Month: July 2011

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Starting a Law Firm | Finding time to Blog

Starting a law firm means that you wear many hats.  Perhaps too many?  It also means managing time can be tough and things get put on the back-burner that maybe shouldn’t from time to time – such as blogging.

Ok, this post is a total cheat and I apologize ahead of time.  I hate short blog posts, I don’t want to say anything unless I can put my full effort into it.  However, today my starting a law firm blog gets less effort because I am in extreme bar exam study mode.

The point here is that I want to blog, I like to blog, I hope my readers like this blog, but I don’t have time right now.  I know many of you probably struggle with this as well.  Blogging for business is important, but it means that you have to keep it up.  That is actually the whole point- you have to get content out there.  The blog (yours, mine, anybody’s) is like a little child that you have to feed and nurture otherwise it wilts and dies.  I don’t want my child to die so I am posting about not having time to post.

Anyway, I wish everybody luck on the their upcoming bar exams. I know I am very tired and want to just take the test and get it over with.  I don’t worry too much about passing, but I am still in the library everyday grinding it out.  The bar exam is akin to the practice of law itself – you just have to grind it out.  Good luck to everybody!

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Starting a Law Firm | Accountability

Starting a law firm means that the buck stops here . . . with you.  If you aren’t so good at being diligent and extremely forthright in everything you do, maybe starting a law firm isn’t such a good idea.

When working at my prior firm, I will admit that, as an associate attorney, I often had an unwise attitude that the partners were ultimately responsible.  I thought I could just work hard and try and generate a lot of business for the firm and everything would be fine. While that certainly made the partners happy and gave my wallet a boost, it didn’t lead to learning skills necessary to be a good lawyer.  I forgot, at times, to take ultimate responsibility for my actions.  Looking back on the experience, I realize that I often needed a lesson in accountability.

Accountability also means that the client comes first.  Always.  The client is the boss and you are their paid servant.  I don’t mean that they dictate your ethical and legal responsibilities, but lawyers are accountable to their clients and their case from beginning to end.  Now, if you are not getting paid for your legal fees, you don’t have to keep working for free, but you owe a duty to withdraw your attorney appearance in an ethical fashion as an officer of the court.

Accountability also means being there for your staff.  On more than one occasion, when I first began practicing, I have had issues with staff where I dictated a legal document or asked my assistant to do something and then I forget about it.  I may even have failed to read the letter I had dictated or, perhaps, the assistant simply misunderstood or just plain failed to complete something.

When this happens, I naturally got very frustrated with the mistake.  After all, I had just sent a legal work product that I knew contained mistakes to the client, opposing counsel, or filed with the court.  But, guess what, in the eyes of the law, the mistake was mine.  I signed the document.  I should have slowed down and read the document and corrected the mistake.  If I had realized my level of accountability, I would not have made that mistake.

Finally, I try to think about situations where others failed to be accountable to me and my law firm.  Have you ever, like me, spoken to court staff about a particular issue that they said they would do and, somehow, it never got done.  Have you ever asked for a title search on a parcel of real estate from the title company by Friday and never gotten it?  Have you asked your clients to bring in paperwork, sign a document, or generally be on top of things and they completely blew it off?  I would guess that many of you have experienced this and just shook your head in disbelief.

But, I often think of being a solo lawyer as being a babysitter for the mass of humanity.  People make mistakes and screw stuff up all the time.  I do.  I bet you do.  That is why there are laws and that is why I have a job.  If I can’t accept that I have to be accountable for the silliness of myself, my clients, and the judicial system writ-large, then I should get out of practicing law.  (yes, at times, I have considered it).

In conclusion, I try to be accountable every single day to myself, my clients, and my law firm.  Starting a law firm is a lot of work – but it starts with being accountable from the get go.

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Starting a Law Firm | Blogging for Business

Starting a law firm means that you have to market your law firm.  That is a no-brainer. I would guess that 75% of all legal blog posts out there in the blogosphere are related to law firm marketing in some way.

But, an equally important question is:  how do blog to market my firm?  In my case, there are so many different routes to choose and I question what is the most effective use of my time.  I struggle with these questions every day and I would guess that many fledgling solo practitioners do as well.  After all, time is what we sell.

During my struggle to start and market my law firm, I have been doing quite a bit of blogging.  I have discussed the purposes of legal blogging in the past, but I don’t think I have focused enough on why solo lawyer should blog.  Stated another way, should solo lawyers blog just to blog?  To be honest, I am not even sure that this blog and what I am writing at this very moment is “proper marketing”.  It may not be.

My point is that the blog is not just an outlet for thoughts and ideas about starting a law firm.  Or, rather, it can be about that, but such an effort is not very effective marketing.  If your read enough blogs and posts by other solos related to practicing law, you will probably notice one of two things:  (1) the lawyers actually want to give away good, well-thought-out advice or (2) the lawyers are trying to make money from the advice.  This blog falls into the former group (you may not think my blog is good or well-thought-out, but I am certainly not trying to make any real money from it).

However, I wanted to point out that I have separate blogs on starting a law firm AND for my specific pratice area.  I blog about starting a law firm because I feel like I have advice to give and because I actually enjoy it.  It keeps me a little more focused on what I need to do to be successful as a solo attorney.  But, it doesn’t bring in money.  What does bring in money (if you do it correctly) is blogging about a specific practice area and using key words and search terms related to your locale and practice area.  E.g.:  once I get licensed in Minnesota, my practice blog will focus on family law and/or trusts and estates in my particular area – Minneapolis.  Sadly, several attorney in Minneapolis have picked up on this and I have some competition, but there is still room for me in the market (I think).

