active clients
Growth audit + operating planLos Angeles, California
Growth is available.
Proof comes first.
Stenson Law appears to close about half of its qualified leads. The next move is simple: connect every source to every signed case, protect the intake path, and focus on the few channels that can move a 40-case practice.
John W. StensonCalifornia Bar #255120
DecisionHOLD
The short version
Build around referrals, local intent, reviews, and one measurable intake path.
Do not scale paid media yet. First prove who called, who answered, which matters signed, what they earned, and whether the team can absorb more. Then add one paid-intent channel—not ten experiments.
good leads / month
signed / month
Google rating · 35 reviews
Leave with five answers.
The CSV can wait.
The meeting is for getting the operating truth into John's own words. Do not debate his instincts in the room; turn them into hypotheses that the records can confirm later.
Where the ten good leads roughly come from.
What a signed matter is worth, even approximately.
Whether ten signed matters is possible or five is the ceiling.
Who John actually loses wanted matters to.
Whether Filevine and RingCentral exports are coming.
45-minute arcLet him talk.
Let him talk.
Then show the machine.
Website work is one organic component—not the whole engagement.
- 00–05FrameYou know the math.
Ten good leads, roughly five signed, roughly 40 active—and the missing source-to-fee link.
- 05–20ListenSources, fee, capacity, losses.
Use the exact questions below. Follow the answer; do not force your preferred channel story.
- 20–30ShowSurfaces → capture → roster.
Walk through the growth machine and the minimum pull-list.
- 30–40PlaceWebsite and VS in context.
They support local intent and trust. They are not the full growth plan.
- 40–45CloseDefine the 90-day win.
Name who approves Filevine source fields and who grants site and account access.
Get him to say it
Ten questions for the room
- 01
Where do the ten good leads come from, roughly—Google, lawyers, doctors, past clients, ads, or “I don’t know”?
- 02
What is the average fee per case, even as a range?
- 03
Can the shop handle ten signed matters a month, or is five the ceiling?
- 04
Which cases do you want, and which do you actually take? Does burn belong on the site?
- 05
Who do you hate losing a wanted case to?
- 06
Do you speak Spanish, and do you want Spanish-language matters?
- 07
Is Flower Street a client office people can visit, or a virtual suite?
- 08
Who owns the site, ads, Google profile, and Filevine admin access?
- 09
Do you already spend on ads, LSA, an agency, or another marketer?
- 10
Do you pay or receive lawyer-to-lawyer referral fees, and how are they documented?
Before you sit down
Bring three exhibits
- 01
Call (888) 508-6806. Record time to AI and time to a human. Do not infer the whole intake system from one test.
- 02
Open the Google profile. Note review count, latest review date, categories, and whether LSA appears.
- 03
Bring site facts. Two phone numbers, Las Vegas residue, and thin money pages—stated without a roast.
Do not promise
Keep the pitch honest
- Beating Morgan & Morgan for its own name.
- Twenty good leads before fee and capacity are known.
- Eighty-eight city pages or a donut route as the strategy.
- Anything resembling payment to doctors for cases.
Conversation landmines
Protect the relationship without surrendering the audit.
- 01
If John says networking is the engine and Google is “just some,” write it down. Let Filevine settle it later; do not argue in minute five.
- 02
If the AI operator is his baby, audit its qualification, handoff, Spanish, and failure path. Do not make killing it part of the pitch.
- 03
Ask whether he is comfortable with public comparison pages. If not, skip Morgan & Morgan and use lawyer-versus-insurance only.
Walk out with
Source mix · fee range · capacity · competitor names · export commitment
If those five are still unavailable, this is a useful conversation—not yet a measurable engagement.Five surfaces can grow this firm.
One system must catch them.
For a 40-case practice, volume is most likely to move through other lawyers, local Google intent, a repeatable medical and body-shop route, past clients, and—only after the math is known—one paid-intent channel.
Build nowOther lawyers
Conflict-outs and trusted professional referrals.
Own locallyGBP + LSA
Capture people already looking for counsel.
SystemizeMedical + auto route
The same 20 offices, visited every week.
ReactivateClients + reviews
The highest-trust channel is already in the firm.
GateOne paid-intent test
Only after fees, capacity, and attribution are visible.
Channel mapOpen a surface for the details.
Open a surface for the details.
Keep the operating plan small.
