If you’ve ever had a referral source ask whether you handle Identify Your Target and felt your answer was technically true but unsatisfying, you’re in the right place. The path from ‘I can do it’ to ‘I’m the person to call’ is more concrete than it looks.
For family-law attorneys who have decided they want to do more of this work and are looking for an honest map of the territory rather than a marketing piece.
The family-law attorney’s relationship to Identify Your Target differs from the consultant’s. The attorney is responsible for the legal strategy that incorporates Identify Your Target findings; the consultant is responsible for the underlying analysis. Practitioners who clearly demarcate these roles in their engagement letters — even when handling both — produce cleaner work product and reduce liability exposure.
What most practitioners do
The conventional approach to Identify Your Target for family-law attorneys has settled into a recognizable pattern over the past decade. Most practitioners follow a similar intake structure, a similar analytical sequence, and a similar deliverable format. The convergence reflects real practical wisdom — these patterns work for most matters most of the time.
The recognized standard for Identify Your Target engagements involves five identifiable phases: intake, scoping, analytical work, deliverable production, and closing. Most family-law attorneys who have handled the work for several years would describe their process in these terms, even when they don’t use the same labels.
Where the standard fails
The standard approach also fails when the practitioner doesn’t actually do Identify Your Target regularly. Practitioners handling one matter every two years can’t maintain the working depth that produces good Identify Your Target outcomes. The standard approach assumes the practitioner has internalized it through repetition; when that’s not true, the standard becomes a checklist that produces checklist-quality work.
Practitioners who do Identify Your Target consistently see the same standard failures across years. Matters where the analytical methodology produces technically correct results that don’t fit the specific situation. Matters where the standard intake misses important context. Matters where the standard deliverable format doesn’t serve the actual case need. Recognizing these failure patterns at intake — and adjusting — is one of the markers of mature practice. For deeper reference, see National Center for State Courts.
What more experienced practitioners actually do
Seasoned practitioners also vary the deliverable format based on the matter. Standard memo format for negotiation-track matters. More extensive written report for litigation-track matters. Oral presentation with supporting materials for mediation-track matters. The same underlying analysis, presented in different formats, lands differently in different contexts.
Alternative approaches that work better in specific contexts: tiered engagement structures (separate diagnostic, analytical, and closing engagements with separate fees) for high-uncertainty matters; collaborative engagement structures (multiple family-law attorneys working as a team) for unusually complex matters; phased engagement structures (initial consultation followed by deferred full engagement) for clients who aren’t yet ready to commit to full scope.
Choosing the right method for the matter
Choosing the right approach for a specific Identify Your Target matter starts with reading the case carefully at intake. Is this a procedurally clean matter or a contested one? Are the parties cooperating with discovery or fighting it? Is the timeline driven by negotiation or by court calendars? The answers shape which version of Identify Your Target workflow makes sense.
The skill that develops over years isn’t memorizing more approaches — it’s recognizing matter type quickly and selecting the right one. This pattern-recognition can’t be taught directly; it accumulates from handling matters repeatedly and debriefing what worked and what didn’t.
If you’re considering Identify Your Target as a focus area and you want one concrete commitment to make: pick the upcoming family-law conference closest to you and commit to attending every year for the next five years.
How VennBoard fits in
If you’re building a focus on Identify Your Target, the case-management infrastructure matters more than most practitioners think going in. VennBoard is built specifically for family-law-adjacent practitioners and handles the document organization, the multi-party coordination, and the engagement-management that makes long-arc matters manageable.
Practitioners interested in seeing VennBoard’s case-management infrastructure for Identify Your Target work can learn more at VennBoard.com.
Further reading
National Center for State Courts
ABA Family Law Section resources