
Why This Stand-Up-Turned-Attorney Ditched Politeness for Personal Branding—and Scaled a Firm Faster Than the Competition Could Blink
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Lee Rudin
We want to limit what you can bring in, and we want to change the financial structure of the deal. And I said, I can't. I can't do either of those things. It was your deal. I just saw the opportunity and took it.
Chris Dreyer
Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind. Let's get into it. Stand your ground. Think big, move faster. Build a law firm that refuses to be ignored. In other words, get rude. At Rudin Law, polite gets you nowhere. Today on Personal Injury Mastermind, Lee shares how creativity, systems, and grit can help you outpace even the biggest players without burning cash. I'm Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings IO. If you're ready to grow smarter, louder, and on your own terms, this episode is for you. Let's go.
Lee Rudin
We had our best month in terms of generating new files in March of 2025.
Chris Dreyer
Let's go.
Lee Rudin
Yeah, we're not an old firm, just about two years, but, man, if we can keep the pacing that we're on, we're gonna have different kinds of problems and need to staff up pretty quickly. But I'm really happy about it.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, that's pumped. That's pumped. Just so I got. I got to dig just a little bit on that before we take a step back. Was it a marketing change, a positioning change, or was this kind of compound and doing what works and.
Lee Rudin
Well, I think what I've come to learn in my short time being exclusively devoted to PI work is that, you know, unless you're a behemoth and you've got so many marketing channels going, with such volume of money pumped in, you may. You kind of have to diversify because you don't know what's going to work. So at the moment, you know, we. We have some meta ads running that are unique to us. We've got, you know, SEO and more traditional digital lead gen through LSA and ppc. We've got some partnerships with some national groups. So amongst those, plus the organic referral network that we have, I think that's what leads to, you know, a banner month. And if you keep plugging at those, let's say, four avenues, well, you don't need to accumulate that many in each of them to continue at the same pace.
Chris Dreyer
Let's take a step back. You know, you were at a defense firm for over a decade before starting rootin law in 2023. What finally pushed you to make the leap? You know, what did those first early days look like when you open the doors?
Lee Rudin
Yeah. So this. I mean, this business grew organically.
Chris Dreyer
Right.
Lee Rudin
Started with just helping someone I knew, get her out of a jam. And then she said, how can I repay you? I said, you know, tell your friends if they get in little fender benders, I want to help them, you know, and referral begets referral, and it snowballs. And I'm at a defense firm, and they had said, hey, we will take on some plaintiff work. I don't think they ever envisioned that it would be what I did, which was create a whole basic sub practice in a defense firm doing plaintiff work and not suing their clients, but suing, you know, the cousins of their clients or the equivalents of their clients. Mm. And it got to the point where they said, you know, it's not that there's a direct conflict, but there's a spiritual conflict here. And we want to limit what you can bring in. You know, only take the big stuff. And we want to change the financial structure of the deal. And I said, I can't. I can't do either of those things. It was your deal. I just saw the opportunity and took it. So I said sayonara and spent the next 60 days figuring out what it took to start a firm. Talked to a lot of local PI lawyers that were very kind with their time, with their resources, offering me office space, do I want to partner on cases just to kind of keep me afloat. And luckily, I had a book, so I had a book of plaintiff PI work. I was doing some hourly work on the defense side, and then kind of like plaintiff hourly work and more of a commercial lit type setting. And I've told folks, I think if you can get through 90 to 120 days, that's when those cases will start to close or your hourly billing will start to come through, being paid. You can survive that storm then. Now you're in the cycle of having cash flow.
Chris Dreyer
Love it. Cashflow helps. You know, you're not in the same. You know, just doing the PI in that 12 to 18 month window. You know, like the standard auto stuff could be different on jurisdictions. But that's awesome. I appreciate the, you know, your. Your integrity. It's like, hey, this doesn't match with my values. The way I want to do things. I'm gonna go out and do it on my own. So that's awesome. You know, we gotta talk about the Get Rude brand. It's unique, right? It lines with your name. So there's. There's cohesion. Right. A lot of times people have.
Lee Rudin
Right.
