We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa Koefod. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.
Melissa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience an industry-wide U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.
The legal industry has been stuck in a run of hourly billing since I can remember. We take an oath as attorneys to vigorously represent our client’s best interests, not our financial self interest, and as such, I have always felt that the hourly model was antithetical to our oath and to the best interests of the clients. As someone who has been on the receiving end of an hourly bill, I can attest to the fact that clients do not enjoy these bills and billing methods either. Through emerging technology, I have been able to increase efficiencies and create flat fee models that not only the clients enjoy, but I enjoy, as I don’t know of any attorney that actually enjoys measuring their life in 6 min increments. I have created a system that automates and adds efficiencies into every area of my firm, from marketing, to intake, to case management, in a secure and simple way that is utilized be everyone at the firm. This has allowed us to provide our clients with a transparent pricing structure, and created efficiencies allowing the firm to handle more client matters and focus on the actual work for the client, rather than the administration of the work. Not only has this increased firm profits, client satisfaction, at free time for everyone at the firm, but, it has also allowed the firm to branch out and create both a record label for select clients as well as have an in house marketing arm for both the firm and for our clients, should they choose to utilize it. With the advances in technology, we continue to refine our processes and help other firms do the same!
Melissa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started practicing law as a trial attorney over a decade ago. Shortly into my law career, I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer and given a grim prognosis. Facing your own mortality does funny things to you. After I beat the cancer (yes I am still cancer free and intend to stay that way!), I realized that life is too short to do work I was not in love with and branched off into entrepreneurism. I launched several successful businesses, including a hospitality chain and CPG brand, and spent my free time creating music. I have been playing classical violin since I was 4 and have always found solace in music, with eclectic taste ranging from Vivaldi, to Veruca Salt to everything in between. After successfully growing and selling my companies, I launched my own firm, Koefod Creative Counsel, so that I would have the freedom to work with clients in a way that I felt was best for the client, created automations and systems that any firm can use to create more freedom for their attorneys, and recently launched a record label, Koefod Creative, for a select group of clients. This, paired with creating an in house marketing arm has really been an incredible value add for our clients, as well as a way to help other attorneys with their marketing efforts. I am most proud of our transparent pricing structure, our ability to execute flexibly based on our clients needs, the creation of a label that really helps artists laugh and grow their career successfully and sustainably, and the ability to help other attorneys really enjoy and thrive in their practice.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I was diagnosed with cancer just after I started practicing law, it was a grim diagnosis. I was young and shocked that I was being faced with a really terrible illness. I wasn’t sure how to process the news, but with the help of a strong support system and a mental toughness that my mother instilled in me at a young age, I was able to beat the psychological aspect of facing such a prognosis. Coming back from that and using that as a motivation to pivot my life and build it into something that made me happy and fulfilled and where I was truly able to add value to others, is something that I am very proud of.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
This has been a two pronged approach. First, I go out and meet people constantly. I always try to add value wherever I can and this has created a deep network of friends spanning the globe that have become clients, or become referral sources. Second, Koefod Creative Marketing, our marketing arm, is led by an expert digital marketer who is on top of the rapid shifts in the digital marketing landscape and has been instrumental in creating effective engagement. It isn’t the numbers that count, it is the quality of the engagements that counts and she is really skilled at not only doing that for the firm, but also for the firm’s clients, and other law firms. Technology changes so rapidly these days that having a specialist on the team whose second language is technology and digital marketing is invaluable.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.koefodlaw.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/missythedon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missygolnaz/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/missykoefod/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/koefod
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@koefodlaw
- Other: www.koefodcreative.com https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45XFRTPwGkaejNZ20KYQdS https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CQX8R39J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Image Credits
Melissa Koefod