I always talk about my time at that old law firm because it was the most frustrating experience of my life, even worse than law school. There is nothing worse than thinking you can build a national ERISA practice as an associate attorney and failing. I failed because of a bureaucracy that didn’t let me succeed and that’s why I went on my own.
I kept on insisting that since partners at the firm wouldn’t refer me to their clients, I needed social media to attract clients and referrals from other plan providers. I was met by a law firm bureaucracy and managing attorney that thought social media was a joke. While I’ve built a national ERISA practice and the firm is 40% smaller than when I left 10 years ago, who is laughing now?
A month or so ago, I wrote an article on the self-correction and voluntary correction programs from the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor. Recently, a financial advisor found the article and reached out to me with a client that needed an ERISA attorney for a Voluntary Compliance Program application. The purpose of social media is to develop your reputation and standing in this business, it’s all about communicating with people who may need you for your services, that’s it and that law firm didn’t get it and they never will.get it and they never will.
