Category: Practice Development

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Starting a Law Firm | Law Firm Office Sharing

I have spoken with a law school classmate of mine recently about whether he might be interested in starting a law firm in Minneapolis, MN with me.  The basis for the discussion ultimately resulted in a decision that, when starting a law firm, it is probably best to not have a partnership at first, but, rather, an office sharing arrangement.

My friend is currently practicing law in a town within 100 miles or so where am going to start a law firm in Minneapolis.  There is an obvious logistical problem for him in terms of leaving a practice and starting over in an area where he can’t bring any clients with him from his current law firm. Furthermore, he has the risk of leaving a practice and going out on his own.  In other words, starting a law firm with me is not such a good gig for him.  But, I can tell he is interested.  So, we began discussing what it would take to start a firm together and make it work.

At the beginning, unless both attorneys have a self-sustaining law practice or a fairly stable “book of business”, it would be tough to partner-up right away and start a firm.  For instance, in my case, my friend has clients in Minnesota already and I do not.  Therefore, who do you think will have more work to do and more money to make for the firm right away?  That’s right:  my friend.  This may be a good deal for me, but it certainly wouldn’t be for him.

What is the answer to this problem?  The office-sharing arrangement.  This arrangement would mean that my friend and I would not form a partnership, but, instead, invest in an office together and set up different law firms within the same building.  We each would have our own separate corporate forms (LLC, Corp., sole proprietorship, etc), but we would share office space for purposes of helping with overhead.  In fact, this is the arrangement that my old firm had with another well-established firm in town.

Office sharing allows attorneys and their new law firms to keep law firm overhead much lower.  It can be a great thing.  It allows attorneys to share rent costs, secretary costs, utilities costs, and other general costs.  Think about it:  it would be wonderful to only pay 1/2 of the $1000 a month lease on a building or 1/2 of the receptionist’s salary.  As I said, my old firm had this arrangement.  I can also tell you that my old firm brought in several million dollars a year in revenue.  To me, that is pretty good money, and yet we were still in an office-sharing arrangement.  Of course, my old firm owned the building and was making money in rent from the other firm, but that is a pretty good arrangement as well.

The office-sharing arrangement would also give both of us the benefit of having another attorney around to bounce questions against.  This can be huge for battling isolation.  I can’t tell you how often I asked questions of other lawyers in my old office just to get their thoughts.  To be honest, that is one of the things I miss most as I practice law on my own.  The ability to have another attorney listen to your thoughts on strategy or other case issues can be extremely helpful.

Now, there are also ethical considerations that come into play when sharing an office with another lawyer.  My friend and I would need to make sure that we did not hold out to the public that we were somehow only one law firm.  We would want our names to be different and have it clearly established that, although we are in the same building, we are not the same law firm.  We would need to use our own malpractice insurance, letterhead, business cards, etc.

At the end of our discussion, we determined that an office sharing arrangement would probably be in our best interest.  If we later felt more secure with our practices, it might turn out that we would want to develop a partnership.  To be honest with you, I haven’t thought enough about why we might want to partner-up.  Perhaps hiring an associate and sharing salary costs?  I’ll put that one on the back burner for the moment.

Starting a law firm means making correct initial decisions about how your firm is going to survive and grow.  An office-sharing arrangement can be a great way to save money at the beginning on law firm overhead.  I’m always thinking about money and how to save it.  Sharing an office is certainly a great way to do that.  I’ll keep you posted on what my friend and I ultimately decide.  Even if my friend doesn’t leave his firm, the same benefits of office sharing can be applied to any attorney in town.

 

 

 

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Starting a Law Firm | Drafting the Legal Services Agreement

As I discussed in my previous post about withdrawing your attorney appearance, starting a law firm means that you are going to need to find paying clients and, after you find those clients, you are going to need them to sign a Legal Services Agreement.

When I began practicing, I didn’t have a good understanding of the necessity of a well drafted Legal Services Agreement.  It can save your butt.  It is very necessary and should be a part of your law firm’s forms files.  You do have a legal forms file don’t you? (I will talk more about form files in another post.)

The main purpose of the Legal Services Agreement is to outline the rights and responsibilities of you and your clients. Furthermore, your law firm needs to have a Legal Services Agreement for purposes of legal malpractice protection.  Your malpractice carrier will be good about reminding you of this.

