Scale Your Business with Jonathan Rosenfeld

george grombacher 0:00
Come on. He’s strong. He is powerful. He is Jonathan Rosenfeld. He is an attorney in the Chicago area concentrating on cases involving serious injury and wrongful death. He is the founder of Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, or has managed to consistently grow his business 10 to 20%. Each year in the wake of increased competition and the pandemic. Welcome, Jonathan.

Jonathan Rosenfeld 0:35
Thank you, George. Great to be here. I appreciate it.

george grombacher 0:37
excited to have you on Jonathan, tell us a little about your personal life’s more about your work and why you

Jonathan Rosenfeld 0:43
do what you do? Well, let’s see I am men, I wear many different hats. I am been married for almost 20 years, I’m not going to go into the exact dates because I’ll put through those, my wife will kill me. I have two healthy, happy kids. I have many different interests, anything outdoors, anything active, anything pizza related anything, wine related. And when I’m not tending to those activities and family obligations, I do practice law. I am a personal injury attorney. I’ve been practicing law for over 20 years. And I’m the I guess, about 1012 years ago, I after working in different offices and working with different people, I opened my own law firm. And I operate that today. We have several different attorneys working for us, we handle cases, you know, primarily in the Chicago area. But we also handle cases across the country involving mass torts involving, unfortunately, clergy abuse, nursing home negligence, basically, any type of case, where there is a significant injury, a real impact on on someone’s life. Those are the cases that we handle, and that we really concentrated. As you I always tell people, you know, if you’re looking if you stubbed your toe, you know, if you sprained your, your, your back, or something, and soft tissue auto case, or a slip and fall case, those are probably not the type of cases that we’re going to get involved in, I can certainly help you get you in contact with someone who may concentrate in those type of cases. But we really try to focus on the more catastrophic injury cases where we really can make a difference in people’s lives.

george grombacher 2:57
I certainly appreciate that. So what is what is top of mind for you is is your for lack of a better term industry or world going through any major changes with what’s going on in the world?

Jonathan Rosenfeld 3:13
There’s, there’s a lot. You know, I think one of the obviously, you know, COVID impacted every single industry positively negatively, in some way or another, certainly in the legal realm. You know, one of the ways that, you know, that one of the things that we do every day is we go to court, we we go to court for case management we go to court for, for trial, we go to court for mediations, we take depositions, you know, generally, you know, we really were of people oriented industry, and you know, trial lawyers in particular, you know, there’s a real you have to have a bond with people, you know, you have to really get your hands dirty, you really have to get down to know people, your clients, witnesses, judges, jurors, and the really the only way to do that is in person. And so without, you know, being able to look at someone across the table, and sort of read their body language and sort of get some, you know, non spoken feedback. doing your job as a trial lawyer can be difficult. We’ve certainly tried to adapt with zoom and video conferencing and other types of technology. But the truth is, it’s been difficult in that respect, you know, we’ve sort of our industry really is changed, you know, for a long time we weren’t meeting with, with clients, you know, and one of the things that we always really love to do is we always encourage clients to come We’re office. So they can, we can get to know them, they can get to know us, you know, we can introduce them to, you know, the people that they may be dealing with on a regular basis. And it really puts people at ease. When you don’t have that opportunity, it’s, it’s sort of like playing with an arm tied behind your back, people have been extremely understanding and accommodating. But in that respect, you know, it’s been a little bit of a downer for me, because I’m the type of person who really likes to, you know, to get to know people, whether I’m working, you know, on their case, you know, every day or, you know, an attorney, associate attorneys going to be working on the case, I really want to get to know that person, and I want that person to, you know, to have an idea of who I am, and be able to be like, Oh, yeah, I remember I remember that. That shiny, bald headed guy who came in and said, Hi, hi to me during, you know, a difficult time. So, you know, things have changed, you know, we’ve, we’ve really tried to adapt, but it’s, you know, there’s been growing pains along the way.

george grombacher 6:12
Yeah, it’s, obviously, obviously an interesting time for everybody. And as things continue to change, and evolve and adapt, so do we, and that brings unique challenges, because technology is always changing. So it’s difficult for people to keep up with it as they get a little bit older, but that’s just always going to be a thing. So it’ll be super interesting to see how it all works out. So you could have gone into any type of law, what what was it that really attracted you to the space, you’re in?

