Welcome back to The Family Law Formula Podcast, proudly sponsored by Juris Digital!
In this third episode, Casey Meraz, the visionary Founder of Juris Digital, dives deep into the power of specialization in family law. Drawing from his extensive experience in legal marketing and entrepreneurship, Casey explores how focusing on a specific niche can not only set your practice apart but also position you as the go-to expert in your field.
Join us as Casey walks through the journey of specializing and how it can lead to greater expertise, efficiency, and success. He shares the story of attorneys who transformed their practices by honing in on a particular area of family law, turning their niche into a superpower. Casey discusses the importance of building a brand around your niche, targeting the right clients, and creating a sustainable practice that aligns with your long-term goals.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to identify the right niche for your practice, market your expertise effectively, and create a practice that thrives on its own, giving you the freedom to focus on what truly matters. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your focus, Casey’s insights offer a clear path to building a successful and fulfilling family law practice.
Why Listen?
• Expertise Development: Learn how specialization can enhance your expertise and attract ideal clients.
• Efficient Practice Management: Discover strategies for creating a streamlined, scalable practice.
• Targeted Marketing: Get tips on building a brand that resonates with your niche audience.
• Long-Term Success: Insights on aligning your practice with your personal and professional goals.
Want to watch instead? Check out the video below!
Do you prefer to read? Read The Transcript Below.
Interview Transcript
Casey
Welcome back to the Family Law Formula podcast.
I’m Casey Meraz, your host. And today, we’re diving into a topic that’s close to my heart, specialization. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the vast landscape of family law and all the different practice areas you have to handle or if you’re wondering how to stand out in a crowded market this episode is for you. And we’re gonna talk about finding your family law niche and turning it into your superpower.
Now you might be thinking why specialize isn’t it better to be a generalist and cater to a wide range of clients? Well, there’s certainly some logic to that, but in my experience, specializing in a specific area of family law can lead to a greater expertise efficiency and ultimately success. It allows you to become the go to expert in your chosen field. It allows you to attract the ideal clients and it allows you to build a reputation that sets you apart from everyone else in your market. So let’s start by breaking down some of the benefits of specializing in family law.
Expertise. When you focus on a specific niche, you gain deep knowledge and experience in that area. This expertise allows you to provide exceptional service to your clients and develop a reputation as an authority in your field. So let’s say that you niche down in on divorce cases, for example, what happens when you start helping high net worth people with their divorce cases and you start getting reviews and recommendations from the same type of clients that you wanted your ideal clients? You’re going to end up getting more of those cases.
It’s easier to stand out when you have expertise. And one thing that is really commonly overlooked in marketing is that marketing really isn’t about being the best. You may not be the best at everything that you want to accomplish in life, right? Being the best is great. But what you really need to be is different because different is memorable.
If you’re not different, you’re blending in with all of the other boring firms in your area that have the same calls to action and the same trust signals and the same messages on your website. However, think about LawHawk, that attorney from the Super Bowl commercials. You know, I guess it’s been many years ago now, but everybody talked about that. Everybody talked about it. Okay.
When that happened, because it was different. It was totally different than what every other attorney does. He leaned in to something different. There’s a lot of other benefits that come from niching in as well. The other one of course is efficiency.
So specialization can really streamline your practice. You set procedures, you set processes, and ultimately you’re going to build something that’s going to be more scalable. And if it’s in your cars, something sellable in the long run, you become more familiar with specific procedures, of course, court systems and case strategies relevant to your niche, and that makes you better. It’s like spend a 1000 hours on this topic and you become an expert. Right?
So that leads to increased efficiency and productivity. That’s gonna make you different than everyone else. And then again, the marketing angle, which I really started talking about already, when you specialize, you can target your marketing efforts more effectively. You can connect with the right clients and referral sources who are looking for your specific expertise. You also can find out where these people hang out.
Right? If you’re only taking a certain type of cases from a certain type of client, you figure out where they spend their time and that’s where you get in front of them. And then let’s talk about the snowball effect, which is client satisfaction. If you do great work, clients are gonna recommend you and come back to you. Now I wanna be clear with that.
If they have like a net promoter score essentially of a 9 or a 10, they’re gonna be brand advocates. They’re gonna tell the world about you. So if you’re great at client satisfaction, it will be great for your firm. If you’re anything less than exceptional or great, then it’s not gonna help you. But clients appreciate working with an attorney who fully understands their unique needs and challenges.
