Mastering Expertise: How Lawyers Can Stand Out in a Sea of Sameness

‍

I'm probably late to this party, but I am completely FASCINATED by the Anna Delvey/Sorokin story.

I came across it before the Netflix documentary (not sure if I read the original article or just an article about it leading into the show)...but seriously, it's completely captivating.

Without ruining it, there's this girl: maybe she's German, perhaps she's Russian, maybe she's worth $60,000,000, maybe she's absolutely nobody, maybe she's a master scam artist, maybe she's a master businesswoman and a modern-day quasi-Robin Hood...somehow she either masterfully networks or connives a TON of fancy rich people in New York into letting her into their world...she's clearly a master something, and that's this weeks topic - expertise!

What is an Expert?

After much research (aka I googled some stuff and read a bunch of articles, so you don't have to) - expertise boils downs to something along the lines of:

• Having the Knowledge, Skill, and Achievement to do something 
• Studying, Practicing, Presenting
• Or, more crassly: learn about it, try it out, and show your results

And according to BASICALLY everyone - it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert in something. 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, 5 years to hit the hours.

The funniest part is what Robert Greene goes into in his book Mastery - most of the masters learn the rules, combine other disciplines into the one they are a master in, and eventually break all the rules and do it their own way...

• da Vinci used cadavers and autopsies to draw the human form better.
• Freddie Roach (Manny Pacquiao's trainer) brought longer forms of pad work into boxing and started breaking down films of other boxers' habits to gameplan against them.
• Ben Franklin learned about basically everything and, by the end of his life, came off like a Precog from Minority Report.

What About Lawyers?

This one is pretty easy to apply to us, right?

• We go to law school (knowledge/study);
• We get an internship, or a first job (skill/practice);
• We buy the Derek Zoolander Aware for Attorneys Who Attorney Good and do Other Things Good Too (present/achievement).

But seriously, we are probably the BEST example of modern-day old-school expertise because it's illegal in most (if not all) states to do our job without being one of us.
You have to go to school for this (except in California)
You have to be in the club to own a firm (except in a few areas)

We're truly one of the few left in the ivory tower, and yet...that makes it harder for people to understand if we know what we are doing or tell us all apart.

There are really only 3 ways to become seen as an expert (and you can use whichever works for you that apply)

1. The apprentice model - you work with another master, you get in the reps, and you become one yourself
2. The student/scientist model - you study the topic enough and get enough data and learn the ins and outs to then apply that knowledge
3. The Oprah model - you interview the right people and learn their secrets, and puts them together in your own way

Apprentice Model

This is how EVERYTHING was learned for a super long time. We didn't have books. We barely had schools. So you followed a blacksmith around for long enough, then you got to try blacksmithing things (is that even a word?), and one-day VOILA, you too are a blacksmith!!!

The Apprentice Model Examples:

• 10 years experience
• 10,000 cases handled
• Former in-house counsel for Big and Large
• Former ASA/PD

The purpose of this is to share the specific insight you have to bring to your client's case. Nobody wants to enter the Dr.s Office and become the name of a new disease. Instead, we want to be told the doc has seen it 1,000,000 times, and it's easily treatable, and the burning will go away with some penicillin.

At the end of the day, THAT'S what you're trying to convey to clients when you talk up your experience and previous jobs.

The Student/Scientist Model

This is what we have moved more jobs to - you can go to school for something, expedite the learning process and come out certified to do cool shit.

Maybe that's to take people's blood. Perhaps it's to install HVAC systems. Hell, if you want to run a Mcdonald's, they legitimately send you to Hamburger U (5,000 grads a year!)

This is the academic path. And while we HAVE to go to school...I don't know about you, but I have had all of ONE client ask about where I went to school (and it was because they went to the same school that I did and thought it was cool).

So as much as you want to brag about this (or hide it), it's not as impactful to clients.

That being said, if you used to work IN the industry, that would fall under this.

So former cops who now do criminal defense or sue police agencies, PI lawyers who used to be insurance adjusters, Estate Planning Lawyers that had a college job as a Grim Reaper - highlight that experience here and what you learned from it. Or better phrased - what secrets the other side taught you in "school" that you now use for your clients?

The Oprah Model

I considered calling this the Napoleon Hill model, but Oprah is cooler.

At first glance, this one is the hardest to apply to us but bare with me for a second. If I told you I had spoken to the owners of the 100 LARGEST law firms in the country that do your work, and I had distilled it down to the 10 most common similarities that lead to those firms growing - would you want to know the answer to that?

YES! And I need to find the answer to that too - so I want to learn it with you.

THIS is the Oprah Model. And it's going to be WAY different for every firm, but it can be the most powerful because it can BE the most unique.

• So what's your client's biggest fear when they hire you?
• Who has the best insight into the situation they're going through?
• How can you put them at ease with that insider info?

For us, we work with a LOT of blue-collar professionals who get into car accidents. So often, they're concerned about work - not being able to work, losing their job, etc.

So the more we can talk to employment lawyers, union reps, their bosses, etc. - the BETTER we can put them at ease about this.

It's not our experience. It's not our expertise. It's not even something we've studied in immense detail. BUT, we've spoken to the experts and can connect them, too (call back to our MANY articles on referrals). 

• There are 400,000 something law firms in the country - what % do PI?
• How many people have been lawyers longer than I have? (10 years now)
• How many lawyers worked in insurance? I have not

BUT there aren't 1,000,000 other PI firms that focus on the employment impact, are knowledgeable about it, or address it with clients.

So this part of our Oprah model of showing off our expertise stands out more.

• If you're on local TV as the legal expert - awesome!
• If you had a significant case and have presented about it - great, take the credibility bump.
• If you have the part on your website that says "AS SEEN ON," this is for you.
• And I will also give you the reverse - if YOU'VE been interviewed a ton - that will give you credibility with clients.
• And for those with major news media coverage - extra bonus points if you were the lawyer and not the story's subject! ;)

What do you do with this?

Great question - glad you asked!

1. Finish this newsletter, then come back here
2. Think for a bit about your specific expertise in the work you do, and make a list of everything that comes to mind as to why you're the expert
3.  Look at each one and figure out if it's unique enough to share (we all went to law school, and we all say we are great lawyers...those are table stakes)
4. For the unique things, how can you share them? Write about them in social media posts. Tell stories about that to referral sources and clients.
5.  Do clients say it about you? Highlight reviews that talk about how much the client loved that you used to work for the other side.
6. What else? What else stands out to you as being unique to your situation?

You'll know this works when you hear people KNOW your unique expertise.

Referral sources say, "I know you've been doing this for 30 years, but my friend has a simple issue. Can you help?"

Clients will say, "Please take my case. You have so many reviews that talk about how well you know this area of law, and I need YOU"

Your parents will be proud of you "we always thought you were just an ambulance chaser, but now we know you really seem to care about your clients!" (my dad once said something PRETTY close to this sentence)

Next week we are going to talk about influence.

And seriously, may one of your friends not be a scam artist who always promises to wire you the money back. It's 2022; Venmo, please. If it's good enough for drug dealers to buy crack, it's good enough to cover brunch.

Until Next Friday

‍