Criminal defence barristers & new business

[Dalmore]

To those of you that work as criminal defence barristers, how much emphasis is there on bringing in new business? What does "bringing in new business" look like to you and what size of firm for you work for? I come from the corporate consulting world and am considering a career change to law so apologies if the question is a silly one.

Edited February 28 by Dalmore

[Hegdis]

Most criminal defence lawyers are sole practitioners, so they have to get clients or they find a different job. Those that work with other defence sometimes have an office sharing agreement but it’s still an “eat what you kill” scenario. 
 

Criminal defence firms are comparatively uncommon. 

[SNAILS]

I have some experience with bringing in business, though an actually solo practitioner would know more. 

Look at it from the client's perspective. Often, they got into a criminal situation unexpectedly, got arrested, and find themselves in need of a lawyer. They Google and ask around, or perhaps they've hired a certain lawyer before. Other's are a little farther down the road and have either found it is no longer viable to self rep, or they have had a falling out with their old lawyer and need a new one. Some are in custody awaiting bail. 

For a while, all intake calls for my principle lawyer were transferred to me, and I would screen the client. My instructions were that absent glaring issues, we do want new clients either with cash or a legal aid certificate. From there, I would discuss the services offered and discuss size of the retainer. It was often a limited retainer, so I would then discuss where a limited retainer ends and a trial retainer begins. The process is not unlike closing a deal for other products/services (i.e. selling cars) if you have ever worked in sales. I would draft the retainer and meet in person or virtually with the client for signing.

We'd know a lot more about the client after disclosure comes in and after an interview with the client to discuss his side of the story. My estimate is that a lawyer with 75-125 open criminal files is able to keep up without getting backlogged while still being able to pay the bills. This business model tends to include a large number of clients that are going to plead out (domestic assault, drug possession, impaired driving, with some larger files certainly going to trial like robbery, drug trafficking and sex assault). Other business models involve more complex cases with larger trial retainers (homicides, major sex assault and drug cases) and the solo practice might make most of her money from 6-10 major clients who go to trial.

The conversation with the client about signing a trail retainer when they are on a limited trial retainer is a bit above my pay grade, but I have taken part in these conversation along with my principle lawyer. I tend to have an excellent rapport with clients. The limited retainer might be in the $4000-$6000 range where the client was hoping to reach a suitable plea. If this fails after serval CPTs (Crown Pre-trial) and at least one JPT (judicial pre-trail), then we have to have a conversation about a trial retainer which is often in the $25 000 to $50 000 range. Some clients knew it would come to this when they first retained us. For example, they were charges with a sex assault and knew they weren't going to plead guilty to jail time.

[Diplock]

There are, broadly, two ways criminal lawyers get business. One is word of mouth by referral. The other is through some form of advertising. I'm far more familiar with the first than the second, though I've observed in the past the sort of client you are hoping to target would be very different. Guys getting arrested with drugs and guns, for example, are almost guaranteed to ask around for a lawyer rather than Google for one. Drive impaired, by contrast, would rely much more on mainstream advertising. That's just a basic example.

In terms of how much emphasis there is on generating business, you are either finding your own clients or your maximum career trajectory is being someone's associate, doing the crap they dont want to do, which almost no one wants to do for long. So yes. Assume your goal is to practice for yourself, and assume you need to find all your own clients in order to do that.