Chris Dreyer
You know, last name. That's, like, hard to say. Hard to remember, but it kind of ties back to you. So you're wearing the rude boy shirt. I saw a different interview. You're always rocking the rude brand. But tell me about, like, maybe some of the fun things that you've done with it and just that part of the brand.
Lee Rudin
So to me, Chris, it all should be fun, right? We're in a serious business and we do serious work. But I tell folks, like, I don't take myself seriously. And what's important to me is that I don't want anybody else embarrassing me or destroying my reputation. But I will certainly do it right. I'll be the clown. I just don't want you to make me look like the clown. And I tell that to my team. I'm like, let me be the dancing bear. But we do good work and we believe in what we do. We are taking care of our clients and we put them first. That is first and foremost. So, you know, I joke to them, I'm like, it's not be rude, it's get rude. Meaning I don't need to tell an insurance adjuster, you know, all the nasties if that's not going to be the best for my client. But if the opportunity presents itself, and I think that, you know, being tough with an insurance company, being tough with opposing counsel is what it takes to get us to the point that we want to get to, then you absolutely need to be able to stand up, stand on your principles and say, look, I'm not going to just take your word for it because A, I don't think you're right, and B, there's another way to go about it. So it may be telling the insurance adjuster, hey, I'm going to file this lawsuit because that means it's off of your desk. It's either on a lawyer's desk or on a lid adjuster's desk, who may be more sophisticated. So you can punch the numbers into your system and spit out whatever offer it's going to be. But if we don't think it's acceptable, like, we'll move on to the next period.
Chris Dreyer
That's awesome, right?
Lee Rudin
So that works. And then obviously I'm lucky, right? My name fits with some of the attitude I have. It fits with something that would work in this space, right? My friends and family joke, like, my little kids, I have a five and a half year old, soon to be six, and a two and a half year old, soon to be three little girls, and they're all wearing my get rude gear. And the shirts that say, stop being polite. And one of my oldest, her school. Their motto is be kind. And I said, I will sponsor any event and I will make all the gear as long as I can write be kind, get rude, and it works for me.
Chris Dreyer
That's fantastic.
Lee Rudin
Yeah. So the branding is fun. I give out all sorts of free gear. I hope that people like it. They think it's clever and it's funny. I sponsor the local pro wrestling promotion, so this. We had the Dudley boys from the WWE at one of our events. And so I made a knockoff and gave out shirts in purple and red to the fans. I've got a over the shoulder you can't see right now. I did a rudamania, like, knock on Hulk Hogan. I've got all sorts of stuff. The rude world order for the nwo. But all of it is to say if somebody will wear my gear because they think it's cool and they think it's interesting. And that gets people talking. It's all about recognition. And so Get Rude works because it's sticky. It's hard to forget, and you can't screw it up. You know, you can spell my name wrong. You shouldn't be able to spell rude wrong. So you can find my website, getrude.com. it's easy.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah. That's amazing. The. The strategy there. So smart. The other thing too is, like, you know, from the grassroots perspective, if the firm name is kind of boring or the brand is kind of boring, like, I know you're giving out a free T shirt. Like some people will wear. They'll rock it. Maybe before they're going to sleep, they're putting on the T shirt. But we want it out in public and we want people to. It's a conversation starter. Like, you know, they're going to ask questions about it. I can see, you know, for the audio, I can see the shirt looks. Looks high quality. The letters really clear. So have you noticed that too? Like, oh, my shirt's being worn. Like you're out in public and like, you see individuals wearing it.
Lee Rudin
So we sponsor the wrestling group and we always. I have a table to all the events and I'll see folks that I've given a shirt to from the first event. You know, one of our standard shirts that say, stop being polite on the front, nothing else. And the back says get rude with, like, some of our contact info. People love that shirt. I get comments on the airplane, in the airport, in the mall. They're like, oh, what's the back say? What's the back say? So when I see people Wearing those kinds of shirts. Of course they're going to wear the thematic wrestling shirts to the events. But when I see them wearing the other ones, I'm like, okay, they must just really like that and think it's cool. And I try to be intelligent about what I'm creating. So here I created four different Mardi Gras colored shirts because everybody's wearing them during Mardi Gras season. Here, here's a free shirt. Go wear it on the parade route. I have a ton of stuff in black and gold for Saint season because people, that's a religion down in New Orleans and in Louisiana. Purple and gold for lsu. So I'll make it to what I think you're going to want. We have lsu, we had Tulane, we had Louisiana, Lafayette, all in the same shirt. Different color schemes depending upon where I was giving them out. Because I figured, hey, you might actually wear this to the game. And then someone says, hey, where'd you get that get rude shirt? You know, like, awesome lawyer gave it to me. Maybe they're following me on Instagram. Maybe they're popping me a note. I had a guy that had a two lane game that loved my shirt. He was a cop from a neighboring parish. I was like, hey, give me your phone number. Sent him one on Monday. Got his address, Sent him one on Monday.
