Client
The Patriot Law Firm is a solo personal injury practice based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with satellite offices in Arizona, California and Hawaii. Its founder, Attorney Christopher Burk, spent years in big law, most recently at a large, well-known Nevada firm, where he was managing over 300 clients at once.
The workload was too much for one person to give clients the care he knew they deserved:
“I wanted to focus on people. I wanted to focus more on their cases and give them better attention.”
That is when Christopher had what he called a “Jerry McGuire moment,” and he decided to open his own firm.
The Challenge
Law school does not teach you how to run a practice, and almost every new firm finds a steep learning curve in the first year. Christopher had a plan: save enough money to skip a salary his first year. In January 2018 he opened the firm and put every dollar straight back into the practice.
The investments worked, and growth brought more calls, more new clients and more work. His small staff was stretched thin: “We had a lot of ‘jack-of-all-trades’ on staff,” one of whom was answering the phones alongside many other duties. Efficiency suffered, and sometimes calls were missed, a real problem for a personal injury practice:
“All calls must be answered immediately. This is especially important for new client calls that need to be connected to me right away.”
He was skeptical of answering services from his big-law days: “The receptionists couldn’t seem to assess the relative importance of calls. So, they were not getting new client calls over to the attorney.” And he worried about the personal touch: “Practicing law is about dealing with clients on a day-to-day basis. You must be kind – be a therapist at times. Be a friend at times. Clients need to have good service provided to them.”
The Solution
Toward the end of 2018, Christopher met Nathan Strum, CEO and co-founder of Abby Connect, who explained how Abby is different: call handling customized to the firm’s needs, with a small receptionist team that answers exactly the way law firms need, screening callers, connecting new clients to the attorney immediately and treating every caller with empathy and care. For a solo owner, that is a front desk without the overhead of another hire.
Christopher decided to give it a try. “Getting started was easy. The process was seamless, and calls handled by Abby are amazing!” The transition for his staff was easy too: Abby answers all the calls for The Patriot Law Firm promptly and professionally, and his team focuses on other tasks and billable hours without constant interruptions. “We’re more efficient now.”
The Results
The growth is the story every solo hears about but rarely sees written down: answered calls became signed clients, and signed clients became a practice that pays for itself many times over. Christopher gets constant feedback on the experience his callers have:
“Abby does a great job. The people who answer the phones are always cheery and nice. I get lots of compliments from my clients. You feel like the Abby Connect people are definitely people that smile when they talk.”
“People really like interacting with Abby Connect’s receptionists, and it means a lot because they’re an extension of my firm. People who call don’t know it’s Abby Connect. They think it’s my firm. They’re glowingly kind, bubbly, and wonderful.”
In Their Words
“The number one thing plaintiff lawyers like me are going to want to know is if I have a new client that’s calling, are you going to connect me immediately? In the personal injury world, every second counts. When a new client goes on Yelp and puts in a request, they are going to get inundated with lawyers, and whoever answers the call gets the case.”
Christopher says lawyers who want to grow, especially personal injury lawyers, need a reliable answering solution to answer all calls promptly, engage callers with empathy and care, and connect new clients to the attorney. For Christopher Burk, the partner that does all three is Abby Connect.
