Category: how to start a law firm

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Starting a Law Firm | Online PR and News Releases

I’ve been noticing a lot lately that attorneys are announcing the opening of their law practice on online public relations web sites.  It appears that the purpose of the public relations web sites is to distribute it to other online sources and feeds.  The idea is very similar to the Associated Press (AP) news releases.

For instance, I subscribe to a Google newsfeed on starting a law firm.  I get updates daily on what is going on around the web related to opening a law practice.  Most of the articles are boilerplate, but I occasionally get something pretty useful.

When I get something useful, I try to share it with my blog readers.  Today there was a announcement by 28-year-old, Carl A. Taylor, III, that he was leaving his law firm job to start a law firm.  I was impressed for several reasons:  (1) he is young (28), like me (31), and (2) that he had his own press release.  I want a press release.  Not only that, but the article is well-written.  It is very much akin to an AP news release.

However, digging a little deeper, I noticed that the press release was distributed by PR Web – an online public relations and news release service.  PR Web is set up solely for the distribution of organic press releases.  It appears that you can write and distribute your own articles.  Pretty useful, I should think.

Maybe I am just behind the times, but I hadn’t thought of this yet.  Most law firm start-up advice sources recommend making some kind of a press release, but I wasn’t sure how. When practicing law in Indiana, I received several such annoucements from local attorneys who had just started their own firms.  However, those announcements were on letterhead and were sent to me in the mail.  The online press releases are different – they reach a much larger audience.

From my review of the PR Web website, it looks legitimate and well done.  There is a catch, it costs money.  There appear to be four different plans to choose from:  Basic, Standard, Advanced, and Premium.  Th Basic being one, simple press release.  It costs $80.00.  Is it worth it?  I don’t know, I haven’t done it.  I will say, however, that Carl Taylor III’s press release got to me.  Did I mention that he is in New Jersey and I am in Minnesota?  Seems to be pretty good distribution to me.

A more pertinent question may be:  is it necessary to issue a press release when you start a law firm?  It seems a little over-zealous to me.  But, my general opinion is that all news is good news.  In other words, it can’t hurt to get your name out there as much as possible.  Getting your name from New Jersey to Minnesota for $80.00 seems like a good deal to me.

What I am wondering now is how many press release websites are out there and what is the general pricing?  Are there any free sites?  Are there different options?  These are all question I don’t have answers to, but it appears clear that public relations and news releases on the web are an avenue I need to explore.

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Starting a Law Firm | Estate Planning Blogs

As I’ve discussed, my current legal marketing plan includes a lot of internet marketing. That means I have a lot of reading and writing to do and it is tough to come up with ideas about what to blog about.  That is where good lawyer blogs come into play.

What I don’t want to do here is make a complete list of all the lawyer blogs I like and currently utilize on my Google Reader.  What I will say is that many of the blogs I follow fall into two categories:  (1) lawyer start-up & practice tips blogs and (2) niche practice blogs in my practice area.  It took a lot of vetting, but I am very pleased with the information that I get from other solo attorneys.

I wanted to focus a little bit today on the blogs that I traditionally follow for my particular niche practice area – estate planning.  My practice focus includes family law and estate planning.  These two fields are often interchangeable and I find that a lot of family law clients need estate planning done or they have parents/siblings/relatives who are in need of estate planning.  Having a family centered practice means a lot of referalls if you treat your clients with the respect they deserve.

Without further adieu, here are my favorites for estate planning:

That is it for my current list.  All of them are very good, with, in my humble opinion, Ask Liza and Wills Trusts and Estate Prof Blog being the best.  Ask Liza is good for being diligent, helpful, and well written.  It is the kind of estate planning blog that every blogging attorney should model their practice related blog after.  The Prof Blog is exactly what it sounds like – a great blog written by a professor.  I participate in as much CLE as I can, but, for me, this blog keeps me up-to-date and feeling like I am on top of the law.

If anybody out there has specific blogs they like, I would appreciate a comment.  I’ll keep everybody updated on my reader list as it grows.  I will also talk about my specific starting a law firm reader list in a future post.

