Chris Dreyer:
Reviews are more important than ever. A critical threshold has been identified. Firms with at least a 4.8 star rating and 200 plus reviews dominate visibility, not just in traditional search, but in AI recommendations that are rapidly reshaping how clients find attorneys.
The attorneys capitalizing on this shift are combining strategic review acquisition with rock-solid operational systems. They're creating practices that consistently win cases others can't, deliver experiences clients rave about, and generate the review velocity that drives sustainable growth.
I'm Chris Dreyer, host and CEO of Rankings.io, and this is Personal Injury Mastermind.
Our guest today has cracked his code, from courtside photographer for the LA Clippers, to building one of California's respected PI practices, Lem Garcia's journey shows exactly how systems and reputation can become your most powerful competitive advantage. Lem, you've had a fascinating path to growth. Take us through that journey.
Lem Garcia:
I studied journalism really because I was really into the power of storytelling and writing. I took some photography classes and then later on I was able to land actually my dream job as a photographer for the Los Angeles Clippers. So I love basketball. As a photographer, you get court-sized seats to take pictures of the big moments. When I was working there, I realized something, that even your dream job can become, in the end, just a job. Instead of enjoying the game, I was focusing on getting the picture right. It was just like I had this moment that I worked so hard to get there, but then in the end I just didn't feel happy. And I think that really hit me hard. That's when I learned a lesson that just because you love something doesn't mean that you should make it that into your career. And sometimes the best way to just keep loving something is to not make it your livelihood, which is why I decided not to continue the path of photography and basketball.
Chris Dreyer:
So you went from courtside to counselor. What's really interesting is that most small firm owners are intimidated by the big players with billboards everywhere. You've developed a completely different mindset. Tell me about seeing these firms as powerhouses to seeing them as competitors you could outwork.
Lem Garcia:
You see the big firms, and the billboards, and all their ad spend, and you think that these big firms will probably be the toughest competition. But after doing this for 10 years, it turns out that the big firms, they're probably the easiest to outwork. Those firms, they're all about quantity, all about volume, but they don't really have to give the clients the time and energy that the clients deserve, as opposed to the smaller firms have the time and energy and the drive to do that. I think we're able to win in that way. We know we're not chasing numbers, we're really just focused on giving the clients good quality, and really making the clients feel like that they're the only one that we're helping, that we have all the time in the day to help them out. And those big firms, like in my office, if you ask for me, you'll be able to talk to me.
So I think if you're starting a firm, I think you just want to keep in mind, or if you have a small firm, keep in mind that it's not hard to stand out. Just take care of people the way that you would like to be treated, and then you'll build a great reputation that the big firms don't have. You just have better service, have better results, and that's how you win.
Chris Dreyer:
That makes a lot of sense. Outworking competitors is one thing, but what I'm really curious about is how you managed to scale while maintaining that high level of service. When did you first realize you couldn't build your firm on your own?
Lem Garcia:
When I opened for maybe the first year or two, I really was trying to do everything by myself. Save some money, don't hire someone, I could do it, I could just work longer hours. And then I started to realize that our clients were the ones that were really paying the price. That was my wake-up call. That the service that we were giving wasn't the type of service that I set out to give when I opened up. People started saying that we weren't calling enough, that they didn't feel taken care of, that we didn't give them the guidance that they were looking for. Just one or two calls like that is like an eye-opener. "Okay, something's going on. Things need to get better." And that's just not who we were. That's not what I wanted the firm to be like.
And I knew that if I kept trying to do it all, that we would never be able to deliver the kind of service that we promised at the start. And just even now I think the real key to delivering on the promises that we gave in the beginning, and the key to growing is really just a division of labor in the office. The sooner that you break things up, the better. It makes me proud as a business owner to see people really step into that role and become better than they expect of themselves, really. And I think that's really how you scale without sacrificing quality.
Chris Dreyer:
So you've learned that building a strong team is essential, but I imagine there must be some challenges in growing a firm without creating chaos. What happened when you tried to scale?
