Mike Morse’s Post

In 2007, I thought I loved (and was the best at) negotiating every single case. I also thought I was best at (and loved): • taking every deposition • trying every case • meeting with every client • signing every check. I even convinced myself that I loved going to Costco to buy the coffee. I told myself I loved doing everything because I cared. But really, that was just my ego talking. I thought nobody could do it better. That mentality led me to try to do everything at the firm. It spread me too thin and limited our growth. The truth was: I didn't love all of it. I was not actually the best at everything (god forbid). I couldn't build a profitable and sustainable business trying to be the CEO, CFO, CMO and COO all at the same time. When I began working with my business coach, Gino, in 2008, he helped me understand that delegation was my biggest tool. I had to delegate more work so that I could elevate my attention to other things. I started seeing just how smart the lawyers, secretaries, paralegals, and assistants we were hiring were. Some of them were smarter than me. Some had more patience on the phones with clients. Some had different (and better) skills when it came to trial work, negotiating cases, and taking depositions. Delegation had been my weakness.  Over time, it has become a strength for me. With the help of years of coaching, reading and therapy, I got better about setting my ego aside and turning casework over to others. I also turned over so much of the administrative work I'd held onto. That's when we began to grow in a new way. If you're getting started with delegation, we have a Delegation Worksheet we use with our Fireproof clients use. DM me or drop "Delegate and elevate" in the comments, and I'll send you the PDF. Accepting that you're the reason your firm isn't growing the way you want it to isn't easy. But trust me— Once you learn to how delegate and elevate, you'll never go back. Even though I do still love going to Costco.

Last week marked 10 years since Jeff Kerby joined my law firm. We need more Kerbys. Why do I say that? Jeff works his caseload efficiently. He's great with his clients. He gets good value on his cases. He has been hybrid since COVID, and it's working out really well. He’s an all-around good guy. We have 52 attorneys at my firm. Jeff is the 19th to have spent at least a decade here. And 8 of those have been at the firm over 15 years! I'm not sure why, but hiring good, dependable, experienced attorneys has gotten harder over the last few years. That's why I say we need more Kerbys. If you're a lawyer looking for a firm where lawyers come and stay, feel free to message me here. We're hiring at the Mike Morse Law Firm. And Jeff, congratulations on 10 years. I found this photo on my phone from a seminar trip early in your time here. Here's to the next 10 years.

On Monday night, I went to see some fireworks, and at least 50 people shouted the same thing to me: Where's your mom?! Sue Morse is a household name in Detroit after appearing in dozens of my law firm's commercials over the last decade. We deciding to start including my mom in our TV ads for a few reasons: • My mom deserves a lot of credit for our firm's success. After all, I wouldn't be here without her. • We thought her warm personality could come across on TV. • When I asked if she'd be interested in a commercial, she loved the idea! • Featuring Sue in ads was a great way to make ours stand out from other law firms' ads in a way that aligned with our firm's values. It was one way for us to be Cherry Garcia in a world of vanilla lawyer advertising. When we tried running our first ad featuring my mom, we didn't know if there would ever be a second. At this point, I can safely say that making commercials with my mom has been so much fun and, frankly, effective. Now, people stop my mom on the street almost daily to say hi or ask for a selfie. She pretends not to love the attention, but I know she does. :-) And I don't mind that I'm known around town as "Sue's son".

After starting my own law firm in 1995, I made the same mistake every day for more than a decade. I didn't know my numbers.  • How many cases was I bringing in each month? • How many cases did I need every month to be sustainable? • How much revenue was I generating per case?  • How much did I take home for each dollar I brought in? • What was my average fee? If you're like me, you don't know these numbers either.  You probably don't even track these numbers. And why would you? They didn't teach us any of that in law school. We went to law school to learn how to practice law, not run a business. The problem is that this approach leads to a lot of unnecessary uncertainty and stress. Because I had no idea what my numbers were, I was always hustling to bring in more cases while working hard on the cases we have. By 2008, I felt like I was drowning.  I remember my late father-in-law, an entrepreneur and mentor, shaking his head at me when I said I had no idea how my business was doing. At the time, it didn’t occur to me there might be another way. I took his advice to hire a business coach. Learning my numbers was one of the first things we focused on. My coach helped me identify the metrics most critical to the health of my firm and how to effectively track them. It took some time and repetitions before I got the hang of it. But with the help of our brilliant COO John Nachazel, who joined the firm in 2008, I did. It worked. The Mike Morse Law Firm has grown 20-25% annually for the last 15 years. In 2024, we're on track to bring in $220 million in settlements. At this point, I've also worked with hundreds of law firm owners through Fireproof Performance. This photo is from a recent event we hosted in Detroit for some of our clients. Knowing the numbers is one the first (and most impactful) things we focus on. Obviously, there’s a lot more that goes into growth than tracking certain performance metrics. But the reality is that a law firm owner is both a lawyer and a business owner. To grow your firm, you need to know where your business is today. To know where you are today— You need to know your numbers. Don't you?

