Seven Disciplines for Successful Firms: Proven Strategies for Scaling a Personal Injury Law Firm
Chad Dudley
Description
Description
Discover actionable approaches to improving your law firm that you can adopt today. In The Seven Disciplines for Successful Firms, trial lawyer, founder, and CEO Chad Dudley prescribes seven key disciplines that he has drawn from consulting with hundreds of law firms across the country. Regardless of size, location, or practice area, there are seven core disciplines that every great firm–no matter who they are–gets right:
- Great firms know where they are going and why.
- Great firms honestly assess where they are.
- Great firms never take their eyes off of intake.
- Great firms get their best cases to their best people.
- Great firms don’t let their cases gather dust.
- Great firms get their reporting right.
- Great firms build great teams.
Dudley organizes strategies around each of these seven disciplines designed to start growing your firm. He offers numerous checklists, examples, and detailed steps you can adopt–from client intake, case selection and management, revenue analysis, reporting, to hiring and training staff, and more–that will give you tools to help take your law firm to the next level.
This is not your traditional law firm management book. Dudley doesn’t waste your time by trying to tell you which copy machine to buy or how to negotiate your lease. Instead, he offers a systemic approach to identifying, tracking, and achieving the changes you need.
It doesn’t matter if you just hung up your shingle or have hundreds of employees across multiple states, Dudley offers experience-driven solutions for all law firms. Whether you’re an associate looking to improve your firm from within or a managing partner seeking to strengthen weak points and identify bottlenecks, this book is here to help.
As Dudley puts it, “I don’t care if you are the receptionist, law clerk, runner, file clerk, or a great trial attorney. [...] If you are reading this book, you care about representing your clients and improving your firm. You are a leader and this book is for you.”
Author
Author
Details
Details
Hardcover: 1st edition (2025); ISBN: 978-1-951962-80-7
Publisher: Trial Guides, LLC
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
How This Book Is Organized
Discipline 1: Great Firms Know Where They Are Going and Why
- Begin with the End in Mind and Know Your Why
- The Different Types of Personal Injury Firms
- High-Volume
- Low Volume
- Mass Tort Aggregator
- Mass Tort Litigator
- Referral
- Hybrid
- What type are you? What type do you want to be?
- The Vision Map
- Take Some Time to Imagine
- Using the Vision Map
- Focus on the what and the Why, Not the How
- Vision Map The Words
- Vision Map The Numbers
- Are You Excited about What You Have Built?
- Clarity and Focus
- Case in Point: Solo Owner
- Closing Checklist
Discipline 2: Great Firms Honestly Assess Where They Are
- Take an Honest Look at Your Current Firm
- The Profit and Loss Statement Analysis
- Understand the current financial status of your firm.
- Understand how you can redesign your firm to be healthy.
- What are your goals for your firm?
- More detail on revenue, less detail on expenses
- Breakdown Revenue
- Break down revenue by Case Type
- Revenue by Fee Producer and by Full Time Employees
- Simplify your Expenses
- Case Acquisition Costs
- Labor Costs
- Everything Else
- The Analysis
- The Net Profit Ratio
- The Case Acquisition Ratio
- The Labor Ratio
- The Everything Else Ratio
- Revenue Per Fee Producer
- Look for the Big Takeaways
- The Pareto Point Analysis
- Get Your Closed Case Data
- Populate the Pareto Point Analysis Chart
- Case in Point: Michigan
- Closing Checklist
Discipline 3: Great Firms Never Take Their Eyes Off of Intake
- Intake is Where it All Starts
- The Goals of Intake
- The Terminology of Intake
- No Decisions, Active Chase Calls, Active No Contacts
- Key Intake Reports
- The Intake Summary Report
- The Intake Follow Up Report
- The Daily Intake Newsfeed Report
- Other Important Intake Concepts
- Always have one person own intake
- Let's Talk About Attribution
- Review Calls
- Handling Objections
- Now Is the Time to Brag
- Should we enter all leads into our case management software?
- Don't Get Complacent
- Case in Point: East Coast
- Closing Checklist
Discipline 4: Great Firms Get Their Best Cases to Their Best People
- Let's Revisit the Pareto Principle
- Take a moment to do the math
- Remember the Pareto Point Analysis
- The Pareto Point Ranking System
- What do your case ranks look like right now?
- The Problems with How Most Firms Rank Their Cases
- We Don't Get Great Cases
- The Right Way to Rank Your Cases: The Pareto Point Case Ranking System
- Start with an Injury Severity Rating
- Do we rank the case on coverage or damages?