Chris Dreyer
Social media, what you're doing, it's with the costumes to produce commercials. You know, it's definitely outside the norm, I think, of legal being stuffy and it's definitely fun. Right? So tell us about this approach of generating unique content and just that channel.
Lee Rudin
In general, social, for a lot of lawyers, can be a bear because you have to do it. That's a place that people go to find information and to kind of see if you're credible. Right. Know, like, and trust. Well, some of that comes out of not just your website, but they're going to go look at all your social channels and like, who are you? If they Google your name, like, you're going to, they're going to see your Instagram, so you better have stuff there. It can't be empty. And my thought process and what I, what I said to my social media vendor is I'm never going to put out a Happy Easter or a Merry Christmas. Like, I'm just not going to put out that static post. That's boring. And every other lawyer is doing it. But I will get dressed up like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus or I mean, you name it. And I've put on the costume and I've Got a list a mile long of, like, different ideas to do because in the end, you're just trying to stop the scroll. So we had a really good. What I thought was a great video that got a lot of traction. And the way I knew it got traction was I saw all the likes and shares and follows that came from folks that I had no idea who they were. And that told me that it was getting. The algorithm was pushing it. What I did was I got dressed like Bobby Boucher from the Waterboy, and I was Rudy Boucher, his cousin, because I said, the Super Bowl's coming in town. This is about a Louisiana football guy. I can, you know, do my version of the accent. And I think between the timing and the topic and I thought it was funny, like, it got out to the people, I said, okay, that. That's what works. You just don't know if you don't know what's going to hit. So you got to keep trying different things to see what's going to hopefully catch fire.
Chris Dreyer
Did you have the team, like, at mention Sandler and some of the other celebrities on? No.
Lee Rudin
We should have done that, though. It's a good idea. Yeah.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah. I mean, he might, right?
Lee Rudin
Well, he's going to come back. He'll be back for the start of football season. So I'm going to take you up on that and I'm going to give it a try.
Chris Dreyer
Nice. Nice. So tell me about the team. Tell me, what's the team composition look like? You know, let's say an attorney wants to do some social in house and wants to commit to doing it. Fun, engaging to get that earned media they're talking about. Obviously, you play in this, too. Like, you're willing to put the suit on and play this part. And like, I'd say a lot of people aren't, but some are willing, like, what's it look like to build this out?
Lee Rudin
Yeah. So the vendor I use, they've got a global team that does the editing. They'll generate scripts for me, but for the most part, there's ideas. And then I will come up and, like, actually write the verbiage. So we'll come up with, let's say, six to eight videos we want to do. I've now gotten to the point where I know if they're too long, it's going to be a problem. So I try to get them between 30 seconds and a minute. Sometimes they run over and those are more long form, but there's nearly no way to cut it down, given the length. Like I do. Who wants to sue an insurance company? Like a knockoff of who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You just can't get it in 30 seconds. It's not going to work. I try to keep them short. I like to be clever with my words. And then if I come up with an idea of a graphic or a pop up, I'll put that in the queue to go back to the editor. I will order different costumes that I want to wear. I have a gigantic green screen. And then a smaller one I've got. Right now, I have this ring light. It's the first time I'm ever using it, but I have it. If I want to film stuff on my own. We have a local videographer that'll come in and do. He'll capture the video and then he'll just send it out, either with a Dropbox or a Google Drive link. And then the editors have it. We talk about a cadence. They kind of know, hey, this has to get edited first because, you know, maybe it's the spring break video that comes earlier in the month versus a festival video that comes later or a holiday. I try to understand the calendar to know, hey, you got to make these edits quick. You can hold this one till later and make sure they know the same.
