Category: Odds & Ends

I’d like to make this a regular post here on Solo In Minneapolis:  “Advice From My Dad”.  As this is the first one, we will just have to wait and see.

I’ve talked to my dad quite a bit about starting a law firm.  He is interested, but I can tell he is worried about me making it.  He started his own consulting business when I was younger (I’m thinking this was like twenty years ago).  It didn’t last.  He said he made good money for a couple of years, but he ran out of clients.  So, I worry about getting and keeping clients too.

He also told me that he may have made it but that he had more important things on his mind:  his kids.  Now, I should say that my dad and mom were divorced and, at the time, my dad was raising my two brothers and I.  The point is that my dad started a business and it didn’t work out for him for many reasons – a big one being that he had three little boys to raise.  As I just posted, I’m worrying about starting a law firm and  raising a little boy.

So, there is one lesson from dad.  Here is a second lesson:  my dad and I had a long talk a couple months ago about life.  Ok, it wasn’t a long talk, it was mostly fishing and baseball with some fatherly advice sprinkled in.  Is it me, or is that how everybody talks to their dad about important things?

Anyway, during this conversation he said to me that when he was younger he used to think he had to have “all his ducks in a row” – or something like that.  He also said that, now, he doesn’t care as much about the little things – life is too short.  I am paraphrasing but you get the idea.

What he was trying to say to me is that I worry too much about everything and that I try to hard to make things perfect.  Things aren’t going to be perfect – that is life.  I think about that a lot when I think about starting a law firm and practicing law full time.  I’m not going to be able to make everything perfect.  I might even fail.

But, that kind of advice from my dad keeps things in perspective for me.  It has given me a peace of mind.  I can’t do everything and I can’t make everything perfect.  I know it is cliche, but, hey, it’s from my dad.  When I think about starting a law firm, being a good lawyer, being a good dad, and all the other things I need to do, I try to remember that advice.

That is the whole deal there:  “you never have all your ducks in a row.”  Thanks dad.

As a follow up to my previous post about search engine optimization about starting a law firm, I wanted to share some interesting news.  Apparently Microsoft’s Bing has teemed up with China’s major search engine, Baidu.

The search engine prognosticators appear to feel that this is a major step for Microsoft to compete with Google.  As I posted, Google still has a large market share in the search engine department, but Bing has been making in-roads.

It may just be me, but I don’t tend to focus on Bing much for law firm search engine optimization purposes for my website, flanderslawfirm.com.  Maybe I should?

I wanted my readers to be aware of this case, Attorney Grievance Commission v. Gregory Raymond Keiner, where an associate attorney, in preparation for opening a law practice, was disbarred in Maryland for destroying client files and information from the law firm he worked at.

According to the grievance commission report linked to above, Keiner was an associate attorney at the Law Offices of Evan K. Thalenberg from 2002-2008.  He worked as a litigation associate in what appears to be a busy and successful lead paint, personal injury law firm.  The disciplinary commission opinion states that he was making $268,7000 in annual income in 2008 – the year he planned to leave the firm and open his own law practice.  He was attempting to bring clients with him and purposely falsified client files in the possession of the firm before doing so.  The opinion states that he deleted information such as the blood level toxicity reports on several children so that it appeared they did not have poisoning.  The opinion also states that from approximately June 2008 to March 2009, Keiner altered or deleted client documents and files in an effort to make it appear that the cases were weak in terms of whether his firm should handle them.  Three judges voted to suspended Keiner while the majority of four voted in favor of disbarment.  Keiner argued that his misconduct was caused by depression and alcohol dependency, but judges did not find that the dependency caused a “serious and debilitating mental condition.”

When I first read a article about the opinion at BNA.com I was surprised that an associate trying to start his own law firm would be disbarred for trying to take client files with him.  It seemed a bit steep.  But, when you go read the opinion, it becomes pretty clear that what Keiner was doing was in violation of Maryland criminal and ethical law and that his actions were, in my opinion, over-the-top unethical.

I wrote a post here in the past about opening a law practice and informing your clients of your move when you start a law firm or relocate to a new state.  There are clear rules on what needs to be done in this type of situation and the rules certainly have nothing to do with destroying client information and stealing client files from your old firm.

This case should be a lesson on what not to do for any attorney out there who is thinking about starting a law firm.

Starting a law firm means working efficiently with your time.  After all, most practicing attorneys bill-by-the-hour and, at a certain point, using your time in most efficient fashion means earning more money.

To that end, most law firms have developed a system of using prepared forms.  The form file is a place where hard copies (or, as is more likely in this day in age, digital copies) are commonly stored.  Often, the the staff – paralegal, admin, and other support – will be responsible for the maintenance and storage of the forms file.

Examples of documents that would be in a form file in a family law practice are a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, Summons, Certificate of Service, Petition for Provisional Orders, Petitions for Restraining Order or Domestic Relations Order.  All of these are documents that are used often in a family law practice.

