Lisa Bloom:
Most people don't know any lawyers. They find lawyers very intimidating. So, you can lower that barrier and be somebody that they know.
Chris Dreyer:
Anywhere where individuals congregate is an opportunity to advertise.
Lisa Bloom:
We can do hard things, and doing hard things makes you stronger.
Chris Dreyer:
Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind. I'm your host, Chris Dreyer, Founder and CEO of Rankings.io, the elite legal marketing agency. Each week, you get insights and wisdom from some of the best in the industry. On these special Toolkit Tuesdays, we dive deep into conversations with the leading vendors and attorneys in the legal sphere, the masterminds behind the technologies, services and strategies that help law firms not just survive, but thrive in today's competitive landscape. Now, this isn't about selling you the latest software or getting kickbacks from affiliate links. It's about bringing you the best so you can be the best for your firm, for your staff, for your clients, and for you. This is Toolkit Tuesday on PIM, your weekly guide to staying sharp in the legal world. Let's go.
Lisa Bloom has true grit and has never backed down from a fight. She's an activist, advocate, and champion for justice. Lisa launched The Bloom Firm in 2010, securing victories for clients against powerful figures like Bill Cosby and Jeffrey Epstein. But even one of the most visible attorneys in the nation doesn't rely just on TV to market her firm. A former Court TV host turned bestselling author, Lisa offers advice for attorneys on connecting with potential clients through social media, building an excellent team, and maintaining work-life balance. Lisa's mother is the infamous Gloria Allred. Gloria went to law school when Lisa was in high school. Lisa shares how her experience growing up taught her about individual impact. Here's Lisa Bloom, owner of The Bloom Firm.
Lisa Bloom:
My mom has had a huge impact on me from my earliest childhood up until today. She's really a heroine, she's a fighter, and I really love and admire her. Yes, before she became a lawyer, she was head of the Teachers' Union here in Los Angeles when she was a teacher, and so there was a big teachers' strike and she took me out on the picket line and I learned about working people having to organize together for fair pay, and she also taught me about just generally people getting together and organizing for change, and that's something that she has done her whole life, I think I have done in a lot of different settings. And also, being a litigator and being a trial lawyer and fighting for people.
Chris Dreyer:
It seems like you were a fighter from day one. In sixth grade, you were getting school policies changed to remove the exclusion of girls from the softball team. I thought that was incredible.
Lisa Bloom:
Yeah.
Chris Dreyer:
Guys, for those interested in that full story, you can listen to Lisa's interview on LawHer Episode 20, and I'll link that up in the show notes. So, did this boldness come naturally? Is it just in you, that you like to strive out and make change?
Lisa Bloom:
I'd say I'm kind of a bold, outgoing person, especially when it's on behalf of somebody else or if there's an injustice that I think is wrong. And I did learn at a young age that you can make change. We went into Sav-on drug stores and they had all the girls' toys on one side and boys' toys on the other side, and girls' toys were like toy vacuum cleaners and toy kitchens, and the boys' side had all the fake money of course, and I didn't think that was right and we protested and got them to change to just, I think it was younger children's toys and older children's toys. So, it was an amazing experience to learn that you can make change, and that's what I've tried to do my whole career on behalf of LGBT people, disabled people, people of color, and especially women.
Chris Dreyer:
And let's talk about that. You launched your firm back in 2010, and today you handle everything from high-profile cases, to personal injury, to employment. What did you initially practice and how has that evolution been like over the past 13 years?
Lisa Bloom:
Most everyday people, they do need lawyers and they have a very hard time finding lawyers. That's unfortunately the way our system goes, and many people are the victims of injustice, whether it's police misconduct, we do a lot of those cases, sexual harassment or sexual assault, we do a lot of those cases, especially in the entertainment industry. So, I knew that's what I wanted to do. And when I started my law firm, The Bloom Firm, about 14 years ago now, I knew that's what we wanted to focus on, and that's what we've done up until today. Now we have 10 lawyers and also paralegals and non-attorney staff, and it's a great team, and I think we really know how to stand up for victims of discrimination, harassment or abuse. That's what we do. I think we're very good at it, if I may brag a little bit. I'm just very motivated to do this work every day because there's so much injustice.
Chris Dreyer:
A big percentage of our audience listening are personal injury attorneys. Many of them have their own firm. And so one of the questions we're always considering is how to do business development and marketing strategies, how to get some of these opportunities. You could be the greatest trial attorney in the world, but if you don't get the opportunity, you don't get to prove it.
Lisa Bloom:
So true.
Chris Dreyer:
Media has been a big part of that. Was that your initial strategy that you've really embraced from the get-go? Is that how you thought about business development?