Lem Garcia:
Growing without systems is really chaotic. And I learned that you have to get really, really organized if you want to grow, because if you're not organized, it can get messy in a hurry. So yeah, you have to have systems for everything. Anything that you do, create a system for it, and just document everything that you do. I mean, if it's me and I'm delegating a task to someone, I'm going to write the process on how I want it done. Because if I don't, then they're going to do it their way, and it's going to be a little bit different, and maybe not the most productive or efficient way to do it. And then I have to go back and say, "Oh, you did it wrong," and then they feel bad that they did it wrong.
So if I just in the beginning get ahead of it, create the system like, "Here, this is how you do this, do it this way," and they're like, "Okay, no, I know what to do," it gets everybody on the same page, and it just makes everything, training, it makes training so much easier because they just read it and then they know what they need to do step by step. And we just built these systems to keep the firm running smoothly no matter who's in the office. And I think now that there's these systems in place, I can step away. Things are okay, and that's really where things grow. And as a business owner, there's more freedom when you have all the systems in place.
Chris Dreyer:
That's the key insight right there. If someone is just getting started with systems, where would you have them begin?
Lem Garcia:
My first system was just creating a manual or a book, it's like 80 pages, of how to handle car accident cases, from start to finish. And I thought I could crank it out over a weekend. "I'll just crank this out in a weekend." Yeah, that's what I told my wife. She's also an attorney, she's in the office too. She does a lot of great work here. But I told her that, and she just shook her head, "That's impossible. You always think you can do more than you can do." And I set out to do it.
And ultimately, I think it took me like three months to write it, every night spending several hours on it, and the weekend if I could, just creating this guide, how to handle car accidents from start to finish, and just like everything I possibly think of, so that I wouldn't have to explain concepts and procedures to the staff or team members, because I just felt like I was explaining things over and over, and maybe not to the same person, but it felt like I'm explaining this way too often. I just need to have a guide that they can read and refer to. And that just makes it so much easier for everyone. I mean, so much easier for me, but so much easier for the staff too, because now they know what's expected, and then it just reduces the stress because now they can go there first and then they don't have to ask me. And there isn't that issue like, "Oh, should I ask or not?" It's in the manual.
Chris Dreyer:
How much time do you think you've saved by creating this manual?
Lem Garcia:
I mean, that's really hard to quantify, but definitely more than three months. I think really just a lot of headache and heartache, just a lot of issues are resolved with having it there, because yeah, they just refer to it, and I don't have to say anything. If I get the same question three times in a day, by the third time I'm going to be a little bit fussy. And they're like, "Why are you upset about it?" So you take that out of the equation and things just run a lot more smoothly.
Chris Dreyer:
With these systems in place, how have you structured your firm to make the most of your team?
Lem Garcia:
We try to have a division of labor as much as possible, and specialize in our labor as much as possible. It just makes everything more efficient. And as far as our structure, we have case managers. Each case manager has a handling attorney. So there's a handling attorney, case manager, and then a demand writer, which is also like a case manager assistant, I guess. And then we also have a medical records department that they're in charge of getting on the medical records. And then we have a property damage department that's in charge of handling our client's property damage issues. And not just that, they also do other things, request police report and other requests of documents.
And then at the end of the case, there's also a lien negotiator, someone that we had these medical liens, and we want them to negotiate how much we pay back. So we have someone that does that specifically.
As far as marketing goes, we have an in-house graphic designer. And then I'm working with that person to create all the graphics that we use online. And then as far as our SEO goes, we have a digital agency that we use for our online presence, and they also do our advertising.
And then we have our admin and our HR department, of course. And yeah, those are pretty much the departments. And as far as what I do, I still have my hand in everything, but it's just more of oversight rather than doing the day-to-day.
Chris Dreyer:
That's incredible. You've mentioned something interesting about reviews. Online reviews have become even more crucial recently. They're not just important for Google rankings and local services ads, new data shows they're directly impacting whether your firm appears in ChatGPT recommendations, LLM recommendations. Research says that at least a 4.8 rating and 200 plus reviews in the legal space can help maximize your visibility, in both traditional AI powered search. Let's talk about how your review strategy has impacted your practice.
