Systems to Scale Your Law Firm feat. Corine Rogers

⚙️ Most law firms don’t actually have a marketing problem — they have a systems problem. Corine Rogers joins Center Stage to break down why so many law firms struggle with intake, follow-up, and client experience… even when the leads are already there. From missed callbacks to overwhelmed attorneys juggling sticky notes and inboxes, this episode dives into the simple systems that help small law firms respond faster, stay organized, and create a better experience for potential clients. If your firm feels busy but growth still feels chaotic, this conversation is a must-listen.

You can get in touch with Corine here:

https://www.simplesmartsolo.com/

If you want to strategize your firm's marketing, speak with our team:
 https://bit.ly/spotlightmarketingbranding

Copyright © 2026. Spotlight Marketing + Branding

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We're so trained now in in this time that we live in to get an immediate response. Let's not be the barrier to helping someone, right? There are tools, there are methods.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome back to Center Stage Podcast. My name is Danny Decker, and I have a great guest here today, Corinne Rogers. I think I got her name right this time. So, Corinne, thank you for joining us on Center Stage. And before we dive into it, I think you win the award for most local guest we've ever had on this show. I was previously interviewing somebody from the UK about 20 minutes ago. And uh, and and I think you and I live about 10 minutes apart in uh in Charlotte, North Carolina. So welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Thanks. Thanks for having me. This is definitely a good way to start the day.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Love it. So you're the founder of Simple Smart Solo. So tell us about that. What do you do?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Uh what I do is I help lawyers that are overwhelmed by their practice management software. But what I really do is I help estate planning attorneys with Cleo. That's that's what I do. I help them um take a very powerful software that is typically very underutilized, and we make it much better.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Very cool. Um, and and you work, you're kind of zeroed in on estate planning specifically. Did I hear that right?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, yeah. You know, there's a lot of practice areas out there, and I love them all. I do. But um, I'm sure we'll talk in a little bit about some other things. But I bumped into estate planning and probate, and I had a really good experience, as good as I could have. And I just thought to myself, you know, this is something that everyone tells me that they need. Friends of mine say, I gotta do my estate plan, I gotta do this, or something happened, and yeah, we got to go through probate. And they have trouble finding attorneys that can work with them. But I know lots of attorneys, and I'm trying to figure out, you know, where's where's the hole? Or maybe where's the opportunity? And what I found over the years of hanging out in legal is that the law offices are typically overwhelmed. They've got so much going on. It's really hard for them to get back in touch with the people that need them the most. So then you dig a little further and I find out, hey, that's a problem with intake, right? Like that's a problem with speed and getting back to the person that's asking you to help you. And then, hey, well, what other problems are they? And I kind of found out that the problems are often the same across law firms. So what if I get back to basics? And I'm sure we'll talk about that. But what if I just bring it down to like five miles an hour and we get back to basics and we do the fundamentals, we do the things that we need to do to start building the system so that they could deliver that much better of a service and the people could get help and everybody could be in a much better place.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I love that. And and so, you know, we we do so at Spotlight, we work with law firms in kind of a variety of practice areas, but estate planning is a big one for us. We love working with estate planning attorneys on their marketing, help them generate more leads. And so one of the really cool things about what you just mentioned, and maybe we can kind of start our conversation here, is that intake process, right? Because, you know, as as a marketing company, you know, we our our sort of number one job is to bring our clients not just leads, but the right types of leads, right? We want to bring them the right types of client opportunities. Um, but I almost look at it as like in football, like when you're handing the ball off, or like in you know, the Olympics when you're like passing the baton. Because to a certain extent, like marketing brings the opportunity to the doorstep. And then there does have to be a handoff with with intake. And and you kind of mentioned, you know, a lot of law firms do struggle because so much is happening that getting back to you know potential new clients is is is like a real pain point. And I probably don't have to tell you, but the data is is pretty stark on what happens if you if you take 24 hours to get back to a potential new client as opposed to one hour. Like it's it's it's a pretty stark difference. So like maybe we can start the conversation there. Like, what are your thoughts around that? How have you been able to help law firms navigate that? How does Clio help with that? Like, how do you help people solve that problem?

