Washington Lawyer - April 2019 - 23

NICHE PRACTICES ON THE RISE
Assisted Reproductive Technology
This specialty covers matters involving fertility treatments and procedures,
including in vitro fertilization, to help people achieve pregnancy.
Blockchain Technology
Practitioners advise clients on regulatory, enforcement, privacy and data
security, consumer protection, and transactional matters, as well as litigation
related to blockchain distribution technology.
Crowdfunding
This area focuses on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations; it
also touches upon intellectual property, tax liability, campaign, and contract
matters.
Drone Law
Attorneys deal with the licensing and regulation of commercial and recreational
drone use.
Emojis
The interpretation of emoji-laden communication touches on various legal
issues like employment discrimination and sexual harassment.

Glass also recommends creating a robust pool of referrals. "If you have 1,000
people who know, like, and trust you, there's no need to advertise at all," he
argues. "Seventy percent of revenue at mature firms comes from people
they've already represented or who have contacted them from their newsletter or professional referrals. Only 30 percent comes from the cold calls or
people who happened upon some website."
In addition to honing their marketing skills, Mills encourages lawyers to
develop more empathy. "Lawyers tend not to be very empathetic," he says.
"But the more empathy you can bring to your relationships with your clients,
the better they are going to be. And the business benefit from that is learning
enormous [amounts of] information about how your clients process the
problems that they ultimately need you to solve. The more you know about
how they dealt with that problem, the better your marketing messages are
going to be."
Kinner and McGowan have certainly embraced much of the entrepreneurial
wisdom that Glass and Mills espouse. They are developing seminars geared
toward the geriatric community and are trying to collaborate with various
D.C.-based wellness groups to talk about medical marijuana in assistedliving facilities. They also hope to hire associates. And while they are considering other opportunities such as business consulting and tax law, they're
keeping their eyes on the prize. "I can see our firm growing, but within
the cannabis space," McGowan says. "If we keep having ongoing relationships
with cannabis clients, I don't see how we could really have time to
do other stuff."

Sapperstein & Associates, LLC
Real Estate Appraisers * Consultants * Due Diligence and Valuation Specialists
301-654-0214 | appraisal@sapperstein.net | Established 1982

Gary L Sapperstein, MAI, SRPA, MRICS
7920 Norfolk Ave, Ste, 220, Bethesda, MD 20814

Serving all of Maryland, including Baltimore,
Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia
Appraisal Services
* For Lending Purposes
* Real estate portfolios
*
and reporting purposes
* Corporate realty assets

* Fair annual rental studies
* Valuation of underlying assets
for partnership purposes
* Litigation Support
* Date of Death Valuations

Washington Lawyer - April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Lawyer - April 2019