There are also different kinds of agreements and you need to be familiar with all of them.  I have used several different kinds of agreements.  First is the hourly legal services agreement.  Obviously, this one outlines an hourly fee arrangement.  I used this agreement the majority of the time.  Second, ethical rules also call for a mandatory contingency fee agreement in certain situations.  I won’t discuss all of the situations in which a contingency fee agreement may be necessary.  Read your jurisdiction’s ethical rules on when these are required.  (As an aside, I recommend developing a legal niche practice so that you aren’t doing personal injury work and family law work interchangeably.  There are different agreement for each arrangement and you should try and be very familiar with an agreement in the area of your practice).

The actual content of the document can vary, but, at the least, the Agreement should clearly define:

(1) who the client is and who you are.  (this is important because you want to know who you are representing and the client needs to know that you are his/her lawyer)

(2) the scope of the legal representation (are you handling a divorce or are you handling a will contest?)

(3) the means of payment (includes your hourly rate and the general charging arrangement)

(4) the term (length) of the agreement (is it indefinite?  does it end after trial or on appeal?)

(5) the means for withdrawal by the attorney if client is not complying OR if a conflict arises

(6) the client’s duties to the lawyer and law firm

(7) the lawyers duties to the client

(8) a non-guarantee of outcome provision (I like this one because it lets the client know that I am doing my best, but that I don’t guarantee any particular outcome)

(9) applicable law provisions

(10)  any applicable jurisdiction specific protections (e.g.:  can you assert an attorney’s lien for non-payment, etc.)

Those are the basics.  Starting from the basics, you can (and should) then break down other necessaries depending on your law practice.  Different language or clauses should be predicated on your particular practice areas.

Here is an example of my generic hourly fee agreement:  AGREEMENT FOR LEGAL SERVICES

Starting a law firm means that you have to be careful of what clients you take.  When you do take a client, be careful that you and your client understand the scope of the legal representation.  Develop your own Legal Services Agreement that fulfills your law firm’s needs and change it depending on the scope of representation and the client you are taking on.

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Starting a Law Firm | Knowing Your Local Rules

Starting a law firm doesn’t just mean marketing your firm.  You won’t be in business very long if you don’t know the law.  The last thing you want when starting a law firm is to be faced with a legal malpractice lawsuit for failure to know and follow the law.

The law you know includes more than the state and federal law that you learned in law school.  The law also includes your jurisdiction’s state (county) and/or federal court local rules.  Failure to learn and know the local rules puts you at a huge disadvantage and will ensure that your initial efforts will not go well with your client, opposing counsel, and the court.  This is a really bad was to develop reputation.

Knowing the local rules also means that you are going to make your local judges happy.  Making judges happy is a good thing.  They know the rules and so should you.  In fact, your judge probably wrote a few of the local rules in your jurisdiction.  Many judges are often either on the local rules drafting committee or are giving direct insight into the drafting the process.  Believe me, it is your best interest for you and your new law firm to know the rules.

Also, knowing the local rules will surely put you at least on par with your local attorneys who have been in the community for a while.  You can be sure that those attorneys know the local rules and will not hesitate to use them against you.  Also, in my practice, I found that a number of attorneys (for whatever reason) tended to ignore the local rules.  This is not a good idea when starting a law firm.

I have a little sticky note in my office which says “I get paid to win”.  Now, that is probably not the end-all-be-all of how I want to represent my clients, but it reminds me that I am my clients’ advocate.  My clients don’t want to pay for my mistakes and nor should they have to.  What is a great way to make mistakes for your clients and hurt your new law firm?  Not knowing the local rules.  In my family law practice, I have both won key victories and lost some things because I did or did not know a particular local rule.  I can tell you that, although my clients didn’t know the law, they knew that I had won something for them or done a good job.

Building a successful law firm means a lot of things.  It certainly means developing a marketing plan, being ethical, and having experience – but it also means making a reputation for yourself.  One of the best ways to earn a reputation is by knowing the law and asserting your client’s position to the fullest.  That will get your bills paid, believe me. In my view, there are many different ways to “win”, but knowing the local rules (and the law in general) is one of them.  Don’t under estimate it.

