Asten Hall:
So I get to keep a hundred percent of everything.
Chris Dreyer:
You need to either be a top 1% marketing person to originate the cases or you need to be a top 1% trial attorney.
Asten Hall:
My goal is to be in the top 1% of personal injury attorneys in the U.S. and definitely in the Georgia areas.
Chris Dreyer:
Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind. I'm your host, Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io, the legal marketing company the best firms hire when they want the rankings traffic in cases other law firm marketing agencies can't deliver. Each week you get insights and wisdom from some of the best in the industry. Hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. All right, let's dive in. As an attorney, your reputation is everything. It fuels referrals, builds trust, and grows your bottom line. Boutique law firm owner Asten Hall has cultivated an incredibly strong personal brand making her the go-to attorney in her community. Her thriving personal injury practice has grown out of a foundation of community engagement and niche specialization. She's generated organic word-of-mouth referrals leading to a steady pipeline of clients. Specialization has enabled her to take on larger complex cases. Her journey shows what it takes to become a recognized leader.
Today, Asten explains how homegrown marketing centered on reputation and relationships provides a model for lawyers aiming to elevate their practices. She provides the tactical building blocks any personal injury lawyer needs to get started on this pathway to success. Before opening her practice, she received her undergrad at Spellman, a tiny all-women's historically black college and her JD from one of the largest schools in the nation, George Washington. After law school, she spent 12 years protecting millions of dollars in revenue at the titan of tech, Oracle. So how did she come to leave the corporate world behind and open her own firm? Here's Asten Hall, owner and founder of the Asten Hall Firm explaining how she did it.
Asten Hall:
In 2018, my husband, after three kids, we decided to move back to Atlanta from the Northern Virginia area. Continued to work remote for Oracle for a while, but by moving back to Georgia, took the Georgia bar and they had a program called Tilt Transition into law practice that required that I go to some mandatory meetings throughout the state with different attorneys. The majority seemed to be personal injury attorneys. So when I realized that I get to represent the people and not the powerful, I was like, "Oh my gosh, the only slogan my firm has." It has its passion for people, passion for justice, because I really love helping just the underdog fighting for their rights.
Chris Dreyer:
You got the passion and that's one of the key components because if you don't, sometimes when that call comes in on a Saturday, you got to roll up the sleeves. You may not want to, but since you have the passion to help, that's amazing. You decided the best time ever I'll start the firm in 2020 right at the start of the pandemic. So some different challenges. What made you decide like, hey, now is the time? How did you deal with this chaos of the pandemic?
Asten Hall:
My goal was to launch officially January 1, 2020, which I did, so wasn't quite aware of the pandemic at that time. I consider it an advantage because I didn't have to really shift my practice from in the office face-to-face to everything virtual now. I got to just start from scratch in that world. I worked remote for Oracle for a while from 2018. I was used to online working and Zoom calls, and so it was really a smooth transition for me and I kind of more so felt bad for the people who had to send everyone home, figure out how we're going to get in contact with everyone and how we're going to communicate with the clients.
Chris Dreyer:
I remember being an agency owner, it was like trying to get adoption to just Zoom was difficult. People are unsure what link to go to and now it's just second nature. It seems like everybody's using Zoom or Teams or Google Chat or something. So yeah, that was definitely a huge advantage for you. One of the questions that I don't think it's talked about enough is capital allocation, like scale capital and starting up, and some individuals get it from free cash flow or debt or private equity. How did you approach getting this thing going and what was your thought process behind that?
Asten Hall:
We were already in a virtual world, so I didn't have to break a lease or anything. I had a virtual office, so it's not expensive. It's maybe a hundred bucks a month for that. And then I just had my laptop and I signed on at first for one software company for case management. So it was pretty low cost and I had a few cases. One I actually acquired from another attorney, so it went to mediation. It was a medical malpractice case and we resolved it mid-July of 2020. So I used the profits from that case to then rev up anything else I might need starting out.
Chris Dreyer:
So that's amazing that you had a little capital and use that for momentum. How has your approach changed? What are you doing now to get your name out there? How do you think about business development? Because you got this great experience, but you need to get the lead to be able to showcase your expertise.
