Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to James Grant. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

James, appreciate you joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

Launching a business is intimidating, particularly for lawyers who often lack entrepreneurial training from law schools and state bars. In 2015, I founded Georgia Trial Attorneys with my business partner Mark Kirchen. We believed that entrepreneurship would be a straightforward path. Oh how we were wrong.

But despite those challenges we achieved average annual growth of 40% during our first four years in business. By typical “business” metrics we were doing great. But internally, we were overworked and overwhelmed. In late 2018, we hired a business coach, a decision that proved invaluable for our personal, professional, and financial growth. Over the next five years, we transformed our law firm from a hobby centered around us as owners into a business that just so happens to practice law and operates independently of its founders.

Although we are not the most profitable or successful personal injury attorneys, we have joined the top 9% of small business that have surpassed the $1,000,000 annual gross revenue milestone. And in 2023, we are projected to collect $2.6 to $2.8 million in gross revenue, with plans to expand into other states and exceed $10 million in the coming years.

Our achievements are attributed to the insights gained from How To Manage A Small Law Firm and Scaling Up. Together, they’ve helped us become true business owners, encountering and overcoming new challenges at each stage of growth. Key lessons from our journey include:
1. Clear Vision & Strategy: Defining your business’s vision, mission, and core values is crucial, as they serve as a roadmap for growth and align your team with the company’s objectives.
2. Assemble A Strong Leadership Team: Acknowledge your limitations and surround yourself with talented individuals who share your vision.
3. Document Everything: Written processes, procedures, and systems ensure repeatability and measurability, while investments in technology streamline operations.
4. Create A Marketing And Business Plan: A comprehensive plan with objective success metrics ensures goal alignment and should be evaluated weekly.
5. Hire Professionals Not Amateurs: Focus on attracting, retaining, and developing top talent, fostering a culture of professional development, and recognizing that staff requirements may change as you grow.
6. Measure, Adjust, And Adapt: Stay agile and adaptable, pivoting strategies and tactics as needed to seize opportunities and thrive in a dynamic legal landscape.

In summary, our law firm’s scaling journey has been challenging but rewarding, and we eagerly anticipate the future challenges and successes that lie ahead.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is James Grant. I help other personal injury attorneys make more money, faster and with less stress by serving as their outsourced litigation department. I co-founded Georgia Trial Attorneys in 2015, with my business partner Attorney Mark Kirchen. My passion is for helping people. I partner with other law firm owners to help them achieve their dreams and in turn I help their clients by taking on the greed of insurance companies in court.

There aren’t many competitors in our space, so we already have a large market share. However, we offer a unique value proposition that sets up apart from our competition empirically. Our job is to be your partner, not your competition. We are here to help our partners. We will not drive up their cost of acquisition by competing with them for pre-litigation cases. We are ONLY looking to work with other law firm owners, Doing anything else conflicts with our values.

One of our proudest achievements is just realizing that we are in the business of building and establishing strong relationships in a industry that can be very cut throat. We’ve helped our partners by sending them hundreds of thousands of dollars each year with zero costs and time on their part. And we’ve helped clients by settling millions of dollars worth of cases each year.

We attribute this success to our dedicated team, innovative strategies, and strong commitment to our clients’ well-being. We want potential clients and followers to know that when they choose Georgia Trial Attorneys, they are not just choosing a law firm; they are choosing a team of professionals who genuinely care about their needs and will go above and beyond to secure the justice they deserve.

Let’s Get Lit(igation)

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

When we first started our business, our primary focus was on assisting other personal injury law firms with their litigation cases. Our plan was to use this experience as a foundation for launching our own pre-litigation marketing campaign.

In May 2022, we had a VIP meeting with RJon Robins, the owner of How To Manage A Small Law Firm. We briefed him on our history, systems, processes, and plans, and he patiently listened. After we finished, he pointed out that we had spent over five years refining our processes, procedures, templates, marketing, team, training, and metrics for a litigation business, only to switch to pre-litigation, where we lacked all of that expertise, simply because the margins seemed more attractive.

Hearing it from RJon’s perspective made us realize the flaw in our plan. He advised us to fully commit to litigation and distinguish ourselves from our competitors. This simple yet powerful suggestion has had a significant impact on our business, and as it turned out, RJon was absolutely right.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

It is all about building relationships. Building relationships has been the most effective marketing strategy for growing our clientele because people do business with other people. And they only do business with those that they know, like and trust. That is not something that comes quick, but it will last a lifetime, if you do it right. By genuinely engaging with clients, referral partners, and our community, we demonstrate our commitment to their well-being and success. As a result, we’re able to grow our list of referral partners organically, based on the strength of our relationships and the quality of the services we provide.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gtakg.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accidentattorneyjg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgiatrialattorneys
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-grant-accidentattorneyjg/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc6YLXt4TEKCgZluDLkzwOQ
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/georgia-trial-attorneys-at-kirchen-and-grant-norcross

Image Credits
Matt Murphree: https://murdoccreative.com/new-page