Legal Nurse Consultant

I asked the CLNC^® Pros to share their favorite easy-to-use exhibiting strategies for gaining new attorney-clients. Add these top 10 marketing ideas to your next exhibit with attorneys.

1. Make your legal nurse consulting exhibit eye popping, big and colorful. Not too busy, not too much information. You don’t want the attorneys to be confused or put off by having to read too much. Make sure you have enough light on the exhibit so that it can be easily seen, even from a distance. The display does not have to be huge. If done well, a simple table top display can be very effective and easier to manage.

“I have banners that hang in front of or behind my booth that include my business name, logo, phone number and website. They have grommet holes for easy attachment and they roll up easily for storage. They get the essential information out visibly, look great and aren’t expensive.

Last year I exhibited at a local event. It was small and not costly to exhibit. Although the attendee list was small, I ended up gaining two excellent attorney-clients from that event. I never sat down and made an effort to draw in every attorney that walked by my booth. One attorney told me that large exhibits did not impress him. He was much more interested in the personal touch and the conversation in which we engaged. He thought I had a lot of “guts” and that’s what drew him to me. He actually didn’t even live in my city. He lived 120 miles away and I now get every one of his cases. He is a very busy personal injury attorney, and he has referred many of his colleagues to me.”

Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PHN, CLNC

2. Get the best location in the exhibit hall that your advertising dollars will buy. Your CLNC^® business will benefit when you are on a main aisle close to the entrance…or the food!
3. Promote your risk-free guarantee as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant on your display and when talking to attorney-prospects.
4. If you are exhibiting at a conference that has 500-1,000 attorneys attending, take someone with you so you don’t miss a single opportunity to promote your CLNC^® business.
5. Dress professionally and maintain a high level of energy. Energy is contagious. Having fun and being professional are not mutually exclusive. Stand in front of the booth, not behind the table and don’t sit down. This creates the space for the attorney-prospects to easily approach you. Even if you have to move out into the aisle approach the attorneys to invite them into your space.
6. Give attorney-prospects promotional materials or items that have your contact information and promote your legal nurse consulting business. People like to get free things to take with them (pens, Post It^® notes, audio CDs on topics such as electronic medical records, etc.). These are items that they will be using well into the future and when the day comes that they just can’t figure something out on one of their cases, they will remember you, and right at their fingertips will be your contact information. As they sit there twirling their pen, they will see that the answer to their prayers is right in their hand.

“One attorney told me that he couldn’t remember my name when he was struggling with a case, but when he took his pen out of his mouth, there I was. He always says that that was the best pen he has ever had.”

Nikki Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC

“Give away fortune cookies that have a catchy fortune and your contact information. The fortune can read, ‘Confucius says lawyers that understand the value of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants succeed where others fail!’”

Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC


7. Include a drawing for a free case screening in exchange for the attorney-prospects’ business cards. This gives them a reason to stay connected. You can have as many winners as you have time for. Many Certified Legal Nurse Consultants use this strategy as a way to get their foot in the door. Most tell us that when they call the law firm to announce the free screening they get through to the attorney with ease. As one CLNC^® consultant says, “It works every time.” You can also have a drawing for an in-house presentation on a topic relevant to the law firm’s medical-related cases and again have as many winners as you have time for.
8. Never leave your CLNC^® booth and always exhibit to the very end. You’ll meet some of the best attorney-prospects near the end of the day. Also, stay during session time for the attorneys who skip a session to get an edge on the exhibits.
9. Attend all social functions sponsored by the association to which exhibitors are invited. Make it your goal to meet at least 5-8 attorneys at each function.
10. Stay off your cell phone and computer at all times when attorneys are in the exhibit space.

Use these top 10 exhibiting strategies from these CLNC^® Pros the next time you are in front of attorneys to guarantee you take home a new attorney-client every time.

Success Is Inside!

Exhibiting is a cost-effective way to get in front of a large number of attorneys in a very short time. I asked four Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to share the role that exhibiting plays in their marketing plans.

