Be an ADEQUATE lawyer

As you may or may not be aware, a committee appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that calling yourself a “Super” lawyer violates the professional code of conduct.  After learning about this decision , fellow Blogger Nathan Burke created a page for "adequate" lawyers in hopes that such a moniker would meet with the appoval of our bretheren in New Jersey.

But there’s a more serious side to all of this that most lawyers fail to consider in their marketing & client servce plans:  MOST CLIENTS PREFER ADEQUATE.  That’s right, if given the option of paying top dollar for a "super lawyer" vs. a more reasonable amount for legal services that are adequate to solve the problem at hand, the vast majority of your clients would choose the latter.  Don’t believe me?

Take the following informal survey to prove that what I am saying is correct: 

1. Make a list of all of your clients who are driving around in Bentlys or Rolls Royce’s.

2. The rest prefer adequate.

The upshot is that you can actually get more work from existing clients by being sensitive to the fact that they don’t all want the highest quality legal services available to handle their routine matters.  If 100% of your practice is high-stakes / life or death / bet-the-ranch work, then ignore this advice.  Otherwise, you’ll close more sales with prospective and current clients by taking pride in offering adequate solutions to their problems.