When 70% of my referrals vanished instantly, I thought my life was over. Now, I thank god it happened. By 2011, I had 35 people on our team. We brought in $30 million in settlements. I had built my firm on referrals for more than a decade, with 70% of our cases coming from a single source, the 800-lb gorilla of Detroit personal injury firms. Then, one day, that firm's managing attorney walked into my office and cut me off without explanation. All he said was, "We won't be sending you any more cases, effective immediately." I'd showed up to the office that morning for a normal day. Suddenly, I didn't know anything. What would I do? Would I need to let 20 people go? How could we replace anything approaching 70% of revenue? With three daughters at home, how was I going to feed my family?  In that moment, I had no answers. My worst nightmare had come true. But looking back now, I see that day as when everything changed for the firm. My incredible team rallied around the new mission of generating cases. A lot more cases. John Nachazel, our brilliant COO, figured out how we could be ok. We had been paying this one firm a 40% referral fee on every case.  Millions of dollars every year. If we could get the cases ourselves, we could use that 40% that normally would have gone to that other firm to advertise and get our own cases. John's plan worked like a charm.  We paid to start making TV advertising and billboards for the first time. Within a month, our first commercial aired on TV. New cases started coming in. The Mike Morse Law Firm has been growing 20% annually ever since.    Our team, the firm's revenue, and my income have all grown tenfold. The day that referring attorney fired me was one of the scariest days of my life. Today, I wish I'd had the guts to cut myself off first. I didn't have the guts, though. I didn't choose to change course. The decision was forced upon me.  And now I'm grateful it happened.

Most law firm marketing falls somewhere between cringy and vanilla.  If you're choosing which ice cream to eat, vanilla is a perfectly fine choice. There’s nothing wrong with vanilla. When choosing how to market your law firm, though? Vanilla won't cut it. It's ubiquitous. It's boring. You can’t be vanilla and expect to stand out. You want your firm to stand out, though.  You need to stand out.  You need to find your Cherry Garcia. My law firm did no advertising until 2011. And I started not because I wanted to, but because I had no other choice after we effectively lost 70% of our business overnight. When my COO John and I decided to start advertising, we didn’t want our advertising to look and sound like everyone else’s. At the time, every law firm was following the same script for what an advertisement should look at sound like. We decided to show more personality, more creativity, and even a sense of humor when we started advertising on TV. This TV spot with me ambulance chasing is an example, one of my favorite commercials we've ever made. The different approach was a risk. But it worked. Our advertising led to more calls, more cases, and growth at the firm. The marketing landscape today is far noisier than when I started advertising 13 years ago. With the Internet and social media, though, it’s also easier than ever to get in front of people directly. But you can’t do it by following what everybody else is doing. You also can’t just copy somebody else's Cherry Garcia (which actually is my favorite flavor). You need to find your own Cherry Garcia. You need to lean into what makes you… You. Because Cherry Garcia beats vanilla every time, right?

I started my law firm in 1995, three days after another firm fired me suddenly. I got fired on a Friday and opened for business on the following Monday.  At the time, I wasn’t setting out to build a big law firm. I was focused on: • Getting enough cases to keep the lights on. • Giving every client exceptional service. • Doing good work. Believe it or not, that’s still my mentality—even though our firm will generate more than $220 million this year. So how did we grow to become one of the largest firms in the country? I attribute our unusual growth to two men, both of whom I met in 2008: Gino Wickman, who became my business coach.  John Nachazel, who joined my firm as COO. Until 2008, I thought growing a law firm required working harder and longer. Gino and John taught me the power of having the right people, the right processes, and the right systems in place. Over the last 15 years, the Mike Morse Law Firm has grown by an average of more than 20% annually. They say you’re an average of the five people you are closest to. I’m fortunate to count these two men among my five. Because as I said, I didn’t set out to build a big law firm. Had I never met John or Gino (in this photo with me), I don’t know how big the firm would be today. But I can safely say that the firm wouldn't be anywhere near what it is today.

I didn't delegate much over my law firm's first 13 years. I now see that as one of my biggest mistakes. My business coach Gino Wickman introduced me to the idea of 'delegate and elevate' in 2008. At first, I was resistant. But he persuaded me that delegating and elevating was critical for our firm's growth. I started practicing the principle, letting key leaders like my COO John and my assistant Laurie carry more weight. I felt the impact immediately. I was lighter and less stressed at work. More was getting done with less effort. And I could “elevate” my attention to focus on higher priorities. Once I saw the power of delegate and elevate for myself, I started seeing it everywhere. Laurie was my first real assistant and had been with me for over 10 years by 2008. She was the best legal assistant anyone could ask for and was absolutely integral to our firm's growth.  At the time, Laurie would spend hours a day making copies. This was back when documents still had to be manually fed into the copier. One day I asked Laurie if she'd have enough to do if she had help with the copying.    "Absolutely!" she said. We hired an hourly admin person to assist Laurie with that task (and a couple others). Laurie immediately elevated to focus her time and attention on higher-priority tasks. That change helped Laurie be more productive and feel more satisfied with her work.  In retrospect, the hire was an obvious one. But I didn't see it until I learned the power of delegating and elevating. I've now coached more than 200 law firm owners through Fireproof Performance, and this is the single hardest challenge for them to overcome. If you’re early in your journey as a law firm owner, I know how hard it can be to let go of control. But the sooner you learn how to empower your teammates and get out of their way, the sooner you’ll start seeing the benefits. For you. For your team. And for your firm. Have you seen the power of delegating and elevating in your firm?