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Starting a Law Firm | Choosing a Practice Area Update

While waiting for bar exam results and scouting out other attorneys and law firms in Minneapolis, I realize I have some hard decisions to make before starting a law firm.

My wife, son, dog, and I are currently running our little family-base-camp out of Cannon Falls, MN.  She is a new doctor in town and I am currently a stay-at-home-dad and part-time blogger.  About the only thing I can do right now is reasearch and blogging for my chosen practice areas.

So, as part of my research into office spaces and specific areas where I can set-up shop, I realize I have A LOT of choices to make.

Some of my tough choices include:  which county is the best for my family law/estate planning practice?  Is a specific metro area better?  Should I try and have an office in a smaller town but advertise for the bigger town market?  Is there a median income range I should be going after for family law?  Does any of this matter?

In the effort to answer those questions, my wife an I are also trying to find a permenant home for our little family.  Cannon Falls is probably not an option as it is small and only has two deeply entrenched attorneys in town.  Plus, I don’t want to be a small-town attorney.

But, there is this wonderful little community close by called Northfield.  There are about 20,000 citizens, but there are also two fairly large liberal arts colleges in town:  Carleton College and St. Olaf.  It is also only about 30 minutes from the big city.

Fairfield is very pretty and has a cool eclectic mix of small town charm with the big city (Minneapolis/St. Paul) only minutes away by highway.

Another interesting (bad?) thing:  Fairfield appears to have A LOT of attorneys.  I counted over 25 attorneys in this small, 20,000 person, town.  Is it over saturated?  I don’t know.

Fairfield does have two campuses which likely means some criminal defense work.  There are also several nice manufacturing businesses in town, including the cereal-giant Malt-O-Meal.  These companies surely need attorneys.  I also noticed several general practice and family law specific practices.

Fairfield also sits on the border of Rice and Dakota counties in Minnesota.  Cannon Falls (15 miles from Fairfield) is in Goodhue County.  To me, this means that Fairfield has the potential to have a practice area of three different counties – which is a good thing.

So, at the moment, in my research into specific metropolitan areas where I can start a law firm, I have a new option:  Fairfield.  I like university towns.  They provide culture and interest in ways other towns do not.  Plus, I’m a sucker for liberal arts – I’m an English major by heart.

I’ll be sure to keep this blog updated on my decisions, but Northfield is definitely an option for starting a law firm.

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Starting a Law Firm | Slow Times

I’ve been away from this starting a law firm blog for a while.  Two reasons:  (1) my summer fishing vacation and (2) I’m waiting to get licensed in Minnesota so this blog becomes al little superfluous.  Regardless, my situation reminds me of the slow times involved with starting a law practice.

Summer is about fun for most ordinary people.  Lawyers (although some beg to differ) are ordinary people.  Lawyers like breaks too and the summer can provide them – in ways both good and bad.

Summer also means that other ordinary people don’t want to work.  They want to go on vacation.  If your law practice is at all consumer driven (family law, criminal law, debtor representation) you have probably noticed that the summer can often mean slow times for your practice.  It has for mine.

As I stated, I like to fly fish and the summer is a great time for this.  But, I always feel irritated when the practice of law slows down along with my monthly income.  My theory is that, in the summer, people either don’t want to think about lawyers and/or they are too busy doing fun stuff to worry about what they really need to get done.

In terms of my family law practice, on the opposite end of this spectrum is tax season.  My practice always picks up during tax season because people get their tax returns and can now afford to pay my retainer fee for a divorce, adoption, guardianship, child support modification, etc.  That is a good time for my law practice and I often feel overwhelmed with the amount of work I need to get done.

However, during the summer my practice slows down considerably.  While working as an associate out my ten-attorney law firm, summer also brought on slow times for our corporate clients.  Guess what that means?  The corporate client work slows down as well. During nearly four years in practice, I now know that June through August has always been some of my slowest months in terms of work done and money earned.

Which leads me to ponder:  maybe we lawyers should take a cue from our lack of clients, worry less about the billable hour and more about our mental and physical well-being during the slow summer months?  I’ll be the first to admit that I am not good at slowing down.  But, what choice is there if there isn’t much billable work to do anyway?