1. “I exhibit at the same legal conference year after year. One of my attorney-clients joins my exhibit and markets to new attorneys for me, telling them that they cannot afford not to use me! All I do is stand there, smile, collect their business cards and answer any questions they have about the CLNC^® services I offer. Having my attorney-client refer me in person really helps other attorneys see the benefit of hiring a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.”

   Nikki Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC

2. “Recently a CLNC^® colleague exhibited at a legal conference and ended up with more cases than she knew what to do with, all cases coming from one attorney. Her recent email to me stated, “Be careful what you wish for; because it just may come true!” Exhibiting paid off handsomely for her.”

   Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC

3. “I recommend exhibiting to promote your legal nurse consulting business whenever you can. The more often the better. Legal conferences for personal injury attorneys are my favorite. At one legal conference, I had five or six attorneys at a time at my table talking war stories. They are like nurses. When they get together, they like sharing war stories from their cases. I joined right in talking war stories of how I helped an attorney win a case and they loved it. I ended up with three attorney-clients from that one conference and we are still telling war stories today.”

   Nikki Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC

4. “In mapping out a new marketing plan for my CLNC^® business each year, I make sure to plan for three to four opportunities to exhibit at legal conferences or symposiums. I belong to a couple of organizations that offer exhibiting space at discounted rates for members. I’ve learned to think outside the box as to what may yield good revenue. I gained some good attorney-clients last year from exhibiting at a conference about class action suits. Many of those cases do not involve medical issues, but enough of them do. Many of the attorneys in attendance also handle medical-related cases, so those are the attorneys I focused on and it was a great opportunity to present my CLNC^® consulting services to them. Exhibiting can be a lot of fun and all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants should add it to their marketing plans.”

   Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PHN, CLNC

Success Is Inside!

P.S.	Comment and share your successful exhibiting experiences at legal conferences.

Every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who reads my Tech Tips knows I’m a keyboard guy and not a mouse guy. I’ve confessed this in the past. Every time a CLNC^® consultant reaches for their mouse you may as well be reaching for a cup of healthy green tea for all the time it will save you. Those precious seconds off the keyboard are billable hours lost forever. End of story.

That being said, sometimes looking through a long Word^® document, like that legal nurse consulting case report you just finished for your favorite attorney-client, can take a long time too. Repeatedly hitting Page Down like an OCD patient makes you feel like you’re slogging through a document. Even using the Find button to look for a particular word, like a name, can be cumbersome when the physician’s name is repeated every couple of lines.

Legal nurse consultants who want a quick way to look through a Word doc (or docx) can use the thumbnails view. Simply click View on your top toolbar and then check the “thumbnails” box. A series of thumbnail images of your pages will then appear on the left side of your page and you can drag the scroll bar on the left side of the page to quickly browse through your thumbnail pages.

This will save you loads of time and it works in PowerPoint^® too!

One more freebie while I’m in a good mood: the next time you’re in a Word doc, click the View tab then on Zoom and set your document view to Page Width. This will make it much easier to edit (and easier on the eyes) by viewing the document at (are you ready?) the width of your screen. If you have a big monitor, it’ll feel like you’re at the movies (watching a case report being typed). If you want to check your formatting, you can set the view to Whole Page instead and you will see how the page will look when printed.

In an earlier blog I gave a few other keyboard shortcuts. Here’s one more you can add: hitting Ctrl and the a key (Ctrl+a) will select all the text in a document or a complete URL in a web browser (after you’ve clicked in the URL box). Then you can Ctrl+c (copy), Crtl+v (paste) to put it in a document and Crtl+p (print)!

If you have a favorite keyboard shortcut, I’d love for you to share it here with your legal nurse consulting colleagues.

Keep on techin’ (with your fingers on the keyboard, not the mouse!),

Tom

Five years ago yesterday, Hurricane Katrina forever changed the lives of so many people I know – family, friends and strangers. We often forget it affected people not just in New Orleans but throughout the Gulf Coast region and will do so for years to come.