Once the attorney has drafted these documents to his or her liking and in compliance with the law, the forms can be saved and stored for future use.  The forms will have the basic legal information that must be in every document.  For example, a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage will contain things like a caption, the cause number, jurisdictional requirements, a general statement for reason for divorce (“irretrievable breakdown”) and other pertinent legal information.  As an aside, if you are not sure what is required in a specific form, your local law library is sure to have many such forms in horn books or pre-prepared for the general public.  The forms will not contain basic client information like names, addresses, age, date of birth, social security numbers, etc.  That information can be plugged into the form by staff after the initial client interview.

I often conduct the initial client interviews when the client first comes in.  Assuming the client is going to hire me and pay me a retainer, I either take down their information myself or have someone on the staff do it.  I also have pre-made intake forms that ask basic client questions like name, address, etc.  Once I have conducted the interview, I will then ask the staff member to make a basic divorce form packet for me so that I can review it and then file it with the court.

Using the form file in this way saves a great deal of time and is very efficient.  The client is also happy because his legal documents get prepared quickly and he can sign the documents quickly. Using a forms file also means that you prepare documents more quickly and may be able to meet a quickly approaching court deadline – like a statute of limitations. Attorneys certainly do not want to be working from scratch when they are under a tight deadline.

Knowing how to work quickly and efficiently is the name of the game.  Knowing how to start a law firm and what it takes is an essential part of running a thriving law practice.  Over time, efficiency becomes more and more important as your schedule gets busier and busier.  Being very busy is a blessing and curse.  However, having a forms file will always be a good thing.

If anybody would like to post on this topic, I’d welcome the discussion.

I was combing through the ABA blawg listings when I came upon a popular article listing link. Doing a quick perusal on what was popular, I noticed an article that asks “if you had to do it all over again, would you choose law school?”  Certainly an interesting topic.

Now, I generally hate these kinds of backward thinking, retrospective articles or blog posts. They cheapen things.

I will admit don’t always like practicing law.  At times I have hated it.  There is nothing I hate more than a client who calls constantly for no other reason than to have someone to yell at.  That sucks.  I also hate opposing counsel who seem to enjoy rubbing my nose in the dirt because they can. That sucks.

But, I refuse to look back on my decision as a mistake.  Practicing law can be a lot of fun.  I don’t have any experience as in-house counsel or working in the public sector.  I’ve never been a prosecutor.  I don’t know much about politics.  But, all that stuff sounds interesting – and it’s out there if I want it.

For now, what I do want is to run the show.  I want to build something.  I want success and I want failure.  That is life.

I was riding my bike this morning and I had the thought:  “if BIGLAW offered me $100,000 right now to come work for them, would I take it?”  The answer, I am happy to say, was emphatically “no”.  Furthermore, the answer is no because I still like being a lawyer.  I will admit that I have only been at this for 3+ years, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of somebody coming into my office, asking for my advice, paying a retainer, and letting me be of service to them.  What other professions gets to do that?

Talking with my family members who are not attorneys, I know that they don’t always like their jobs.  I know they have also had some bad jobs where they are mistreated, bored, under-paid, and over-worked.  Guess what?  They are not lawyers.  They are just people grinding it out and using their chosen degrees.  I’ll be the first to admit, work can suck.  Plain and simple.  As my dad says, work is a four letter word.

Despite all of this, I can honestly say that I am excited about starting a law firm and trying my darndest to make it.  Maybe I won’t.  Maybe I will give up and regret the decisions I have made.  But, I doubt it.  There are times in life when you get that little feeling that what you are doing is right.  I know that, for me, starting a law firm is right for me and having a law degree was a good decision.

So, let’s here from you:  would you choose law school again?

As a legal blogger and somebody who is still wrapping his mind around the virtual world, I wanted to clue readers in on a great article in the Minnesota Bench & Bar on Social Media for Lawyers.

I don’t have much to say other than it’s a good article on the issues (confidentiality, conflict of interest, possible litigation) involved with lawyer use of social media.  I won’t add commentary, go read the article for yourself.

As I’ve stated in the past, if you want some really good advice on legal marketing go to the Nolo Legal Marketing Blawg written by Carolyn Elefant.  In my humble opinion, she is as good as it gets on legal marketing in today’s blogoshpere world.  I’m just going to add my two cents on what has worked for me and, also, what I plan to do in the future.

Below is my current legal marketing plan in a nutshell (caveat, it needs work, but I’ve had two cups of coffee and feel like writing):

(1)  Foremost, we live in a digital age and I plan to use the internet as my number one marketing tool (at least from the start).

(2)  Assuming I can establish a foothold here in Minneapolis, I then plan on scouting out attorneys in my practice area for the old get-to-know-you.

(3) Next is researching and joining organizations which enable me to network effectively.

That’s it.

For item number one, I plan to use the internet and its search engine capabilities to get a lot of buzz for my website – flanderslawfirm.com.  I’m not very happy with the law firm website and I plan to redesign it with a law firm website “call to action”, but the website will due for now.  Also, as I talked about in a prior post, I have taught myself how to design websites now and I think I can update my site as needed.  I may change templates entirely.

