Lawyers are leaving significant money on the table by stubbornly handling cases outside their expertise when referrals could generate higher profits per hour with zero risk. This eye-opening episode breaks down the surprising economics of legal referrals through the lens of a recent case where I wrote a six-figure check to an out-of-state attorney for essentially making one phone call.
When an attorney from Texas contacted me about a Virginia crash case, he declined my offer to handle it for a referral fee. Instead, he spent 20 months struggling with unfamiliar law before finally sending it my way just before the statute of limitations. After settling for $925,000, I wrote him a check exceeding $100,000. Had he referred it immediately, he would have earned the same amount with virtually no work while avoiding potential malpractice exposure.
The math becomes clear: your return on time skyrockets when you focus exclusively on cases within your geographic and subject-matter expertise. I share multiple examples of general practitioners who mishandled "simple" injury cases by missing immunity issues or incorrectly identifying corporate defendants, inadvertently creating legal malpractice claims more valuable than the original cases.
This philosophy extends beyond case management into personal finance and life planning. Just as I've stopped investing in real estate requiring active management, preferring limited partnerships with slightly lower returns but dramatically higher returns on my time, our firm has abandoned expanding into new practice areas. We've found cultivating strong referral relationships delivers superior results while preserving focus on our core expertise.
With my oldest son turning ten—marking the halfway point of his time under our roof—I'm increasingly aware of how precious time truly is. Are you optimizing your practice to maximize both profit and personal fulfillment? The highest hourly rate you'll ever earn may come from having the wisdom to know which cases to send away.
Subscribe now for more insights on building a law practice you actually enjoy showing up to on Monday.

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Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.
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