SWMW Law, one of the top plaintiffs law firms in the country focusing on representing victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, is proud to announce that Missouri Lawyers Weekly has named Lauren Lohman, the firm’s Intake Manager, as one of its Unsung Legal Heroes for 2024.
“Lauren has been an integral part of the foundation that has allowed our firm to be successful,” said Member Ben Schmickle. “She’s highly organized and dependable when it comes to her necessary tasks, but what truly sets her apart in her role at the firm is the care she shows our clients. She wears an infinite number of hats at our firm and has proven herself to be a respected leader, valuable resource, and friend to all who know her. We are proud to have her on our team.”
The Unsung Legal Heroes award honors law firm employees who have consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty, often behind the scenes. This year’s Unsung Legal Heroes recipients will be featured in a special section of Missouri Lawyers Weekly July 10.
Lohman joined the firm in 2015 as the sole paralegal in the firm’s Intake Department, where she procured information about clients’ history and their medical diagnoses, fielded referrals from co-counsel, sent and tracked necessary documents for client files, and more. After two years, she was promoted to Intake Coordinator. In this role, she had the added responsibility of training additional paralegals and managing a large influx of leads that came into the firm. As the firm started to do its own marketing, she also began working closely with third-party call centers – training them on what to say to potential clients, educating them on the minutiae between mesothelioma and lung cancer, managing their contacts, and tracking the costs associated with the firm’s marketing efforts.
Two years after her first promotion, Lohman was again promoted, this time to Intake Manager. Instead of dozens of cases each month, she now handles hundreds. She went from managing one paralegal in her department to five. And as the firm branched into digital marketing, she took on a larger role there, too. She works with numerous third-party marketing vendors, aligns the budget for the firm’s marketing spend, analyzes costs per lead, and prepares regular reports on the success of the firm’s efforts. She’s managed the firm’s transition to a new, larger call center and directs their scripts and how those leads are handled. She has also fostered impactful relationships with several co-counsel and referring firms, keeping them consistently updated on the status of the cases they have referred to the firm.
Lohman regularly volunteers with firm events, including Motion for Kids where she purchases holiday gifts for children in foster care. She’s participated in the firm’s Walk a Mile in Her shoes event to raise awareness for sexual violence; Relay for Life and Fight for Air Climb to raise awareness for lung cancer; and more. Outside of her work with the firm, she adopts families through her church to help them with food and gifts during the holiday season; she financially supports the Ronald McDonald House, as well as the Honor Flight program, which sends veterans to Washington, D.C. to honor and celebrate them for their serve; and she serves as a Scout Mom for the Scouts of America.