Lisa Bloom:
Before I started my firm, I had a television show on Court TV. I was an anchorwoman and covered live trials for eight years and that was a full-time job, and I also did a lot of appearances on CNN, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, all of them. And then I transitioned to my firm, I continued doing media, I continued doing a lot of cable news, for example. I also appear on a lot of UK and Australian shows, and podcasts like yours. But now, 2023, honestly, I think it's all about social media. And the good news for anybody who doesn't have a lot of TV background is not that many people are watching TV anymore, but everybody is on social media, so you can make short clips about the law. That's what I do. I got on TikTok last year.
At first I said, "Come on, TikTok, I'm not interested in doing dance trends." Then I read that TikTok is the number one app in the world, and I looked at, well, what are lawyers doing over there? There are some lawyers doing some interesting things, but not a lot, and not a lot in my practice area. So, I started posting. I now have about 50,000 TikTok followers, and I don't even post that often. I think if you're passionate about what you do, you care. You care, for example if you're a plaintiff's PI attorney, you care about public safety, you care about children's safety, you care about workers on the job, whatever your particular area is, and you show that you're passionate about it and give a little bit of legal information, not legal advice, but legal information to people, and just give people the information.
Most people don't know any lawyers. They find lawyers very intimidating. So, you can lower that barrier and be somebody that they know, even if they only know you on Instagram or Facebook or whatever platform you're comfortable with. They're more likely to reach out to you when they see you talking, they see that you care, and you let them know that you're out there and you're happy to consult with them.
Chris Dreyer:
I like to say that anywhere where individuals congregate is an opportunity to advertise. So, a lot of people are congregating on social media, whether it's the new social media channel, or it's TikTok, Instagram Reels, whatever. I love that approach from a distribution perspective. Some of the outlets you've been on have massive distribution. Not only do they have TV, they've got radio, they've got the social distribution. These individuals just want to get their foot in the door, so is it getting up close and personal and shaking hands and meeting them in person and developing relationships? What's some of the advice that you would say just to kind of get your foot in the door just on those avenues?
Lisa Bloom:
Well, it's true that you should always have a stack of old-fashioned business cards with you, and everywhere you go, you should have your little elevator pitch of just a sentence or two about what you do in plain English. For example, if you say personal injury attorney to most non-lawyers, they don't exactly know what that is. But you can say, "I represent accident victims," or, "I represent injured workers." Think of it in terms of people who don't really understand the law. How can you have your quick little elevator pitch? I always say, when people say, "What kind of law do you practice?" I say, "I represent victims of discrimination, harassment, and abuse. A lot of that is sexual harassment and sexual assault." Everybody understands what that is.
And give out your business card, let people know you're happy to do a free consultation or a free case review. The old-fashioned business card is very helpful, because people take it, they put it in a drawer. Six months later, somebody says, "I need a lawyer." "Oh yeah, I have that card in my drawer. Why don't you call this person?" So, that's a great way to do it, but again, I do encourage people to post videos on social media. I think that's the most effective marketing right now, and it's free. You just have to start doing it.
Chris Dreyer:
Do you have a team, do you have an editor? Tell me about the composition just from time investment, all those little things that may help out an individual.
Lisa Bloom:
Yes, I have a writer, an editor, a camera person, and a sound engineer, and you're looking at all of those people right now. It's just me. Me, myself and I. It's really not that difficult. My challenge is always to keep it under a minute. Lawyers can be very long-winded, and you don't want that, especially for reels on Instagram or TikTok. You want it to be short, punchy, get right to the point, and it's really not that hard. And also, it doesn't have to be highly produced. In fact, I think people prefer when it's not. People see those as a little bit slick. If you have movement, that's good. If you come into the frame and sit down, if you have glasses, you take them off. If you're walking, if you're driving, whatever. I mean, I challenge myself sometimes to do it. I'm driving somewhere and a thought pops into my head. I'll pull over, take out my phone and just do a quick video. So, I wouldn't overly stress about it being completely perfect. That's not as important as it being succinct, lively, to the point and brief.
Chris Dreyer:
Over the past 14 years, as Lisa's firm won landmark cases, the firm needed to expand. She explains how The Bloom Firm hires and retains top talent.