- What to Do with the As
- What to Do with the Cs
- Implementing the Pareto Point Case Ranking System
- The Valuation Committee
- No Matter How Good They Are, Attorneys Should Not Set Values on Big Cases in a Vacuum
- Let's Set Two Values On Our Best Cases
- The Speed Valuation Process
- The Standard Valuation Committee Meeting
- Pre-Meeting
- Meeting
- How Strong is Your Litigation Team?
- The Attorney Rating System
- Does the Firm Have Tier 4 or Higher Attorneys?
- What Do the Case Counts by Case Rank Per Attorney Look Like?
- What about Firms that Separate Prelitigation from Litigation?
- Talk to Your Attorneys About the Tier System
- Should There Be More Specific Definitions of Each Tier?
- Identify Those Who Are Not Self-Aware
- The Attorney Rating System and Growth
- Case in Point: Experience Matters
- The Attorney Rating System
- Case in Point: Illinois
- Closing Checklist
Discipline 5: Great Firms Don't Let Cases Gather Dust
- Important Things to Remember
- Many of our clients won't judge us on our legal skills
- The Rate
- Getting to Know Your Client in the First 90 Days
- Client Communication, File Reviews, Treatment Status, Demand Letters, and Diagnostic Tests
- The Client Communication Plan
- The General Client Communication Plan
- Communication Plan for Specific Events
- File Review Processes
- The Client Communication Plan
- Get Your Case Statuses Right
- Status of the Client's Treatment
- Tracking Key Diagnostic and Procedure Statuses
- Status of Negotiations
- The Other Side Says They Need More Information
- Litigation Status
- Case in Point: Denver
- Closing Checklist
Discipline 6: Great Firms Get Their Reporting Right
- The Better Your Information, the Better Your Decisions
- Reporting Matters
- The 10 Percent
- Which Should I Look for in a Client Relationship Management Software (CRM)?
- Monthly Management Meeting
- PL Analysis by Month
- The KPI Tracker
- Other Reports
- Implementation In-House or Outsource?
- Case in Point: Too Many Reports
- Closing Checklist
Discipline 7: Great Firms Build Great Teams
- Every House Has a Smell
- It Starts at the Top
- Define Your Core Values
- Can I Just Copy Your Core Values or Someone Else's?
- Promote Your Core Values
- What Is Your Firm's Story?
- The Firm-Wide Huddle
- Celebrate, Recognize, and Facilitate Culture Wins
- Protect Your Culture
- The Performance and Attitude Analysis
- Every Hire Counts
- Stay in Tune with Your Team
- The Team Member Feedback Survey
- Are respondents required to give their name?
- What do you do with the responses?
- Advisory Boards
- The Team Member Feedback Survey
- Case in Point: Mississippi
- Closing Checklist
Conclusion: Letting Go to Grow
- The Growth of Your Law Firm is Directly Related to the Growth of Your Leadership
- You Have to Trust Everyone on Your Team
- Delegate
About the Author
Blurbs
What Legal Leaders Are Saying
— Kenny Harrell, Joye Law Firm“When it comes to managing a personal injury law firm, Chad Dudley is the equivalent of what Lebron James is compared to other basketball players—simply the best. My law firm and myself, personally, are immensely better because of Chad‘s mentorship and friendship over the years.”
— Brian LaBovick, LaBovick Law Group“The personal injury field is filled with consultants of every stripe. Chad Dudley stands above them all. I’ve read every book and attended every summit and mastermind. There is no one who competes with Chad’s system on how to run a personal injury law firm. I met Chad after twenty-five years in practice and immediately adopted the Dudley Debosier system. We started to grow fast! Since then, we’ve grown from twenty-nine to over on hundred team members and our revenue has quadrupled. This book is a mandatory education if you own a personal injury law firm. Read it, follow it, and enjoy the success you’ll gain from it.”
— Ken Hardison, Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing & Management Association (PILMMA)“Chad is the real deal. He knows as much, if not more, than anyone about what it takes to scale a law firm. His insights have helped so many of our PILMMA members over the years. I watched him 10x his law firm over the last decade. He walks the walk, as well as talks the talk. When he speaks, you should listen very carefully!”
— Pepper DeVaughn, Partner, Parrish DeVaughn Injury Lawyers“A great personal injury firm is not created or scaled with luck, timing, or instinct. It is hard. The structure, conduct, and performance of a law firm must be continuously evaluated, refined, and improved as it scales. I can say without hesitation or bias that scaling your personal injury firm based on Chad Dudley’s proven methodology will guarantee a competitive advantage. Information is power—and the information in The Seven Disciplines is nuclear.”
