It’s no secret that 2020 proved to be a challenging year for law firms across the nation. With thousands forced to shut down their offices, hold virtual depositions, and opt to serve their clients from the comfort of their homes, it has been a period spurred on by creativity, flexibility, and gumption.
However, despite the hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, a select few law firms made the decision to hunker down and rise up to defy odds and find success in an otherwise stagnant year. The Greening Law Group is one of those firms.
The Greening Law Group is a criminal defense firm based in Bryan, Texas. Founded in 2010 and led by attorney Craig Greening, their goal is to advocate for and tenaciously guard the rights, liberty, finances, and future of each client that walks through their door.
The Challenge at Hand
Originally before COVID-19 hit, Craig and his team started 2020 with a variety of goals that included doubling the firm’s revenue, increasing the public knowledge of the firm in their area, and committing to bettering The Greening Law Group’s culture and business practices.
However, when they were faced with the shutdown of virtually all in-person business practices, they had to decide: do we give up, or do we go harder than ever to achieve what seems impossible?
“A lot of our competitors chose to use that time to go fishing or go on vacation,” Craig explained. “But we used that time to move our business forward.”
With the challenge of adapting to an ever-evolving worldwide phenomenon and a new normal, Craig knew they had their work cut out for them.
Same Destination, Different Route
Instead of changing their goals, they set pre-COVID to something safer, they decided to tailor their approach to achieve what was deemed “the impossible.”
Rather than letting downtime turn into stalled momentum or fear turn into missed opportunities, Craig and his team doubled down, using what they had learned from their Crisp Coach membership to help navigate each bump in the road they hit along the way.
“Right before everything shut down, we had our PRINT and Kolbe training sessions with our Crisp Coach Program Advisor, Audrey. We used what we learned from that day to discover why we love working here and why we do what we do. We built off of that as we worked from home, and as a result, became closer than ever.”
Not only did they focus on their internal goal of improving their culture, but The Greening Law Group team also made leaps in their marketing efforts, which in turn increased knownness in their area and brought a variety of new business to the firm.
Sure, DWI cases may have slowed down with fewer people on the road, but by continuing to market the firm with Crisp’s full-fledged social media marketing campaign, The Greening Law Group stayed busy with an increase in fraud and other federal cases.
In terms of expanding infrastructure and looking toward the future of his firm, Craig made the decision to completely revamp his hiring process, which resulted in bringing on three new team members — a rarity in a period when so many other law firms were choosing to lay off or furlough their own employees.
“People thought I was crazy,” Craig laughs. “But the funny thing is, we had better candidates applying than ever before.”
In addition to growing the team, Greening also invested in the future of the firm to grow their office space — in fact, they tripled it and made plans to open a new office in Waco, Texas in the new year.
Looking ahead
With the incredible strides The Greening Law Group has made in light of a year that many consider a wash, Craig has no plans of slowing down.
“Even when you’re at your darkest and lowest point as a firm, you’ve got to come together, you’ve got to move on, and you’ve got to prepare to come out on the other side,” Craig says. “Everyone on our team committed to growing, and now we get to see the fruits of our hard work.”
Moving forward, the team at The Greening Law Group plans to continue their momentum into next year and beyond, and have already determined their one-, five-, and 10-year goals for the future.
It just goes to show that by moving beyond fear, investing in marketing, technology platforms, team culture, and hiring, Craig was able to position his firm in a stronger place in the market by doing what others would not.