We never know what life will throw at us and how we react to it is entirely up to us. Like many New Orleanians, my family suffered from varying degrees of flood damage. One of my best friends left the city for good and another lost everything due to flooding that nearly reached her attic. They’ve all recovered and are doing better than ever – they all still have that “New Orleans Spirit” wherever they are.

After Katrina struck, I was lucky enough to be in a position to give financial support to my family and friends. One of my best friends who lost everything, asked me to help her family instead of her. I was in awe of her generosity toward her family when she herself was in need.

In the years since Katrina, my best friend purchased another house in a neighborhood close to where her original home stood. She didn’t recover much from her home, only some cookware (the metal survived the immersion), a quilt (that was lying on her mattress when it floated to the ceiling) and some Christmas ornaments (stored in the attic). All her photos and family mementos were lost.

Despite the loss, I never heard her complain about her situation. She moved forward, staying in the same area, rebuilding her life and keeping her “New Orleans Spirit.” Anytime she’d visit me in Houston, we’d go shopping as she rebuilt her home. One piece at a time, she would buy a lamp, outfit or other item. I would joke with her that her car looked like a homeless person’s packed with all the treasures she’d picked up while traveling between New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Dallas and Houston and she’d joke back, “Vickie, I am homeless.”

Throughout her own rebuilding, she helped and supported her family including cousins while they rebuilt their homes and lives. Although her story is just one of many, her selflessness stays with me today. She was, and is a model to me of how to deal with difficult situations.

Ask yourself if you lost everything, could you rebuild your home, family and legal nurse consulting career with my friend’s “New Orleans Spirit?” My hat is off to all those who have and who are still working to do so. I only hope I would be as strong.

Success Is Inside!

Vickie, I just have to tell you about my recent exhibiting success. I started my Certified Legal Nurse Consultant business 5½ months ago after a long hiatus from nursing. I was fortunate to be able to work on my legal nurse consulting business full time and I made a concerted effort to use the marketing strategies I learned from the CLNC^® Certification Program. I got my first two cases on the same day within a week of my launch date just networking with friends. This networking brought me two attorneys and seven cases in the first three months.

To create immediate success for my legal nurse consulting business, I decided to exhibit at a statewide plaintiff attorney convention. I put to use the event marketing information in the Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting^® textbook, NACLNC^® Apprenticeship and Advanced CLNC^® Practice-Building Programs. I decided to spend the money to hire a graphic designer to create a professional tri-fold exhibit I could use repeatedly. I was thrilled with the final product and thanks to the information I received from Vickie Milazzo Institute, my exhibit booth looked attractive and professional.

I stood in front of my exhibit throughout the convention and introduced myself to most everyone who walked by. I passed out numerous business cards and brochures. I focused my conversations on how the attorneys were currently screening and developing their medical-related cases and how I could save them time and money. On the first day, I stayed until all attorneys and all but two exhibitors had left the exhibit hall. Ten minutes after returning to my hotel room, I got a call from an attorney-prospect who was waiting by my booth with medical records for me to review! Needless to say, I ran downstairs to meet with him. Believe it or not, I walked away from that convention with not one but two sets of medical records and retainers for both cases from that one attorney!

I received permission to follow up from every attorney with whom I spoke. I also gave free screenings to three attorneys who were particularly interested in my CLNC^® services. Two other attorneys asked me to call them after the convention to discuss a case on which they needed help. The day after I notified one attorney of his free screening, he called me to discuss a case he wanted me to handle. He needed help with several cases and wanted to get started. His firm handles a large number of malpractice and negligence cases so this opportunity really opened doors for my CLNC^® business.

I was surprised on the second day of the convention when one of the other two legal nurse consultant exhibitors shut down their booth (three RNs were exhibiting together). It was “tax-free shopping” that weekend so they closed their booth at 11:00am and went shopping! Needless to say, they had not attended the Vickie Milazzo Institute’s CLNC^® Certification Program. Since the convention was only 2½ days, they lost a huge opportunity to meet attorneys.

