Scott Monroe: Building a High-Quality Criminal Defense Practice

In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Scott Monroe discuss:

• Balancing quality and quantity in legal practice
• Challenges and strategies in building and managing a successful law firm
• The role of technology, automation, and staff training in enhancing legal efficiency
• Innovative approaches to legal marketing and networking

Key Takeaways:

• Transitioning from a solo practitioner to building a team ensures higher quality service and enables sustainable work-life balance.
• Investing in technology, such as case management software, significantly increases operational efficiency and reduces burnout.
• For criminal defense, effective online marketing strategies like Google ads, SEO, and customer reviews are crucial for visibility and client acquisition.
• Building a “work family” through proper hiring, training, and fostering a collaborative environment leads to high employee retention and better client outcomes.

“You’re not going to have a clue who I am unless I invest the time and the energy into putting that stuff out there and giving my clients an opportunity to let people know how good I, my team, my associates, and our services are.” —  Scott Monroe

Got a challenge growing your law practice? Email me at steve@fretzin.com with your toughest question, and I’ll answer it live on the show—anonymously, just using your first name!

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About Scott Monroe: At Monroe Law, PA, justice matters. Jacksonville criminal defense attorney Scott Monroe, the firm’s founder and president, has dedicated his career to providing exceptional service. As a former prosecutor, he has intimate knowledge of state prosecutions. Scott started his firm to focus on quality over quantity, taking the time to understand each case and help clients.

An award-winning attorney, he has received the Elite Advocate Award for six years and led Monroe Law Firm to accolades like Top 10 Best Criminal Defense Law Firms in Florida and Law Firm of the Year in 2023. Previously, he founded Monroe & King, P.A. (now First Coast Criminal Defense), earning multiple awards before departing in 2023 to establish Monroe Law Firm. For clarity, Scott is no longer affiliated with Monroe & King (First Coast Criminal Defense).

Connect with Scott Monroe:  

Website: https://www.monroelaw.com/

Email: dscott@monroelaw.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-monroe-18157753/

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Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Steve Fretzin: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Before we get to the show, I want to just take a moment to do our Q and A from our listeners. This is Sarah from Baltimore, Maryland. She is asking, how much business do I need to generate to move my practice laterally to a mid market or larger firm? That’s a great question, Sarah. The typical answer I get from the main recruiters that I work with and network with are the half a million to a million seems to be the sweet spot for many of them.

Unless you want to go to a really large firm. That’s sort of the number. If you are there, then you can talk to recruiters and get that moving. If you’re not there and you need to get to those levels then again, you want to either become a student of the game of business development and really focus on business development as a core element to get your numbers up.

Or again, you want to talk with someone like me as a coach to help figure out best practices to get you there as quickly as possible. Great question, Sarah. I appreciate it. Everybody enjoy the show. We’re going to have a good one for you. Here you go.

Narrator: You’re listening to be that [00:01:00] lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach, Steve Branson will take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now, here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.

Steve Fretzin: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Be That Lawyer with Fretzin podcast. I hope that you’re having a lovely day today. Look, you guys know this show. If you’ve been listening or watching on our YouTube channel, you could just type in Steve Fretzin on YouTube and check that out. We’re on a roll. We’re coming up on 500 episodes in the next, I don’t know, four, three, four months.

It’s really cool and exciting. And Scott’s a listener, right, Scott?

Scott Monroe: Yes, sir. Yeah, it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Steve Fretzin: All right. Bye. I’m looking for a little bit of ass kissing today for my, I’m just kidding. But you know, look, I have a teenager. So anytime I can get strokes from somebody, anytime I get compliments from anybody, I’m hungry for them because getting one out of a teenager is like pulling teeth.

But I want to start off Scott with our quote [00:02:00] of the show. Welcome to the show, by the way, I’m happy that we’re together and we’ve got a lot to cover today. So appreciate you being here.

Scott Monroe: Oh, it’s my pleasure. I was very excited to do it.

Steve Fretzin: Oh, awesome. Great. All right. So this is a very straightforward one.

It’s quality rather than quantity that matters. And welcome to the show again and tell us why that quote, what does that mean to you?

Scott Monroe: I’ll be honest. It’s one of the most core principles that I have in the way that I run this firm and the way that I practice. Obviously I’ve been doing this for a while.

