Starting Your LNC Business: 5 Things Every LNC Needs to Know

A business woman looking at her computerA newly minted legal nurse consultant, let’s call her Denise, spent her first three months sending emails to attorneys. She sent about 200 and got two replies. One said “not interested.” The other asked to be removed from her list.

Denise had strong clinical skills and real enthusiasm. What she lacked was a clear picture of how this business works. Most of the mistakes I see LNCs make in their first year come down to the five points below.

I’m not holding back in this post. These are tried and true strategies for starting your LNC business.

  1. Get an LNC education first after gaining clinical experience

Legal nurse consulting is not the field for the new graduate RN. A solid foundation of at least 5 years of clinical experience is critical for understanding the way health care works.

Nursing experience is your foundation, but it doesn’t teach you how to analyze records for litigation, write a report an attorney can use, or understand how a case moves through the legal system. Those are separate skills, and attorneys can tell when you don’t understand how the legal system works.

Formal LNC education gives you the vocabulary and the confidence to talk with attorneys as a peer, which you will use when starting your LNC business and growing it over time. AALNC.org offers a flexible online program, so you can learn while you keep working and don’t have to put your life on hold. (I was the chief editor of the first version of this course in 2005.) Start there, then build your business on solid ground.

  1. There is only one certification for LNCs

This one causes a lot of confusion. The only certification for legal nurse consultants is offered by AALNC, and it’s designed for experienced LNCs. As AALNC says, it is not intended to define who may enter or practice in the field. Instead, it serves to promote excellence and professionalism by recognizing individuals who demonstrate a validated level of knowledge and competency in the specialty.

It’s something you work toward, not something you buy in a weekend. You need to meet the criteria to sit for the exam: 2000 hours of LNC work in the preceding 5 years. This is not an entry level certification and is equivalent to every other nursing certification for specialty areas of nursing accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification.

This is a critical distinction. The exam is soundly built, tested, and validated.

Many other LNC education programs market themselves as “certification.” They’re certificates. A certificate shows you completed a course, which has value, but it isn’t the same as certification.

Before starting your LNC business, before you enroll in anything, ask who grants the credential and what the requirements are. When you list credentials on your website or business card, describe them accurately. Attorneys notice, and your credibility depends on it.

Be aware that some certificate programs resist being accurately characterized as offering certificates versus certification. I was banned from Reddit’s LNC community for publishing the truth about this.

  1. Choose your coach carefully

Coaching can shorten your learning curve. It can also cost you time and money if you choose the wrong person.

Some LNCs have started offering coaching without much experience in the field themselves. I personally know two who set themselves up as LNC business coaches and neither has built a successful independent business.

Before you hire anyone, ask direct questions:

  • How long have you worked as an LNC?
  • What kinds of attorneys have you worked with?
  • How did you build your own business, and what results did it produce?
  • Can you describe clients you’ve helped and what happened?

Then look at how the coach presents themselves.

  • Is their website professional?
  • Are their materials well written?
  • Do they communicate clearly?
  • Is she dressed professionally or does she post videos and images of her cleavage, making you wonder what she is selling?

A coach who is teaching you to look credible to attorneys should look credible themselves. Look into the coach’s reputation. Ask other LNCs if they’ve heard of this person and what they know about them.

  1. Cold calling and cold emailing are irritating attorneys

Back to Denise. Her 200 emails weren’t the problem in themselves. The problem was that they were generic messages sent to strangers, and attorneys are being bombarded by LNCs, getting as many as 100 emails a day.

Many attorneys are complaining that persistent unsolicited calls and mass emails annoy them. Some are getting calls on their personal cell phone, and at night when they are with their family. Think of how you’d react. Do you like getting cold calls that occupy or interrupt your time?

When starting your LNC business, consider how attorneys respond to relationships, relevance, and referrals.

  • Show up where they already are: conferences, bar association events, and professional groups.
  • Write articles for social media that address problems they actually have.
  • Ask colleagues to introduce you.
  • Give them a reason to know who you are before you ask for work.

  1. Persistence and variety win

There’s no single marketing method that brings in a steady flow of cases after starting your LNC business. Some LNCs try one thing for a few weeks or months, don’t get results, and decide the business won’t work.

What works is a mix of methods, kept up over time. That might include:

  • Networking at attorney conferences and local events
  • Participating in AALNC’s virtual chapters
  • Showing your knowledge by writing and speaking
  • Updating a professional website and LinkedIn presence
  • Following up with attorneys you’ve already met
  • Asking satisfied clients for referrals

Most new LNCs don’t get a case after one contact. Attorneys often need to see your name several times, in several places, before they think of you when a case arrives. That takes patience, but it’s how the business grows.

Where to start

If you’re at the beginning, take these steps in order: get educated, understand what credentials mean, choose guidance carefully, market in a way attorneys welcome, and commit to steady effort. Each step builds on the one before it.

Interested in finding out if coaching with us is right for you? Use this link to book a call. 

Pat Iyer caricaturePat Iyer MSN RN LNCC is president of The Pat Iyer Group. She has almost forty years of experience developing resources to assist LNCs in obtaining more clients, making more money, and achieving their business goals and dreams.

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