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Law Practice Today

August 2024

Making It Rain: Jennifer B. Gardner, Esq.

Jennifer B. Gardner and Rachel Clar

Summary 

  • Lawyers who explore their curiosity outside the practice of law gain experience that allows them to resonate with people and attract more clients.
  • Clients want to hire someone relatable who they can trust — a lawyer who has the empathy and required expertise to solve their problem.
  • Lawyers should consider their marketing efforts with prospective clients as relationship building and hone their listening skills.
Making It Rain: Jennifer B. Gardner, Esq.
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What advice do you have for today’s women lawyers who want to be better rainmakers?

This may sound counterintuitive, but I believe that the more lawyers give themselves permission to explore their curiosity outside of practicing law, the more well-rounded humans they become, which makes them even better lawyers. When we have more “real world” experience, it’s easier for us to resonate with more people when we communicate, and we’ll ultimately attract more clients.

Becoming a better rainmaker starts with looking within and knowing yourself. This is the starting point for your marketing message. Also, to communicate well, we must overcome our fear of being visible, judged, and imperfect. While it’s important to do excellent work and care for others, excessive professionalism can cause us to freeze and underperform.

I started practicing law before there was technology to help us bring in business. Fortunately, I love using technology. It makes rainmaking much easier. It’s a great complement to in-person networking.

I encourage people to experiment with technology and use social media platforms to distribute content that shows them as real human beings and demonstrates their expertise and authority. Experiment and have fun, and in the process you’ll discover which platforms you enjoy using the most and where your ideal clients are.

What is unique about you that helps you excel as a rainmaker?

What makes me unique and helps me excel as a rainmaker is that I’ve been privileged to have trained in communication arts through multiple disciplines. This helps me communicate on- and offline in a way where I sound relatable to prospective clients.

In most marketing materials I see, lawyers sound the same as any other lawyer down the hall. The descriptions of most law firms and the work they do are superficial. But the best marketing material must have depth and be connective to resonate with your ideal client.

When writing to the public, I write like I speak and drop any pretense. People call me and tell me they’ve read my blog or website or seen a social media post or video and are certain I’m the lawyer for them and must take their case. When a person tells me something I wrote sounds like I was in their head, I know I hit the mark. There’s no substitute for grounded, heartfelt communication. From there you can layer on strategy, and these days there are so many to choose from. I like to experiment with them all.

What is your top marketing advice?

Consider your message. What are you really trying to say? Strip away all the fluff and get to the core — the essence — of what you want to convey and write it in plain English.

Doing this has been a real game changer for me because my clients want to know me as a real person. This is a large part of my strategy for building credibility, authority, and trust.

How do you structure your marketing time, energy, and attention?

I don’t have a team that creates the marketing content for me; everything I put out there is written by me in my voice.

I have a system for capturing my ideas and referencing them back to the original authorship when they are inspired by another person’s work. This way I can give proper attribution. My “system” consists of using different software for different types of ideas and topics. It’s a bit cobbled together, but it works for me.

I love to write about what I’m thinking and doing and share it with my newsletter subscribers. When my litigation schedule is not too demanding, I carve out time every day for contemplation and writing — even if it’s only 20 minutes in the morning over a cup of coffee. This is part of my self-care routine.

I rarely write scholarly blog posts where I describe a recent case development or statute. Rather, I try to write about the intersection of legal issues and a person’s lived experience. Cases and statutes are technical. The decision to hire a lawyer is emotional. It’s important to develop a style where you shine through as an individual and are able to convey that you have the empathy plus the required expertise to solve this problem. Clients want someone they feel they can trust. “Feeling” is the operative word there.

Tell me about a recent client and what you did with that story to further your rainmaking.

I was representing a family who had approximately five horses, six dogs, and many donkeys on their property. Their neighbor was harassing the human clients and threatening the animals by throwing objects and food over the fence. My clients were concerned the neighbor might poison the animals in addition to harassing them. I obtained a restraining order to protect the entire family, including the horses, dogs, and donkeys.

I’m an animal lover, so the result thrilled me. Right after court, I made a video in a coffee shop where I shared how important it is to include pets on a restraining order application. I expressed how good it felt to have such success for these clients and their animal family. I still get comments on that video.

What was your most unexpected client?

I represented a well-known heavy metal band against a former bandmate who accused them of infringing on his copyrights to a hit song. That was a fun one. My first criminal trial was a second-degree murder case where I represented a husband accused of killing his wife. I was able to offer a unique emotional perspective to the jury about the parties’ relationship and the cause of death.

Is there any advice for early-stage rainmakers about closing the sale with a client?

Absolutely. Consider your marketing efforts and “sales calls” as relationship building. Hone your listening skills, and don’t speak to hear yourself talk. It’s really about connecting with that client on a more emotional level during the call. I know you’re not a shrink or a doctor, but if the client feels that you’re really listening to them, they will trust you. Listening is the biggest gift that you can give to someone, because most people feel like no one’s listening, that no one hears them. This is especially so when they have a legal problem they are struggling to solve.

My intention on calls with prospective clients is to give them a satisfying experience of being heard that they can take away from the call, even if they don’t hire me. Many times, they keep my information and reach out again for assistance months or years later.

What obstacles did you have to overcome to build your book of business? How did you overcome them?

I started very young; there weren’t many women-owned law firms in 1992. People were skeptical and didn’t think I could do it. I got all the cases no sane lawyer would take.

It was very, very difficult to get good business. It’s unlike today when there are so many more opportunities now and the culture’s perception of women-led business has changed. Yes, we have further to go, but the world is more receptive to women in this role.

I also had internal obstacles that took years to unwind. I had an outsized amount of fear over “How do I do this?” I never felt like I had enough training; I had to learn and teach myself, with zero mentorship while facing all kinds of bias and discrimination.

I persevered. If I could do it then, it can be done now.

Nowadays, it’s so much easier because our society is more conditioned to seeing women in leadership roles.

If you were starting over today, what would you do differently?

I would be less of a perfectionist. I’d be more forgiving of myself. I would definitely go easier on myself, believe more in myself, and not take myself too seriously.

I would probably network in person more. There were many years where I hid behind my keyboard instead of going out into the world and connecting in person with other people.

What were the modalities where you cultivated your confidence?

I’ve given myself the freedom to explore all kinds of transformational modalities, ranging from professional development to personal development courses to, more recently, somatic work. These experiences have impacted me tremendously and elevate what I can offer as a lawyer, as a teacher, and as a writer.

Joining communities is really valuable. We need a safe environment where we can get the nurturing and the mentoring that we’re unlikely to get on the job or in the real world.

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