Working on Cases from the Outside in Vs. the Inside Out

​[00:00:00]

[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I am the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from law school student into your professional career as an actual bonafide attorney and where we make the practice of law fun.

[00:00:21] Scott Benton: And today we’re going to talk about the differences between working on your cases from the outside in versus working on your cases from the inside out.

​[00:01:00]

[00:01:22] Scott Benton: When you first begin working at a law firm, you get your first couple of assigned cases and you’re probably going to feel pretty good about performing those legal services. They might be basic legal services and you’re also going to be billing for that time. Now, in some of the cases that you get might be easier at first or less complex or cases that really just need some basic forms filled out or documents filed and you’re going to be more than happy to take care of those.

[00:01:49] Scott Benton: You’re probably going to have another attorney supervising your work until you’re able to perform all of those legal services confidently on your own, really without any help or without any supervision. So at first you might have [00:02:00] brief interactions with your clients to get, just some basic information.

[00:02:03] Scott Benton: Maybe there’s some documents you need for your filings or you need to get an account number or some sort of identification number. But for the most part, you’re not really going to go too deep into the background of your clients with them in person or over the phone. You’re not even really going to get to know them as people or build relationships.

[00:02:23] Scott Benton: With a strong standing foundation that you have with them. Things like that really usually take a little bit of time. And you might be working on a case that the firm has been handling for, who knows, a year or longer already. That means you’re new to the scene and there really hasn’t been much time yet for you to connect with your client as strongly as you could with an advantage of a much longer time period, let’s say.

[00:02:45] Scott Benton: Now, if this is the way you worked on all of your cases throughout your entire time with that form, you would only be working on a case from the outside in, which means you’re only doing the work the case demands without much reference as to [00:03:00] why the client is pursuing the legal goals that they’re pursuing.

[00:03:03] Scott Benton: The work might even feel a little transactional in nature and it wouldn’t contain any real purpose. personal component to it at all, since this is largely a faceless person that you might occasionally talk to on the phone every now and again, and whose case you just move along as it’s needed.

[00:03:20] Scott Benton: So you’ve got to make that jump as soon as possible with your clients, especially once those cases truly become your own cases and you become the lead attorney updating the senior attorneys on their progression. That jump starts with you building strong working relationships with all your clients that could include meeting with them in person or at the very least having probably long phone conversations with them to really better understand the cases.

[00:03:46] Scott Benton: Now building a relationship with your client is going to open up an entire hidden galaxy of information that reaches deep into the vast wealth of previously hidden case facts. In many examples, they become key components to your ability to [00:04:00] populate your to do list and streamline and improve your performance and delivery of legal services, and they help you move your cases along in a way that the client is likely going to be extremely impressed by the quality of work that you’re pumping out.

[00:04:13] Scott Benton: When that happens, the clients are happy with the legal services you’re providing. They tend to keep the firm paid for a much longer period of time all the way to the conclusion of their case. Then clients who really don’t see anything happening on their cases at all, whether things are actually happening or not.

[00:04:29] Scott Benton: So the key is to build that relationship with your client. And you want to remember to dig three layers deep into their story, because as they talk about their case, it unlocks additional details that can become extremely critical remembrances, or even take the case in a new productive direction altogether, that you really weren’t expecting.

[00:04:48] Scott Benton: So you can see how urgent it is to make that leap from working on cases from the outside in To working on cases from the inside out and the whole key is to bond with your client but if you’re [00:05:00] working on a case from the inside out, where you’ve built strong bonded relationships with all of your clients, then you’re going to see how quickly you become an excellent attorney and how in demand your skill sets are to the potential clients who show up at your firm for their initial consultations.

[00:05:16] Scott Benton: That’s before they’ve hired you. Finally, you’re going to want to make sure that you focus on working on your cases from the inside out as quickly as possible, and then you’re going to sit back and you’re simply going to watch your career as it begins to soar.

[00:05:30] Scott Benton: So I hope that’s been helpful. My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. Now if this podcast is material that you like and you want to get notified whenever we post a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom2courtroom.

[00:05:45] Scott Benton: com. That’s classroom, the number two, courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. We’ll send you an email anytime we post a new episode. You can also stay on top of all of our new episodes by sharing, liking, and subscribing wherever you find this [00:06:00] podcast. And until the next episode, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time

[00:06:07] Scott Benton: thank you so much.