When thinking about starting a law firm, don’t just think about marketing and planning the firm.  I know that is tough to do.  After all, your law firm needs clients first to make any of this matter.  But, I read a lot of blogs and other literature and they seem a little too focused on money and marketing your firm.  Don’t forget that when starting a law firm you need to be just as concerned with being a good lawyer.  In my experience, things will fall into place if you start with that as your rock.

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Starting a Law Firm | Filing and Withdrawing Your Attorney Appearance

In an effort to talk about some of the more practical aspects of starting a law firm, I wanted to talk about the filing and withdrawing of an attorney appearance on behalf of a client.

When I began practicing, I didn’t have a good grasp on what it meant to file and appearance for a client.  I knew I had to be competent and diligent in executing the case to the best of my ability.  I knew I had to act as an officer of the court.  I (thought) I knew I had to do everything in my power to protect my clients’ interests.  But, I didn’t know that I couldn’t just get out of a case if my client wasn’t paying me or because the client was difficult to deal with.

I am not saying that you cannot withdraw your attorney appearance if the client is not paying you or if the client is being unreasonably difficult which is hindering your good faith representation.  You can – IF the judge says you can.  If you file an appearance on behalf of the client, guess what, you are on the hook for being the voice of your client before the court no matter what.  That is a big responsibility and you should think of it that way.  This also means that client selection is hugely important.  It all really begins with that.

Most jurisdictions, and certainly Indiana (where I am licensed), require you to gain court approval before withdrawing your appearance on behalf of a client.  You must file a motion and support that motion with facts which meet your jurisdiction’s withdrawal standards.  You should also be VERY CAREFUL that you do not include facts that are going to hurt your client’s position because you still have a continuing duty to your client even if you are withdrawing.  Thus, don’t include a silly letter that throws your client under the bus if you are withdrawing.  There is simply no need for this. Furthermore, the judge may even set the withdrawal motion for hearing and you are going to be placed in the precarious position of supporting your withdrawal.

Now, what is the best way to withdraw without creating havoc for yourself, the court, the court staff, and your client?  Get the client’s approval.  Talk to your client about it.  Make sure you are on the same wavelength about the withdrawal.  This is important not only for your law firm and your client, but it helps keep a good reputation in the community.  You don’t want clients feeling dumped and bad mouthing your law firm – even if the client is a total nightmare who doesn’t pay the legal services bill.

Furthermore, you need to put your client withdrawal rights into your engagement letter and/or Agreement for Legal Services.  This is the document you have the clients sign and review when the attorney/client relationship starts.  There should be very clear language in those documents that delineates when and how you will be able to withdraw from representation; e.g. failure to pay you.  This is helpful for both withdrawing your appearance and for legal malpractice reasons.  In fact, I need to write a post entirely dedicated to the importance of the Agreement for Legal Services.

What I am trying to say is that you have to be above pettiness when starting a law firm.  This should sound obvious, but I practice with several local attorneys who sometimes don’t seem to understand this.  Again, as a lawyer, you are an officer of the court and you need to act like it.  I try (and big emphasis on the word try) to rise above the fray and be as ethical and as faithful to my clients’ best interests no matter how much I may want to act otherwise.  That way I hope my new law firm is ahead of the curve.

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Starting a Law Firm | The Client Call

I haven’t talked much in this blog about how to actually answer a potential client phone call (assuming you have figured out how to get the phone to ring).   Stated another way:   How do you discuss a legal problem with a potential client whom you would like to hire you for your legal services?  After all, starting a law firm means you have to get people to hire you to be their lawyer.

First and foremost, you owe the client a duty to be competent to answer their questions in a lawyerly manner.  Competency is Rule Number 1 for a reason.  Additionally, I hope you know that your discussion is confidential.  If, in the middle of the phone call, you realize you can’t give competent legal advice, say so, and refer the person to another attorney or source that may be able to assist them.

Second, you owe a duty to the client to charge a reasonable rate which is determined by the legal market prices in your community and your level of experience.  In other words, your quoted billable rate must be reasonable.

Assuming you are competent to handle the matter, you can feel free to listen to the legal problem and give legal advice.  The question I often have in my practice is how long I need to listen and to what extent.  After all, many people will try and pump you for free legal advice.  Starting a successful law firm is not about giving free legal advice.