Every activity below must have a named source in Filevine. If it cannot be tracked to a good lead, signed matter, and fee, it is an activity—not yet a channel.
01Already needs a PI lawyerIn-market capture+
Physical Office walk-ins, front desk, after-hours answering, and patient-requested hospital consults.
Digital Google Business Profile and Maps, LSA, lawyer-intent search, near-me and city × injury pages, branded search, click-to-call, form, chat, AI operator, missed-call text-back, Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Yelp, Apple Maps, and Bing Places.
Action: make every number and form carry a source into Filevine.02Trusted handoff after an incidentProfessional referral+
Legal PI conflict-outs, criminal defense, workers’ comp, immigration, family, bankruptcy, and employment lawyers.
Medical + auto Chiropractors, orthopedics, PT, pain, urgent care, imaging, dental/TMJ, billing advocates, body shops, tow, glass, rental, dealer service, motorcycle, and bike shops. Veterinarians belong only where a real dog-bite relationship exists.
Digital support Partner pages, office websites, email panels, co-marketing one-pagers, and source-specific QR codes.
Action: run the same 20-office route weekly. Log “Dr. X” or the exact partner—not “donut.”03Known before the need existsCommunity presence+
In person Chambers, faith and ethnic organizations, youth sports, unions, driver lots, trucking yards, neighborhood councils, festivals, nonprofit boards, lawyer mixers, alumni, and gyms.
Leave-behinds Cards, one-pagers, sponsor banners, and car magnets. Wraps, billboards, and benches are usually too expensive at the current case volume.
Digital Facebook groups, Nextdoor, committed Instagram/TikTok, two or three YouTube case topics, Spanish media, local news, and a past-client referral email.
Action: choose one community where John will show up consistently. Never direct-message accident victims.04Highest trust, most ignoredPast clients + personal network+
Personal Close every case with a thank-you, review request, holiday-card permission, and a direct invitation to call when someone they know is injured.
Digital Permissioned SMS or email to the closed roster, Google review plus profile photo, a Filevine portal ask, and LinkedIn for lawyer-to-lawyer relationships.
Action: make the closed-case referral and review ask a Filevine task, not a memory.05Bought attentionPaid interrupt+
Best first test One tightly scoped Google Ads or LSA campaign, optionally Spanish-language search, with its own tracking number and landing page.
Later Retargeting, YouTube pre-roll, Waze/Maps, or streaming audio only if the first intent channel produces profitable signed matters.
Usually wrong now Broad Meta, TV, radio, billboards, and bus benches. Those are scale channels for firms with different economics.
Gate: no launch until maximum acquisition cost and spare case capacity are known.SurfacesPhysical + digital
→
CaptureRingCentral + AI
→
TruthFilevine source
→
ConversionGood → signed
→
OutcomeFees + referrals
Leak 1: missed, junk, or slow inquiries. Leak 2: qualified leads not signed. Reviews and referrals feed the first step again.
Good leads10
per month · given
Signed cases5
per month · modeled
Active roster40
clients · given
No dollar acquisition ceiling can be set.
of average fee, only after margin and time-to-fee are verified.
More leads can lower service quality if the roster is already full.
Only defensible growth math
At a 50% close rate, moving from five to ten signed cases requires about ten additional good leads per month. The other five good leads that do not sign are the first conversion opportunity to inspect.
Every channel dies
when capture breaks.
RingCentral, the AI operator, tracking numbers, Filevine, and review follow-up are not lead generation. They are the plumbing that keeps every lead source from leaking.
DemandReferrals
Google
Community
→
Community
AttributionCallRailinstalled
?
ResponseRingCentral
AI / human
?
AI / human
Case recordFilevine
?
OutcomeSigned
Fee
Fee
RingCentral
DailyDid a human answer?
Track answer rate, speed, missed calls, voicemail, after-hours coverage, and callback time.
AI operator
AuditWhat does it keep or drop?
Document qualification, escalation, Spanish handling, transcripts, failure paths, and the human owner.
Filevine
RequiredRequire the exact source.
Every inquiry needs a normalized source, referral name, case type, status, signed outcome, and eventual fee.
Tracking numbers
MapGive each surface an identity.
Separate GBP, ads, website, lawyer panels, partner pages, and referral leave-behinds.
Google reviews
WeeklyClose the loop.
Track review requests, new reviews, profile photos, and referral asks after a case closes.
Phone identity
Fix nowTwo public numbers compete.
