WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | JUN 2022 ELDER LAW COVER FEATURE - VALERIE PETERSON 14 It is also critical for attorneys to have some type of law practice management system that will help them keep all of their contacts organised, will help them set up reminders for tasks and send automatic emails when needed, and will help attorneys with billing, accounting, document storage, and more. Your law practice management system, in the cloud or on premises, should help you run your practice more efficiently and grow with your firm. It isalsoimportant forelder lawattorneys to embrace video conferencing with clients, to allow clients and prospects to schedule their own appointments online, and to make sure their websites are full of helpful, relevant content and are easy to navigate. How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way elder law is practiced? Elder law attorneys are far more willing to use video conferencing or phone calls to meet with clients than they ever were before COVID-19. The belief that every client or potential client has to sit in an attorney’s office has lessened. This has been very impactful for elder law attorneys, as it can be difficult for older clients or clients with significant disabilities to travel to see an attorney. Even during the worst of COVID-19, planning and estate planning as themain areas in your elder law practice. Each of those three areas are very broad and if you are not clear about the services you will provide and the people you will provide them to, it can be difficult to get a clear marketing message out to the public and to potential referral sources. The benefit that attorneys who are starting a new elder law practice have is the ability to focus solely on learning what they need to know about how to help clients, and they do not have the distraction of an established practice diverting their attention. How does ElderCounsel aid these new practices in getting off the ground? ElderCounsel provides intensive training (immersion camps) in three areas: Elder Law, Special Needs Planning and Veterans’ Benefits. Our most comprehensive program is our Elder Law Immersion and Practice Building Camp. It is a year-long program that starts with a three-day live training. We cover the law, planning strategies and case studies, and we spend almost a full day providing guidance on how attorneys can start marketing their services and handle initial consultations. For the next year, attendees have the opportunity to ask questions of the instructors and other attendees once a month, and they have recorded webinars with new content every month. With each immersion camp we follow a similar pattern: we teach the rules and strategies, then have attendees apply the rules and strategies before they leave. While we provide some marketing materials and education as part of ElderCounsel membership, we also have a separate division called Law as a Business (LAB) Services. LAB Services is a back-office marketing agency for attorneys. We provide customised content for attorneys that we can distribute for them. We can create ad campaigns, websites and eBooks; we handle SEO services and can help attorneys prepare and market an event. We created LAB Services to help attorneys increase their brand awareness, better market their services, and generate more revenue. When adding a new practice area or starting a totally new practice, attorneys are often so focused on learning the law that they do not make time to market effectively. That is the void LAB Services can fill. What kinds of technology are most essential for modern elder law attorneys? Modern elder law attorneys should be utilising technology to help them stay current with the law, draft comprehensive documents for their clients quickly, keep their client and non-client contact information current and safe online, and help them with workflows so that nothing falls through the cracks when they are doing the legal work for a client. A document assembly system helps attorneys with staying on top of law changes and helps attorneys draft complex documents quickly. The cornerstone of ElderCounsel membership is our document assembly system, ElderDocx®. By keeping up with law changes in all states and providing an efficient way to draft complex documents, attorneys can spend more time getting new business, or have more personal time to themselves. Elder law attorneys are far more willing to use video conferencing or phone calls to meet with clients than they ever were before COVID-19.
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