SPEAKER_01 4:31

It's these these are great things for us to dive into, right? So let's start breaking it down. Um Cleo puts out a report every year. It's called the Legal Trends Report. And I love this thing. It's got data, it's got information, it's got ideas. It's a great thing. If anybody's looking for it, go to Clio.com. You can download Legal Trends Report for free. Lots of fun things. They've got many, many copies. One year they did some evaluation of what goes on from the moment a client calls and says, Hey, I've got a legal problem, to the moment that they finally get signed up with that law firm to solve the problem. And I don't remember the real statistics. You probably know them better than I do. So I'm not even gonna try and quote. Um, but basically, it can take days, days and days to get back with the potential prospect, the person that needs you, right? And I don't know if you share this, but my philosophy is that when someone picks up the phone, they've already made the decision that they need help. They've probably searched online, maybe read some reviews, or somebody told them, hey, call this person, which is like the best thing ever, right? A referral, highest compliment anybody can receive. They've already made the decision that you're probably a good fit for them. All they need is for you to connect with them. So if we're delaying that, we're starting to like set a tone, right? We're we're teaching them things that we don't want to teach them, that we're gonna make them wait, or that maybe their problem's not that big. And if that happens, they might decide to do nothing. Now, some people worry that they might dial the next attorney and find someone to help them. I do believe that that happens in certain cases, 100%. But I worry more about the ones that are reaching out. We're so trained now in in this time that we live in to get an immediate response. Let's not be the barrier to helping someone, right? There are tools, there are methods. Um so in a situation like that, I say, okay, get back to the fundamentals. We need a quick system, we need a quick way to say when the phone rings, when the email comes in, when the text comes in, oh, that could be crazy, right? Or when the DM comes in on social media, we need a way to respond. Make that connection and then show them what the next step is. And you know, maybe that's an intake form, or maybe that's talking to them or sending them a text back, or just saying, hey, we're not available right now, but we'll call you right back. Just start to show them like this is the way to get together with me and take the next step to solving the problem.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah. I love that. And and I think you kind of touched on it, right? It depends a little bit how the opportunity is coming to them. Like, I think if somebody is referred, um, maybe they're gonna be a little bit more patient. But I can also tell you, we see this data all day, every day, because you know, the the marketing that that we we create for law firms certainly helps with referrals. It also certainly helps with um generating leads that are a little higher up on that funnel, right? So like maybe it's gonna be a little while, it's gonna take a little bit of nurture before they actually call the law firm. But, you know, in particular when we're running like a Google ad campaign or something like that, we do see that most consumers, if they call a law firm and and don't reach somebody or don't get a real quick callback, they do call other firms too. And so it is just it's everything you said from setting the wrong expectation, the starting the relationship on a wrong foot, to also literally like potentially losing out on business. And and that's a shame for just a variety of reasons, but not the least of which is you spent time and effort and and reputation and social capital to like generate these opportunities. And then I liken it to like in football, you're now you're fumbling at the goal line where it's like, oh man, like we got them so close. And um, so I love I love that that you you know have obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this and and working with clients on this. And you know, it's just I can't emphasize enough how big of a deal it is to have intake systems in place to kind of be sure that that that new inquiries and new client opportunities are being being handled promptly. So, you know, you've mentioned Cleo a couple of times and it's it's kind of all over your website. I understand that that's that's your your area of focus, and obviously, you know, very big player in the industry. So so not terribly surprising, but also do talk a little bit about why you've chosen to deep dive so much into Cleo. Like what is it about Clio that you love so much?