Lem Garcia:
I mean, ultimately all we have is our reputation. And your reputation isn't what you say about yourself, it's about what your clients say about you when you're not there. So in my office, from day one, I knew something that I think others didn't really think of at the time, this is 2014, that reviews were the key to standing out. In 2014, I don't think the law firms were paying attention to Google and Yelp that much, and I think they were more focused on the bigger firms were just spending a bunch of money on pay-per-click ads, print ads, billboards. And I was just focused, and my firm was just focused on making sure that the clients were happy. And that at the end, that they would share their experiences online and leave us a review.
And we got just 10 reviews, because people, I think in my area, the number one review was, or the firm with the most reviews maybe had four. So, once we got 10 reviews, that was probably within the first eight months of opening. I mean, the phone just started ringing a lot, we got a lot of clients, and then we just kept on focusing on that. And I think at 50 reviews things really started picking up even more. By a hundred reviews, people were really finding us, and they were even saying that, "Oh, they found us online because of the number of our reviews" The five stars all across the board and because of our reputation." And that's really I think the power of great online reviews, that you can say you're great all day long, but when the clients say it for you, that's the big difference, that's the game changer.
Chris Dreyer:
Those reviews don't happen by accident though. How do you systemize getting those reviews from happy clients?
Lem Garcia:
I wanted to get a lot of reviews. At first, we weren't always asking for them. I just thought, "Okay, if we do great work, client will just leave reviews on their own." But you find out that they don't. Some people are quick to post a review when they're not happy, but when they're happy, I think the clients really need a little nudge to leave us a review. So then after realizing that, reviews just became more of a priority, and not so much of an afterthought. And really after so many years of doing it really comes down to your timing, and your messaging, and even following up if you need to. What we do is we ask for the reviews when they're the happiest, and in personal injury they're the happiest when they get their check. And then on top of that, when they pick up their check, we just give them a nice gift, something for them to remember us by, and that's free. And then I'll meet with them, or a team member will meet with them, and really just want to capture or ask them what their experience was like with us.
And of course, when we want to know, we want to improve on our service, if there's any way that we can improve. But also, if you get them to say why they're happy and how great you are, and how great the results, and just really explain how they're happy, then when you ask them for the review, they're more inclined to say those nice things that they just told you to your face, right? So then on top of that, we make it really easy as possible, eliminate any problems. So we make sure we send them a link for the review, so that there's no extra work. If you take care of the clients and you make everything easy for them, the reviews will take care of themselves.
Chris Dreyer:
You've mentioned how critical your team is to everything you do. What's your hiring philosophy to make sure you're bringing on the right people for your systems?
Lem Garcia:
When I'm hiring, I'm not just hiring for skill, I'm really hiring for someone that is "going to be the right fit." I think you can train someone for skills, but you can't train their attitude, right? We don't just hire for talent. We look at character, is a person coachable? Do they take ownership over their actions? And really, are they going to care for the clients as much as we would like them to? So that's what we look for in every single person that goes through here. Paralegals, case managers, receptionists, every person here is really important in delivering the client a great experience. And that's what we focus on. And we want to hire people that believe in the mission that puts clients first, and just really believes in building a strong team. And we want to build a firm where we trust everyone, and everybody has a good character and a great attitude, and that I think that's what really matters.
Chris Dreyer:
And how do you foster that team strength once you've got the right people in place?
Lem Garcia:
A strong team isn't just about working hard, it's about making sure that everybody feels valued. When there's a win, we try to celebrate the wins, reward hard work. And just make work more than just work. We try to have some fun together. We've been to Disneyland several times together, we've gone bowling, we've had food truck days, we've made lamps together. So things like that are really important. And then every Friday we have lunch in the office. It's called a star performer of the month. So every month someone in the office gets recognized for all their great contributions. When people connect and they feel appreciated, they really show up differently for each other in the office, and then also for our clients. And I think really happy teams make happy clients. And when the clients feel that energy, they feel satisfied, and then they want to leave a review, and they tell everyone that they know about us.
Chris Dreyer:
And that wraps up our conversation with Lem Garcia. What stands out to me is how Lem recognized early on that client experience and systematic review generation would become critical competitive advantages in personal injury law. His firm proves that you don't need to have the biggest marketing budget to build a thriving practice. What you need are systems that deliver consistent, excellent results. A team that genuinely cares, and a strategic approach, to building your online reputation. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you subscribe. Until next time, I'm Chris Dreyer, and this is Personal Injury Mastermind.