All in all, as a result of exhibiting at this one event I came home with the following:

• Two sets of medical records and retainer fees for each case from the same attorney.
• Requests from two attorneys to call regarding cases on which they need help.
• Request to screen a case for merit from a new attorney-client.
• Request to locate two testifying experts.
• Plus I received the attorney mailing list database from the association sponsoring the convention.

While exhibiting is not cheap nor easy, it definitely paid off for me. It gave my CLNC^® business statewide exposure and I will be hiring my first CLNC^® subcontractor to help with my rapidly increasing case load. I love my new career as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and look forward to many years of exhibiting success.

Laura H. Beard, RN, BSN, CLNC is president of LHB Medical-Legal Consulting located in South Carolina and specializes in medical malpractice, personal injury, workers’ compensation cases and Medicare Set-Aside Allocations.

Attorneys were probably the last group of professionals to embrace email. For years they hid behind their assistants and never touched a computer, much less sent or received an email. While I still know a few dinosaurs, for most attorneys today, email is the preferred form of communication.

I love email and the efficiency of communicating by email. My staff teases me that they often receive succinct, one- or two-word email messages from me (Yes. No. Thanks! Do it!). I receive more email than most people in my office and quite frankly, some of it is simply horrific. (I can’t put in writing what comes to mind when reading some of it.) It’s often hard to believe that it was composed and sent by a professional.

With this in mind, I’d like to offer you my top 9 tips for communicating clearly and effectively with your attorney-clients. These tips will keep you from hitting “horrific” status with any of your attorney-clients or prospects.

1. Have a proper email address. Email is a business communication and your email address is part of your marketing. PinkBunny1969@whatever.com may be appropriate for your online dating profile but sends the wrong message to attorneys. Go to GoDaddy.com and register your legal nurse consulting business’s name, or a derivative of it as a domain name. Then follow GoDaddy’s simple steps to create an email account. Now you’re JesseCook@JMC-Consulting.com – much better plus it helps brand your business every time you send an email.
2. Use a clear subject line. Many people scan their email box by subject to determine not only the priority of the communication but also whether to classify it as spam or to file it. If you get an email with a subject such as “You need my services,” “A question for you” or “Re: Additional Issues in the Smith Case,” which one do you think you’d open first, if at all? If you don’t know the answer, you’ve got some homework to do. Address your subject clearly and succinctly. Your attorney-recipient should know just from the subject line what your message relates to, its priority and where to file it for later review.
3. When possible, keep it short. If it’s a longer communication consider putting it in a letter on your legal nurse consulting company’s letterhead and attach it as a PDF or Word^® document so that the attorney-client can print it for the file. Email is great for shorter communications but remember, many people read email in their preview window on their screen or on a cell phone. Shorter messages are easier to comprehend (that’s why the webpages of news organizations are short). If someone has to print your message to understand it, you may as well brand it on letterhead. If I have an important email I’m working on, I’ll often compose it in Word and then cut and paste it into my email. This allows me more control over my thoughts.
4. Compose sensitive and important email before filling in the “To” field. Have you ever accidently hit Send before you were ready or before you completed composing your important missive? I know I have. To remedy this, I recommend adding the recipients’ email addresses for the to, cc or bcc fields only when you’re sure you’re ready to send your final email.
5. Take a deep breath before replying. Not every email requires an immediate reply, especially one that raises your blood pressure. This is especially important if you haven’t yet cooled off before firing off that terse reply letting the recipient know exactly what you think. Remember, there’s not really an “undo” button and this tip combined with #4 above will help to keep you on good terms with all your attorney-clients and colleagues.
6. Don’t use text-messaging slang such as IMHO in a professional communication. Save them for Facebook, Twitter and texting. Remember you’re communicating professionally, not personally.
7. DON’T TYPE IN ALL CAPS – that’s still the Internet equivalent of shouting. It’s hard to believe in 2010 I still have to remind people of this. If your “Caps Lock” key is stuck, it’s time to buy a can of air and blow the brownie crumbs out of your keyboard. Here’s a link to Tom’s Tech Tip on cleaning your computer.
8. Proof your work. Yes, it sounds too simple but often, due to the perceived informal nature of email, people don’t proof it. I’ve often received email that contains incomplete sentences and thoughts that aren’t fully developed. This is simply because the sender was in a rush to click Send. If it’s an important email, I’ll print it and hand proof it prior to sending. Adhere to basic grammar rules. In today’s world you don’t have to be perfect, but likewise, you don’t want someone labeling you a grammar-barbarian.
9. Use a spell checker. Just about every email program has this capability. Make sure you turn it on. What is an attorney going to think of someone who can’t spell simple words or who sends their communications full of typos?