I mean, I’ve been in criminal defense about 15 years at this point, and I’ve been in several different roles, whether it’s a prosecutor or whether it’s working for another attorney and then well over a decade, you know, running a firm. And I see so many different business models, how people do things. And frankly, one of the standard business models that most everybody has, most criminal defense attorneys are solo practitioners.

And there’s nothing wrong with it. I started off as a solo practitioner. You know, I did everything from being the secretary to doing the calendar to all of it. I just found out that I was never going to be the best criminal [00:03:00] defense person in the area by myself, which is why I spent all the time that I had now building the team that I have.

And I’ve tried to go out and find the most qualified people I can who care just as much about our clients as I do. But I look at like the other business models where it’s kind of the name of the game is, you know, keep your overhead low, turn it in as many cases as you can, try to maximize your profit as much as you can.

And I’m not saying there’s anything morally wrong. There’s nothing. It’s just wasn’t my cup of tea and it’s not what I wanted to do.

Narrator: Yeah. The

Scott Monroe: way that I looked at it is if I make every decision to run my firm based on how do I provide the best legal service possible, everything else falls into place.

You know, so we’re staffed up really high. Or a criminal defense law firm or actually more like a civil firm, but we still have that small personal touch field because you think based on our size, we would have more cases relative to other people. But we don’t. It’s actually the opposite fact. This is if you get arrested, I get arrested.

Anybody gets arrested any kind of [00:04:00] case at all. You don’t care about your attorneys other cases, nor should you. And so we try to set it up where. You’re the only case that matters and we have the flexibility, the resources and the time to treat it that way, you know, so it really is quality over quantity because you can turn cases in and out every day and one from a business standpoint.

I don’t think it’ll do well. But from the 2nd standpoint. As an attorney, I feel like our basic obligation is to be of maximum service to our fellow man. And if we’re going to take that seriously, I think that the quality of the service, the quality of the resources, and the way we approach the cases has got to be paramount.

So that’s kind of been this governing philosophy that I’ve had since I started the firm. Doing every aspect of it. And I’m very OCD as I brought people in to kind of fill some of these roles that just couldn’t fill and didn’t need to be filling, I wanted to make sure that those are the most qualified people that got, there’s a reason why we don’t have any turnover.

It’s the reason why everybody wants to stay here. You [00:05:00] know, it’s a great job, you know, I would say it’s, and I know I’m going on about it, but one last thing I want to say is, this, we do criminal defense, it’s all we do, and quite frankly, if any other criminal defense firms are listening, we think that this is the most difficult legal job there is, period, bar none.

You know, like my dad does real estate. My sister does, you know, probate law. And when they complained about work, I have no sympathy for that. You know, I was talking to a litigator once and he’s like, if we lose, it just cost people money, you know, whereas. What we have is people’s futures, their lives, their liberty, their ability to support their family or feed their kids.

And that’s just an awesome responsibility that we don’t take lightly. And we can’t meet that burden and be able to give everything we have to those people, unless the quality of everything that we do is paramount.

Steve Fretzin: Well, you guys can can take in the passion and the Excitement of Scott Monroe and what he’s doing in his law firm.

And you’re the owner [00:06:00] of Monroe law firm. And so that’s not where you started. You start out as a prosecutor.

Scott Monroe: It’s actually interesting, as I kind of mentioned before, my dad’s the real estate attorney, and when I went to college, I did pre med chemical engineering. Like, my favorite things were math and physics and science.

I was determined not to be an attorney, because my dad was an attorney, my sister was in law school, she just got engaged to a guy, and I was not going to get accused of writing anybody else’s coattails, a really independent, stubborn guy. And, you know, it just kind of came to the point where I was like, you know, I don’t want to go to med school and I don’t want to work in a paper plant as a, you know, chemical engineer.

So I took this business law course and it was just. I loved it, you know, and I guess it’s just in the blood or something like that. And it’s funny. I, so I ended up going to law school and if you had asked me, are you going to do criminal? I would have said, no, absolutely not. I’m not going to do that. I don’t have any interest in it.

And you know, I went to law school here in Jacksonville, Florida, and I did an internship at the state attorney’s office and I [00:07:00] absolutely fell in love with it. And that was that. And it’s been criminal defense ever since then. I did one little six months stint of doing foreclosure law, and I thought I was going to jump off a bridge, but criminal defense is for me.