Jonathan Rosenfeld 6:45
A couple of things, you know, I won, you know, I realized that, you know, there’s a lot of different, you know, areas of law where you’re sort of pushing papers, and you’re sort of, you know, essentially marking time, you know, your most lawyers bill out by the hour, there’s sort of, there’s really no incentive for them to, you know, move conflicts cases, whatever you want to call them, from the, from the beginning to the finish line. In the world of personal injury, you know, someone it’s very, almost granular, in certain respects, you know, someone’s in an accident, some, you know, what someone’s a loved one is seriously injured or killed. You know, they’re, they’re sort of at a really a down point in their life. And they contact you to sort of get them from the point they’re at, to the finish line. And, you know, in the world of personal injury in the world of civil litigation, you can’t undo what’s been done, our job is to get compensation for people so they can move on as best they can with their lives. You know, I recognize that no matter no amount of money is ever going to replace, you know, a loved one serious injury, that they may be in pain from every day. But there’s, there’s a beginning, a middle and a finish. And I really like that because, you know, there’s there I have an incentive, as an attorney to move that case. And that conflict is far and along that that path as I can as quickly as possible. So that was one of the things that really interest in me and the other the other part of the business that really interested me was, frankly, the ability to almost scale your your ability to help people, you know, generally, if you’re working at a larger, you know, law firm or a corporate law firm, I mean, there are obviously economies of scale, but is a personal injury attorney there, it’s a more, there’s more of an incentive, because your fees are tied with the recovery. For the client, everything’s done on a contingency fee basis. You know, essentially, you eat what you kill. And from my mind’s eye, you know, that really sort of suited my personality. Well, you know, generally, you know, the harder you work, the more rewarding the practice can be for you. So, those two things were really something that I recognized early on, and I just was like, yeah, this is this is for me.

george grombacher 9:36
Yeah. I appreciate that. And it strikes me that the the practice of law how people do it, you mentioned scaling the that is changing and evolving, and then enter internet and internet marketing and the ability to help more people. But that’s all fine and well, because you can also run yourself into the ground. So how How have you been able to grow and still stay sane, and married, and,

Jonathan Rosenfeld 10:07
and all that? Yeah, who Well, I don’t know about sanity, but I think you have two dumpsters, you asked to be a little bit, you know, a little bit off, you know, in a good way to realize that if you are doing everything the same as the person down the street, you’re going to sort of get the same results. And if you have, if you want to, you know, do something different. And if you want to differentiate yourself, you have to look at things differently. And I’m not saying, you know, go out and, you know, stand upside down or anything, but you have to look at what, you know, sort of your industry is doing, you know, one of the things that lawyers are notoriously bad at is, is creativity, and they’re sort of their gender, it’s a sort of, tends to be sort of a stodgy profession, old profession where people sort of like, you know, they’ve done sort of silly things, for the most part fairly similarly, for the past, you know, 1020, you know, 50 100 years, I mean, it goes on. So when it comes to marketing yourself, in differentiating yourself, I think you sort of have to look at what your industry is doing, and how you can separate yourself from the pack, if you will. One of the things that I’ve done frankly, is, I just, I do more, you know, it’s not rocket science. But, you know, for a lot of people, you know, for a lot of attorneys, a lot of business people, they may have one page, on a, on their website on a particular service that they offer, or a product that they’re selling. What I’ve tended to do is I’ve tended, expand that and not I may have a product page, but then I may have a Frequently Asked Questions page. And then in addition to that, and may have some, you know, other underlying child pages related to the topic. And when you do that, on a broad scale, it tends to attract more eyes and more eyes, you know, there’s a pattern more eyes generally means more traffic, more traffic generally means more business. And that’s, that’s sort of the a little bit of a caveman philosophy that I’ve followed. And it’s, it’s worked out to a certain degree,

george grombacher 12:42
yes, it does make sense. And then the good problem that pops up is you’re now getting more work. And so you need to hire more people and be judicious, that was a little bit of a pun, that’d be judicious, and how you’re doing that. And then I also imagine that it’s a unique problem being that you’re licensed in a certain state to be able to handle cases in other states.