— Carter Mario, Carter Mario Injury Lawyers“If you’re looking to grow your firm exponentially, read this book. Having had the good fortune of knowing Chad over the past twenty years, I have been able to achieve a level of success with my law firm by adopting and implementing his innovative concepts and practices. Everyone wants to improve, and after reading this book, you will!”
— Thomas Teodori, Partner, Chasen Boscolo Injury Lawyers“Given the opportunity to learn from Chad, take advantage of it! Guaranteed, you’ll learn something new that, when implemented, will improve your business operations. His unique knowledge and experience learned from successfully growing law firms not only results in better client outcomes, but also improves efficiencies and law firm margins. Having trouble scaling your business? The Seven Disciplines will get you there faster!”
— Marc Simon, Simon & Simon Injury Lawyers“Chad is the ultimate personal injury ‘inside man.’ He is a rare unicorn in that he has consulted with the biggest and best injury firms in the world and gathered best and worst practices from these firms to now share in this book. His data-driven approach, and his experience in the trenches of many firms, provides real-world benchmarking of how firms should operate from everything to onboarding and process improvement to litigation strategy and maximizing settlement value.”
— Bob Sexton, Rainwater, Holt & Sexton“Chad Dudley is the best in the business at helping law firms be successful. He has the unique ability to look at the personal injury landscape and develop a systematic approach to maximize results for our clients. He has helped build a successful personal injury firm and consulted with over a hundred of the nation's best firms. In my opinion, no one understands the systems needed to run a successful law firm better than Chad Dudley. Our firm has grown in large part from the advice and systems he has shared with us.”
— Richard James, Devaughn James Injury Lawyers“If you want to build a great personal injury law firm, you should absorb all you can from Chad Dudley. Others talk about building a great law firm in theory; Chad has actually done it. After you read this book, you will be checking your calendars to see when is the next time you can hear him speak and learn from him. I can look all around our law firm and see great ideas we copied from Chad and the Dudley DeBosier team.”
— Glen Lerner, Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys“Chad’s book should be called Dudley Do Right, because if you follow his lead and get your firm to buy into his teachings, you cannot help but see positive results. Although we have a large and successful practice, we refuse to drink our own Kool-Aid. Bringing Chad in was the shot in the arm we needed as a catalyst for full-scale change in the ultra-competitive, post-COVID world of personal injury. In the process, I have gained a new friend who loves the metrics of this business model as much as I do.”
— L. Leonard Lundy, Lundy Law“Chad Dudley has developed the procedures, methods, and statistical analysis to help any personal injury firm grow and, more importantly, become more profitable. Every law firm, including ours, with whom he has shared his knowledge, is far better for the experience. Take the time to read this book and then be certain to attend one of his seminars. You and your firm will only be better for the experiences.”
— Michael A. Feiner, Esq., Steinger, Greene, & Feiner“Successful injury firms are built upon great leadership with a keen eye towards the analysis of the underlying data and metrics. Chad is one of the best in the business when it comes to understanding the key drivers of success, and tailoring his processes and procedures accordingly to achieve the desired outcome.”
— Mike Rainwater, Rainwater, Holt & Sexton Injury Lawyers“Chad Dudley is a leader in law firm management who continually improves his own firm and generously shares his expertise with others. His client-centric approach aims for win–win outcomes for both clients and law firms. Thanks to Chad, our firm has become stronger, and we are grateful to have him as a colleague and friend. To optimize your operations, enhance efficiency, and boost profitability, listen to Chad Dudley.”
— Ernest Cory, Cory Watson Attorneys“Over the last twenty years, Chad has taught me so much, has spoken to our attorneys at our retreats, and has a wealth of knowledge about how to grow a personal injury firm. I would strongly recommend Chad’s advice on how to successfully grow your law firm.”
— Gibson Vance, partner, Beasley Allen Law Firm“Chad Dudley epitomizes the term change agent. Along with the team at Dudley Debosier, Chad has revolutionized the personal injury practice. My firm, Beasley Allen, has directly benefited from our friendship with Chad and his law firm. I truly believe that any law firm that follows Chad’s recipe for success will see a substantial increase in both profit and growth. In addition to everything above, and perhaps most importantly, Chad is a good person and is always ready to help others improve their practice.”