Anyway, I’ve also talked about blogging for business and why I blog.  To be honest, I don’t think I am very good at the whole blogging thing and I need to be more focused.  This blog is essentially an outlet for my thoughts, so please pardon any rambling.  Blogging for business allows you to build a link-back structure which eventually leads to your firm’s website.  (Of course, your firm’s website is an entirely different animal and I won’t cover that so much here – basically, get your contact information in the correct spot).

This blog is newish and only has a finite number of posts.  I am getting some good SEO recognition on Google and other search engines and that is not by accident.  However, I don’t have much of a pagerank yet.  Pagerank influences the ability of my blog to link to my website and move my website up in terms of search engine recognition.  I am working on pagerank and it takes time and effort – essentially blogging a lot with good, well-written content.

Beyond pagerank, I do have law firm blog network of sorts that will all be pointing to my law firm website.  This is user generated content  (or USG in the industry).  I am trying to make as much USG as possible while I wait to be licensed in Minnesota.  I don’t have to pay anybody to do this and it really does work.  It takes up my time and is rather tedious, but it does make me feel connected when I am otherwise isolated.

So, I continue to blog on this starting a law firm blog, and I also have one other estate planning blog at the moment.  I plan on moving on to family law (my main practice area) but I haven’t gotten there yet.  One problem I have been having is that I bought several domain names that are location specific (Minneapolis) but I am not licensed in Minnesota yet.  I can make a generic blog with no location specifics but that is essentially pointless in terms of generating traffic to my website.  However, as I have stated, getting content up is king in the blogosphere and I can always make changes to content later.

There is my initial interenet legal marketing plan in a nutshell:  user generated search engine optimization. Or:  USG = SEO.  There are many books on the subject an I suggest you go buy them and read them.

(2) Networking with other lawyers.  This one is straight forward and simple.  However, in practice, it is harder than you might think.  I am young (31) and a lot of more experienced attorneys have their networks firmly established.  This means two things for me:  (1) I can get the older attorneys cast off work and (2) I can network effectively with younger attorneys who generally have less referrals to give.

In terms of the older attorneys:  I have found them to be a mixed bag.  Some will help, others won’t.  Some don’t care.  Some care, but they don’t have much work to give.  Essentially, networking at this level is all random, but it is useful.  It gets my name out there and it does result in some referrals.  If you get one and take the case – no matter how bad the case –  you MUST do a good job on it.  If it’s a dog and the client treats you badly, don’t network with that attorney anymore.  If it’s a decent case, but not great, do a good job and make sure the referring attorney know it.  Take that attorney out to lunch or something, thank them, and ask for more work.  After that, repeat the cycle, make friends, etc.

In terms of younger attorneys:  I love this bunch.  They know what it is like to be starting out.  However, they are also a mixed bag.  Some are helpful in terms of someone to talk to, but have no business to refer.  Some have business to refer, but are not going to refer it.  Some have no clue.  What I like to do with this group is simply make friends.  Eventually these friendships will cause work to come in.  Have fun with them.  Go to lunch a lot.  Go golfing together.  Whatever.  Just make yourself known in that group and try to be the hub or really helpful person.  Organize the lunches.  Organize the golf outing.  Networking is about being the go-to-guy.  It’s work, but it also brings in work.  After that, repeat the cycle, make more friends, etc.

(3) Joining Organizations.  This is a tough one for me.  Which organizations are the good ones?  Am I looking for referrals or am I simply trying to get my name out there in the community?  Both are necessities, but certain organzations often don’t provide both.  I’d like both.

In my prior practice, I was on the board of directors of a major community child services not-for-profit.  It was great for name recognition, but not so much for referrals.  However, I got a lot of satisfaction from doing it and really enjoyed the people.  The work was fulfilling in a way that the practice of law was often not.  This was good for several reasons and I aim to join a similar group in Minneapolis.

I was also in Kiwanis.  I didn’t enjoy Kiwanis as much.  It was good for community recognition but it lead to nearly zero referrals.  This may be because I wasn’t very interested in the group and it probably showed.  My excuse is that I was a little too busy, but I regret doing something when my heart wasn’t in it.  My life is too short for that.

So, with my prior organization-joining-experience behind me, I now plan to join organizations that (1) I have a high level of interest in and (2) that I really want to get involved with on a detailed level.  Again, joining these organizations does not necessarily bring in work right away.  That is ok.  It serves to get your name out there in the community, generate a possible referal base, and may give you something to do while your practice builds.  Remember, it is going to be slow at the beginning and you need to have something to do.  But, don’t get sucked in too deep.  Remember that the purpose is to help your fledgling law practice.  If you forget that, you may find yourself running charity auctions every other weekend instead of bringing in billable business.

Those are my initial thoughts on a legal marketing plan.  Simple, I know.  But, I have found that simplifying is often the best thing I can do.  It creates focus and an objective.  Starting a law firm is all about focus on practical level.  You need to generate revenue right away and this means getting out in the community and hustling.  Believe, you will be surprised out how well the hustle works.