The 888 number appears on Google and the Bar profile. The 310 number remains across contact and content pages.
Coverage promise
Measure“24/7” conflicts with 5 PM hours.
Google shows weekday closing at 5 PM. The site also claims a 24/7 phone. The actual after-hours owner is unknown.
Website conversion
RepairMost pages have no embedded intake.
Six of 55 crawl rows contain a form; 49 do not. Most practice pages force a call or a page change.
Qualification
Define“Good lead” has no written rule.
The 50% close rate is useful only if every intake person and system applies the same qualification standard.
Reputation is an asset.
The public system is noisy.
Stenson has real trust signals. Conflicting facts and a weak site make that trust harder to convert.
35 Google reviews on the direct profile.
The website, Google, and Birdeye disagree.
Absent from the visible ads, local results, and first-page organic results in one dated DTLA query.
17.6-second largest-content paint in the August 19 Lighthouse run.
Theme junk, placeholder copy, duplicate paths, and conflicting identity facts remain.
Local Services Ads, search spend, disputes, and signed-case economics were not available.
Local review pressure
Stenson does not need the most reviews. It needs a current, coherent profile.
Point-in-time Google observation, August 27, 2026. Review counts change.
Raw review counts are not a quality score. They show the scale of the local visibility gap.
Position to protect now
The named attorney who communicates, explains, and personally fights.
Recent review language supports responsiveness, clarity, care, and favorable outcomes. “The People’s Champ” can become a distinctive line only after counsel approves the evidence and usage.
Five moves.
In this order.
Connect the evidence, protect the response path, build the highest-trust channels, repair local capture, then test paid demand only if the economics clear the gate.
-
01One source-to-fee record
Connect the funnel.
Join CallRail, RingCentral, the AI operator, and Filevine with a durable lead ID and required source, case type, disposition, signed status, and fee.
-
02Intake + public identity
Stop the avoidable leaks.
Measure calls, name the after-hours owner, define a good lead, resolve the 888 versus 310 conflict, and make the website and Google profile agree.
-
03Referral engine
Run the same route every week.
Start with conflict-out lawyers and a tight medical plus body-shop list. Use 20 named relationships, a repeatable route, useful one-pagers, and exact Filevine source tags.
-
04Local capture
Repair GBP and the five core pages.
Fix the profile, reviews, NAP, click-to-call, schema, and tracked intake. Rewrite home, contact, about, personal injury, and car accident before adding more pages.
-
05Controlled growth test
Choose one market and one paid-intent channel.
Select a corridor × case type from signed volume, median fee, close rate, time to fee, capacity burden, and source availability. Test LSA or search only after the acquisition ceiling is known.
90-day publishing sequenceBuild the pages that sell.
Build the pages that sell.
Skip the content mill.
Every URL must support a money page, a measurable query, or a real client decision.
- Weeks 1–2Foundation
Rewrite home, contact, about, car accident, and the personal-injury hub. Fix NAP, tracking, click-to-call, schema, template leftovers, and Google profile categories.
- Weeks 3–6Missing money pages
Publish pedestrian, motorcycle, dog bite, UM/hit-and-run, Uber/Lyft, and a premises rewrite—one useful page at a time.
- Weeks 7–9Decision + comparison pages
Start with Stenson vs Morgan & Morgan, local vs national, lawyer vs insurer, and “Do I need a lawyer?” Add local competitor pages only when Filevine proves the firms involved.
- Weeks 10–12California guides + two corridors
Publish statute of limitations, settlement ranges with caveats, UM claims, and dog-bite law. Add no more than two supported corridor pages.
- OngoingTwo URLs per month
Link each guide and comparison page into its money page. Measure Search Console impressions, qualified calls, and signed cases. Cut pages that attract attention but no action.
Build / rebuild site mapA small site with a job
A small site with a job
for every page.
Open each group for the approved page set and guardrails.
01Launch firstCore trust + intake+
Home · Contact / free consult · About + John bio · Team · Reviews · Case results with California disclaimers · FAQ · Privacy · Disclaimer · Sitemap.
Contact must support click-to-call, a short form, after-hours expectations, and a Spanish path.02One URL eachMoney practice areas+
Personal injury hub · Car · Truck · Motorcycle · Pedestrian · Bicycle · Uber/Lyft · Hit-and-run / UM/UIM · Premises · Dog bite · Wrongful death.