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Sure. So um Cleo might not might not like how I say this, but I'm just gonna not mince words. So I got my start working in a small law firm, and that was in 2014. I worked um with one attorney, that team grew. I wore many hats in that firm. I did a lot of intake. Everyone else was busy and we learned pretty quickly. Attorneys let them do attorney work, paralegals let them do paralegal work. Office manager, let let the office manager do office manager stuff. Let the people do what they're really good at. So by default, I became an intake person. We used Cleo. I was exposed to Cleo. Cleo came out with a product way back. Um it was a separate system, it was called Lexicata then, it now became Clio Growth. And it was super simple. When someone reaches out, take their name, their phone number, their email, and log it in the system. Start building a system of where are they? Now we call it a pipeline. Back then it was where are they? Did we make contact with them? Do we owe them something? Can we offer them a consult? Or is it not a good fit? Simple four buckets, right? One, two, three, four. I've been to so many different attorney law firm coaching seminars. These things exist. I love them. I think they're great. I think law firm owners should check them out. What I found was no matter how many times these coaching groups were telling these growing small law firms to take this piece seriously, it would just become something that just became like thrown to the wayside or overlooked. And you have to keep giving it attention. It is like your garden and you need to fertilize this thing and and grow it. You've got to have a really good system where you know who's reaching out to you, you know if you've contacted them back, you know if they're making a decision to move forward or not, whatever the next step is, or if they're not a good fet. You gotta, you gotta know it's it's just like if you've ever worked in a restaurant, you you gotta know what's going on with your tables, help them through their process of eating and enjoying their meal. If they have a really good time, they're gonna leave you a great gratuity, and then they're out the door telling their friends what a wonderful experience they had. It's kind of the same thing. You want people to have a great experience coming through. Cleo provided the system, which was very simple then, it's fancier now. But I'm still in the camp where I don't think it takes much. There are many CRMs, that's what these things are called. Customer relationship managers, I think. Uh I think I got it right. Okay. So there are many of these things. There are so many beautiful ones. There's Lawmatics, there's Hubspot. Oh, that thing's gorgeous. Um, there's Cleo Grow. My case has got one built in. But if you don't use them, then I don't know what's happening. And I feel like you're losing opportunities and you're putting it out there that um something else is more important than the actual beginning client experience.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about your your practice. So tell tell us a little bit about how you work with with clients and and let's actually start with like what it what is a good fit. And and I'm specifically wondering, like, you know, if somebody doesn't have Cleo yet, um, you know, is that a good time to start with you? Or do you only work with people that are like already like using Clio? How do you how do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