Chris Dreyer
Are, you know, like the Bobby Boucher. Are you then like, hey, the public, or like, my audience resonated with this? And then you go put ads behind it? Or is it. Or are you just like, hey, focusing on the earned media? That's the. The biggest signal. Are you doing a boosting combo? Like, have you experimented with that?
Lee Rudin
Yeah, we. I will boost the stuff that I think is going to resonate with people or be interesting or maybe be a little shocking. So, like, I did a video dress like Moses for Passover. I did one dress like Jesus for Good Friday. And I was like, I could get in trouble for these. But you know what? Let's see. I didn't get the reaction. You know, I don't think it got the groundswell. But I boost everything to the extent that I can just because you don't know what's going to hit, you know, and some of it, you're posting it, and there's only a short time domain where it's really relevant. Like boosting an Easter video this week is largely irrelevant. So what's the point? So boost it for the time that it makes sense. We boosted stuff during Final Four. We'll do stuff during Mardi Gras that'll last for a longer burn. But again, you're just trying to get those impressions. It's not a lead gen campaign. But you know, we go, in the last couple months we went from like 500 followers. We're almost at 850. That's a pretty big percentage growth. You keep at that pace, you're going to start to be in the thousands. And as a PI lawyer, a new small PI lawyer, it's not a bad number for followers.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, and it's natural. They're engaged, they're going to comment, they're your raving fans versus like the, you know, the fake followers that just aren't engaged or the comments are really thin. You know, I kind of wanted to move over to tech staffing. You know, you're, you're doing it all right, you're, you're running the firm, you're practicing law. You know, talk to me about the virtual staffing component, some of that that you've utilized to help you scale more quickly because you're growing at a faster pace than I would say most startups tell me about that component.
Lee Rudin
Yeah, so what do they say? Necessity is the mother of invention. Right. So when I came out, I was a brand new startup and we were talking about, you know, what kind of money you needed to survive. I said, I can't go bring on a local admin, a local paralegal, pay them benefits. I just don't have the bandwidth for that. So we started small with virtual staffing to explore what the process was like. And honestly, I think everybody should explore it. It takes training because that person's no different than a new hire you're bringing into your firm locally. The only difference is you can't just, you know, lean over their computer desk and show them something. But with the way the virtual world is now, you can, right? You can create the loom, you can screen share, you can do all those things to educate. So understand like you have responsibility to train your team members, whether they're local or international. But in terms of cost effectiveness and honestly, quality of work, I've been so impressed with the team members I've had because they're just great workers, they're great people. They just happen to be across the globe as opposed to across the hall. You asked about scale. It's an amazing way to scale because of the cost effectiveness.
Chris Dreyer
I couldn't agree more. I don't know what it is. It's still, even today, a little taboo. It's like, oh, you have nearshore hires, like, of course I do. We communicate. You know, we've got Tech to support it. The knowledge is there, the experience is there. So absolutely, you know, one of the things, just to share it. On our side, you mentioned loom for the video. So I'm not a guy that's like going to document the process to the T and now a ChatGPT. It's like, here's the video. Make me a process. Oh, by the way, also create me a curriculum that I can incorporate into my lms. It's like, it makes it so much easier.
Lee Rudin
Yeah. I think that you asked about tech, right. AI is all the rage. I've talked about AI and some of this stuff. If you can figure out which of the tools you're comfortable harnessing, or maybe you have an implementer that'll help you do all those things. It just adds such an efficiency. So like the demand writing has been around for a bit. They're not perfect, but if they save you several hours, just think about on scale what you can do. Because you didn't have to comb through all the medical records because they were already summarized and somebody at least put them in a paragraph. Whether you love it or hate it, at least it's there now. You can massage it to your liking. But in the end, a lot of the legwork that a human might have had to do at a much higher cost can get done either virtually, you know, internationally or through tech. And you know, the, the dinosaurs that are ignoring it, it's going to pass you by and other firms are going to pass you by because they're just going to be able to move at a pace that you cannot.