Use unique proof, local facts, FAQs, and one tracked consult path. Add a rear-end child page only if John wants those matters. Rebuild or remove burn injuries unless Filevine shows real volume.03Real service areas onlyCorridors + Spanish+
Downtown / 90071, Long Beach, San Fernando Valley, Pasadena, East LA / SGV, and South Bay—with real crash, court, and service detail.
Start Spanish with `/es/`, personal injury, car accident, and contact. Do not machine-translate the full site.04Facts, not fightsComparisons + guides+
Local vs national · Stenson vs Morgan & Morgan · Lawyer vs insurer · Settlement vs lawsuit · Chiropractor vs lawyer · Do I need a lawyer?
California accident steps · two-year deadline · settlement ranges · medical bills · UM claims · hit-and-run · dog bite §3342 · contingency fees · LA case timing.
Local candidates to confirm from lost-lead notes: Panish Shea, Wilshire Law, The Dominguez Firm, Jacoby & Meyers, Citywide, and Dordick. Build only the three to five that actually appear.
No fake verdicts or trash-talk. Comparison tables explain who does what and end with “Talk to Stenson.” Add a results library, short videos for home/bio/money pages, and one resources index for the approved guides.05Keep the site cleanDo not build+
No 88-city doorway network. No spun “what to do” articles. No machine-translated English duplicates. No comparison pages against every TV firm. No 200-post blog mill.
Car-accident child pages exist only for case types John actually takes. Every extra page must earn its place.Run the firm from one page.
These numbers make growth visible without hiding the work behind a blended “lead” count.
| Metric | Exact definition | System | Current |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed to lead | Median and 90th-percentile minutes to first human response, split by hours. | RingCentral + AI | Unknown |
| Raw inquiries | Every unique person contacting the firm before qualification. | CallRail + forms | Unknown |
| Good leads | Inquiries meeting one written qualification rule. | Filevine | ~10 / month |
| Booked consults | Qualified leads with a scheduled consultation. | Filevine | Unknown |
| Signed cases | New matters with an executed retainer. | Filevine | ~5 / month |
| Fee per signed | Average and median realized fee, split by case type. | Filevine + finance | Unknown |
| Acquisition cost | Channel spend divided by signed cases and good leads. | Ads + Filevine | Unknown |
| Unknown source rate | Raw inquiries with no normalized source divided by all inquiries. | Filevine | Unknown |
On smaller screens, scroll the table horizontally.
Capacity guard
Add active matters per case manager and matters entering versus exiting each week. More signed cases are not growth if response quality or case progress falls.
The diagnosis now has a working answer.
A day after this audit, a full brand and site system went live on the staging domain. Both sites were then measured with the identical Lighthouse mobile test on August 28, 2026.
18.8-second largest paint and 2,770 ms of blocked time in the August 28 re-run — slightly worse than August 19.
2.9-second largest paint and zero blocking time. Same tool, same throttling, same day.
The current site ships console errors and legacy code; the new build passes best-practices clean. Accessibility 89 → 96.
Brand guide with a living UI kit, the walk homepage, real review excerpts, sample cases, and a working consult flow — staged on the demo domain.
The first article ships in English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese with a switcher. Native-speaker review is the only remaining gate.
The consult form is built and validates, but nothing receives it yet. One endpoint plus a thank-you page turns the demo into a working intake channel.
The demo's SEO score reads 63 only because staging is deliberately hidden from search engines. All numbers: Lighthouse mobile, simulated throttling, August 28, 2026.
Decisions the build surfaced
Four open questions from this audit now have answers on the table.
Each is staged as working material behind the written gates — nothing publishes without the listed approval.
01The champ line has a source
“He truly is the people's champ” is a client's own public Google review (Terrell Maclin), not invented copy. With his permission and a counsel glance, the positioning is earned — not claimed.
02One phone number
Public surfaces show (888) 508-6806 and (310) 846-1709; the demo uses a placeholder. Pick one canonical tracked line before anything is printed — the approved business card already carries the 888 number.
03Comparison content works
The Sweet James comparison article is the template: public numbers, named sources, a fairness block, and counsel review before it goes near the real domain.
04The gates hold
No testimonial without permission, no result without verification, no comparison without counsel, no indexing until launch. Written into the brand guide and the site plan.
Four items start the audit.
Do not wait for a perfect data room. Begin with identity, a 90-day Filevine lead export, RingCentral answered/missed calls, and average fee. Everything else can follow.
