Month: March 2011

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Starting a Law Firm | Practice Area

After be questioned by my wife on why I wanted to start a law firm in Minnesota when I pass the bar exam, I wanted to post my answer to her completely valid question.

As I’ve discussed, I have always wanted to start my own family law firm.  I worked for a public-transit, integrated-GPS company called Siemens in my home town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa for about a year after college.  I got to see first-hand how lazy people are and how silly the corporate system is.  I decided law school would be a way to do my own thing and be my own man.  But, after experiencing the doctrine oriented, non-practice related, curriculum of law school, I knew I needed experience.  And I did.  I still do.  But, after a little over three years of general practice with a focus on family law, I think I’m read

I want to start a family law practice because I know family law and/divorce work, I think I am good at it, and divorce and family work is one of the easiest way to generate billable hours and revenue to get a law firm going.  I also want to serve my clients to the best of my ability and help people in need.

Do I always want to do family law?  No.  Do I ever want to completely phase it out? Probably, not.  Do I need clients right away to be self sustaining?  Absolutely.

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Starting a Law Firm | Bar Review Course

Taking the bar exam is not fun.  Taking it twice is really not fun.  As I’ve already posted, I’m taking the bar exam again and hope to admitted in Minnesota.

In the effort to start a law firm, I have to actually move to the area and take the July, 2011 bar exam.  Yay!  So, in preparation, I am signing up for BarBri review again.  Double yay!

My justification for using BarBri again is that I took it once before and passed the Indiana bar exam.  Some might ask:  Since you passed 1 bar exam, can’t your just study your self and pass another?  The answer:  Maybe?  As an attorney, I am very risk adverse and the way to control risk is to do what you know works.  So, the answer is BarBri – I signed up today.

Which gets me to the point of this post.  I spent $2,615.00 at the special alumni rate to take the full course, plus the mobile upgrade.  I get a significant discount on the tuition as an alumni, but I am in Indiana so I need to sign up for the mobile option because I don’t want to move to Minneapolis for two months.

And there is a catch – the BarBri mobile has a $295.00 upgrade fee and a $200.00 refundable deposit fee for a IPod Touch.  There goes my alumni break.  I get to watch the lectures and get materials on the IPod Touch they are going to ship to me.  So, being an alumni is starting to look less good.

I would be ok with the obvious Apple-in-bed-with-BarBri deal, but I’ve already got a Google smart phone.  Why can’t they send me the software to the phone I already have and like?  Well, because Apple wants to make money silly.  I would even be ok with that, but now I am wondering how fun it will be to watch BarBri lectures on a 3.5 inch screen!  This could be seriously bad.  If any of you have taken the BarBri courses before, you know how awful those lectures are.

That pretty much ends my rant.  Check out this funny video on how wonderful BarBri is.

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Starting a Law Firm | Firm Technology

When thinking about how to use technology to help me start a law firm, I have come across some really cool, free, ideas.

I know I discussed MindMeister already in a previous post, but while using the brainstorming tool on MindMeister I was referenced to Yahoo Widgets.  I’ll admit that I am not one for gadgets, but I really liked this one.

I have trouble keeping my thoughts organized and I am always coming up with what I think are great ideas.  Sometimes I actually write them down.  Sometimes I put them in an email and email it to myself.  All of this is very disorganized and often doesn’t lead to much.

But, the MindMeister brainstorming chart I am using is linked to a Yahoo Widget called Geistes Blitz.  Being a German student in high school, I knew “geistes” meant mind.  So, the widget is a mind blitz or, put another way, an idea capturing tool that sends all my starting an Minneapolis family law firm ideas to my MindMeister chart.

Pretty cool huh?

This way, if I’m working at my computer or surfing the web for helpful information on starting a family law firm, I can pull up the Geistes Blitz, type in an idea and/or link and it automatically goes to the marketing section of my chart.

This may be kind of lame, but I find this kind of very helpful for idea organization when starting a law firm.

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Starting a Law Firm | Research on Family Law

It’s tough knowing where to begin when trying to start a law firm.  I know I will be opening up my own family law firm once I become licensed, but I don’t know what the best route to get there is.  There is so much information and it is hard to categorize.  It is a lot like my frustration with the internet – too much information to comb through to get to something that is really useful.

So, I am going to try to come up with a listing or categorization of steps to take when planning to start a family law firm.  One really helpful tool that My Shingle turned me onto is MindMeister.  It is a graphing tool to help you brainstorm how to start a family law firm and organize those brainstorming ideas.

 

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Starting a Law Firm | Naming Law Firm Part 1

This is an often discussed topic, but I am having trouble choosing a name to start and build my law firm.  I am going to be a solo practitioner so something with name seems right.  However, isn’t it a little cliche?  I was thinking of something with my initials.  That might appear to be a little more professional while giving the impression of an established firm.  Of course, I don’t want to get into any trouble with false advertising as a family law lawyer.  Check out this interesting post from My Shingle for what not to do.  Of course, I could always wind up a Supreme Court justice.

I won’t tell you my initials, but I will say that a firm in Chicago is already using them.  I won’t be practicing as a family law lawyer in Chicago so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.  I will also say that I don’t plan on saying anything like Joe Lawyer & Associates.  If and when I get an associate or partner, I’ll use it.  Not until then.

Also, while I’m on the topic of names, I had considered whether the location starting my family law firm should be in the name.  I have noticed a lot of joelawyerinnewyork type of names.  Could it be a good idea?  One interesting idea is using a thesaurus and start bouncing ideas around.  I’ll keep you updated and all suggestions are most appreciated.

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Starting a Family Law Firm

Welcome!  This is the first blog posting on what I hope to be a long line of interesting posts on starting a family law firm.  I’m currently licensed to practice law in Indiana, but my wife and I will be moving to Minnesota area in August of 2011.

I am sure a lot of you might question how I am going to start my new family law firm and doing divorce work in Minnesota when I’m not even licensed there yet.  I plan on taking the July, 2011 bar exam and, with luck, I will pass and be licensed in September or October, 2011.  Despite a lot of trepidation, I did just fine on the Indiana exam when I took it in 2007. Taking the bar exam is a nerve wracking and largely painful experience.  However, once I studied hard and did thousands of multiple choice questions, passing really isn’t that difficult.

So, assuming I can pass the bar exam, I aim to start right away on planning for my own solo family law firm.  I have been following several blogs and purchasing books to prepare.  One of the best blogs is My Shingle.  I continue to be surprised on how good the content is and how helpful My Shingle is on the issue of starting a law firm – be it a family law firm or not.

My short bio is that I am a graduate of the University of North Dakota School of Law in 2007.  I moved with my wife to Indiana shortly after graduation.  My wife is currently a resident, family medicine physician, but has just been hired by a medical group in Minnesota.  While in Indiana, I practiced law at a general practice firm for a little over three years.  I gained a ton of experience and focused about 60% of my practice on family law. In fact, I still have several cases upon which I am handling out of my home, basement office.  I always had the idea in the back of my mind that I really wanted to start a law firm (even in law school) but I knew I need experience first before I would be comfortable starting my own family law firm.  I can’t say I’m completely comfortable, but I am excited.

I plan on posting often on my journey of starting a family law firm  – everything from the planning stage, to actually running the family law firm.  I’ve learned a lot since graduation and I am going to try to share some of what I learned in this blog.  Stay tuned!