These are great questions. Let's answer them. So um I work to build out Clio Grow and Clio Manage or estate planning and probate firms. I prefer to work with law firms that would maybe have the vision of grossing. That's the total money that a law firm takes in, not what is your take home, right? Let's go back to basics. Gross is what all the law firm money that comes in. Um, I prefer to work with law firms that are maybe trying to gross up to 750. And I'm careful not to say a million, and here's why. Because sometimes a million is this big, they call it a big, hairy, audacious goal, a B hag. It's fine to have goals. They can be whatever you want. But when law, I find that when law firm owners are just going out on their own, they're hitting that 100, 200, 300 gross revenue. And then they're kind of like, whoa, how do I get bigger than this? Or like, what do I got to do? Right. So a million might feel like this really big reach. And they're like, I don't know how I'm even gonna get to 500. Okay, well, the way we're gonna get to 500 is probably still the way we got to 100,000, 200, and 300,000. But now we're gonna systematize it a little bit. So maybe it's time to bring somebody in part-time to help you. But we we don't want you guys playing like um sticky note tag or emailing each other or texting each other, like, here's what you should do with this person that just called. Build a system. So I like taking these systems that are designed exactly for these firms and saying, hey, what are we gonna do when somebody calls and someone just passed away? That's probate. Maybe, maybe, right? What are we gonna do when um somebody calls and is fully focused and says, hey, I think it's time for me to do a trust or a will, but I don't know which one. Let's build it out. And then, like, wait a minute, what do we do for the person that calls and they're like, hey, I have like two minutes and I needed to call you and I just have to get this off my list, but I can't really talk right now. So can we set up a how do we deal with that? If we hit those three buckets, I think we're gonna be okay. I think we're gonna be all right. So yeah, I uh I work with small law firms on their journey, maybe to a million, maybe to 750, but just they know that they need more out of their system.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Love it. I love that. So so talk about some of the the quick wins, Corinne. I always like to think about, you know, um, you know, what what are some of those quick wins? And and obviously we talked about intake and um and man, I you know, can't emphasize enough how how important I feel like that is for for a law firm to really kind of maximize growth potential. But um, you know, maybe for somebody like there are plenty of of firms out there that like either don't have a CRM yet or don't like their CRM, um, and maybe don't even fully realize like how much better life can be when you are using a CRM like Cleo. So, like, what are some of those quick wins, ways that um, you know, that people's life gets better once they start working with you, once they start using a CRM like Cleo properly.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Okay. Yeah, don't get triggered because I might be coming after marketing right now. Okay. Please, all day long. Okay, now. So um, when I work with law firms under 750, right? They have heard maybe about marketing and it might be something that they're thinking about, the actual task of it. But before that, I say, well, why are you thinking about marketing? Do you need more clients? Always, I always need more clients. And I say, okay, how do you know that you don't have enough? And they say, Well, I could see it in my list of clients. I need more. Okay. How do you know that they haven't already come looking for you? What do you mean? Give yourself a grade right now. A through F. All right, and there's really just two, there's just two grades, A and F for this exercise. What grade do you give yourself on how well you respond to someone reaching out to you? An A or an F. I don't I don't usually have to break it down further than that because they know right away. Most people that I talk to give themselves an F right away. And then they laugh, and that's okay, because it's a no-judgment zone, right? So they go, F. I say, why? Tell me why it's an F. I'm not here to yell at you. And they say, okay, because people call me, they text me, they email me, and I it takes forever for me to get back with them. All right. Do you eventually get back with them? Yeah, no, I do, but it's like gnawing at me, or I write it down in two places. I put it on a sticky note, or I put it on my calendar to call this person, and then it keeps getting bumped, and it keeps getting bumped because I'm doing other things. All right. So the low-hanging fruit here is we need a simple system for things to come in, land in a bucket, and then we need a bucket, we need bucket time to go back to that bucket and deal with it. On our phones, our smartphones, we call it voicemail. Leave me a voicemail and I'll call you back. But for the solo attorney, it's what we said earlier. It's not just the voicemail, it's the voicemail, the text, the DMs, the emails, and then the worst, when you see somebody at like a school event. Hey, Danny Decker, what's up? Uh hey, I you're calling me and you're embarrassed. I didn't call it back. I didn't call Danny Decker back. Oh my God, oh my God. Right. So the really simple system is pick a bucket. It can be a spreadsheet. Yes, it hurts my soul to say that. I would love you in a CRM. But okay, maybe we just can't do the CRM this week. Fine. It's it's a spreadsheet, or it's one special notepad with a pen. This also hurts my soul to say, or it's a remarkable page, or it's an iPad. It's something, but you say, This is my repository. This is my dumping spot for anybody that comes in. And at the end of the day, who's ever on there, you gotta call them back. You gotta reach back out. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

I love it. That's it. I love uh I'm a big fan of technology, I'm a big fan of CRMs. I also completely agree with what you just said that, like, listen, a spreadsheet, uh, a sticky notes, like some you it's don't let the technology like be an excuse to to not not start somewhere. Um, so I do fully advocate and from both from a marketing perspective and also just general business ownership, like life gets a lot better when you have a CRM, especially as you scale and grow. But um, you know, for people that may be listening to this and don't have a CRM yet, you know, you can you can just keep a spreadsheet, you can just use a notepad, you can approach Sticky Tab, do something to make sure that you don't miss out on these opportunities. Don't forget to call clients back. So so that's awesome. So Corinne, I feel like we could we could we could talk all day, but but we're we're running out of time here. So thank you so much for joining us. And and do uh let's let's go ahead and and and close with this. For folks that are um well, let's start here. Maybe for somebody um that's not sure, you know, whether they're a good fit for for you, working with you makes sense. Like when is when should somebody call you?

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Oof. The minute they're sticked, they're thinking about starting their law firm, just have a conversation. Start building the roadmap to the things that you're gonna need. It's like cooking, right? We we need to start picking the ingredients out of the pantry and laying it all out so we can be efficient and we're not like running to the pantry to grab something while something's on fire on the stovetop. So yeah, call me before you think you need.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

So so, in other words, in other words, get it right from the beginning, save yourself some headaches down the road. That's that's great advice. And what is the best way for somebody to connect with you?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Oh, great, great question. You can go right to Simple Smart Solo, and there's a link in there to book a discovery call. That is the most direct way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Wonderful. Well, Corinne, thank you so much for joining us. Really enjoyed the conversation today.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Me too. Thank you so much for doing us.