In this episode of Lawyer Business Advantage, Michelle Hoover, of Hoover Krepelka family law, shares her unique approach to business development that has led to Hoover Krepelka becoming one of the largest family law firms in California. Listen to the insights of a true law firm marketing pro!
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:33] Welcome to Lawyer Business Advantage, your source for biz dev tips, wisdom and inspiration. I’m your host, Alay Yajnik. We’re unleashing your inner rainmaker in three, two, one….
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:48] And it’s my pleasure to welcome to the show, Michelle Hoover. Michelle Hoover is the Director of Community Relations for Hoover Krepelka and Hoover Krepelka is one of the largest family law firms in the state of California. Michelle, welcome to the show today!
Michelle Hoover: [00:01:04] Thank you.
Alay Yajnik: [00:01:04] Really appreciate you taking the time to jump on with us. I’m excited for our conversation today because, you know, you have a different role. You’re the Director of Community Relations…you’re not necessarily a practicing attorney. So I would love to hear a little bit – and our listeners would love to hear, too – about your role at the firm and a little bit about the firm.
Michelle Hoover: [00:01:26] Ok, very well. Well, thank you, Hoover Krepelka started in 1960. Our attorneys began practicing at that time. So this year marks the 60th year of practice for our founder, Bob Hoover.
Alay Yajnik: [00:01:38] Congratulations.
Michelle Hoover: [00:01:38] Thank you. And so we’ve been through several partnerships and hundreds of employees over the years and thousands of clients. So we are constantly learning, growing, but always focused exclusively on family law. So considered an expert in that area. And our attorneys also serve as Judge Pro Tems. So they’ll sit in. They’re invited by judges to help settle cases before they go to trial. So the level of expertise that we have at the firm is exclusive to family law. So at this point, we have about 16 attorneys oncoming in March 2020. And I, as the Director of Community Relations, help support those attorneys with trusted advisers that they may need as they’re handling cases that are exclusive to family law. I was also handed the marketing piece when I started six years ago. So all the website and online marketing, you see, had been under my direction over the last six years. And then also with this growth has come a real need for community services for many of our clients and specifically domestic violence. So my job is also to build strong partnerships with community service providers that our clients may need while they’re going through divorces.
Alay Yajnik: [00:03:03] You know, Michelle, it’s a really interesting role that you have. I haven’t actually seen it at any other law firms and was hoping you could just elaborate a little bit on on two things. One is the domestic violence aspect and building that support network. And also examples of resources that your attorneys need that you support them with.
Michelle Hoover: [00:03:24] Certainly. Originally I came on and it was going to be a part-time position to help with networking. We believe in person-to-person contact and building and maximizing those relationships. So we needed a little bit of help in that area. So the idea was, “OK, well, come on in and help network.” But it turned into something much more as we grew. Because again, we only handle family law. We’re constantly in need of strategic advisors: mostly in financial services, real estate, property division and other areas of law. So with the increased caseload comes the increased need to align ourselves with trusted advisers that can help service our clients and support our attorney...