Asten Hall:
I'm very involved in many organizations in my communities. My husband is also principal at a high school. I do donations to the school and he'll put me in the newsletter. So very organic marketing right now. So I get to keep a hundred percent of everything. And so it's really worked out very well because I'm not burning a lot of money in marketing, but I am getting a good amount of cases. Some really good cases actually. And that just comes from years of my reputation with my community organizations. They know that I love helping people and they trust me. I have a lot of people that fortunately know they can trust me, so I'm not selling myself on the calls. If someone calls me from a referral, they're like, such and such said to call you and we just hit the ground running.
Chris Dreyer:
I was a JV basketball coach, a high school teacher, and one of the things I noticed is there's tons of fundraise, there's an event from a business development standpoint for a law firm, it makes complete sense because they're always getting out in the community. So if you have that connection, it's a great way to get in front of a lot of people and be known. Just tell me about a few of those, maybe just to get on people's radar and maybe they think a little bit differently about maybe even at that level versus maybe the collegiate or wherever direction you're thinking.
Asten Hall:
Each school that he's at, he's been at two different schools. They're a larger county, a lot of staff, over a hundred staff members. So one lady I know, she sent me three really good cases. She did some social work where she would say, "Hey, we need these kids sponsored," and my firm would send a monetary donation. And so when she had a few family members that were in a really significant accident, I got three cases just from that one employee so getting started like that. And then I know they do the teacher of the month and it's like a $25 gift card to maybe Chick-fil-A or something. And I just sponsored that to just keep my name out there. And so at this other school, I've gotten quite one really large case that I did refer out because it's a pretty difficult premise liability death case.
So it's that one of the top firms here in Georgia. Those are few examples of just from that. And for instance, I joined the VIP, which is Volunteer Initiative Program with United Way. They do cohorts I think twice a year, and it's about 50 people, 25 on Mondays, 25 on Wednesdays. So one of the girls from there was like, "Oh, I was in accident, can you help me?" I was like, "Sure." So we were just in the same cohort together. So gotten clients, again, just through being in the community and people knowing what I do.
Chris Dreyer:
That's amazing. That reminds me the philosophy, the principles of those BNI groups where you meet together with local businesses, but just being a part of the community. I always thought there's some different states have rules to where you can't say put billboards up on the side of the road. And I always in the back of my mind, I'm like, oh, that seems like an opportunity because I always think of the negative as an opportunity. I'd be thinking, oh, okay, sports games, maybe out in the center field you have a big home run at the home run mark or just because so many people come to these events and yes, I love the just different way of approaching grassroots marketing.
One thing that's always been confusing to me is so many of these attorneys do Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I'm saying there's nothing wrong with that, that's better than doing nothing at all, but that's when everybody's doing it. So you have additional competition versus maybe the random pizza holiday.
Asten has taken on more and more trucking cases over the years. To help her get maximum value from these cases, she joined the Academy Truck Accident attorneys. She explains how belonging to niche groups has a direct impact on her leveling up her practice.
Asten Hall:
It is a specialized field. So my thing is I want to deliver and have the best knowledge to best resources. I'm involved a lot of things in GTLA, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association. I go to a lot of their events. Gate City Bar, Kenan Nix puts on an excellent series, which meets four times a year. I go to that. So I'm always very actively involved in seeking the knowledge and expertise to learn and master the craft so that my goal is to be in the top 1% of personal injury attorneys in the US and definitely in the Georgia area. So that requires me to go to these conferences and just to learn, just continuously learn CLEs. Some attorneys shoot to meet the minimum, the state license. I probably have enough for the next five, 10 years already because I'm just always looking to learn.
I go to the free Goldberg conferences and monthly meetings that they put on here. So I'm fortunate to be in Atlanta where that organization's led by Joe Freed. I do things on the West Coast as well with Trial Lawyers University and that group. And then this past summer in June, I went to Jerry Spence Method in Du Bois, Wyoming, and spent the three weeks there on the ranch with no cell phone and Wi-Fi to just really learn, hone my trial skills. So again, I'm just always in something.
Chris Dreyer:
I literally talked to James Helm from Top Dog Law yesterday, and he was talking about how to really be successful in this space you need to be a top one percenter. He said you need to either be a top 1% marketing person to originate the cases or you need to be a top 1% trial attorney. And I love how you went right there. You're like, "Hey, I want to be the top 1%." And the things that you're doing is not the average. It's the average of just coasting and that's how you're attracting these great cases. Being a boutique firm and you get a range of these complex cases, you've had kind of a mix. So what's your thought process on what cases to accept, which ones to refer out, which ones to put your energy into being a boutique firm?