And what I loved about it was it’s never the same. It’s always different and it’s not. And I appreciate that civil attorneys have the ability to have these cases that go on for so long and they have their, you know, their binders where everything is organized to the T. and I have a massive amount of respect for civil attorneys and being able to go in and the amount of preparation that they do, but the nature of what we do a lot of times.

It’s on your feet, you know, and you got to be really, really fast. And that was one of the things that I love. So I started up as a prosecutor here in Jacksonville, Florida, and it was a wonderful office to work at. And it was probably one of the most fun that I ever had practicing law. I love what I do now, what it really was a lot of fun.

And then, you know, I moved up the ranks. Had a couple of specialty positions and then actually that becoming a [00:08:00] special prosecutor over in the Florida panhandle for the state of Florida. And that was a lot of fun. And then my wife got a job back here in Jackson, but we came back here and I’ve been doing private since ever since then.

And the funny thing is that surprised a lot of people. Because those are good. Well, I don’t want to put

Steve Fretzin: people away to helping protect them.

Scott Monroe: You know, it’s really interesting because as the young prosecutor, we would always kind of joke about defense attorneys to being on the dark side. And if you’d asked me when I was a young prosecutor, if I’d ever do criminal defense, I would have said no, but the it’s an amazing job, to be honest.

The thing was, one of the things that I’d liked about being a prosecutor is the ability to serve my community. But you feel like you’re doing something right if you’re doing it the right way. But I quickly found out when I started doing criminal defense that I was able to do more good in a couple years doing on the defense side than I could have as a lifetime’s price.

You know, and that’s, like I said, this is one of the most stressful legal jobs there are, because [00:09:00] of what’s at stake and the amount of trust that people are putting in you, the direct impacts that how I do my job has on other people. But at the same time, it’s one of the most rewarding jobs. There are,

Steve Fretzin: I want to know, Scott is what else do you have really strong opinions about because so far, everything you’ve had a strong opinion about you’ve gone the other way, just picking up on that.

Scott Monroe: No, I know. And in a place way, I believe, you know, that everything happens for a reason. I, you have to buy into that and believe that idea in order to take stuff on the chin and bounce back and do the right thing and be able to handle things as they come. There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m doing what I was designed to do, what I was meant to do.

This is what I was built for. You know, sometimes it’d be like, why don’t you be a judge? I’m like, no. That’s not what I’m going for. The next

Steve Fretzin: thing you’re going to do is you’re going to be a judge. I just figured it out. I’m just, no, I’m just going by the precedent of what we’ve covered so

Scott Monroe: far. In a few years and see.

Steve Fretzin: If you become a judge, I’m just putting it out here on live air, if you will, that if you become a judge, you’ve got to, you’re going to come back on my show and say, [00:10:00] Steve, you are right. I will eat

Scott Monroe: my word, but I don’t think you’ll see me again in

Steve Fretzin: that. All right. Well, but we said, you’ve said that about it.

I do. I get that. It’s, I’m goofing, but the point is like, yeah. Ultimately, I think people need to find not only what they’re good at doing, but what they’re passionate about and what they, what matters to them, because it’s hard to build a law practice. It’s hard to build a business or really stay in the mix with things if you don’t like what you’re doing, or you don’t believe in it, or you don’t see like how you’re benefiting the world or benefiting your little piece of the world.

Scott Monroe: No, absolutely. I am extremely blessed in the sense that not only am I good at what I do, I love what I, you know, and I have probably an unhealthy work ethic. Somebody once told me I had a work ethic that rivals the Amish, which I take as a huge compliment, but the same with Amish

Steve Fretzin: for the smartphone.

Scott Monroe: Yes.

And But in order to do that, and for me to not get burnt out and work the way that I do, it’s because [00:11:00] I’m passionate. It’s because I love about it. And being able to do what you love is its own reward. You know, it makes for an experience.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah, but Scott, here’s the thing. Here’s the rub. There are a lot of lawyers who work too hard.

The problem is they haven’t figured out how to staff up, how to automate, how to put processes in place. So even if they’re working hard, but they’re not accomplishing The things they actually want to and need to accomplish. So what’s the difference in your take from someone who’s just overworked and just, you know, falling asleep at night and then just going and doing the same grind every day versus someone who’s overworked, but has put things into place so that there is efficiencies and they’re overworked, but they’re also living a great life.