Chris Dreyer
I'm glad you brought this up. I've talked to a few firms lately, you know, and it's like their margins on their cases are getting like hit over the head. Right. With consolidation and things like this. And it's like, okay, so what can we do? It's not all about just more leads, more leads because those costs are increasing too. It's like, how can I increase our case values, increase the velocity. So, you know, I'm with you. You know, decreasing the cost. Like it's a real, it's pricing arbitrage. Right. With the virtual staff, the nearshore and then the tech, you know, utilizing like an even up or, you know, company like that for the demand letter. So I think that's fantastic. What overall, do you mind sharing, like some of the software, some of the tech stack that you're using?
Lee Rudin
Sure. So there's a variety of things. I actually have a call coming up with a friend of mine who just Got brought on to even up because he was telling me that, you know, the product that I'd seen in the past, you know, kind of their larger demand, which I told him, I was like, some of this is just too clunky for me. He's like, no, we have kind of a skinnier version now for smaller value cases. And I said, that is enticing, because that's really what you want. I think that the price point for, you know, a low value case kind of, kind of be with like a hundred to maybe 2,50,300 bucks for that demand to make sense for the client. It makes sense for the firm. You know, when you're talking about 6, $700 a demand for a case that, you know, might only be a $15,000 fee. You know, when you start chopping that fee up to the client, to the doctors, to the lawyers, that case expense doesn't make a lot of sense. I've used that tool. LegalSoft has a demand writing tool. I thought that tool was really nifty. I also had seen a current iteration that was a lot better than the first version I'd seen months ago. So I'm optimistic that a lot of these vendors are figuring it out and the tools are getting better, they're getting more cost effective. So you can use them in a variety of ways. The medical AI tool that I'm using right now is called Law Pro AI. It's a guy I know that has a firm out of Baltimore. And the tool is pretty neat. It will identify red flags, it'll tag certain documents. You tell it what the injuries are. If it sees something in the past, hey, you should be alert to this. Comes in a nice clean portal. So I found that to be really useful. Again, just finding ways to be efficient. I use this tool that I learned from. I don't know if you know Ernie, the attorney.
Chris Dreyer
I don't. I. I don't.
Lee Rudin
Ernie, he. Yeah, he's. He's a local attorney. He's got a, a pretty sizable podcast and following all about, like law firm efficiency and tech. His podcast is called the 8020 principle. But he turned me onto this probably a year and a half ago. It's called text expander. You can drop a block of text with like a one word code or phrase. So you're kind of creating as many forms or just mini text blocks. So. So I have my entire letter of representation, my entire letter of protection, and all I'm typing in is semicolon letter rep, semicolon letter protection. And it Just drops the entire document anywhere my cursor is. So rather than having to go cut and paste from a Word document, you can just be in an email, type letter, rep, mva, and it'll pop up a form. I'll type in the name of the adjuster, the name of the client, the name of the insurance company, and it all populates.
Chris Dreyer
That's incredible.
Lee Rudin
It's really cool. So if you're somebody that is constantly writing the same email over and over and over, or maybe you're doing litigation and you have all of your discovery objections, like, all right, semicolon relevance, semicolon vague. And then it just pops in your.
Chris Dreyer
Objection, your staff, especially your attorneys, you know, the hourly rate and cutting that down. So they're spending more time, you know, they're. They're cranking out the low value tasks and they can go do the high value. That's a big tip, by the way. You got my wheels spinning. We've always had a CRM for the sales side, but now we're trying to incorporate our account managers more into HubSpot. And, you know, it's got like the. The different sequences and things like that, but I think that sometimes those aren't as personable. Right. When you. When you feel like you're in a sequence, I think the text expander could still serve a similar purpose, but more a custom feel. So you got the wheels spinning there.
Lee Rudin
It's super cheap, Chris. I want to say it's three bucks a month.
Chris Dreyer
Wow.
Lee Rudin
You know, and again, it's all customizable to you. I mean, it seems silly, but my email address, I just type in semicolon email. Am I saving a couple keystrokes? Yeah. But I type that email address all the time. And so every time I log into something, it's like semicolon email, boom, it's there. So it's those little efficiencies that, you know, it adds up over time.
