$213,000/Year Revenue
According to Clio’s Legal Trends Report, the average criminal defense lawyer generates about $213,000 per year in revenue.
Breaking it down further, Clio claims that criminal defense lawyers earn an average of $211 per hour. But with a 58% realization rate (the percentage of hours that actually get billed) and an 87% collection rate (the percentage of invoiced amounts that get collected), the typical criminal defense lawyer ends up with just over $200,000 in annual revenue.
Compare those revenue numbers to the average revenue of civil litigators. They bill $299 per hour with a 76% realization rate and a 90% collection rate. Assuming 2,000 working hours in a year and the civil litigator generates over $400,000 in revenue per year.
That might sound decent at first glance, but when you consider advertising costs, staff salaries, rent, taxes, and the emotional and mental toll of the work, is this enough?
Don’t Compete on Price
What does this look like from the client’s perspective? A criminal defense lawyer who generates $206,000 in revenue per year might be spending $40,000 on ads. Another $40,000 for staff support and $15,000 on rent.
That’s a recipe for an anxious lawyer worrying if she is going to be able to pay her bills. That’s a lawyer who is desperate for the next client.
Monopoly Pricing
The only way out of this death spiral is to create a monopoly. That doesn’t mean driving your competitors out of business. That’s illegal and impractical—they would fight you to the death.
Instead, you have to find a blue ocean where you don’t have to compete.
Could you build relationships with five other lawyers and become their go-to referral for criminal defense cases? You definitely can! Then you can build five more and five more.
The clients referred by your trusted partners aren’t shopping for the lowest price. If they care deeply about the outcome of the case, you are their best and only option. You are the one they trust because they were recommended to you by someone they already trust. If someone else charges them $1,000 less, they don’t care. They want to know they made the right decision.
Thanks for Recommending [Blank] to Me
This week, I got an amazing text from a friend and a client. He needed help with a civil litigation case that I couldn’t begin to tackle. I referred him to a friend.
Without me asking for an update, he sent me this text:
“Hey, thanks for recommending [Blank] to me. He’s seriously amazing. We had the motion to dismiss yesterday, and he was so well prepared and picked their accusations apart one by one. I almost felt bad for the other lawyer.”
I happened to be going to lunch last week with the lawyer friend I had recommended. With the client’s permission, I read him the text and thanked him for taking such good care of the client.
My lawyer friend is kind of a psycho about tracking referrals. He told me I’ve referred hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business to him over the years. I’m going to continue to refer to him because his clients send me texts like the one I quoted.
Trust Monopoly
Your best referral partners don't want referral fees. They want the client to thank them for recommending you.
If you do that, you have a monopoly on their trust. And you can build a lucrative, sustainable business if you have a trust monopoly.