01Identity
Legal name, DBA, address, service area, attorneys, languages, Google profile, and every phone number.
02Filevine · 90 days
Every lead with date, source, case type, status, signed outcome, and decline or loss reason.
03RingCentral · 90 days
Inbound calls split into answered, missed, voicemail, after-hours, and answer time.
04Average fee
Average and median realized fee—or settlement × contingency—by case type.
Complete owner checklistOpen a group. Send what exists.
Open a group. Send what exists.
Unknown is an acceptable answer.
Requested from John. Last 12 months unless a shorter window is noted.
01Who and whereIdentity+
- Firm legal name, DBA, website, office address or addresses, and service area.
- Attorney names, bar numbers, and languages actually spoken.
- Google Business Profile URL and owner/admin access.
- Every number that can ring: main, mobile, tracking, Google profile, and ads.
0290 days + 12 monthsFilevine+
- Every lead/project: date in, source, referral source, campaign, case type, and status—good, junk, signed, declined, referred out, or lost.
- Signed matters: sign date, case type, stage, projected or actual fee, open or closed, and referred-in-from.
- Current roster of about 40 active matters with case type and stage.
- The current definition of “good lead.”
- A screenshot of intake and source fields showing what is blank.
03Last 90 days + current setupRingCentral + AI operator+
- Inbound call log: answered, missed, voicemail, after-hours, answer time, and callback.
- Coverage hours, who answers, and what the AI actually does—including settings or transcripts.
- After-hours and weekend path, with the named human owner.
- Spanish coverage: yes or no, human or AI.
- Main greeting and AI script recording.
04What a signed case is worthEconomics + capacity+
- Average and median realized fee—or settlement × contingency—by case type.
- Contingency percentage, typical costs, and time to fee.
- Case types or conditions John will not take.
- Ad, LSA, and agency spend by channel.
- Whether the team can handle ten signed matters per month or about five is the ceiling.
05Access or exportsDigital accounts+
- Google Ads and Google Local Services Ads.
- Google Analytics, Search Console, and Tag Manager.
- Call tracking such as CallRail and each number-to-surface map.
- Website CMS or full URL map, plus domain, host, and chat vendor.
- Google, Yelp, Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, social, and YouTube profiles—even if inactive.
06Named people and materialsReferral + physical assets+
- Every lawyer, medical office, shop, or past client John can name—and whether each sent a matter in the last year.
- Any existing drop route or office list.
- Business card, one-pager, retainer, and intake form PDFs.
- Sponsor, chamber, faith, community, and event lists.
- Car magnets, billboards, or radio: what exists and what it costs.
07Ownership and handoffsOperations+
- Staff list showing who handles intake and who handles casework.
- What is connected versus manual across Filevine, RingCentral, the AI operator, and call tracking.
- Current marketing vendor or agency and exactly which accounts, data, and work they own.
Join key
One durable lead ID
The same ID must survive from call, form, chat, or referral through qualification, retainer, matter, fee, and review.
Source rule
Name the real surface
Use “Dr. X,” “Attorney Y,” “Google profile,” “LSA,” or the exact page and campaign. “Internet,” “referral,” and “donut” are not actionable sources.
Audit output
Profit and capacity by channel
For each source: raw inquiries, good leads, signed matters, fee, time to fee, acquisition cost, response performance, and workload burden.
Ethics + claims guardrailBuild relationships.
Build relationships.
Do not buy people.
Current public claims still need counsel review. The growth plan also draws a hard line between legitimate presence and prohibited solicitation or capping.
- No accident-scene, hospital-room, or tow-yard chasing; hospital consults are patient-requested only.
- No paying doctors, shops, runners, or anyone else per case.
- Avoid lead sellers that spam crash victims or cannot prove consent and source.
- No victim DMs in community groups. Use permissioned reviews without guarantees.
- Substantiate “millions,” “leading,” “top rated,” experience, and specialization claims—or remove them.
Public sources
Every conclusion stays tied to evidence.
Observed August 2026 unless noted.
S01
Stenson Law websiteIdentity, content, contact, technology
↗
S02California Bar profileLicense, office, phone, domain
↗
S03Google business profileRating, reviews, hours, address
↗
S04Birdeye profileConflicting review aggregation
↗
S05California advertising rulesCommunications, advertising, solicitation
↗
S06Dated Google queryAds, local results, organic competitors
↗