Chris Dreyer
That's an amazing tip. I'm gonna check out the pod too. So that's a great recommendation. What about communication? Slack teams, Discord, you doing any of those?
Lee Rudin
I watched, I think I watched one of your podcast guests talking about Discord and like, how he uses that to communicate with his team. So we have filevine as our case management system. We are a Google team. So I'll use Google Chat for kind of that Slack type communication. You know, we have different Google groups for my different pods, and then we have Ringcentral as our voiceover ip. So I like its video chat because it has transcription services, it's got AI built in, so whether I'm on a call with a client, on a call with my team, I can get the full transcript. Like if I'm on the road and I can't take any notes, it's accessible for me when I get back to a computer to download, upload into the system, or if someone's got to call information out of it, they can. So I like those. So far, that's kind of what we're doing. But I just recorded some customer Journey videos, so I'm exploring a bunch of different client portal type tools to pump those out and improve client communication. Filevine has one they just launched, so I'm toying with that and a couple different vendors like HONA and some of their competitors, just to kind of see what fits. And the key is implementing. So it's all well and good to have it, but if you're not going to use it to its full effect, then what's the point? And that's kind of where we are, is trying to figure the system out and make sure it can be implemented the right way before we start piling on tech costs and things like that that just end up being money lit on fire.
Chris Dreyer
The other thing too, I'll tell you one of the things that I'm playing around with just like to get your take on this, is we're uploading the entire podcast, like every episode into like Notebook. And then it's like you have your own essential LLM for the guests like yourself. So anything that you've talked about, like here, it's like, okay, I can put it in there. And it's like, hey, let me ask Lee this question, see how he would approach it. It's kind of a neat, you know, it kind of isolates it instead of pulling from everything on the web.
Lee Rudin
I think it's brilliant. I was just talking to Ernie about Google Notebook because I'm kind of in that space. Like I lean towards using Google Gemini if I'm going to use one of the ChatGPT esque AI tools, just because it's what I'm familiar with. I figure it's got like the Google universe behind it. I love that idea. I think that Bob Simon talked about it a long time ago. He was creating like the Bob bot, right where he was taking all of his publications and dumping it in there. I have a friend of mine who's doing the same thing, a local guy who's brilliant, Brian Hong, he's got a company called Infant Tech Designs and he was Doing the same thing. And I'm like, yeah, if I had the time to just. Or knew how to scrape all of my emails, dump them in all of my writings, my videos and then let it, just let it, let's see what it does. Let's see how it thinks. I love it.
Chris Dreyer
That's a great idea. It's a lot of fun. I just. The wheels are turning on ideas on what we could do. This has been amazing. I got a couple final questions and the first one, this one's specifically for my chief of staff. He's going to love this question. So I found out you're a huge Bruce Springsteen fan.
Lee Rudin
That's him right there.
Chris Dreyer
Yep. Right behind you on the wall. Any stories? Tell me about, you know, how you become a fan. Like anything that just stands out that you want to share.
Lee Rudin
Sure. So I, I grew up in New Jersey, so I feel like it's blasphemy if you don't love Bruce Springsteen. You're from New Jersey. He grew up minutes away from my cousins and my grandmother. So I saw him most recently at the See Here now festival in Asbury park on the beach. He played in front of it. It had to be a hundred thousand people. It was awesome. My whole extended family was there. I saw him, Gosh, his birthday show. We were at MetLife Stadium. It got rain, delayed for like four hours. The show didn't probably start till 11 o' clock at night and it went till 2 in the morning or some craziness. I've been a fan forever. I can't even count the amount of times I've seen him. And I am going on Friday night. It's Jazz Fest here in New Orleans. So I'm going to see a local, the Honey Island Swamp Band covering Bruce. They're calling it Swamp Boss and they're doing like a whole show of all Bruce covers. So can't get enough of it.
Chris Dreyer
Fantastic. Fantastic. Final question. Where can people go to connect with you? They have questions about anything we, we chatted about and learn more.