Scott Monroe: No. And honestly, I think that’s one of the things that professionals just in general kind of struggle with. And Lord knows that that was a struggle for me. Be. You know, I went from basically running every single aspect of my practice and building it from the ground up where [00:12:00] literally it was like I was working out of a closet and an office in downtown Jacksonville and doing literally everything I was the F every employee that I had 27 hats.

Well, the thing was, I was kind of forced into it because I’m a stubborn guy and I’m very OCD and I wanted to be the best legal service possible, so I have a hard time trusting other people to do it. I’ve obviously learned how to change my mind on that. Now, the ball that got that rolling was, it was forced upon me.

Yeah, my wife actually was diagnosed with cancer, you know, when I was in my 30s and I was, you know, not even two years into building this practice and, You know, I need help, you know, and that’s the one thing I’ve heard in my career, I think pretending or wanting or thinking that I always have the right answer is a really dangerous idea.

I am as good as the people that I you know, utilize around me. I am as good as the team that I have. You know, there’s nothing wrong. Not only do I think there’s nothing wrong, it’s a great idea to actually stick your head in another train. Cause think about that? [00:13:00] You know, I know I’m not the smartest guy in the room.

I mean, at the end of the day, I’m also know that I don’t know everything. And that’s why I have two best associates. I could find three heads are better than one. But basically what happened is slowly, slowly letting go of things. And then if you build your staff slowly, it gives you time to teach them how to do it.

And it’s like, great. It’s. It’s like a SEAL team. Every single member of a SEAL team knows how to do everybody else’s job. And that’s what I kind of try to do here, but by starting the way I did, I was able to learn everybody else’s job. But at the same time, as I got, you know, tried taking getting a spouse through chemo and all that stuff while, you know, again, having these extremely serious cases where people have a lot on the line.

Burn candle, both ends like that. You can only do it for so long, you know? And what I’ve found is there’s got to be that work life balance to some extent, so I can continue to do my job. And the way that I’ve found it, that’s possible is by finding people, [00:14:00] training them, putting the time, the attention into them in the same time as creating a work environment where you don’t have a lot of turnover.

That’s the thing I see. I see other firms where people were just coming in and out. And I wonder like, golly, how do they do that? How they put all that time over and over.

Steve Fretzin: That is not easy, but I want to step back because, you know, I’m picking up on a lot of things today in this conversation already, as you can tell, one of them is your OCD, your perfectionist, and that at some point you were put in a situation where you had to make some tough decisions and start letting go.

What was one of the first things that you let go of? Because it could be. Finding automation. It could be a personal assistant. It could be, what was it that helped you get out of the, again, wearing 27 hats all at the same time?

Scott Monroe: I’d be honest, the first one and probably the most difficult one was the technology aspect of what we do.

I was at state attorney’s office. I was a prosecutor. I love my paper files. I write everything down on it. I kind [00:15:00] of got dragged into the technological age. So once I started actually getting you know, case management software to stuff like that, where I was able to really make what I do efficient, you know, because I used to draft every single pleading, I’d have a template, I’d do it all from scratch to completely kind of breaking away from my OCD ways and getting to something where I learned something new and I click a button and it does what, you know, used to take me five minutes.

So I would say that was the first step is utilizing and going out and finding all the tools that the industry allows those to offer. And then at the same time, then there’s the staff aspect of it. And that’s what I did. I tried, you know, as far as bringing in a legal assistant, then an associate, and then a paralegal.

And at this point in time, we’ve got Two paralegals, two legal assistants. We’ve got an investigator. We’re the only criminal defense firm that has one. The guy’s a 20 year law enforcement veteran. He’s more OCD than I am. Man, that’s saying something. He and I are constantly on each other to try to dial each [00:16:00] other back.

So, you know, I’m lucky that I have those as resources, but also that’s, I think at the same time as taking a look at your staff in your office is kind of like your work family, you know? And all keeping an eye on each other and figure out when they, when someone’s burnt out and trying to address that and get the time off.

And sometimes my staff is like, okay, you need to go, you need to go, but

Steve Fretzin: but I, Scott, I like what you’re saying, because I think that the thing that solos in real small law firms miss the boat on is. A investing in technology. And I think part of the problem is they’re investing in the software, but they’re not investing in the customization of it.

They’re not investing in the tech, in the training of it for them or their staff or both. And so it’s like, then it’s just the software that’s doing 10 percent or 25 percent or whatever of what it’s supposed to. So I think that’s part of it. And then the second is like recognizing that your value is here and [00:17:00] I’m waving my hand very high.