Every day I get email that breaks these rules – some even break all 9 at once! Email is probably your typical form of communication as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Make yours a reflection of your professionalism and your email will help you gain attorney-clients, not lose them at “helllo.” Yes, that typo was intentional.

Success Is inside!

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10. How to renew your spirit

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Success Is Inside!

We get a lot of email here at Vickie Milazzo Institute. I know Vickie’s blogged about the quality of the email. While most of the Institute’s email is legitimate and comes from Certified Legal Nurse Consultants seeking mentoring or from nurses seeking new careers as Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, some is from the good and most trusted friends we’ve never met asking us to help transfer a 3-million dollar inheritance out of some small African nation. We have a pretty strong spam filter but we still get a small portion of harmless “spam” promoting whatever someone thinks we need – machine tools from China, cheap pharmaceuticals or proposed business relationships. Whatever it contains, as with all email, we’ve got to slog through it, answering and deleting until the email box is empty (it never is).

One of the more dangerous bits of email we get comes from Internet fiends who, in an act of shameless self-promotion, will create an alarming email (sometimes about themselves) and link it to a “poisoned” website. Well-intentioned people with an unhealthy interest in gossip will actually fall for the trick, visit the site to read about the fiend, infect their computer JUST BY VIEWING THE PAGE and become a part of the fiend’s “zombie army.” If and when you get one of these emails, delete it immediately.

Even worse though than email from fiends in my opinion my CLNC^® amigos, is the occasional email we get from legal nurse consultants indicating that the sender’s computer has either become a “zombie” or has been infected with a self-replicating virus causing it to send out copies of itself to hopefully infect others. Sometimes the email simply indicates that a friend’s Gmail or Hot Mail account has been compromised and a spammer is happily spamming away with their account.

In past Tech Tips, I’ve blogged about dangers of “bots” and “botnets” and given legal nurse consultants (as well as civilians) tips on how to avoid becoming part of a botnet or catching a virus outside the hospital. But, until today, I’ve never tipped on proper etiquette for letting your friends know they’ve been infected.

Take a moment and think about it. Let’s say your computer has become a zombie and part of a botnet or your Gmail password has been hacked. While you work on making phone calls for your legal nurse consulting business, your computer is sitting there sending out email after email asking your friends, family or a generated email list “Is this really you in this hot video?” or simply sending an email with nothing but a web link in the body (hopefully pushing people to a poisoned website that when viewed will add the clickee to the botnet). People are getting your botnet email and deleting it because they know better than to click on the link or try to view the video (I’ve seen it – it’s not that hot and it’s not me). But, do they tell you? Probably not because they just deleted your spammy, botty email!

How do I know that’s what they’ve done? It’s because that’s what I do – or did. Yesterday, just after I finished going through the Institute’s email boxes and triaging messages, I told Vickie I’d deleted a huge string of messages (I sort by subject for massive deletes and was inordinately proud of myself) from people who’ve been infected.” Vick asked me whether or not I’d emailed them to let them know and I said, “No. I just delete them.” In response she asked, “Wouldn’t you want to know if you’d been infected with a virus or lost your mailbox?” and I told her… well, I didn’t say anything because she was right. I would want to know and I’d want someone to tell me.

