Category: Practice Development

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Starting a Law Firm | Online fax resources for lawyers

While doing the due diligence and trying to set up faxing services for my law firm, I law firm fax number - Solo in Minneapolisdiscovered a nifty little comparison website for online faxing for lawyers.  Great!

I wanted to share my find with readers of this legal blog.

The fax comparison website is aptly titled www.faxcompare.com.  Cool!

The comparison site does a really nice job summarizing different pricing options for online or “e-fax” services.  I had heard of E-Fax and they do a really nice job advertising themselves.  The E-Fax service also looks great.  The problem?  It’s more expensive than its competitors.  It pays to do a little research.

I ended up choosing Extreme Fax – mainly because it appears to offer the most and it is cheap.  I don’t send a lot of faxes, but I have found that many attorneys either (a) do or (b) expect you to have a fax number.

I have also noticed that many online directories and websites that I have been signing up for have requested fax numbers for my new firm.  I was getting tired of saying “I don’t have one.”  It was kind of embarrassing.

Anyway, go check out the online fax comparison site.  I locked in a year’s worth of faxing for about $50.00.  If I use the service all the time there is likely going to be a cost; however, I don’t anticipate using it all that much.  Scanning and emailing is so much more efficient.  Yet, some curmudgeonly attorneys want to fax stuff to me.  Now they can.

Happy faxing!

 

 

-This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders, a Apple Valley MN lawyer who practices in the areas of family law and estate planning.

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Jump-Starting a Solo Law Practice

Carolyn Elfefant over at MyShingle.com has a post this morning titled “Crowdsourcing Advice for a Struggling Solo.”  She has included a letter asking for advice from a struggling solo lawyer in an east coast city.  The letter brings up issues that all solo attorneys struggle with.

Ms. Elefant asked readers to try and answer the attorney’s question, so I’m doing so here. To that end, here is the sanitized version of the struggling-solo-attorney’s letter as posted on MyShingle:

I am a solo with a practice in a large East Coast city. I handle real estate transactions, bankruptcy, divorce and general litigation. I started my solo practice three years ago, following several years of employment at a smaller firm. Initially, I was able to sustain a practice through referrals – although even then it was a struggle. But lately, I find that people don’t want to pay for legal services. I do an initial consult, but then the potential client will haggle over the price. In addition, the referrals come in spurts and I would like to find a way to produce a steady revenue stream.

I am updating the firm resume, adding a Facebook page, joining Linked In and I have started sending email updates to colleagues. But I would like ideas to jump start my practice – to start bringing in work right away while developing a reliable stream of revenue for the future.

To try and answer the questions, I’m going to strip the letter down to its most basic level:

Good things for a Solo Attorney:

  • The attorney indicates that he/she has been a solo for three years;
  • The person has some kind of referral base, although dwindling;
  • This person apparently has office space and necessaries like a receptionist, billing software, etc.

Bad things for a Solo Attorney:

  • Dwindling referral base;
  • Lack of steady revenue stream;
  • Potential clients haggling over price.

As Ms. Elefant states, there isn’t a lot to go on in the attorney’s letter, but the things I listed above are something all solo attorneys struggle with.  I know I have.

So, to try and help:  the attorney does have some things going for his/her law practice.  The attorney has the ability to be successful with the institutional tools he/she has set up.  These are all good things.

The rest of the issues seem to be related to marketing and client interviews strategies. Let’s start with the client interview.  The attorney is concerned about clients coming in for a consult and haggling about price.  This happens to me all the time.  That is what walk-in clients do.

If the attorney wants to continue to have a general practice dealing with every-day people, my suggestion to solve this problem is work on your selling skills.  I don’t mean sugar-coating the law or telling the potential client that they have a case when they don’t.  However, being overly nice to the client and making them understand how valuable your services will be to them is rule-number-one.  I don’t have a lot of problems closing and I think it is because I am overly nice, I explain the law in an easy to understand way, and I make the client knows that they and their legal problems are really important to me.

After that, I have found that having a credit card system usually helps ease the burden of a large retainer.  We aren’t told if this attorney utilizes credit card payments.  To me, credit cards are a must for a general practice attorney who is seeing people walking in the door.

Another client interview retention technique I use is the call back.  It works in one of two ways:  (1) I tell them to think about what they want to do with their loved one and I’ll wait or (2) I tell them that somebody from my office (usually me) will follow up with them in a couple days to see if they are still interested.  I don’t change my price, but I do explain the credit-card-system and I do take this additional opportunity to explain to them why I can be of service to them.  Basically, the client really wants to know that they are going to get something of value from us over-priced lawyers.

The second issue I see is the steady-revenue-stream conundrum.  Ah, the gold mine of solo attorneys.

My big suggestion for this is to find a practice area that caters towards steady-revenue. Once you choose one, you market towards it.  One idea is collection work.  Collection work allows you to be in court often and meeting with debtors on a constant basis.  It’s nickel-and-dime stuff, but it is work.  Also, if you have a large collection practice, you will begin to get good referrals from banks, businesses and other entities that are in need of fee collection – or, perhaps, better legal work.  Once this practice gets off the ground, you have instant steady revenue.  I’m not saying it is easy, but it is an option.