And then, you know what? There’s people that could be doing copies. There’s people that could be doing email, whatever they’re people that could be doing administrative jobs at 20, 30, 40, whatever an hour in, but lawyers just like to do things themselves. It’s like, I’ll just, it’s just easier for me to do it myself is.

Like the line I’ve heard a thousand times.

Scott Monroe: It’s ego, to be honest, and I’m not pointing the finger at anyone, I’m pointing the finger at myself. When I start doing stuff like that, I’ll be honest, it’s ego. But the fact is, is my time is better spent doing the things that nobody else can do, you know? And there’s staff members out there, but in It’s it’s that investment is the risk versus reward.

You have to put something into it. It’s going to take extra time up front to save a lot of time on the backend. And that’s true for technology too. Sometimes it’s sitting down and learning how to use these things, you know, or going through and watching the tutorials and stuff like that, and being open to being flexible and change, change is something that I have been.

Terrified of [00:18:00] most of my life, but after doing this for over 10 years, I’m actually at the point now where I’m looking for change, what’s going to make things better? How do we make this process better? And what I love about my staff is every like month or so we’ll sit down and say, okay, what’s working.

Here’s the list of the issues or any, you know, isolated little problems we had over this last month. How are we doing this? How can we do better? Floors open for ideas, you know, and that’s great because if the person’s doing that job and I’m not doing it anymore, maybe it’s not a good idea to do it exactly the way that I used to do it.

Maybe there’s a better way, you know, and they’re in that position to be able to do that as well. So, I think, yeah, taking advantage of both of the technology, but maximizing its potential is really important. I

Steve Fretzin: mean, a good analogy would be a doctor, like a top brain surgeon, that is world renowned, is inside the surgical room and making the bed and setting up the bed.

All the equipment and, you know, preparing the room. I mean, [00:19:00] that’s not the best use of that doctor’s time. It could be saving multiple lives. And so lawyers may be selfishly think they can do everything or ego, whatever. But meanwhile, there’s a lot more value you could be offering to your staff, to your clients, into the world.

If you learn to delegate and start taking things off your plate and pushing it onto people who are probably happier doing it than you are anyway.

Scott Monroe: Yeah. And I’ll be honest. There’s so many, especially in my field of practice, there’s so many people that are solo practitioners. And even if they just brought on one or two more people and just put the time into training, their lives would be so much better.

In my opinion, like for me, it was, I couldn’t go on vacation without, you know, literally having to get in the car and drive to someplace that I had cell reception, just cause I was terrified that maybe I missed something, you know, to now my wife and I can go travel. We can take time, you know, and that’s been something that’s really important to her and she drags me along to do it because sometimes you have to physically remove me from Florida in order for me to actually [00:20:00] detach and get some time down.

But I’m able to do that now without being terrified, without having to worry because of all the, you know, all the processes that we have in place, all the technological advances and the staff and the team that I’ve got, you know, they’re invaluable. They have. This is the happiest that I have been practicing law ever, you know, and most of the times I think people burn out and get worse over time.

For me, it’s never been better.

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I wanna give a shout out to three folks that have been on the show that. Can help you if you’re not ready for full time person yet or someone locally and you’re, you’ve just got a list of things. I mean, you’ve got shift 6 OS doing virtual VA, you know, marketing and admin. You’ve got virtual stunt and you’ve got get staffed up who I, who I’ve been using.

I’ve been using these guys for years and use a virtual stunt as well. And it’s a game changer because, you know, for pennies on the dollar, if you will, you’ve got someone who has a lot of experience in a particular area that you need and then you’re delegating and it’s like, Oh my God, 10 hours a [00:22:00] week.

What does that mean? 10 hours a week to someone who’s, you know, working 50 or 60. I mean, it’s the ability to breathe and see your kids or take a trip or whatever it might be. So let me ask, I’ve got one or two more questions for you. I mean, when you think about what are the top efficiency or profitability drivers.

Thank you. You’ve instituted, what would you say are at the top of the heap?

Scott Monroe: Honestly, for me, I think the marketing approach that I take is very different. Police ways, putting tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially as like a solo practitioner or something like that into advertising.

I think it’s terrifying for most people, you know, but I think if you work hard and you know what you’re doing for me personally, I’ve never been afraid to bet on myself. I would say probably one of the best things that I ever did was really fully going into the marketing aspect of it and putting myself out there.