That’s the point and purpose of this blog. If you get one of these emails from a friend, family member or Certified Legal Nurse Consultant colleague, let them know! Simply hit reply, cut the text out of the email (so they don’t click on the link) and tell them that you received this from them and you think that either their email account has been compromised or that their computer is infected. It’s just common courtesy. Now, they may get lots of these notices but think about it, as a nurse – wouldn’t you rather get the diagnosis of an infection as soon as possible so that you can take corrective measures and save the patient’s life (or legal nurse consulting business’s data)? I would and I hope you would too. With your timely warning, your CLNC^® colleague can take proper actions like changing their email account’s password or updating their antivirus software or anti-spyware software and cleaning their machine. One day, they may return the favor (but I’m hoping that they’ll never have to).

Keep on techin’ and practicing safe surfing!

Tom

One of my favorite things to do in Austin, Texas, other than eating at La Condesa, is walking the trail around Lady Bird Lake. It’s peaceful and relaxing being by the water. You get to see aquatic wildlife and, if you’re fast enough, sometimes you can catch a glimpse of a turtle or two sunning themselves on the bank. On our last trip, while walking the trail, Tom and I had a pretty good laugh over a warning sign we ran into on the trail, obviously put in place by a well-meaning worker from the City of Austin’s Public Works Department. It reads: SIDEWALK CLOSED, USE OTHER SIDE.

While the sign, does indeed seem to point out the obvious, it made me think about legal nurse consultants writing reports for attorney-clients. Whether you’re writing a brief or comprehensive report, you need to point out the obvious, salient points from the medical record for that attorney-client. This includes deviations from and adherences to the standard of care. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you’re the expert on the medical record and you are the one who must point out the obvious. The attorney is the expert on the law. While you may work with an attorney or two who knows enough about medicine to open a practice as a doctor (unlicensed), the majority of attorneys do not. Those attorney-clients depend upon you to tell them what they need to know about the treatment, injury and actions of the parties. This includes pointing out the obvious.

As a nurse, you have a tremendous amount of knowledge about nursing, medicine and just about every aspect of healthcare. This brings its own dangers. Sometimes incidents, deviations or lapses in care that are obvious to you in their effect on the case, won’t be obvious to your attorney-client. Certainly you need to write your legal nurse consulting reports to the skill level of each particular attorney-client, but, at the same time, you don’t want to overestimate their ability to see and understand the obvious. You can’t assume that the attorney will recognize the importance of a critical deviation if you give it the same weight as every other deviation you address in your report. What’s obviously important to you, may not be obvious or important to the attorney-client. If you don’t believe me, think of some of the obviously important things you point out to your spouse (“Honey, remember what happened last time you tried to rewire a lamp? I think you should unplug it first. Or Honey, don’t let the baby get too close to that alligator.”).

If something is obvious to you and importantly obvious to the case, point it out. Tell the attorney-client why it’s important. Don’t assume they’ll pick up on it themselves. Do this religiously and you just might keep them from getting soaked in court or in a lake.

Success Is Inside!

I was asked to be the speaker at the February meeting for the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. I arrived early to get prepared. Several people were late due to the weather. Only 10 attorneys braved the cold, rainy, snowy night to attend.

I began my presentation with information about legal nurse consulting, the CLNC^® services I provide and my nursing expertise. After my presentation, they all took my contact information and brochure. Then, they spent a lot of time talking about their cases.

The next day I got a call from one of the attorneys who had attended. He was looking for a wound care specialist. The day after that I got a call from another attorney for a case review. The phone has not stopped ringing since that night and the referrals from these attorneys have also been great.

What I want Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to know is that no matter how small the crowd, it will pay off!

Guest Blogger Profile:

Mildred Mannion, RN, BSN, CNOR, CLNC is the owner of M3 Legal Nurse Consulting, Inc. in Massachusetts. She has 22 years of nursing experience and currently works in the operating room of a large teaching hospital.