Becoming One of the Fastest Growing Estate Planning Practices in California (Ep. 185)
Building a successful law firm isn't simply about becoming a better lawyer. At some point, growth requires learning how to become a better business owner.
That is one of the central themes of this episode of The Lawyer Millionaire, featuring Ellen Cookman, founder of Cookman Law, a California estate planning firm with a specialty in special needs planning.
Ellen's story offers several valuable lessons for law firm owners who want to attract better clients, improve profitability, and build a business that doesn't depend entirely on the owner.
1. Find a Niche and Own It
Ellen deliberately built her practice around estate planning with a subspecialty in special needs planning.
Her interest in the field came from her experience working with the special needs community, but she also recognized that focusing exclusively on special needs planning could be too limiting. Instead, she created a broader estate planning practice with a clearly defined specialty.
That distinction became an important part of her firm's growth.
As Ellen explained, having a niche helped her differentiate the firm and connect with the people she most wanted to serve. Rather than trying to appeal to everyone, the firm became particularly relevant to a specific community.
For law firm owners, the lesson is straightforward: being more specific can make you more attractive, not less.
A niche gives potential clients a reason to choose you.
2. Marketing Doesn't Always Look Like Advertising
One of the most interesting parts of Ellen's story is how she developed her firm's YouTube channel.
She didn't initially create it as a sophisticated marketing strategy. She was simply tired of explaining the same estate planning concepts repeatedly.
So she started creating videos.
Over time, those videos became a significant source of familiarity and trust. Ellen says approximately 80% of the firm's clients are familiar with her YouTube channel before they engage with the firm.
That means potential clients are often learning about the firm—and learning the firm's language and approach—before their first consultation.
Educational content can therefore do more than generate leads. It can help pre-educate prospects and build trust before they ever become clients.
3. Stop Giving Away Your Most Valuable Time
Another major evolution in Ellen's practice involved her intake process.
Early on, she offered free 15-minute "meet and greets." She eventually realized that these conversations often attracted people who weren't serious about hiring the firm.
So she changed the process.
Today, prospective clients go through an intake and qualification process before meeting with an attorney. The firm also charges for the initial consultation.
The goal isn't simply to generate more appointments. It's to make sure that the firm's limited professional time is being spent with people who are appropriate prospects.
Ellen captured the philosophy well: four consultations where four people convert can be more valuable than eight consultations where only four convert.
The difference is what happens with the time that is saved.
Instead of filling the calendar with low-value conversations, the owner can spend that time on marketing, leadership, strategy, and other activities that help grow the business.
4. Delegation Is a Growth Strategy
For many lawyers, delegation is difficult.
There is always the thought: "It will be easier if I just do it myself."
Ellen had to overcome that mindset as her firm grew.
She learned to identify tasks that weren't the best use of her time and delegate them to people with the appropriate skills. She also learned that an employee doesn't necessarily have to perform a task exactly the way she would.
If someone can do a task 80% as well and the owner only needs to spend a few minutes reviewing it, the business may still be significantly better off.
That creates leverage.
The goal isn't for the owner to become the person who does everything. The goal is for the owner to spend more time doing the things only the owner can do or the things that create the greatest value.
5. Hire for Your Niche
Hiring has also required a different approach at Cookman Law because special needs planning is highly specialized.
Ellen found that traditional recruiters weren't particularly effective because they didn't fully understand the difference between general estate planning and special needs planning.
Instead, she began reaching out directly to other attorneys in the specialty and asking whether they knew qualified people.
That word-of-mouth approach proved much more effective.
The firm's first hire took nine months. The next took six months. The most recent hire took just two months.
The lesson is that the best recruiting strategy may depend on the specificity of your practice.
When you're looking for highly specialized talent, your professional network can sometimes be more valuable than a generic job board or recruiting process.
6. Protect Profit on Purpose
Growth in revenue doesn't automatically mean a business is becoming more profitable.
Ellen uses the Profit First approach to allocate incoming revenue among different financial categories, including operating expenses, payroll, taxes, and profit.
The system gives the firm a framework for deciding where the money goes rather than simply spending whatever happens to be available.
The firm has also introduced profit sharing, with a portion of profits distributed among employees quarterly.
That creates a direct connection between the team's efforts and the firm's financial performance.
It also reinforces an important principle:
Profit shouldn't be whatever is left over at the end of the year. It should be something the business intentionally protects.
7. Financial Transparency Can Build Trust
Ellen also shares financial information with her team on a monthly basis.
Employees can see the firm's intake numbers, revenue, expenses, and profit.
Financial transparency can help employees understand that revenue isn't the same thing as profit. Money coming into a law firm has to cover salaries, technology, overhead, taxes, and many other expenses before it becomes profit for the owner.
When employees understand those numbers, they can also better understand how their own work contributes to the firm's success.
Instead of financial performance being something that only the owner thinks about, profitability becomes a shared business objective.
8. Don't Be Afraid to Bring in Experts
Ellen openly acknowledges that financial management isn't her natural strength.
Rather than trying to become an expert in everything, she surrounds herself with professionals who can help her understand the numbers and make better decisions.
That includes a fractional CFO and a financial planning team.
This allows her to focus on running the practice while still getting the financial information she needs to make informed decisions about the business, retirement, education expenses, and personal wealth.
Law firm owners don't need to personally master every discipline required to run a successful company.
They need to know which questions to ask and who can help them answer those questions.
9. AI Can Become Part of the Firm's Institutional Knowledge
Ellen is also experimenting with AI in a particularly interesting way.
Her firm has developed a private Claude system that incorporates the firm's training materials, videos, and other knowledge essentially creating what she describes as an "Ellen's brain."
The intake team can use it to find answers to questions before escalating them to Ellen. Attorneys can also use it as another research resource.
But Ellen emphasizes an important limitation: AI-generated information still needs to be verified.
She describes an experience where an AI search appeared to provide the correct answer about a California legislative issue. When she followed the cited information back to its original source, however, she discovered that the AI's conclusion was incorrect.
For lawyers, this is a critical lesson: AI can be a powerful productivity tool, but it shouldn't replace professional judgment or verification of primary sources.
The Bigger Lesson: Work Smarter, Not Just Harder
Ellen's story illustrates a fundamental shift that many successful law firm owners eventually have to make.
Early in your career, growth may come from working harder.
But eventually, there are only so many hours in the day.
The next stage of growth comes from leverage:
A niche that differentiates the firm
Content that educates potential clients
An intake process that protects valuable time
Paid consultations that filter for serious prospects
Delegation that frees the owner to focus on higher-value work
Specialized hiring strategies
Systems that protect profit
Financial transparency that engages employees
Professional advisors who provide expertise
AI and technology that extend the firm's capabilities
The goal isn't simply to build a bigger law firm.
It's to build a firm that works without requiring the owner to personally do everything.
And ultimately, that's what makes a law firm more valuable not just more revenue, but a business capable of generating profit, creating opportunities for its team, and helping the owner build personal wealth and freedom.
Resources:
Profit First - Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz (Book)
Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention by John Ruhlin (Book)
Law Firm Financial Reporting Template Pack (Exclusive content)
Connect with Darren Wurz:
Connect with Ellen Cookman:
Linkedin: Ellen Cookman
Website: Cookman Law