Lisa Bloom:
Yeah, that's a good question that very few people ask me, about actually running the business. And I have an absolute amazing partner, Arick Fudali. He is very smart, hardworking, we are very much aligned. And so he runs the business on a day-to-day basis and does a great job. And then we have another senior attorney who oversees cases, and then we have a group of mid-level and junior attorneys. In terms of hiring, I mean, we want people who are excellent. I don't apologize for insisting on excellence. I don't want anybody who's just okay or mediocre. We're up against some of the biggest law firms, the biggest businesses and entities and government agencies in the country. We have to be on our game. The other side has these law firms with thousands of attorneys, our clients have us. So, it's really important that everybody be very smart, a really strong understanding of our practice areas, really committed to getting the job done, people that can make decisions. And that's what we have. I mean, honestly, I'm thrilled with my team. Everybody is so smart and so great.
In terms of retaining people, we pay competitive salaries, have competitive benefits. We are all remote, which I think is unusual. We had offices in LA, New York, and San Francisco prior to the pandemic. When the pandemic happened, we went all remote. When everybody started going back, we talked about it and my team said, "We really like being all remote. Can we please stay all remote?" And I said, "Well, I kind of like everybody being in the office at least some of the time." And they said, "Look, haven't we been doing a good job? Haven't we been winning cases? Haven't we been getting great settlements? Haven't we been getting great client reviews?" And I said, "Yeah, we have." They were right. So, I said, "Okay, I want my team to be happy." I mean, that's something that I do to keep people happy.
We have a number of young parents or parents of young kids in the firm. I think they appreciate not having to commute. If there's a baby in the other room, they can see the baby every now and then during their workday. I think that's nice. They bring the babies to our team Zooms sometimes. And we also, I really pride our firm on having family-friendly hours. It's something I strongly believe in. I do not believe lawyers or anyone should work all the time, crazy hours. It should be roughly like 9:30 to 6:00. That's about our business hours, and that's it, and we don't contact each other before or after business hours, on the weekend, unless it's something really urgent. If you're in trial, obviously it's different, but for the most part, use the Send Later feature on Gmail. If you have a thought that pops into your head at 9:00 PM, send it to arrive the next morning at 9:30 AM. That's how I feel about it. I have a lot of interests outside the law. I think that leads to me being a balanced, healthy person, and I want my team to be the same way.
Chris Dreyer:
I love that, and I'm sure even with the remote, you could even allow some non-linear type of work if an employee needs to pick up their kid.
Lisa Bloom:
Of course.
Chris Dreyer:
Or what have you with life.
Lisa Bloom:
Yes.
Chris Dreyer:
Which can be difficult if you're in the office. So, are you using things like Slack and Zoom, and is there a case management tool that you prefer?
Lisa Bloom:
Yeah, we have team Zooms on every case once a week. We have the full team, everybody in the firm once a week Zoom, and then once a month we have a Zoom party to celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries that month, where we buy everybody lunch via Grubhub. They can get whatever they want. We have little silly games and prizes for the winners, and I think everybody enjoys that. We also have in-person summer gathering, which we just did in Santa Monica last weekend, and then everybody went to the Santa Monica Pier and had unlimited play at the arcade with kids and families and stuff, and that was fun. And in the winter, we do a winter gathering as well. And also, I encourage everybody to take each other to lunch, which we will pay for of course. So, take your coworker to lunch, invite a coworker you don't know very well to lunch.
A lot of our team is in LA, and then there's a group in San Francisco. We've also had people in Illinois and we have a paralegal in Atlanta. I think the default is everybody just wants to text, or we use a competitor to Slack. We have a chat feature and it's equivalent of texting, and I want to get people off of that. I don't just want to be texting all day long. I think if we're not going to be face-to-face, at least we can be on Zoom. We can talk to each other. It's a great tool. Thank God for Zoom. And I know sometimes we get sick of it, but I think it's the second best to being in person, and we should use it a lot.
Chris Dreyer:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think technology really accelerated during COVID. It was like, "Oh, hey, now we're going to do depos via Zoom," and just other things like that, especially in the legal profession. And I kind of wanted to shift, maybe you could give me a story of just really an impactful case, how your team handled it. How did you originate a case? Was it a referral? Was it from the media?
Lisa Bloom:
Okay. Well, here's one that comes to mind. So, I represented Janice Dickinson against Bill Cosby a few years ago. Janice Dickinson was a supermodel, and when women were starting to come out and talk about Bill Cosby sexually assaulting them, Janice went on CNN and said that he did this to her too and it had happened back in the 1980s. And I thought, "Well, that's too bad, because her statute of limitations has run." The next day, Cosby's attorneys came out and called her a liar, and I thought, "Aha, now she has a defamation claim that's timely." So, I went on CNN and I said, "I think Janice Dickinson has a defamation claim now. She would have one year to bring that claim. I would love to talk to her about it. I hope that Janice contacts me."