I’m making an assumption here that those of you reading this have already started a law firm and built a succesful law practice.  If you are just getting going and notice that the summer months are slow – be patient, refocus, and maybe have some fun?

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Starting a Law Firm | Learning From Our Founding Fathers

I like to imagine that starting a law firm is akin to a great, cosmic struggle for success, legitimacy, and the universal right to achieve.   What better historical event could I use as an example of this struggle than the founding of our nation?

Ok, a little heavy-handed, I know.  But, I was listening to an enlightening interview of the author David McCullough on the Charlie Rose show this weekend.  If you do not know him, David McCullough is a well-decorated author of American historical fiction. To me, he is one of the great story-tellers of our national history.  If you have not checked out any of his books, you should.  In particular, I read his biography of John Adams several months ago and have continued to be struck by John Adams’  sheer determination to do what is just, honest, and right for his family and his country.

Perhaps you are wondering why this is being discussed on this blog.  My answer:  John Adams was a lawyer.  Not only that, John Adams, from all accounts I have read, was an excellent lawyer.  Among other feats, he successfully defended the English militia on a murder charge after the Boston Massacre. Furthermore, for the majority of his practicing career, he was a solo attorney – he started his own law firm.

In the interview, McCullough made a comment to Charlie Rose that, out of all his books, he may have been the most satisfied in writing the John Adams book because he was immersed in the lives of such remarkable and momentous people who drafted our Constitution and shaped our nation.  His comment showed his appreciation for what these men and women were up against and what they managed to achieve.  I find this comment akin to taking a leap of faith and starting your own law firm.

Additionally, many of the founders of our nation were lawyers.  That fact is terribly cool.  They were not only lawyers, but they were the kinds of lawyers that many of us aspire to be. Though flawed, these men were faced with a dire situation which required clear, concise thinking about difficult legal problems.

John Adams, apparently, also did not believe that all men were created equal – he only believed that all people were equal before the law.  I agree with that.  I also take inspiration from Adams’ efforts to do things his way.  He disdained mob culture and following the leader.  Instead, he was the leader.  I agree with this.

Perhaps a little sentimental, but I find inspiration wherever I can.  Starting a law firm is tough and it includes failing.  But, through perseverance and being a nose-to-the grindstone leader, I know I can achieve what I want and so can you.

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Starting a Law Firm | New Blog Name

In case anybody cares and gets confused, I have changed the name of my blog to Going Solo | how to start a law firm.  The reason?  I am not licensed in the State of Minnesota (yet) and I don’t want to make an inference of any kind that I am.

Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct, in pertinent part, provide that:

RULE 5.5:  UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LAW; MULTIJURISDICTIONAL
PRACTICE OF LAW
(a) A lawyer shall not practice law in a jurisdiction in violation of the regulation
of the legal profession in that jurisdiction, or assist another in doing so, except that a
lawyer admitted to practice in Minnesota does not violate this rule by conduct in
another jurisdiction that is permitted in Minnesota under Rule 5.5 (c) and (d) for
lawyers not admitted to practice in Minnesota.
(b) A lawyer who is not admitted to practice in this jurisdiction shall not:
(1) except as authorized by these rules or other law, establish an office or
other systematic and continuous presence in this jurisdiction for the practice of
law; or
(2) hold out to the public or otherwise represent that the lawyer is
admitted to practice law in this jurisdiction

. . .

I read that rule as being black-letter and being pretty clear.  A blog is certainly public, and despite any disclaimers or other information in the blog, I could see the blog title being considered as a misrepresentation.

Serving as an example of how to practice law and how to blog in an ethical fashion is very important to me.  I felt that the name of the blog could raise an unethical inference that I am licensed in Minnesota.  Thus, the change.  I am licensed in Indiana and have been running my own small law practice in Indiana, and I will be moving to Minnesota, but that isn’t good enough.

This post is interesting (at least to me) for several reasons:  (1) it gives me an ability to discuss ethical blogging and (2) it gives me the opportunity to talk about advising a client when starting a law firm.  After discussing this issue with my wife, I made the statement to her that if a client called me and asked for my legal advice on this situation, I would tell that person, without any doubt in my mind, that they were taking an unreasonable risk and, whether or not their situation resulted in an ethics problem, they should not even consider taking that risk.  There is simply no need.