And obviously somebody that’s that’s navigated those waters before, right, who’s handled these cases successfully. So by specializing, you can provide a more personalized and tailored approach to your clients leading to increased satisfaction and ultimately better outcomes for your clients. Of course, choosing the right niche is crucial and it should be an area that you’re passionate about and it should align with your skills and experience and there needs to be a viable market. So some of the more popular niches that we’ve helped our clients get into before are basically high asset divorces, you know, child custody and support cases, military divorce. Again, just a very specific niche.
You know exactly who you’re targeting, how to get in front of them and where they’re hanging out. LGBTQ family law practices, collaborative divorce, mediation. So there’s tons of options. Those are just a few examples. And once you’ve identified your niche, it’s time to start building your brand and positioning yourself as the go to expert in that area.
And let me ask you a question. Just think about this when you’re thinking about your firm right now. Do you think it’s easier to stand out as the Houston family lawyer or the Houston high net worth divorce attorney? Even naming your firm to something like that, with that extent. It’s very narrow, very niche.
With enough marketing, people see that enough. They’re gonna know exactly what it is. So that might even involve developing a specialized website, which we’ll talk about later, or creating targeted content to that specific audience, or even going out and networking with relevant professionals in that market and seeking speaking opportunities to get in front of those clients. See, I know what you’re thinking. If you’re just starting out, especially, you’re gonna say, I like this idea maybe, but it’s too early to specialize, you know?
Absolutely not. If you’re trying to cater to everyone, you’re gonna help nobody well. In fact, I think starting your career or starting your law firm with a focused approach can accelerate your growth and set you on the path to success faster. And you’ll see faster year over year growth if you double down on this. And that’s also kind of true with Google.
So I’m not really going to get too much into the SEO side of things right now, but the reality is brands are rewarded, right? And if it’s very clear what your brand does and how you help people and you build content and you build a website around that, you’re going to rank faster. I mean, we developed a whole product around just that because people always say, oh, it takes forever to get results, but what if we can drive results faster by doing more upfront, that’s really geared to who you’re targeting. Guess what? The results come faster.
So think of all of this as building a strong foundation upon which you can expand your knowledge and expertise over time. And remember specializing also doesn’t mean that you’re limited to one area forever. As your firm progresses, as you grow, you may choose to expand your niche or even transition to a new practice area. And the key about that is to be intentional about your choices and focus on building a practice that aligns with your passions and goals Instead of being in that position where you’re taking a lot of cases that maybe aren’t even in your forte or not even your area of expertise. Okay.
That’s going to distract from the goals that you’re trying to reach. That’s going to distract from the growth of your law firm and distract from your passion. So how do you find a niche? I think it’s best to take 1 of 2 approaches, but usually, generally start by reflecting on your interests, your strengths, and values. What areas of family law excites you?
Why did you choose to go down this path anyway? What kind of clients do you enjoy working with? Can you define them or write them down? And what impact do you want to make in the world? And I think once you have a clear picture of your ideal practice, you can really start exploring different niches and seeing which one feels like the best fit.
Another way to do this, if you’ve already been established in operating is really just the 80 20 rule. Take a look at your top revenue producing clients over a certain period of time, and then put those into buckets and say, what’s the same about these? Were they all high network divorce cases? Were they all child custody cases? Were they all in this market, in this area, in this city?
Was it with these type of people? Think about those commonalities, okay, and build those cohorts and figure out where most of your profit comes from is basically my essential reverse engineering of this here. Because if you’re passionate about it and you have a history and you see that most of your revenue, when you look at the amount of hours you put into something versus the outcome, profitability ends up being a certain type of case. You’re going to narrow this down. Okay.
And that can lead you down another path that we’ll talk about later, where you interview those ideal clients and figure out more about them, enrich that data so you can get in front of them more. So once you have that, don’t be afraid to experiment and try different things. Okay. I’m telling you to attend conferences, read industry publications, listen to podcasts, network with colleagues and seek out mentorship from experienced attorneys in your desired field. There’s tons of information online, tons of people you can follow to really help shortcut this journey, just as what I’m trying to do with you today.
But ultimately the more you expose yourself to different areas of family law, the easier it will be to identify your niche. Today’s episode was short and sweet on finding your family law niche. Remember that specialization is not a limitation, but a superpower. It allows you to focus your energy, develop deep expertise, and build a thriving practice that supports your goals and leaves a lasting legacy. Thank you for joining me on the Family Law Formula podcast.
I’ll see you in the next episode. If you need help niching your firm, make sure to contact Juris Digital. We’ll be happy to discuss this with you.