But, to some extent, you should be willing to give the client time to initially discuss their problem.  The ultimate choice about how much time you give them is yours. In my experience, many attorney will do one of two things when a new client calls:  (1) not answer the phone at all and simply ask the client to leave a message or have staff talk briefly with them or, (2) answer the phone, but only talk to the client briefly before telling them to schedule an appointment.

I don’t think the approaches listed above are necessarily wrong.  In fact, I have done some variation of both at one time or another.  However, my policy is to give EVERY caller time to explain their problem.  I am not always perfect about it, but this is my goal.

Why is this my goal?  Because clients are people and people want somebody to listen to them.   People don’t want to schedule an appointment to have somebody listen to their problem.  They want somebody to listen and understand right now.  That is just human nature.

I have often told people that I feel more like a social worker or a psychiatrist, at times, than a lawyer.  Maybe this is because I have taken on quite a few family law clients.  If you start a law firm and don’t chose family law as a niche area, perhaps your experience or approach will be different.  Still, I have found that clients – whether in the family law field or another legal field – want to talk about their problem.  I believe that my initial obligation is to listen.

If you want to start a law firm, you need to know how to get clients to hire you and how to keep them.  Doing this often means that you have to be really nice to people.  If you can do that, I would bet that you are putting yourself far ahead of many other lawyers.  My guess (although subjective and I have no real proof) is that attorneys often don’t treat people with a lot of respect.  This is a big mistake.

Starting a law firm, means that you have to have people skills.  If you don’t, I wish you luck. Me, I am going to continue to treat the client with the utmost respect, as if they are the boss, and with the belief that I am here to cater to their needs (within reason).

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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 | 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 | Choosing Clients Carefully

When starting a law firm, you need to choose your clients carefully.  I realize that this is much easier to say than to do, but I can not emphasis enough how important client selection is.

In my 3+ years of working as an associate for a small general practice firm, I took on a lot of different kind of cases.  Probably too many different kinds of cases.  Regrettably, nobody ever told me to be careful about the kinds of clients and cases I took on.  I wish somebody would have because, for me, it could have been the difference between being a happy lawyer and being a miserable lawyer.

Clearly, if you start a law firm, telling yourself that you will only accept clients and cases you want to work on is a bit academic.  After all, you have to eat.  I also realize that I’m not always going to like all of my clients and they probably won’t all like me.  That is just a given.  But, being careful about client selection can make your lawyer life so much better.  My general rule of thumb is this:   don’t take on a dog just because it pays.

I wanted to write this article in my starting a law firm blog after reading a really interesting and well written article in my Indiana Bar Association magazine:  Res Gestae.  (I’d link to the publication online, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t have an online presence.)  The article is by a regular columnist, Donald R. Lundberg, and is entitled “Choosing clients wisely: a key to fulfillment in the practice of law.”  It’s in the April 2011 issue.

The article brought up some great points that I want to briefly summarize here.  The author advises that every time a new or old client brings your law firm a new matter, you should consider a number of things, including:

  1. Your Competence to handle the matter
  2. Past lawyer history on the case (are you the second or third or fourth lawyer on the case?)
  3. The client’s emotional connection to the case (are they too close and not able to distance themselves from it?)
  4. The problem dump (is the client wanting to dump their problems on you so that it is now your problem and not theirs?)
  5. The micromanager (this one should be self-explanatory)
  6. The needy client (also known as the constant caller)
  7. The non-payor and/or the slow-payor (in my experience, this one usually encompasses all of the above).
  8. Conflicts of interest (this one is obvious, but I point it out to say that it is also a good way to explain to the client why you won’t take their case)

That is the list.  I think it is a pretty good one.  There are probably other items to add, but I think you get the point.  Being a lawyer can be tough.  When you make yourself miserable by working on cases you don’t like, or for clients you can’t stand, your job starts to feel like a noose.  I’ve been there.  It’s not fun and I’ve thought about quitting the practice because of it.

If you are going to start and build a law firm you are going to need clients.  You are also going to work on some cases at the beginning that you probably won’t take later.  That is ok.  But, if I can recommend anything, it is to enjoy your job as much as you can.  Choosing your clients and cases wisely is the way to start your law firm the right way.