National Business and Finance Detroit Business Insight Examiner, Anahid Derbabian

February 17, 4:09 PM

Michigan’s economy has led many law firms to downsize and attorneys to pursue their own practices. As a result, attorneys are seeking ways to network and create new business. A legal referral service in the Detroit metropolitan area, Your Legal Resource, has for the past five years helped lawyers connect with the right clients and generate more business. Attorney Lori T. Williams formed Your Legal Resource in June of 2004 to help people save time and money by directing them to the right attorney for the right situation. This legal matchmaker works with attorneys from solo and small firms who she’s known for 5-20 years and who have practiced for 10-30 years. Her consulting services and team of experts help attorneys establish themselves and generate business.

After 14 years of running a divorce law practice, Williams attended a workshop on The Purpose-Driven Life, where she experienced a “personal, professional and spiritual convergence, realizing I was meant to create relationships, instead of helping to end them in divorce,” she says. By forming Your Legal Resource, she was able to draw upon her legal background and her gifts of bringing people together. Throughout her legal career, Williams built teams of resources to help clients. She now utilizes that same ability of creating and recommending resources to bring people together with the right attorneys and other professionals.

“Lawyers acquire most of their business from referrals. When they identify their target audiences and partner with the right people within and outside of law, they increase their bottom line,” says Williams, adding that, “Lawyers are needed in good and bad times. Pockets of the law are always booming. As our economy improves, things will improve for the legal field in general,” she says.

Williams has become a frequent speaker and facilitator of events for attorneys. Last fall, Your Legal Resource began hosting well-attended lunch-and-learns for lawyers, with recent topics that include E-Discovery and Social Media Strategies for Attorneys. At a recent event, entitled Effective Law Firm Strategies to Improve Your Bottom Line, she presented on how to create effective referral partners and strategic partners.

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