So, you know, because you can’t learn about someone you can’t find. [00:23:00] You know, and it’s hard to get educated on someone that you can’t see what other people have to say about them. So I think that’s been a big way of me being able to grow my practice, but in the same time is quality over quantity. Yeah, but, but

Steve Fretzin: Scott, I’m going to stop you because I need you to get a little more specific.

So you’re saying you have a unique marketing approach or something that you did in marketing. And I don’t know if you have a, it’s a secret, you don’t want to give out, but like, what’s the gist of like, what, cause you can. Spend it, like you said, a ton of money, millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or as we’ve talked about in the show now hundreds of times, there’s a lot of, there’s time you can invest in networking and you can do social media.

Like what are the things that you’re doing to drive up business then that you be willing to share?

Scott Monroe: Well, so what I’ve noticed is for a civil attorney, especially transactional on stuff like that, the, that referral network is so important for them. And I would say historically. That has been what most attorneys put a lot of their time and effort into, [00:24:00] by going to bar functions or getting involved in local, you know, bar administrations, things along those lines, and that, that whole network, whether you want to get involved in rotary and stuff like that.

My area of practice is a little bit different, you know, I’m not like a personal injury firm where, you know, You put up billboards everywhere in the state of Florida. And when you get in an accident, you’ve seen that over and over and over again. It’s been burned in your mind. No one really does that for criminal defense.

Yeah. You get arrested. It’s time sensitive. You’re looking for seller. What you’re doing is you’re picking up your phone, you’re picking up your phone and you’re Googling that’s criminal defense attorney. Jacksonville, Florida. And then it pops up and there’s so many different ways to be able to actually reach that prospective client.

You know, Google has what’s called local service ad. Then you have pay per click. You have SEO, which is that a search engine optimization, which is your website organically popping up. And then at the same time, map ads, stuff like that. And so by investing in [00:25:00] all of those things is really in my area of practice is extremely helpful because it’s that immediate.

Relief for your immediate need. And it’s that putting you out there, you know, because again, never been afraid to bet on myself, but the same time is you’re not going to have a clue who I am unless I invest the time and the energy into putting that stuff out there and giving my clients an opportunity to let people know how good me or my team or my associates and our services are.

So that’s kind of one of the things is instead of just dibble dabbling in it, you know, we do, we, we advertise a lot. And the reason is, is we let people see who we are. It’s not, we’re paying someone to give us a good review. We’ve got great reviews, but no one’s going to really read them unless you put them in front of them.

So that’s kind of, for me, is in, in this type of practice. You know, I think that the online advertising and doing the local service ads and PPC and, you know, becoming like Martindale, a, [00:26:00] a B preeminent rating and super large and all that stuff is extremely important.

Steve Fretzin: The other side of it though, Scott is the.

Business development, you got marketing and business development, and they work really well together, but I work with a lot of plaintiff side attorneys, and one of the main things that I, because I’m not doing pay per click, and I’m not doing SEO, and they want to spend that money great and go do it, and I, you know, my blessing.

However, there’s others that, you know, maybe at the same time or separately. Realize that personal injury attorneys and employment attorneys and folks on the plaintiff’s side, like that’s the first call I’m going to make. So I’m not going to Google and try to find someone for something that could put me away for five years or whatever.

I would rather call my estate planning attorney or my real estate attorney or your dad or whatever and say, Hey, you know what? I’m in a bind or my teenagers in a bind to get pulled over again or whatever, like in that. And so I think there’s, there’s the marketing side and then there’s the relationship side.

And I that’s Another avenue that do you play that side as hard as you play the marketing side?

Scott Monroe: Please play not as [00:27:00] much as I would say like personal injury attorneys or transactional attorneys But 100 you’re right. Take advantage of every You know source of reputation that you can get right and criminal defense will overlap so much stuff Like it doesn’t discriminate.

It’s like from yale to jail you get You get it There, anybody can get a DUI, you know, but no, being able to have those relationships. And one of the ways that I do is getting vault and rotor. I love that one because it’s something that allows me to put a lot to my community. It’s not based solely on network, you know?

And so, but, you know, Jacksonville is a big small town. We all kind of know each other. And over the years, take advantage of the relationships that you can get. Like the most common fall that I get is someone’s got a family law issue. You know, and so I’ve gone out and tried to get to know family law attorneys because I want my clients to have the best representation possible, and I need to know where to send them.