If anybody is reading this and taking it actually following my advice, you too should blog.  But, I would recommend blogging about your chosen legal niche practice and then using key words related to your locale.  This is both difficult and fairly easy.  The difficulty is actually blogging consistently and staying true to your search terms.  The easy part is that you know way more than the average person or business who you are marketing to.  If you can write like a lawyer, you should be able to blog like a lawyer.

In this blog, I do it for fun (mostly) and because I hope somebody is being helped.  I felt very lost when I first started practicing and I was upset that the partners at my old firm apparently didn’t feel the need to train me.  Of course, it’s possible I didn’t listen. Furthermore, this blog does provide me with some search engine bonus because I can link to my website and other blogs through it.  I have been doing that effectively up until now because, again, I’m not licensed in Minnesota yet.  Rather, I’m suffering through studying for the bar exam, again.

If anybody wants to comment or ask questions about starting a law firm and blogging or how to set one up through WordPress, Blogger, or any other service, feel free to leave a comment.  The process is fairly simple, but it does take some thought and effort.

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Starting a Law Firm | Bar Exam = Minimum Competency Exam

As I stated in a previous post, before starting a law firm in Minneapolis, MN, I have to take the bar exam in Minnesota and get licensed to practice law all over again.  No, it is not more fun the second time around.

I will admit to being nervous.  I will admit to some paranoia.  I will admit to thinking about the dire consequences of not passing, and wondering what am I going to do with my life, and when will I ever make a living, and can my son be provided for if I don’t earn a living, and so on and so forth.  But, I keep reminding myself this one very important point:  the bar exam is a minimum competency test.  I’ll say it in a different way:  it’s a pass/fail exam.

I don’t know the exact statistics, but I’ll generalize and say that the national passage rate is high.  I’ll even tell you that in the midwestern states (Minnesota) the passage rate is very high.  92% of the first time test takers in Minnesota passed the exam.  Why would this be?  Because, while it is a difficult exam, it really isn’t that difficult to pass.

What is another good thing about this silly exam?  Test takers are competing against other test takers.  Yes, there is a model answer out there.  Yes, it will be better than most test takers’ answers.  Yes, some professor probably wrote it.  So what.  The test takers are not the professor.  The test takers are just like you and me.  Test takers are tired and they are under pressure.  Your fellow test takers also had to cram.  And, even better, I would guess 10% or so of the test takers didn’t study for the exam too much.  Guess what?  You did (or, at least, I did) and you will pass.  I would further venture to guess that those 10% that didn’t study much are the 10% or so who fail the exam.

That is good news for me and good news for all others who have studied.  I don’t know how much studying is necessary, but I do know that I’ve gone through the BarBri study program twice now and it’s tough.  The reason it is tough is not so much the material, it tough because of the time and effort it takes.  The description comparing it to a marathon is apt.  It is an endurance exam and people who want to pass must train.

But, assuming you’ve trained, the odds are that you will be just fine.  Again, you just have to pass.  I would guess that in law school, most student are worried about a certain grade – preferably an A.  On the bar exam, you don’t need an A.  You don’t need a B.  I would argue somewhat that you don’t even need a C.  You just need to pass.

If you are like me and you are anxiously awaiting passage and licensure so that you can start a law firm, I wish you luck.  If you are not like me and you just want to pass, I wish you luck.  I wish everybody luck, but, if you have trained for this exam, you don’t really need luck – you just need to pass.  Remain positive and focused and work hard.  The exam itself is gruelling, but, if you train, you can show your minimum competency and get on with the rest of your law practicing life.

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Starting a Law Firm | Being Patient

Starting a law firm takes a lot of patience and an involves an acceptance of a certain amount of controlled risk.  In other words, in the beginning, you need to be willing to work very hard to receive very little.

I will admit that I get a little melodramatic every time I drive by a restaurant that is no longer open or a store front showing an empty space where once there was a small business.  This got me to thinking about patience and the willingness (stuborness?, stupidity?) to get through the tough times with irregular pay when starting a law firm.

I recently spoke with another solo attorney the other day at a collection hearing.    I was trying to collect a judgment against his client.   We both understood that we were adveraries in terms of representing our respective clients, but there was also a certain amount of comraderie.  This is one of the things I really love about my job – actual professional comraderie in the face of strife.  This attorney also appears to be doing well and appears happy.   Anyway, we got to talking about starting a law firm and the things we didn’t like about large law firm life.  He also mentioned that he is very happy he left his old law firm where he was a partner and that he still very happy being on his own.  The discussion was pretty obvious, but he made some good points about starting and building a law practice.  The main one being the general advice that “it takes a couple of years.”

I have been doing decently at my own solo law practice while I wrap up client cases from clients that came with me from my old firm.  I have had work to do when I want it, but I have realized that networking and marketing needs to be a full-time, ever present job.  It takes time.  It takes a couple of years.  I think I am ok with that.  Luckily, I have always made marketing a big part of my practice – perhaps because I actually enjoy it.  As I’ve already posted, having a law firm marketing plan has helped my firm in a big way. Developing a niche practice has also been a good idea.  But, I have also fazed out my Indiana practice and will be doing this all over again in Minnesota.

In sum, I hope to be more like the attorney who kept at it and is still practicing as a solo attorney.  I also hope that I’m not easily satisfied and that I continue to stick with my desire and goal to build a thriving law practice.  I hope anybody reading this post feels the same way.

It takes time and effort and sometimes it is a difficult mental struggle.  Starting a law firm, is about patience, mental fortitude, and commitment.  In short, it takes a couple of years.

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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.