Another steady revenue option is getting on a public defender, indigent-person, court-appointed-appeals contract.  These are all steady revenue sources and they are usually available to struggling solos.  I try to get in good with my local judges, do a good job, and then let them know I am looking for work.  They usually want to help and they steer me business because I do a good job (I think) and they like me (I know).

Another idea is getting on a pre-paid legal referral network.  These networks can be dicey and you should check with your bar-association to see if they are legal, but they do work.  The pre-paid legal referral sources will always call you if you do a good job.  Try to get friendly with the support staff and they will really like you – thus referring steady business to you.

Finally, work your butt off networking at corporate/business functions and get yourself a great manufacturing type client.  These businesses always have need for a labor law lawyer.  The employees constantly have problems and/or the business always needs contract related advice.  This one is tough, but it can be a gold-mine, steady-revenue source.

I am not trying to say these options are easy.  They are not.  I have struggled with doing every one of them.  To me, law firm marketing means hustle.  However, what has helped me with the hustle is:  focus, being a nice guy, working really hard, and having a plan.

That is my two-cents.  I hope it is helpful to the struggling attorney.  If anybody wants to post here on their ideas on how to start a law firm and maintain it, please feel free to comment.

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Starting a Law Firm | Interview with Solo Attorney, Carl Taylor III

When I posted recently about start-up law firm press releases and Somerville, New Jersey Divorce Attorney, Carl Taylor III, I didn’t expect Mr. Taylor to actually notice and respond to the post.  I probably should have.

After some friendly back-and-forth exchange, we determined that an interview was the best way to go.

I haven’t done an interview on this blog before so this is somewhat of an experiment.  If anybody out there would like to do an interview at Solo in Minneapolis, I operate on a first-come first-served basis.

One of the discussion points was that we are both passionate about starting a law firm.  I have talked a lot on here about networking and getting your law firm name out there in whatever way you can.  Having an online discussion with a peer is one way to do this.  It may not bring work in right away, but networking gets your name out there, it allows you to create a dialogue, and it gives you an online friend who may be able to lend a helping hand in the future – all good for starting a law firm.

Without further adieu, I hope you enjoy my first interview with Mr. Taylor:

(1) What Got You Interested in Being a Lawyer?

In a way I always wanted to be a lawyer.   I was simply drawn to the profession, even as a child.  My best friend growing up jokes that when we were 10 he would say he wanted to be a professional baseball player when he grew up, but I said I wanted to be a lawyer.  But the goal of being a lawyer really became solidified when I was a little bit older.  My background is very “blue collar”, and my parents always worked so hard.  They had an unfortunate situation arise during that period in time, and they weren’t legally savvy enough to have it properly taken care off.  I always felt like they were taken advantage of by their attorney and the system in general.  So for me, it also became a goal of being an honest attorney, who would try and level the playing field for people in difficult situations.  And to a large extent that is what I’ve done as an attorney.

(2) What’s Your Favorite Part of the Job?

As not only an attorney, but a business owner, I like that every part of my day I am building something all my own.  I also like when I help someone in need, or help a client obtain their desired goals.  I pride myself on only taking cases where I feel secure that I will be able to effectively work towards the clients goals.

(3) What Advice Would You Give to Solo Family Law Attorneys?

I’m a solo Somerville NJ family law attorney.  As I have just started my solo practice, some of my advice would be as follows:

  • Expect the costs and expenses to start and run a firm to be higher than expected.
  • Have sufficient money set aside for the first few months/years when times are tight.
  • Take action, sitting around is not going to attract clients to your new firm.

For family law attorneys in particular, I would recommend trying to stay as level-headed as possible.  Few areas of law are more emotional than family law.  That’s why it’s best to try and be level-headed, to keep the case progressing toward an amicable resolution in the best interests of your client and any children from the relationship.  This is not always easy to do, but really important.

 

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Starting a Law Firm | Law School Start-Up Incubators

Law schools around the country have apparently woken up to the fact that many young attorneys are going out on there own and starting a law firm.  Perhaps its the economy. Perhaps the schools are listening and finally offering practice advice instead of dogmatic case law training.  What ever the reason, I say it’s a good thing.

Karen Sloan at the National Law Journal reported law schools across the country are now starting law firm start-up incubators.  In the article, Sloan discusses how a young attorney, Yogi Patel, has joined the City University of New York’s (CUNY) program that encourages providing low-cost legal service to the underserved communities.  CUNY offers lawyers a support staff, low rent office space for up to two years, and a network of solo practitioner mentors while lawyers start their own law firms.