I did include a legal disclaimer in my blog that I am not licensed in Minnesota yet, but I doubt many people have read the disclaimer and I am not sure that it would be good enough.  Also, in my opinion, if you read the blog, it is pretty clear that I am only licensed in Indiana.  But, in my own law practice, I have often told clients that I don’t care how careful they have been – the law is simple and if you take the risk of violating a law, you can be hurt by that risk.  So, to be safe, I have decided to change the name.

As any of the readers of this blog know, I am hoping to be licensed in Minnesota by the fall.  I am sitting for the July, 2011 bar exam.  Assuming I pass the exam and become licensed in Minnesota, this blog will go back to its original name.   Until then, I will continue blogging about how to start a law firm under the Going Solo moniker.

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Starting a Law Firm | Law Firm Marketing Plan

Starting a law firm means that you have to know how to develop a legal marketing plan.  As I’ve discussed in prior posts about law firm marketing and legal internet marketing, the duty to market your firm never ends.

Now, this concept is nothing new, and I suggest you check out the Nolo Legal Marketing Blawg for a plethora of wonderful tips on law firm marketing.  I hope to add more to the excellent discussion on that blog.

To that end, I wanted to open a dialogue related to developing a legal marketing plan. You do have a legal marketing plan, don’t you?  At my prior law firm, a lot of discussion revolved around whether an attorney was a rainmaker or not.  Often, in my experience, this revolved around whether the attorney was actually a good lawyer.  What I mean by this is, there seems to be a conception that attorneys who are good at marketing themselves are not the best lawyers.  The rationale seems to be that lawyers who are good lawyers don’t spend time marketing because they are too busy thinking about the law.  I want to dispel this myth.  You can be a good marketer and a good lawyer.

First, solo lawyers know that they need to market themselves in order for their firm to survive.  I suspect that many firms have people who are more adept at rainmaking and they bring in business for all of the other lawyers in the firm.  This was certainly my experience as a firm associate.  However, I found I was bringing in a lot of work, but I wasn’t getting a lot in return – thus, the starting my own law firm gig and this blog (however, that’s another story I won’t digress on here).

Ok, so how do you develop a legal marketing plan if you are not at a law firm and there is nobody who brings in the work for you?  That is the rub.  The first step is focus.  What do I mean by focus?  I mean, you need to think about your niche area very strongly and then you need to market directly to that chosen niche area.

For my law firm, I have chosen family law and trust and estates for three main reasons (1) family law brings in immediate work which equals money and (2) estate planning is something I enjoy and would like to focus on full time at some point and (3) I have prior experience in these areas and I think I am good at them.  Are those the best reasons for choosing a niche area?  I don’t know, but I know that legal marketing means focus and I intend to focus on them.  I don’t necessarily recommend either of those areas – you should do what you like and what your are competent at.

So, once you have chosen your niche, you need to start to develop a legal marketing plan on how you will get others (your potential clients) to notice you and your law firm and then call you.  There are many different ways to get people to notice you, but you should be careful to be ethical and garner the right kind of notice.   You need to get your name out in your immediate community in a positive way.  This takes attending business related functions like the Chamber of Commerce in you area or other community/business related activities.  This means creating relationships.

Another good source of legal business is other lawyers.  Lawyers often have conflicts of interest or cases they can’t (or don’t want to) handle.  If you are starving, another lawyer may throw you a bone.  You may not want the bone, but, if you are just starting a firm, you need to take what you can get at first.  Thus, your legal marketing should be focused on things like bar association meetings, continuing legal education, and other practice related seminars and conferences.

I won’t go into all of the different areas for this post, I just wanted to give you an idea that you first need to chose your niche area and then drill down the focus.  I plan to continue writing about the theme of law firm marketing in this blog and this was the opening salvo on my ruminations.  Learning how to start a law firm and market your firm is an evolving process and I intend on sharing my thoughts as my law firm evolves.