How a law firm built almost entirely on social-media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn has landed over 270 clients

• SMB Law is a boutique law firm that focuses on small businesses and finds the majority of its clients through social media.
• After gaining a following on X (formerly Twitter), the partners quit their jobs to launch the firm.
• Since its inception, the firm has advised on transactions totaling $857 million.

While much of the internet has been lamenting X’s (formerly Twitter’s) slow demise since Elon Musk’s takeover, some businesses continue to thrive on the platform.

This is the case with SMB Law, a boutique law firm specializing in small businesses founded in 2022 by Eric Pacifici, Kevin Henderson, and Sam Rosati.

“We’ve seen overall engagement drop on Twitter, but the quality of engagement and leads, not necessarily,” Henderson was quoted by Insider as saying.

According to the firm, it has helped buy and sell small businesses worth $857 million since its inception, with $783 million in 2023 alone, and has worked with 271 clients.

Pacifici took the initiative to establish SMB Law. He had registered on X in 2021 (when it was still Twitter). He was working in Big Law at the time and was looking to start his own small business.

“There’s a really robust small-business community on Twitter called SMB Twitter, or SMB X,” Pacifici told Insider in an interview. “Nobody’s trying to build Uber, they’re trying to buy HVAC companies, tree-trimming businesses, commercial-cleaning businesses.”

Pacifici began networking and discussing small-business law under the alias @SMB_attorney, and his account quickly grew in popularity (it now has 95,000 followers).

The more he shared about law and his life, the more he established himself as a credible voice in the platform’s small-business community, and he began receiving dozens of requests to assist with deals. He decided it was worthwhile to venture out on his own.

He enlisted the help of Henderson, a fellow attorney and friend, and Rosati, whom they met on social media. In July 2022, the three quit their jobs to launch SMB.

“We felt like we were jumping off of a proverbial cliff in making this decision,” said Pacifici. “About a week before we officially launched, I was laughing in the shower thinking how this will either be the most amazing decision I’ve ever made, or the stupidest thing anyone has ever done.”

Why does the SMB model work?

Sharing expertise and being personable generates business for SMBs rather than explicitly trying to make sales.

In their content, the partners attempt to simplify complex legal issues and provide actionable advice.

“We realized people are out there really hungry for high-quality information, and when you give them high-quality information, they’re willing to hire off social media,” said Henderson. “They no longer want to hire companies, they want to hire people.”

They also created a free masterclass on how to buy a business to provide their followers with practical knowledge in the area, which helped market the company.

And, in response to their followers’ requests, SMB decided to use a different business model than many law firms, charging a retainer fee rather than an hourly rate. They believe that having this structure makes clients feel more at ease working with them because they don’t have to worry about how much each interaction with the attorneys will cost.

“We have product-market fit because we have that community support in building this business,” Pacifici said in a statement. “They constructed it. Thousands of people told us, ‘Structure your fees this way, and forget about hourly billing.'”

Mean Green Lawn and Landscape owners Denisse and Evelin Montenegro told Insider that having fees structured this way made them feel more comfortable reaching out to SMB when they had questions or needed advice during the process of buying their business.

Beyond X Business

Despite the ongoing changes to X, including the upcoming introduction of new paid subscription tiers, Henderson and Pacifici said business on the platform remains strong. Simultaneously, they are attempting to diversify their content strategy.

They’re branching out to other platforms, such as LinkedIn, where their most recent hire, Eli Albrecht, aka the “Law Dad,” has 43,000 followers.

They’re also taking their business offline, establishing themselves in legal circles outside of the online small-business community.

“I think we’ve done a good job of using social media to get pretty ingrained in our space, well beyond Twitter,” said Pacifici. “If it went away tomorrow, the phone would definitely ring less, but I don’t know how much less.”