According to Sloan, CUNY is not alone in having a law firm start-up incubator.  There are many other schools across the country who have or are starting these programs.  Although, interestingly, it appears the larger, more prestigious schools like Harvard are not interested in spending money on these types of programs.   For smaller schools, the impetus behind the move appears to be the economy.  The National Law Journal Article has this interesting quote from Dana Morris, assistant dean for career development at Maryland Law:

“Looking down the line at the economy, we knew we would have more students looking at going solo, and we were looking for ways to creatively meet that need . . . We absolutely did this in response to the economy.”

It is no secret that the economy is forcing a lot of lawyers to look toward starting their own law practice.  From my view, there has been a veritable explosion of law firm start-up related blogs and websites in the last three years (yes, I’m one of them).  This is probably much different from what Carolyn Elefant at MyShingle.com experienced when she started her much-read blog.  In the article, Ms. Elefant has some interesting perspective on the issue.  I, for one, am glad that law schools are finally taking notice and it is great that law schools may be changing their ways.

I do, however, wonder about the “serving underprivileged communities” aspect of the law school programs.  Does this mean that the students are operating as quasi-legal-aid-providers?  If so, these programs are not doing a whole lot that is new or different.  Most law schools have a clinic program where second and third year law students learn how to practice law while a faculty member (mentor) oversees their efforts.  To my knowledge, the law school clinics often serve those who could not otherwise afford an attorney.

Law school clinics and serving those that cannot afford legal services is great.  Society needs it.  I wonder, though, if these students are really getting a good idea of what law practice is like.  Working as an associate attorney at a busy, general practice law firm is much different than working for a legal aid clinic.  Dealing with clients who can afford your services is much different than working for those who cannot.  The issues that lawyers at private law firms work on are often very different from legal aid clinic services.  I have done work for both the borderline poverty level client and for the very rich client.  I can tell you, the issues are very different.

Ms. Sloan’s article didn’t discuss whether these students are eventually allowed to broaden their practice scope.  I imagine that there is some kind of contractual tie-in, where the lawyers agree to serve the low-income community for a number of years.  I have no problem with that.  However, I fear that these lawyers may get stuck in practice areas and serving only a segment of society.  If that is what they want to do, great, more power to them.

There are many ways to start a law firm.  If you can get your current or former law school to sponsor you and pay for stuff, you should jump on that deal right now.

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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 | Search Engine Optimization and Keywords

As I’ve discussed previously, a big part of marketing a start-up law firm is the use of the internet and search engine optimization.  When I say search engine, I mean Google.

According to one source, Google has an approximately 65% market share on search engine use.  I know Google is  my search engine of choice.  Furthermore, they appear to be set to be a major player in the smart phone market with their recent purchase of Motorola.

What does this mean for starting a law firm and marketing?  It means, that Google is important and you need to pay attention.  With their new foray into smart phones, you can bet that the Android operating system will be in high demand and will be a serious player in the market.  I’ve read a lot of articles which say that smart phone/cell phone operating systems are the future of computing and internet use.  Check out this post by MyShingle author, Carolyn Elefant, on making a legal marketing app. for smart phones.

There are a lot of lawyer blogs out there, and here is is the main reason why:  they help with search engine optimization.  Blogging about your chosen practice area creates an immediate link-back structure for advertising your law firm.  It is really that simple.

The main reason I blog is for marketing purposes.  This blog is not so good for marketing and I would call this a pet project.  It is something I enjoy doing and it does give me some link-back potential.  My other practice area related blogs are my main marketing sources.

My keywords are family lawyer and/or estate planning lawyer.  Those are basic terms.  I can branch out with other terms – and I do – but Google Keywords has told me that those are terms that people in the Minneapolis metropolitan area actually use.  Go to Google Keywords (Adwords now) and do some basic research on your particular practice area (New York, Miami, small town USA) and the drill down your search terms related to your niche practice (family, personal injury, etc) and you will see what people are searching for.

Once you figure out what your niche practice area is (mine is family law and estate planning) you use your area and start blogging with your keywords.  I’ve set up several legal blogs which market towards my practice area.  My task now is to put more work into them to start building keywords, links, and content.   Eventually, if I do it right, this will result in a high rank on the first page of Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.  That should also lead to telephone calls and new clients.  That’s it.  Pretty simple.

The hard part is blogging and blogging well.  Adding content and fresh articles to blogs is tedious work at times.   I’ve written about legal blogging for business and discussed why it is work.  Try it.  You better like writing.

Starting a law firm means going out of your way to do what it takes.  It’s a long slog and blogging is a big part of it.  The light at the end of the tunnel is that maybe you will build up a practice that means you don’t have to blog all the time.  Or, maybe you will enjoy the blogging/marketing aspect so much that new career opportunities will open up.  I can confidently say that I could probably get paid to build lawyer websites and do search engine optimization for firms.  It is a nice skill to have.

At the end of the day, lawyers need to be cognizant of the power of blogging, search engine optimization and the use of keywords.  Believe me, there are lots of lawyers doing this stuff already and it will become the future of legal marketing.  I don’t know about you, but I am going to catch the wave and try to be a front-runner.

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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 | 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.