Lee Rudin
Sure. I try to make this as easy for everyone as I can. I'm slowly acquiring all the touch points. All right. Getrude.com we now have a toll free number 833 get rude. So you can call us from anywhere in the world. 833get rude. Our Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all are get rude law. Come check us out if you have any questions. If you need a connection to somebody that's not in the Louisiana Texas area. I know people all across the country. I'M happy to help whomever with. Whether it's a personal injury case, anything else, or just to talk about the practice of law and building a business. I'm loving it and I'm happy you had me on Chris.
Chris Dreyer
Thank you, guys. Get in contact with Lee. Lee, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Lee Rudin
Thank you so much, Chris. Bye, everybody.
Chris Dreyer
Thanks for listening to Personal Injury Mastermind. If you got value from today's episode, do me a favor. Share it with a friend and make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep building smarter, louder, and on your own terms.
Host: Chris Dreyer, Rankings.io
Guest: Lee Rudin, Founder of Rudin Law
Release Date: May 15, 2025
In Episode 327 of Personal Injury Mastermind, host Chris Dreyer welcomes Lee Rudin, the dynamic founder of Rudin Law, to discuss how creativity, robust systems, and unwavering determination have propelled his relatively young firm to prominence in the competitive New Orleans legal market. This episode delves into Rudin’s innovative marketing strategies, unique branding with the “Get Rude” persona, effective use of technology, and the advantages of virtual staffing in scaling a law firm efficiently.
Best Month Performance
At [00:47], Lee Rudin shares, “We had our best month in terms of generating new files in March of 2025.” At just two years old, Rudin Law is experiencing rapid growth, positioning itself for potential expansion challenges and the need for swift scaling.
Diversified Marketing Channels
When asked about the driving factors behind this growth, Rudin explains at [01:08], “We have some meta ads running that are unique to us. We've got SEO and more traditional digital lead gen through LSA and PPC. We've got some partnerships with some national groups.” This diversified approach across four main avenues—Meta ads, SEO, lead generation platforms (LSA and PPC), and national partnerships—ensures consistent lead flow without over-reliance on any single channel.
Transitioning to Plaintiff Work
Rudin recounts his journey from working at a defense firm for over a decade to founding Rudin Law in 2023 at [02:11]. Initially assisting acquaintances with personal injury cases, his dedication to plaintiff advocacy led to creating a sub-practice within the defense firm, which ultimately conflicted with the firm's vision.
Standing by Values
At [02:23], Rudin states, “It was your deal. I just saw the opportunity and took it.” Refusing to limit his scope or alter the financial structure to fit the defense firm's demands, he chose independence over compromise, emphasizing his commitment to integrity and client-first principles.
Brand Identity and Cohesion
Discussing the unique “Get Rude” brand, Rudin elaborates at [04:23], “We're in a serious business and we do serious work. But I tell folks, like, I don't take myself seriously.” The brand embodies a spirited and assertive approach, aligning with Rudin’s personality and making the firm stand out in a traditionally conservative industry.
Creative Marketing Tactics
Rudin shares various branding initiatives:
Community Engagement
By tailoring merchandise to local events and cultures, such as Mardi Gras and LSU sports, Rudin ensures high visibility and community connection. This strategic distribution encourages organic conversations and brand recognition, making “Get Rude” a memorable and sticky brand.
Authentic Content Creation
Rudin emphasizes authenticity over generic posts. At [09:57], he states, “I'm never going to put out a Happy Easter or a Merry Christmas... I will get dressed up like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.” This approach differentiates his firm’s social media presence, making it more engaging and relatable.
Creative Campaigns and Viral Content
Highlighting a successful campaign, Rudin mentions dressing as Bobby Boucher from The Waterboy, tailored to the local Louisiana football culture. At [10:25], he says, “It got out to the people, I said, okay, that. That's what works.”
Boosting Strategic Content
Rudin strategically boosts posts that are timely and relevant, such as during major events like Final Four and Mardi Gras. At [14:02], he explains, “We boosted stuff during Final Four. We'll do stuff during Mardi Gras that'll last for a longer burn.”
Engagement Metrics
This strategy has resulted in significant follower growth—from 500 to nearly 850 within a few months—indicating high engagement and a strong online presence.
Tech Stack Utilization
Rudin discusses the various tools that enhance his firm’s efficiency:
"You can drop a block of text with like a one word code or phrase... I have my entire letter of representation, my entire letter of protection, and all I'm typing in is semicolon letter rep."