So I get to know these people. I spend time with them, you know, and we’re able to chalk up ideas and stuff like that. And the great thing about being a [00:28:00] criminal defense attorney is I’m in the courtroom. I mean, dang, you know, so if you’re ever in the courthouse, I’m probably going to see it. So I had a good ability to get to meet new people almost on a daily basis.

Not a lot of working

Steve Fretzin: done in the courthouse. Yeah, that was my dad’s a former lawyer. And that was his jam, just the whore, you know, and everybody, even his opponents, you know, they wanted to refer him because they knew he was the competent guy that they could send stuff to and look good. Hey man, as we wrap up, let’s talk a little bit about this game changing podcast.

Now this one I’ve never heard of before. What’s it be that lawyer. Is that what that is?

Scott Monroe: Yes, it is. It’s interesting. So I found this podcast and you have so many episodes and the range of topics was mind boggling to me and you get the, you just get such a great guest on here and I’ll be honest, I’m extremely honored that I get to be one of them because the bar is set really, really high.

But what I love about it, I mean, you’ve got like 60, 80 pages of episodes. I lost count of how many. It’s great. It covers so many different aspects and so [00:29:00] many different angles and, and again, like, you know, three heads are better than one. Why not take 500 heads? You know? Yeah. I, yeah, I love this show. I’m a huge fan of it.

And frankly, you know, I think anybody that watches it will benefit from it. I know. I,

Steve Fretzin: yeah. So again, you can listen on all the platforms like you are now, but also if you’ve never seen it on YouTube, go to YouTube, type in my name, go on YouTube and you can find all the podcasts. There. And also we’re doing broadcasts.

So we’re taking this, these transcripts from these interviews, we’re truncating them down to You know, like 750 words of all the highlights. And then we’re putting that out as an article. So lots of different ways to get your, be that lawyer, everybody. Hey, as we wrap up, I want to thank our wonderful sponsors Rankings IO.

They’re doing a lot of work to your point with the, you know, the, the marketing, pay per click SEO and stuff for mostly personal injury firms. But if you’re interested in taking things next level people, that’s the one to go to. And of course, LawHer podcast and Sonia. Did a great job on this show and I’m going to be at her show and ultimately, you know, check out that [00:30:00] podcast.

It’s terrific. And especially if you’re a woman looking to hear from some of the best and brightest women in legal. Scott, if people want to get in touch with you, they want to network with you or just learn more about your firm what are the best ways for them to reach you?

Scott Monroe: If you just Google Scott Monroe attorney.

So our website is www Monroe wall. com. And you know what? I’ll even give you my cell phone. You have any questions you ever got? 904 891 7362. So you can give me a call anytime. I love speaking with colleagues, you know, and I love talking to other people. And. Yeah. I’m sure my staff’s not always that happy, but the people who call me about other areas of law, and I just enjoy helping people like there’s a lot of times I’ll get on the phone and I can’t help it.

I take the bait. I’m like, let’s go through this. This is what You should go over, talk to this person and yeah, you get off the phone and you’re like, right. I’ve done my good deed for the day. Well, you

Steve Fretzin: know, part of it to your point earlier is like being of service. It’s not just for clients anymore, right?

Being of services for your colleagues, it’s for your friends, it’s for any, anything you, if you, [00:31:00] if people learning anything from this show. It should be the value of relationships and the value of being a giver and being open to helping others. That’s a theme that I’ve been, you know, harping on for over 20 years and it’s how I’ve built my business.

It’s how my clients are building their businesses and it seems right in line with what you’re doing every day, Scott. So I want to thank you for being on the show and then adding your name to our roster of awesome attorneys. So I much appreciate you being here and looking forward to, you know, promoting this when it comes out with you and, and making sure people get to check this out and learn all about the way that you’re doing things.

Scott Monroe: Well, it was an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. It was a blast.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. All right, man. Very good. And thank you everybody for spending time with Scott and I today on the, be that lawyer with Fretzin podcast. We’re here for your pleasure to help you be that lawyer, confident, organized, and a skilled rainmaker.

Take care of be safe. Be well, we’ll talk again soon.

Narrator: Thanks for listening to Be That Lawyer. Life changing strategies and resources for growing a [00:32:00] successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website Fretzin. com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode, check out today’s show notes.