3 Tips to Keep Busy During the Summer Lull
For many lawyers across the country, there are two significant lulls throughout the year: the holiday lull from Thanksgiving to New Years, and the Summer lull.
During the holiday lull, most lawyers know what to do: prepare for the end of the year, consult your accountant for end of year deductions you should be spending toward, backing up your systems, updating your form library, and other digital housekeeping. However, during the Summer lull, there are some things you can do to keep your workload interesting, while also helping to generate downstream revenue to recover from the slow-down.
1. Prepare Fall/Winter Marketing Materials
Marketing is important. But most firms struggle to find the attorney time to devote to it. Fortunately, you can plan and prepare all your marketing content over the summer, when client work slows down. Some marketing tasks to consider over the summer:
- Get new headshots taken while you still have that summer glow
- Have your website redesigned while traffic is slow
- Write blog posts since you actually have time to do some creative writing
- Prepare your annual holiday cards for current and former clients
- Plan and create new print and online ads, and
- Research new ways to market your practice.
2. Community Outreach and Volunteering
Although your clients may not be as active over the summer, often legal volunteer organizations will have difficulty with summer staffing. And though volunteer work may not seem like the best marketing, it can often help expand your network, and could potentially lead to referrals from your fellow volunteer attorneys.
Similarly, community outreach, like hosting free legal education seminars, can also be a boon over the summer. Find the right group or social club, and offer to give a talk about a legal topic of interest to that group. For example, a traffic attorney might offer to give a talk about fighting speeding tickets to a car club.
3. Clear Off the Back Burner
During the regular, non-lull, months, you likely developed a long list of "back burner" tasks. Seeing as how you have time now, start checking those items off the list one by one.
Have an open position at your law firm? Post the job for free on Indeed, or search local candidate resumes.
Related Resources:
- PSA: The Entrepreneurs Flocking to Space Need Lawyers (FindLaw's Strategist)
- When Do 'Summer Hours' End? (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- 5 Tips for New Associates on How to Finish the Year Strong (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- Greedy Tip of the Week: $pecialize (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
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