CLNC® Consultant Marcia Bell Divulges Surprising Strategy That Secured 140 Legal Nurse Consultant Jobs
Video – Marcia Bell, RN, BSN, CAPA, CLNC
Vickie: This is Marcia Bell, a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. She’s done two things, one of which is very common – exhibiting – to get legal nurse consultant jobs. But you did something else that I thought was interesting – sponsoring some of the trial lawyer associations. So tell us about that.
Marcia: I decided to sponsor the trial lawyers association when my CLNC business started to pick up and I had to pay a lot more taxes. I thought, “If I can’t keep this money for my CLNC business, I’m going to give it to someone who can help my legal nurse consultant business grow.” So I became a sponsor of two trial lawyer associations. I get free marketing on their website and I get to go to their legal conferences. I get so many free conferences per year and then I get the rest at a discounted rate. My name also goes into all of their quarterly magazines, and so the attorneys keep seeing my name. And then when an attorney contacts them for a legal nurse consultant, my name comes up because the attorneys like to use their association sponsors.
Vickie: Plus you’re getting to know these attorneys because you are a sponsor. You’re attending their events. Who are they going to think of when a lawyer says “I need a legal nurse consultant”?
Marcia: It comes back to one of the things you taught us in the CLNC Certification Program – that is to go where the attorneys are. Another important thing you’ve taught us is to give attorneys a little bit more than what they ask for. In all of my legal nurse consultant jobs I always define the medical terms and explain what they mean. Whether the attorney asks for it or not, he’s getting that from me. I consult on a lot of criminal cases and criminal defense attorneys don’t have a lot of medical knowledge. They’re very impressed just at the simplest medical definitions.
Vickie: A lot of it’s just nursing 101 isn’t it? We think of attorneys as very sophisticated and they know a lot – and they do – but often they still need some of the basics. You also said exhibiting is what really took your legal nurse consulting business to the level that you wanted it to be.
Marcia: I went to a state bar association meeting and I had to weed out the personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys from the business law and family law attorneys. So I started going to the trial lawyer associations. And it’s just expounded my CLNC business.
Vickie: So much of what I teach is you’ve got to put yourself out there. You’ve got to be where the attorneys are and exhibiting is definitely one of my favorite strategies. Two of my other favorites are networking and referral. But a lot of times beginners don’t have the referral opportunities because they don’t have the attorney-clients yet. So how are you going to get attorneys to refer you for legal nurse consultant jobs? You’ve got to put yourself out there, meet these lawyers and you did just that. And how many cases did you say you’ve done?
Marcia: I’ve done almost 140 cases plus I work one day a week at an attorney firm and do cases for him as well.
Vickie: Congratulations! I think your next 140 legal nurse consultant jobs are going to be even more interesting! Thanks Marcia.
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