And she did, and I spoke to her very, very carefully, vetted her case. We got photos of her back in the 1980s. She had taken a photo with Cosby, thank goodness. That was very helpful. She had told about four or five people contemporaneously what he had done to her. We reached them, we got them locked down into declarations. This is all before we filed the case, and I really wanted the case to be buttoned up. I wanted to have the witnesses on paper under oath, signed on the bottom line, because I knew we would be in for a huge fight, and we were. And then we had four years of litigation before we even started discovery, if you can believe that. In the defamation case, they brought an anti-SLAPP motion, which is an early request to the judge to have the whole case thrown out for non-lawyers, and it was denied, but then they appealed, and so it went up and down the appellate courts.
They even went all the way to the US Supreme Court at one point, and we just kept winning, kept winning, winning, winning, winning, and then after four years, we were able to get the insurance company for Cosby to pay. I'm not allowed to say the amount, but I am allowed to say it was an epic amount. It was a very significant number, and I was very, very pleased that this was a huge win for Janice. One of the things that I loved about the case was also watching her go from a person, most of my clients are like this, at the beginning they're very scared, terrified, they're really nervous, and by the end, she was very empowered and strong and proud of what she had done. And my message to women is always we can do hard things, and doing hard things makes you stronger. So, we shouldn't shy away from them, we should do them. We should walk through the fire, because it makes us stronger. And that's what happened to Janice, and I was very, very proud of my team winning legal battle after legal battle all along the way.
Chris Dreyer:
Such an incredible story. Thank you for sharing that. And I just imagine, I mean, just the grit, and four years and just the things that you had to do and just the amount of sacrifice and just staying focused for that. That speaks to passion, and that's why I said that earlier on the Venn diagram. It's like if one of those is missing, if you have a purpose and a passion, but there's no profit, that's a hobby. If you have the profit and let's say the passion, but there's no purpose... You need all of them to have the motivation to stick it through when it gets really difficult, and I think you're testament to that in what you're doing. This has been incredible, Lisa. One final question here. Where can people go to learn more about you and what's next for your firm?
Lisa Bloom:
Thank you. Well, you can contact us at thebloomfirm.com, and there's a contact page, and we're happy to do free case reviews for anybody who wants to reach out. I'm also very active on social media, lisabloomesq, E-S-Q, on Instagram and Twitter. And what's next for us? We have two trials in September in police misconduct cases. We represent Black Lives Matter protestors from the George Floyd protests back in 2020 who, while they were there protesting police brutality, became victims of police brutality when they were shot by police rubber bullets. One in the genitals, one in the face. They're not allowed to shoot in either area, and they had very significant injuries. So, I look forward to trying those cases for these very, very worthy clients who were out there, as I was, on the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Get them some justice.
Chris Dreyer:
Thanks so much, Lisa, for sharing your insights. Let's go over those takeaways. Get out there. You don't need a team of social media experts to get your voice heard on social media. You can record it in your car, at your kitchen table, when inspiration strikes. Remember that the content needs to be short, engaging, and full of energy.
Lisa Bloom:
I have a writer, an editor, a camera person, and a sound engineer, and you're looking at all of those people right now. It's just me. Me, myself and I.
Chris Dreyer:
Be clear. Have a simple elevator pitch to explain what you do in plain language. Most people haven't interacted with a lawyer before, let alone a personal injury attorney. So, make what you do and how you can help easy to understand.
Lisa Bloom:
And everywhere you go, you should have your little elevator pitch of just a sentence or two about what you do in plain English. For example, if you say personal injury attorney to most non-lawyers, they don't exactly know what that is. But you can say, "I represent accident victims," or, "I represent injured workers." Think of it in terms of people who don't really understand the law.
Chris Dreyer:
Listen to your team. You spent a long time finding top talent. Keep them happy by listening to their requests. As Lisa found, retention may require a little flexibility.
Lisa Bloom:
We are all remote, which I think is unusual. We had offices in LA, New York, and San Francisco prior to the pandemic. When the pandemic happened, we went all remote. When everybody started going back, we talked about it and my team said, "We really like being all remote. Can we please stay all remote?" And I said, "Well, I kind of like everybody being in the office at least some of the time." And they said, "Look, haven't we been doing a good job? Haven't we been winning cases? Haven't we been getting great settlements? Haven't we been getting great client reviews?" And I said, "Yeah, we have." They were right. So, I said, "Okay, I want my team to be happy."
Chris Dreyer:
All right, everybody, I hope we added a few more tools to your kit. For more about Lisa and The Bloom Firm, head on over to the show notes. While you're there, leave me a five-star review. I'll be forever grateful. Thanks for listening to Personal Injury Mastermind with me, Chris Dreyer, Founder and CEO of Rankings.io. Catch you next time. I'm out.