Asten Hall:
So again, if it's a larger, more complicated premise liability and so if I need the additional resources or knowledge, then I will bring in a firm that specializes in that particular area too, since I'm so early in my practice to learn and to grow, but to still make sure that the clients get the best services and the best results for their issue. So that's my strategy is just what does my client need, what does the firm need? I also do, I'm kind of counsel for another attorney. I do all her litigation, and so I learned from that. I share a suite space with another firm and that team and we share resources. And so just partnership and teamwork really.
Chris Dreyer:
A lot of times we hear about the business books, the Good to Great, the E-Myth, all this. Are there any particular litigation or trial or attorney specific books that had an impact? I mean, you mentioned Nick Raleigh and he had Running with the Bulls. Have any of those influenced you and your practice?
Asten Hall:
Yeah. I've read Running with the Bulls, but really honestly, I listened to a lot of podcasts I would say as well. But from the legal perspective, just actually going to legal events. There's so many on whatever area I feel like I need to learn if it's on depositions, mediations, and I just really hit the ground running. I think that I'm just very smart and resourceful. So if I had a Marta bus deposition to take, so Atlanta especially is very, very cooperative. If you put something on that GTLA listserv and ask a question, someone is going to respond with an answer or I can go to a mentor, I have several mentors, they're going to respond with an answer as to where to go and what to look for to get the answer.
So you're never alone unless you just don't reach out and you don't make those connections. I think that that's also a part of being in corporate America. You realize that the organization is the resource to other people there. They're the biggest resource that you have. And so you tap into that. You contribute as well as you ask. And so there's other attorneys that reach out to me all the time for things, and I send it. If I have it, I send it. No problem.
Chris Dreyer:
That's fantastic. I love that mindset. What's next for you and your firm and how can the audience listening get in touch with you?
Asten Hall:
Yeah, sure. So next is just 2024 is a Leap Year. So we're already planning to leap and to really expand. And I'm hoping to bring on some other attorneys who some of them have started their own practice, but they may need additional support. So coming up with either a structure where we can all work together or they can come under my organization and we can grow together and continue to serve the people. So that's next, just a year of really expansion. And in terms of me personally, I'm going to take the California bar to expand where I practice at because I have a lot of connections and resources in California. They have a lot of more liberal venues and some good laws, some tort reform. But I always say there's more people in LA County, I think, than the whole state of Georgia. So it's also to expand and add a West Coast and East Coast organization.
Chris Dreyer:
Thanks so much to Asten for sharing her wisdom today. Let's hit the takeaways. It's time for the pinpoints. Invest what you can. For some firms, that means reinvesting capital into the marketing budget. Asten investing her time has paid dividends. A homegrown approach to marketing only works when your network trusts you and your abilities. Like Asten says, it's all about reputation.
Asten Hall:
I am getting a good amount of cases, some really good cases actually, and that just comes from years of my reputation with my community organizations. They know that I love helping people and they trust me. The whole thing is know, like, and trust. So I have a lot of people that fortunately know, like, and trust me, so I'm not selling myself on the calls. If someone calls me from a referral, they're like, such and such said to call you, and we just hit the ground running.
Chris Dreyer:
Don't be shy. Speak to everyone in your network about what you do. Check up on people in your network. It's an opportunity to genuinely connect, assess their needs and remind them what you're looking for.
Asten Hall:
I was having a conversation with a friend I met through another organization. We're just checking in. She was asking, how is the business going? I said, "I want some bigger cases and higher value cases and take fewer higher value ones." And I kid you not, probably about two weeks later, got a call from her. It just struck her that we just had that conversation.
Chris Dreyer:
Put in the work. If you want to attract top cases, you have to be the best at marketing or the best trial attorney. Asten is dedicated to becoming the best, a process that requires time and dedication.
Asten Hall:
That requires me to go to these conferences and to just learn, just continues to learn. TLEs, some attorneys shoot the minimum to stay licensed. I probably have enough for the next five, 10 years already because I'm just always looking to learn.
Chris Dreyer:
For more information about Asten Hall, check out the show notes. While you're there, please hit that follow button so you never miss an episode of Personal Injury Mastermind with me, Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io. All right everybody, thanks for hanging out. See you next time. I'm out.