AI Integration and Future Prospects
Rudin underscores the transformative potential of AI in legal practice:
“A lot of the legwork that a human might have had to do at a much higher cost can get done either virtually or through tech.” ([18:22])
He encourages firms to adopt AI tools to stay competitive and enhance operational efficiency.
Adopting Remote Teams
At [15:34], Rudin explains the necessity-driven shift to virtual staffing:
“I started small with virtual staffing to explore what the process was like... it takes training because that person's no different than a new hire you're bringing into your firm locally.”
Benefits of Virtual Staffing
Implementation Strategies
Rudin emphasizes the importance of thorough training and clear communication:
“With the way the virtual world is now, you can create the loom, you can screen share... you have the responsibility to train your team members, whether they're local or international.” ([16:51])
Integrated Communication Tools
Rudin utilizes a suite of tools to streamline communication and case management:
Exploring Client Portal Enhancements
He is actively exploring tools to improve client communication through enhanced portals:
“I'm exploring a bunch of different client portal type tools to pump those out and improve client communication.” ([23:00])
Importance of Implementation
Rudin stresses that the effectiveness of technology lies in its proper implementation:
“If you're not going to use it to its full effect, then what's the point?” ([24:30])
AI-Driven Tools
Rudin highlights the importance of integrating AI into legal processes to enhance efficiency:
“AI is all the rage... It just adds such an efficiency.” ([17:25])
Custom AI Solutions
He discusses the potential of creating personalized AI models using podcast content and firm publications to serve as tailored knowledge bases:
“I love it. If I had the time to just... I've got a friend... letting it, just let it, let's see what it does.” ([25:54])
Personal Branding Through Interests
Rudin shares his passion for Bruce Springsteen, integrating his personal interests into his professional persona:
“I grew up in New Jersey, so I feel like it's blasphemy if you don't love Bruce Springsteen.” ([26:09])
Creating Relatable Content
By sharing personal stories and interests, Rudin humanizes his brand, fostering a deeper connection with clients and the community.
As the episode wraps up, Lee Rudin provides multiple avenues for listeners to connect and engage with Rudin Law:
He encourages listeners to reach out for personal injury cases, legal business discussions, or general inquiries.
Integrity Over Compromise: Rudin’s decision to leave a defense firm and establish his own plaintiff-focused practice underscores the importance of aligning business practices with personal values.
Innovative Branding: The “Get Rude” brand exemplifies how bold and memorable branding can differentiate a law firm in a competitive market.
Diversified Marketing: Utilizing multiple marketing channels ensures steady lead generation without over-reliance on any single source.
Leveraging Technology and AI: Integrating AI tools and automation can significantly enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs.
Virtual Staffing for Scalability: Remote teams offer a cost-effective and scalable solution for growing law firms, provided effective training and communication are maintained.
Engaging Social Media Presence: Authentic and creative social media strategies can drive engagement and foster a strong online community.
Personal Touch: Incorporating personal interests and stories into professional branding can build stronger connections with clients and the community.
Notable Quotes:
Lee Rudin at [00:00]: “We want to limit what you can bring in, and we want to change the financial structure of the deal. And I said, I can't. I can't do either of those things. It was your deal. I just saw the opportunity and took it.”
Lee Rudin at [04:40]: “It's not be rude, it's get rude. Meaning I don't need to tell an insurance adjuster, you know, all the nasties if that's not going to be the best for my client.”
Lee Rudin at [17:25]: “AI is all the rage. I've talked about AI and some of this stuff. If you can figure out which of the tools you're comfortable harnessing, or maybe you have an implementer that'll help you do all those things, it just adds such an efficiency.”
Lee Rudin at [22:37]: “So if you're somebody that is constantly writing the same email over and over and over, or maybe you're doing litigation and you have all of your discovery objections...”
This episode of Personal Injury Mastermind offers invaluable insights into building a standout personal injury law firm through bold branding, strategic marketing, embracing technology, and maintaining unwavering integrity. Lee Rudin's journey serves as an inspiring blueprint for personal injury attorneys aiming to transform their practices into market leaders.