your online visibility and enabling you to reel in potential clients more effectively. When a user seeks a lawyer online, they turn to straightforward search terms like “business lawyer near me” or “how to find a business lawyer.” SEO is the science of associating these everyday phrases with your website or online reviews.

SEO optimization can be complex and requires expertise in correctly identifying target keywords, efficiently structuring website content, and constantly updating your strategy based on algorithm changes and competition analysis.

By fine-tuning your attention to SEO across your online platforms, you boost your law firm’s likelihood of appearing within the top search results for relevant keywords. This applies not just to Google but also to other prominent search engines like Bing and Yahoo. Remember, it’s not just about maintaining an online presence but about optimizing it to drive traffic, making SEO a pivotal player in the quest for client acquisition.

For most attorneys, the time required to master SEO and regularly generate high-quality, keyword-optimized content may be better spent on core practice activities. So, turning to an SEO specialist, a copywriter accustomed to SEO, or an agency that provides comprehensive management of your website can be a wise move. These experts use SEO daily, and they can help establish and maintain stellar website SEO optimization while you focus on what you do best — law.

In the digital world, people frequently seek online legal help when they face daunting, potentially expensive, and complex situations. The need to act swiftly eliminates the possibility of scouring through numerous profiles. Hence, to successfully get clients as a digital lawyer, it’s crucial to ensure your name comes up when people ask friends for advice or recommendations.

By working diligently for clients and delivering results, you become their preferred attorney. Demonstrating your dedication and competence, you can encourage these satisfied clients to recommend your services to new clients. Thus, to acquire new clients, remember the significance of investing energy and expertise in serving your existing clients — they can be your most valuable asset in promoting your services.

For new attorneys wondering, “How do lawyers find clients?” presenting clear and practical contact information is crucial. Part of the answer lies in maintaining a well-developed online business profile. Whether in a law firm or running an individual practice, having an informative business profile available to potential clients is a compelling strategy to garner new leads.

In the digital age, a person seeking legal help, say in probate law, will likely initiate their search online. This query usually returns an exhaustive list of local lawyers. To narrow down this list, a potential client typically visits each lawyer’s business profile to gain a more substantial understanding of their practice. 

The absence of a business profile, or one that merely contains the basics like the firm’s name and address, can be a barrier to fostering trust with potential clients. 

Information-rich profiles allow prospective clients to learn more about your practice, thereby inspiring confidence even before the first interaction. Given this, a comprehensive business profile should consist of information such as:

A valuable strategy on how to get clients as a lawyer is to encourage your former clients to share their experiences on review platforms like Google Reviews or Trustpilot. These reviews can be instrumental in enhancing the appeal of your profile, potentially attracting more clients to your legal practice.

This point somehow relates to the previous one but still has its place. Don’t hesitate to create an account on the social media platform where your target audience lives — this can be anything from Facebook to TikTok (yes, even lawyers can have TikTok accounts).

Social media can be a great platform to get clients who post simple questions and want to get immediate responses. It is also a place where clients can leave reviews and where you can communicate with them through your reactions to both good and bad reviews.

Consider hiring a social media manager to connect with current customers and potential clients through your social media accounts if you don’t want to spend time managing them yourself.

Lawyers who focus on being thought leaders might use social media like Facebook or LinkedIn to organize live videos or webinars. Legal professionals can address questions people send, most commonly through Facebook Messenger or phone to find attorneys. Recording live videos can also be a great opportunity to ask previous clients to leave reviews.

In your quest to find clients, you might consider investing some money in strategic advertising. There are numerous advertisement channels you can use to reach your clientele. The first option you can try is online advertising that entails using websites such as Google, Facebook, and Linkedin. You can place various highly targeted ads to reach potential clients. In addition, do not overlook traditional local advertising options like radio stations and billboards. These are the best options to get local clientele.

Nowadays, everything can be reviewed. Lawyers are no exception. One way to cultivate online reviews and establish your rank compared to competitors is to encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews on popular review platforms.

Legal directories are another source people use to find attorneys. People who conduct online searches but don’t know which of the top five Google results to choose might try another approach. To learn how to get clients, lawyers can use some of the legal directories:

Many directories have free basic tariffs and do not ask for anything for registration. That means you can create your account on 20 different directories, and you won’t lose anything but potentially only gain from it.

You can always check legal marketplaces that lawyers should join and the exact reasons you should pick some of them.

Another answer to the question “How do lawyers get clients?” is networking. By working together with your friends-attorneys, you tap into a broader network and a wide range of potential clients.

Some attorneys get more cases than they can handle, and they can forward to you the excess clients they have. In addition, an attorney you are acquainted with may feel that you are more suitable to handle a particular case and, therefore, forward it to you.

You can also consider attending association meetings to network with other legal professionals. These events allow you to connect with colleagues who may refer you to new clients. 

Make a plan to build your network regularly to enhance your chances of getting more clients.  

When analyzing effective strategies on how attorneys garner clients, a crucial element is strengthening client relations. This strategy goes beyond formal client meetings. Instead, consider integrating personable communication methods into your routine. Small gestures, from personalized messages to handwritten notes, can cast a significant impact.

By making your clients feel appreciated and indispensable, you foster a strong sense of trust and loyalty. Moreover, adopting this approach broadens your perspective to view every individual as a potential client. By offering everyone you encounter the same level of professionalism and respect that you would a client, you cultivate their trust. This approach reinforces their perception of you as a reliable, empathetic attorney who’s the first port of call in a legal storm. It’s about transforming every casual conversation into a future opportunity, much like laying bricks today for a fort tomorrow.

So, don’t underestimate the power of a warm greeting or a thoughtful message. Remember, in the realm of law, people don’t just seek legal counsel; they look for someone who cares about their plight, understands them, and stands by them in their time of need. And it’s your role to bridge that gap — one sociable interaction at a time.

Organizing free workshops and webinars is not just a platform to showcase your legal expertise, but it’s also a strategic approach to how to get law clients. These events are typically interactive, offering ample opportunities to make a positive impression.

Free webinars or workshops are not an immediate income source but a critical touchpoint with potential clients that pay off in the long run.

For instance, suppose your specialty lies in conveyancing law. You can host a webinar educating prospective homebuyers about the legalities involved in land procurement and tips to draft a legally-binding land purchase agreement. This approach reinforces you as an expert in your field and serves the community by equipping them with helpful information. 

To sum up, to attract clients as a lawyer, you need to be strategic, adaptable, and understand what your target clients want. From creating an informative website and leveraging search engine optimization to fostering robust client relationships and using legal directories, every step is integral to the end goal.

Remember that navigating the legal industry is not solely about acquiring legal acumen. It’s as much about understanding how law firms find clients and mastering the art of client acquisition and retention. This ongoing process requires consistent dedication and the willingness to stay on the cutting edge of client engagement strategies. By placing your client’s needs and concerns as your priority and continuously working on innovative ways to attract new clients, success is sure to follow.