Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, as 2010 Small Firm Rainmaker of the Year Christopher Marston knows well.   By offering soup-to-nuts service to entrepreneurs and startup businesses, the revenues of his Boston law firm – Exemplar Law – saw its revenues shoot up 48% in 2009, when the rest of the legal profession stagnated in the Great Recession.

The business has succeeded by being different in a way that is highly desirable to clients. The 22-lawyer firm, led by four partners including Marston, who is still just in his early 30s, was founded in 2005 with the aim that it would “absolutely not bill by the hour.”  The firm was ahead of its time by offering value billing and a service guarantee from the start.  This approach plays very well in the current times of client rebellion, as exemplified by the Association of Corporate Counsel Value Challenge.

“We’re not a vendor, we’re a partner with a client,” Marston said. “And we call clients customers.”The law firm is one of several businesses under the Exemplar brand, which also includes...

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