Jonathan Rosenfeld 13:07
Well, there’s Yes, there’s you bring up you really, you really cut to the fat out over her. You know, there’s no doubt that finding good people is tough is really, really hard. You know, my business is I mean, my wife, she’ll, she’ll verify this, it’s almost 24 seven, you know, if, you know, no one can plan when they’re going to get involved in an accident, you know, no one’s gonna, you know, plan on and purposely, you know, trying to wake you up at two o’clock in the morning, or sending emails to you in the middle of the night. But the truth is, is that everyone’s got a different schedule, crazy, crazy stuff happens all the time. And there’s no such thing as a nine to five schedule in my, in my world anymore. And, you know, for a lot of people, you know, people that who work with me, that concept of sort of having that, you know, sort of, sort of non distinct line between work, play family is a little bit foreign. And that’s one aspect of hiring good people. But the people that I work with are generally people who realize that they embrace it, you know, they realize that you know what, you may be tired, you may have had a long day, but you know what, the person who’s calling you at 678 o’clock at night, they need to talk to you now. And if they don’t talk to you, frankly, they’re going to move on to the next guy. And that’s something that you know, you it’s almost intuitive, it’s really hard to teach someone that skill. But that’s those are really essential skills to have, you have to be available, you have to have empathy, and you have to have patience, regardless of when someone contacts you. So that’s, you know, it’s an always it’s always a, it’s always difficult. But you know, I’ve been very fortunate finding people like that. In terms of your other question about, you know, getting contacted from people and other jurisdictions where I’m not licensed. Thankfully, my, my legal brothers and sisters enacted a pretty widespread concept of referral fees. So if I’m contacted in a jurisdiction where I am not licensed to practice, I can refer a case to someone who is licensed there, they can work on a case, and I can provide them a lot of times, most cases, what I do is I provide support, I provide them with contacts with witnesses, experts. And by doing some pro rata share of the work, I can also get a referral fee, even though I’m not licensed in that jurisdiction. In other situations, what I’ll do is I’ll get admitted by the court for a specific case, in a jurisdiction where I’m not barred on the courts will allow you to practice on that one case under the supervision of a local attorney. So there are provisions out there to, you know, to accommodate situations where, you know, you may have a case in a jurisdiction where you are not licensed. So thankfully, there are some safeguards like that in place. Nice.

george grombacher 17:00
Well, Jonathan, the people are ready for your difference making tip, what do you have for them?

Jonathan Rosenfeld 17:05
Oh, well, I’ve got guess the, the number one thing that I would do, if I was a business person, in, I wanted to get more clients, I would start doing some real hard looking at the content on my website, and figuring out where I can go and how I can differentiate and how I can expand that content to really separate myself from the others in the industry. And I think if you do that, if you really take stock of where you’re at, you know, good, bad or otherwise, and really invest, you know, a good dedicated chunk of time, whether it’s an hour, whether it’s two hours, five hours each week, to revamping that content, I think that will take you a long way. And really help, you know, grow your business tremendously, as opposed to just doing the same thing over and over and over again.

george grombacher 18:05
Well, I think that that is great stuff that definitely gets Come on. Come on. Jonathan, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can they engage with you?

Jonathan Rosenfeld 18:16
Well, the best way to learn about my practice is by going to Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, www dot Rosenfeld injury, lawyers calm. We also have a number of we’ve also got podcasts you can google the personal injury podcast, Rosenfeld, injury lawyers on all the podcast platforms. You can look at me on youtube at Rosenfeld injury, law calm, and that’s about it. But thank you, I appreciate the opportunity. It was great talking with you. Hopefully, it’s helped us a couple people.

george grombacher 18:56
Likewise, if you enjoyed this as much as I did, show, Jonathan your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas, go to Rosenfeld injury lawyers.com. Check out the personal injury podcast, find him on YouTube. I will list all those in the notes of the show. Thanks. Good, Jonathan.

Jonathan Rosenfeld 19:15
Thank you, appreciate it.

george grombacher 19:17
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai