Author: JMF

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Starting a Law Firm | Not-For-Profit Networking

Starting a law firm means that you have to network, a lot.  It’s been said over and over again, and I’m going to continue to say it because it is that important.

Starting a law firm means that you have to build a client base from your connections (otherwise referred to as your network).  Furthermore, when you begin your law career – either starting a law firm or as an associate attorney at a law firm – you are always going to have to network to bring in clients.  Being a solo attorney does not change this.  Additionally, there are many different ways to network and I have tried slight variations of many of them.  I plan to share as many of those variations as I can on this blog.  However, for the sake of brevity, I wanted to talk a little bit about Not-For-Profit Networking.

As an associate, I joined many different kinds of social organizations – some for-profit and some not-for-profit.  To be honest, I can’t say that either one was particularly lucrative in terms of bringing in clients.  However, networking in the not-for-profit field gets your name out in the community in a big way.  Furthermore, you might even really like your new job as a not-for-profit volunteer.  I’ve known people who quit their jobs to go work for the not-for-profit.

When I say not-for-profit, I am talking about joining a board of directors of a large organization or in some way lending a helping hand with an organization.  One thing to keep in mind is that if you join a not-for-profit for the sole basis of legal networking and building your law firm, I suggest you join a board of directors and network with other board members as much as possible.  The board of directors is often made up of community business and social leaders in your community.  When I say leaders, I mean these are typically people who run the show and who you want to know.

Furthermore, joining a board of a not-for-profit shouldn’t be just for the purposes of law firm networking.  If you aren’t committed, it will show.  The other board members will quickly realize you are a sycophant who is only there for the connections.  That is a bad idea and it isn’t good marketing for your law firm.  You might as well not be on the board.

Also, don’t over-extend yourself.  Only join boards or not-for-profits that you feel passionate about.  If you don’t care about the “mission”, you won’t do a good job.  You will also not do a good job if you are over-extending yourself.  Your first duty is as a lawyer and to your law practice.  Keep these rules in mind whenever you are making decisions about what to join and how much work it is going to be.

An examples of good not-for-profits are local healthcare, child care, religious, or other humanitarian related groups.  Examples include: Habit for Humanity and Big Brothers Big Sisters.   Furthermore, most social clubs like Kiwanis, Rotary, and the Knights of Columbus have groups in almost every major city in the country.  Again, I am not saying you should join these groups, I am simply giving you networking options.  I will admit that my membership in Kiwanis was not as effective as it could have been because I felt over-extended and it often came last in my though process on networking.  Perhaps that was because I was on two other board of directors of major not-for-profit organizations and I didn’t have a lot of time.

To recap, not-for-profit networking is an excellent way to hob-knob with the business and social leaders in your community.  You want to be one of those leaders.  These people open doors for you and your law firm. It might not necessarily bring in money to your new law firm right away, but the connections you make and the reputation you build will.  I don’t know why exactly, but it works.  This gets back to my idea of legal networking as hustle.  Furthermore, you need to network with these groups for the right reasons.  Don’t join if you are not going to contribute.  Also, don’t join too many groups and over-extend yourself.  If you follow these tips, you will meet people you like, you will be happy with the networking opportunities, and you will be something good not only for starting a law firm – but for the community at large.

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Starting a Law Firm | Who Owns the Client File?

Whether leaving and old firm or moving to a new jurisdiction, when starting a law firm, you need to be cognizant of who owns the old client file.  Also, from my review, you need to be cognizant of what jurisdiction you are in because, of course, the rules vary from state to state.

The first place to look is your state’s professional responsibility and/or ethics rules.  Another good place to look for model answers is the American Bar Association (ABA).  In particular, the ABA, in its “Materials and Client File Retention” page, quotes two  model rules:

Model Rule 1.16(d) states:
“Upon termination of representation, a lawyer shall take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect a client’s interests, such as giving reasonable notice to the client, allowing time for employment of other counsel, surrendering papers and property to which the client is entitled and refunding any advance payment of fee that has not been earned. The lawyer may retain papers relating to the client to the extent permitted by other law.”

Model Code
DR 2-110(A)(2) provides that:
“In any event, a lawyer shall not withdraw from employment until he has taken reasonable steps to avoid foreseeable prejudice to the rights of his client, including giving due notice to his client, allowing time for employment of other counsel, delivering to the client all papers and property to which the client is entitled and complying with applicable laws and rules.”

To me the gist of the model rule does necessarily answer the question of who retains the client file.  As lawyers we are paid to interpret.  My interpretation is that, under the model rules, a lawyer must be concerned foremost with the client’s best interest and finishing the representation in a professional, competent, and agreeable manner which avoids any damage to the client.  After that is done, who retains the client file is not so important – it is the work product that goes into creating that file which is of the most importance.

In Indiana, where I am licensed, the Rules of Professional Conduct are similar and do not specifically state who retains the client file.  There are two rules specifically on point, Rule 1.15 and Rule 1.16.

Rule 1.15, entitled “Safekeeping Property”, in pertinent part, provides that:

(a)    A lawyer shall hold property of clients or third persons that is in a lawyer’s possession in connection with a representation separate from the lawyer’s own property. Funds shall be kept in a separate account maintained in the state where the lawyer’s office is situated, or elsewhere with the consent of the client or third person. Other property shall be identified as such and appropriately safeguarded. Complete records of such account funds and other property shall be kept by the lawyer and shall be preserved for a period of five years after termination of the representation.

Rule 1.16 states, in pertinent part that a lawyer may withdraw from representing a client if:

(1)    withdrawal can be accomplished without material adverse effect on the interests of the client

However, to me, neither of these rules answer the question of who retains the client file.  Is the client file client “property”.  This gets me to start thinking of argument for and against either the lawyer or the client keeping the file.  One argument in favor of the attorney owning the client file is that the attorney should have already made the entire file available to the client during the representation.  I make it a practice of sending a client nearly everything I do so that (1) they know I’m working on their case and (2) the have a copy of everything already.  Thus, the question may also be asked:  What is “the client file”?  Are there multiple client files?  Are there different versions of the client file?

The ABA suggests that the client should always have originals of documents like Wills, Deeds, Contracts, etc.  This seems obvious and I would hope the lawyers aren’t typically keeping originals of those sorts of documents.  There is also some authority a lawyer retaining a client file as security for getting paid.  I don’t necessarily recommend this practice, but, at least in Indiana, it is allowable under certain circumstances.

At the end of the day, I can’t necessarily tell you who owns the client file.  The answer, like some many in the gray hued world of the law is:  it depends.  From my review of the applicable law in my state, and from reviewing the model law, the concern appears to be related more to competency and confidentiality than to actual possession.  My advice, be clear with the client and ask them what they want to do.

Perhaps more importantly, I would suggest some form of electronic storage and putting the retention of the client file into your legal services agreement.  That way there is no confusion  Whether leaving a law firm or starting a law firm, you need to know your ethics and you need to know who gets the client file when the representation has ended.

 

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Starting a Law Firm | Solo Lawyer Legal Research

Starting a law firm is all about gathering information and being aware of what other solos attorneys are doing.  In that respect, it is very helpful to review a lot of different lawyer blogs to get information, new ideas on networking and marketing, and (for me) to know that there are other lawyers out there doing what I’m doing.  I have a number of great blogs on my Google Reader list that I review daily.  Sometimes the posts are not that great, but often I find some very helpful information on running my own practice.

In light of this, The Connected Lawyer had a great legal post about the use of public domain citations in Illinois.  The gist of the change, as I understand it, is that the Illinois Supreme Court has adopted a public domain system of citation for appellate court cases in Illinois that have been filed on or after July 1, 2011.  Rather than exclusively using the traditional court reporter citation with a year and page citation, the Illinois courts are now allowing the use of a public domain citation system.  This is counter to what I would guess everybody learns in law school in the United States.

Ok, why does this matter?  It matters because, in the view of Bryan Sims at The Connected Lawyer, and also in my view, the law should not be held in the hands of giant corporations – i.e.:  Lexis Nexis or Westlaw (Thompson West).  I would also guess that this is something that other states may start to change to.  If one state does it, you can be sure that other states will take note.  When I start a law firm in Minnesota, I hope Minnesota takes note.

Why does this matter to learning how to start a law firm?  To me, it matters because a lot of solo lawyers cannot afford or, at the very least, don’t want to pay for expensive Westlaw and LexisNexis subscriptions.  It cuts into overhead, something that all solos are keenly aware of.  As a lot of other blogs have addressed, there are many other ways to conduct necessary legal research:  Google Scholar, your state’s judicial and legislative websites, Findlaw, Cornell Law School website, the Library of Congress, Hieros Gamos, Public Legal, and many others.  Are these websites as good as Lexis Nexis and Westlaw?  No, not really.  But, the law is the law and it can be found in places other than with big corporations.  I will admit that I have difficulty sheperdizing cases with these free resources.  Although, I do remember a reading somewhere that there is a way to sheperdize cases for free on the net.  If anybody knows of a link, please post a comment here.

Learning how to start and run a law firm is difficult.  There are so many different choices that must be made and a budget to stick to.   Legal research is something I don’t want to have to think to hard about – I just want to be able to do it as quickly and as cost effectively as possible.  Furthermore, I get irritated when I think about how the law is supposed to be accessible to everyone and yet that accessibility is greatly diminished due to the hording of it by two monopolistic corporations.

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Starting a Law Firm | Studying for the Bar Exam Part II

Starting a law firm means that you have to pass the bar exam in your particular jurisdiction.  For most, passing the bar exam means that you are required to sit through mind-numbing bar review lectures for about two months.  After passing the bar exam, character and fitness interview, and being admitted into your jurisdiction’s bar, you can open your own law firm.  Caveat:  if considering starting a law firm right out of law school, please read my post on getting legal experience first.

As I posted previously, I am taking the bar exam for the second time in the last four years. I feel that I have a little different perspective on taking the bar exam because I’ve already done it and I am going through the study process a second time.  Hopefully, I can benefit my readers by sharing whatever knowledge I have gleaned about passing the bar exam.

One of the discussion points that I wanted to bring up is passing the Multistate Performance Test (MPT).  The Multistate Performance exam tests the taker’s legal knowledge and ability to complete legal reasoning.  The MPT is the portion of the exam that is most similar to what young attorneys will do in the real world.  For example, the MPT is akin to a partner in a law firm coming up to you and giving you a problem and a case file that he or she wants you to write a legal memorandum or other legal document on. The assignment is similar to what I suspect a lot of law students did in their first or second year of law school to satisfy their legal writing component.

The MPT typically gives you information that is similar to a case file you will receive from a partner in the real world or when starting a law firm.  The bar examiners will give you a letter, a short memorandum, maybe a legal opinion, a library, some law, and a smattering of other information. Basically, you will get:  the facts, the laws, and instructions on how to apply the law to the facts to answer a legal problem.  The MPT will have different writing projects which vary the approach on how to apply the law to the facts.  Sounds simple right?

Of course, the MPT is only 90 minutes long and it bears no resemblance to what a private practice lawyer is likely to do in the real world.  If you are starting a law firm, you need to be concerned with what to do in the real world.  However, when you do pass the exam and work as an law firm associate, you will be expected to work quickly and efficiently.  In most cases, you will also not be able to bill a client for five hours of your time for writing a simple legal memorandum to a partner.  Clients don’t like paying those kind of bills – you are an attorney and they expect you to already know the law and how to use it.

In my opinion, the MPT is probably the most useful portion of the bar exam in terms of what it is like to be an attorney in the real world.  If you are reading this blog about how to start a law firm, then you should know that MPT gives you a good example of the kinds of initial critical thinking you will have to do on a specific legal issue.  If you hang out your own shingle and somebody actually walks in the door, you need to be able to meet with that person and know how to deal with his or her legal issue.  Of course, you need to know how to draft and file legal pleadings, cut checks, pay bills, and a myriad of other tasks.  But, at the end of the day, you need to be an attorney and think in a critical fashion.  I think the MPT does a good job of meeting this important real world task.

Starting a law firm is all about gathering useful information and discarding useless information.  That applies to every area of the practice of law – whether it is critical legal thinking or learning how to effectively manage your time so that you can ethically bill your clients.

 

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Starting a Law Firm | New Legal Journal at UND Law

This post is a little bit outside the peraminaters of typical start a law firm fodder, but I wanted to let the world know that there is a new legal journal called the “Journal of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies” at UND School of Law.

I was a member of the Law Review at UND and we did not have another competing legal journal at our small law school while I was there.  Heck, we had trouble getting all the student writers we needed for law review.  During my tenure, I always wondered why somebody (or, more likely, some faculty member) didn’t encourage students to start a new legal journal at the school.  Well, they did, and I am excited about it.

It may not come as a suprise as somebody who is blogging about starting a law firm, that I am very into the exchange of quality information.  I have always found legal research and the academic wherewithal it takes to formulate an interesting, timely, and scholarly article to be one of the hallmarks of the law.  Even when I am at my lowest in terms of my faith in the law, I have always felt that my time on law review was one of the most worthwhile things I have done as a lawyer.  I always hoped some other people would get excited enough to start their own legal journal.

I think a lot of practitioners of the law can relate when I say that our jobs often don’t seem to be based in the law at all.  Rather, in my own law practice, I have often found myself bickering with opposing counsel about some minor fact or trying to help a completely unreasonable client see that fighting over the truck in their divorce just isn’t a good choice.  Those kind of things aren’t about the law, they are about hand holding and trying win.  That kind of thing can be extremely draining.

But, when I see that some bright, young, ambitious law students want to try and start something and contribute to the law, I get excited.  There is hope out there.  Am I being a little bit melodramatic?  Yes, probably, but how can you not get excited by a quote like this:

“We are an innovative online publication that explores the various dimensions of contemporary legal scholarship and its relationship to other disciplines, working to provide a dynamic environment that fosters an evolving scholarly dialogue between practitioners, scholars in law, scholars from other disciplines, and the general public.”

While going down the road less traveled and starting my own law firm, I plan to take inspiration where I can find it.  I hope you do to and I hope you check back with UND’s new legal journal.

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Starting a Law Firm | Learning From Failure

The fear involved with starting a law firm can be palpable.  There are so many questions that go through your head as you begin the journey.  Those thoughts can be both positive and negative.  But, I would guess that a lot of the anxiety results from the fear of failure.

I’ll admit to the fear of failure in starting my own law firm.  I will also admit to a generally pesimistic attitude at times.  I may be wrong, but I would guess that many lawyers have an unhealthy amount of pessimism about some things – including starting a law firm.  But, luckily, I was listening to a particular interesting edition of Morning Edition on NPR lately, and there is hope for those who fail.

NPR interviewed Tim Harford, a financial columnist for the The Financial Times, to talk about his book Adapt.  The program and interview was extremely enlightening – enough for me to want to share it on my law firm start-up blog.  The subtitle of the book is “Why Success Always Starts With Failure”.  According to Mr. Harford, failure is inevitable – in life, in business, in everything.  What a relief!  Somebody said it.

I write this somewhat tongue-and-cheek.  It is an obvious premise, but I think it is a perspective that is not focused on enough.  Failing and adapting is a hallmark of many successful entrepreneurs.

One example from the interview that I found particularly interesting was an anecdote told by Mr. Harford about professional gamblers.  I am paraphrasing from the NPR interview, but the general extant of the story was something like this:  professional gamblers know that they are most vulnerable after they have lost a bet.  This is because it is the natural tendency of all people to want to play recklessly after they have lost and try to get all of their money back quickly.  It is a mental block that must be fought.  The good professional gambler knows that if he fails and adapts, his chances of winning are greatly increased.  As noted on the NPR article:

“If the whole process of learning from failure means discarding stuff that’s not working, but in fact, our natural reaction is to keep going, to throw more money behind it, to throw more emotional energy behind it … that’s a real problem,” he says.

I know this feeling.  I know the desire to try and achieve too much too quickly after I fail.  I’ve done it and, it would appear, I may have failed to adapt from that experience.   I hope I don’t do it again.  But, at the very least, I know that failure is ok as long as I use it as a positive and learn from my mistakes.  I am ok with this, just as long as starting a law firm doesn’t mean I end up like Johannes Gutenberg and invent the printing press but go broke doing it.

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Starting a Law Firm | The Virtual Law Office

In considering how to start a law firm, you need to consider where you are going to be actually sitting and thinking when you practice law. In other words, you need to consider what kind of office space and setup you are going to have when you start a law firm.

Sounds obvious, I know. This post relates to my previous post about law firm overhead.  A virtual law office arrangement equates to much lower overhead than paying for a lease or some other more traditional office arrangement.

Keeping costs to a nill is going to be key to ensuring that your practice is successful. Paying for a an expensive office lease is going to cost you money that you could be spending on other important things like a new printer/scanner/faxer. I’ve read on other blogs and in legal articles that paying for unnecessary overhead may be the biggest killer of a new law firm. I don’t know if this is true, but I do know that I don’t feel that I can afford the office rent at this point in my practice. Even if I could afford it, I don’t really want to pay for it when it isn’t necessary.

But, if you are going to start a law firm you need to have an office with office supplies in it. There is no doubt about this. For instance, I need a bunch of things surrounding me in order to be successful. I need a telephone, computer, a printer, a scanner, a copier, paper, writing utensils and various law books.  That is the minimum, and I want these items to be easily accessible. I am always concerned about my time and how much I am spending doing things that slow me down or are unnecessary. When you bill by the hour, you have to be efficient. I take a lot of pride in being efficient, and my office set up should (I hope) reflect this.

Can all of these things be made available easily? Yes. Can you put them just about anywhere? Yes. Does it matter if they are in your basement or in a $1,000 a month, leased office space. No.

Now, I know that there are many advantages to having a professional office space. I hope to have one some day. I don’t want to practice out of my home or virtual office forever. But, this blog is about how to start a law firm and when starting a law firm you need to survive.  The virtual office can be a great way to survive.

Chuck Newton, over at a blog I really enjoy called Third Wave Lawyer, has some great posts about offices built out of odd-ball materials like old office containers.  This is not an example of a virtual office.  However, they are cool and I invite you to check them out.

An example of my attempt to check out a virtual law office arrangement in Minneapolis is that I have researched on the internet and found some companies that advertise for virtual office space.  The traditional arrangement goes something like this:  you pay somebody a lower rate (say $200 a month) to have access to a conference room are other office space when you need it.  Think:  meeting with clients.  The rest of the time, when you are not using the office, you are working from home.  This is a virtual office as I understand it.

Virtual law offices are a great way to still have an office presence while still keeping overhead low.  Starting a law firm is all about maximizing profit and making wise decisions.  For many people, the virtual office is can be a very wise decision.

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Starting a Law Firm | Studying for (another) Bar Exam

As I have posted previously, when starting a law firm, you need to be licensed.  No brainer.  How do you get licensed?  You study mind-numbing information that is mostly irrelevant to the day-to-day obligations of running a solo law practice.

My perspective on the requirement of being licensed to practice law is a little different because I am already licensed in one jurisdiction (Indiana) while trying to be licensed to practice law in another (Minnesota & North Dakota).  I find the situation ironic and mildly amusing.  One one hand, I am running a small, but profitable, law practice out of my home.  On the other hand, I am studying for the bar exam (again) to try and learn legal principles I’ve never used in practice.  It is truly an odd feeling.

But, this blog is not supposed to only be about my journey to start and build a law firm.  No, this blog is meant to try and help anybody out there who has questions which I may be able to answer while they go from zero-to-hero (or some variation thereof).  Today’s question is how to study for the bar exam twice.

My perspective on studying for the bar exam again after a four year layoff is a little different from the first time test taker.  Foremost, the focus should be on studying and memorizing lots of information for the multi-state examination or the MBE.  The MBE is the real bear and it needs to have the most time spent on it.  (Caveat:  this is only my perspective from my own experience and from speaking with former exam takers). Focusing on the MBE means two things (1) know the substantive area of law and all the elements VERY WELL, and, (2) do as many multiple choice questions as you can.

If you can focus on these two things, and you successfully graduated from law school, I think you can pass the bar exam.  Furthermore – and this is a cliche I’ve found to be true – studying is a marathon and not a sprint.  I am currently training for a half-marathon and I know what that means.  It means work.  It means sticking to a routine and doing things over-and-over-and-over again.  It means not missing runs (MBE test) when you are scheduled to make those runs (MBE tests).

Now, the rest of the bar exam is not a cake walk.  You have to know the substantive law of your jurisdiction so that you can pass the essay portion and the MPT.  This means going to lectures and taking notes and not blowing stuff off.  As long as you have done this, you should be fine.  The essays are relatively straight forward law school type questions.  One interesting change is that the bar examiners now allow people to take the essay and MPT on their laptops in many jurisdictions.  This should be an interesting wrinkle, but I believe it is most likely for the best given how sloppy many peoples’ hand writing must be.  I know mine is terrible.

I’ll post more on these subjects as I go through the process, but those are my initial thoughts as I dive back into bar exam studying.  So, if you thinking about starting a law firm and how to start a law firm, think first about being licensed.  Think first about the bar exam.  Think about it a lot and go through the paces.  You’ll be fine.

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Starting a Law Firm | Website “Call to Action”

In trying to build and start a law firm in the best way possible, I have obviously been thinking a lot about law firm websites optimization and how to get client to my website.  A recent post on Lawyerist about designining a website “call to action” is very relevant to my law firm website goals.

As many of you many know, the Lawyerist is an excellent lawyer blog that has quite a few contributors.  It is a good site with good content.  I suggest you check it out.  Today, there was a post about having a “call to action” on your website.  The call to action, as I understand it, is getting the client to click on what you want them to click on – your name, number, and contact information.

I’ve thought of this before, but I’ve realized that I need to me more diligent about it.  My idea was to offer a free consultation and get phone calls that way.  People always call more if they think they aren’t going to have to pay for the lawyer phone call.   Thus, the free consultation button.  I don’t intend on working for free, but I have found that I can usually consult with someone for ten to fifteen minutes about their problem over the phone.  If it is a case I think I can handle, the client and I get along, and I think the client will pay their bill, that is usually when I try and make the sale.

But, is that enough?  I don’t really think so.  I have realized that I need to have more on my website to get people to actually pick up the phone or shoot me an email.  I’m going to work on it.  My law firm website currently has a logo section.  That logo is something I’m going to focus more on.  I also intend to include more information in the footer of the website for people to contact me when they are seeking legal services.

From a practical, marketing perspective, starting a law firm is all about getting the phone to ring and getting people in the door.  Being a good attorney and practicing in an ethical fashion are equally important.  I don’t intend to wait and I want to call all my potential clients out there to call and seek my legal advice and skill.