Rural Lawyer v. Big City Lawyer

I’m struggling a bit with my practice area focus.  No, not my legal practice area, my firm location area.

I live in a small town just off the fringes of the Twin Cities.  I’m closer to St. Paul than to Minneapolis but it is all relative.  I have gotten several clients out of most of the Twin Cities counties and I am meeting with someone next week in Minneapolis.  I (try) to practice mainly in Dakota County but I get calls from all over the place.  I don’t have a network built up so I am kind of flailing a bit to try to establish something.

Blah, blah, blah.

The point I am trying to make is that starting a law firm is hard.  There are so many decisions to make and I constantly wonder which are the right ones.  I had/have a business plan, but so what?  Plans are great until you realize that logistics of practicing law make things a wee-bit difficult at times.

One thing I can say for sure – I have to develop a network.  Doing that takes time and a lot of energy.  Sometimes I don’t think I am up to the task.

My big problem right now is where do I establish that network?  I know several attorneys, financial planners, and bankers in the cities.  They have been helpful (somewhat) in mentoring and referring a little business.  Yet, I often find that the people I meet and like are in the small town where I live.  I find myself – somewhat accidentally – building a network where I live.  Big surprise huh?

I go to church in a small town, I joined a service club in the small town, everybody I meet seems to be in the small town.  You know what?  I like these people.  I want them to like me and put their faith into me.  It feels genuine.  People need estate planning and probate lawyers in small towns.  People need family law attorneys in small towns.  Banks need attorneys to draft contracts, real estate documents, etc.

A lot of my marketing efforts have been targeted towards getting clients in the Twin Cities and that has worked – sort of.  Business is not fast, but I have clients and they do pay me.  Yet, I definitely haven’t “made it” yet – if that ever happens.  I’m struggling right now with how, when, where, and why to market myself.  Should it be big city or rural?  The target population in my small town is, you guessed it:  small.  Yet, there are only a few attorneys and they are getting older.  I keep hearing that maybe they will retire.  It sounds to me that there is a need for an attorney in my small town.  So, I should grab that opportunity right?

Bruce Cameron over at Rural Lawyer provided some great tips to me on that front.  I really appreciated his candid thoughts on the issue.  After reading his post, I think I agree that lawyers can market themselves and try to get clients everywhere.  As he says, that is what practicing law on the urban fringe is all about.

Therefore, I think I have decided to market myself and network as much as I can in my small town.  We will see what happens.  It takes time out of my suburban/Twin Cities marketing efforts, but it feels better.  It feels right.  I want to practice law for several reasons: one is to make money, but another big reason is because I like people.  I want to feel like I am a part of a community.  Being a small town lawyer provides that kind of feeling.

Staring a firm is all about choosing the proper place to expend your energy.  After all, unless you have a huge budget, it is just you.

Solo in Minneapolis has a New Look!

For any of my readers who care – I am redisgning this blog.  Why?  Because business is a little slow and I didn’t like how it looked.

Warning:  designing and redesigning the way a blog looks has very little bearing on starting a law firm.

Don’t fall into the trap of making things look pretty all the time.  I certainly have.  I am a bit of a perfectionist and when my website(s) doesn’t look good, I don’t feel good.  Thus, the change.

Yes, business has been slow the last couple weeks.  I started off gang-busters but I’ve hit a bit of a lull.  One of the most interesting (annoying?) things about starting a law practice (or any business) is keeping priorities straight.  When do I blog?  How do I advertise?  When do I get work done?  How do I answer the phone and market myself?

When you start a firm, there is nobody else there but you.  (Unless, of course, you can afford a paralegal or some help).  Since I am by myself, I do ALL of the work.  It is tough, but it is fun.  I’ll try to keep readers informed about what I have been doing.  I need to have an outlet to keep my thoughts straight.  The one thing I have realized is that you have to be diligent about creating a plan and sticking to it.  More on that later.

Creating law firm websites and blogging

I’ve also posted about creating law firm websites in the past. I’ve gotten a lot of hits on those posts.  I’ve also offered to help people with building a website if they are interested.  However, nobody ever takes me up on it.  Sad.  Maybe nobody thinks my website as an Apple Valley MN lawyer is very good.  I like it, but who knows.

Anyway, feel free to comment about the new look or ask questions.  I love comments.  Alas, nobody ever gives them.

Starting a Law Firm: Checklists and Doing the Due Diligence

As I posted in the past, I have a lot of work to do before I (hopefully) get my Minnesota license to practice law.  I have a long, four month wait before my character and fitness investigation is completed.  I’ve finished most of what I can do and I am now in the waiting phase.  Thankfully, I have a lot to do before I get licensed and, to that end, I am doing my best to come up with a list of things to do before I hang-out-a-shingle and start a law firm.

Much of my work is focused on two things:  (1) gaining knowledge to ensure competency and (2) coming up with a marketing plan.

Starting a Law Firm Checklist

  1. Purchase and read practice related books and code on family law and estate planning in Minnesota.
  2. Purchase and read Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure.
  3. Conduct market research on family law and estate planning law firms in my community.
  4. Finish one website:  flanderslawfirm.com.
  5. Start and work on additional practice related website (more on this later).
  6. Research costs of office space.  This includes lease agreements for full-time office space arrangement as well as locating a potential virtual office site to meet with clients.
  7. Decide whether working out of home for first couple years is feasible and, if so, how to do it.
  8. Research approved bank accounts for business and IOLTA accounts
  9. Research and understand completely IOLTA trust account laws.  Ensure compliance with them.
  10. Come up with blogging/marketing schedule
  11. Talk to local attorney in practice area about possible mentoring relationship
  12. Go to courthouses, meet staff, introduce myself and ask lots of questions about filing, judges, the right and wrong way to do things, etc.
  13. Contact father-in-law (an computers specialist person) about antivirus, and firm computing protection devices
  14. Research online billing software and costs.  Or, do I want to simply use QuickBooks or other software?
  15. Research online receptionist and answering service.
  16. Contact phone company about separate fax and phone lines for (probable) home office.
  17. Make list of all potential referral resources and how to network with them.
  18. Research and find solo attorney resources in Minnesota and beyond.
  19. Re-read ethics rules.

The list could go on, but I hope that provides some help to any of you in the process. It might not be the best list, but it is something I can work on and grown from.  My goal is to fill in some of the information with options I have been looking at.  I’ll try and share them in a future post.

When working as an associate at my prior law firm, I realized early that planning, organization, and goals are everything.  Without a plan and execution, you are just fumbling in space (ok, maybe it is just me).  Making lists and setting goals helps me have plan of action that I can follow.

Now that you’ve seen mine, I’d love to see yours.  Does anybody have any resources or plans they have made that they wouldn’t mind sharing?  I showed you mine, you show me yours.

Learning How to Practice Law Again

Confession:  I had a bit of a breakdown this weekend when I realized how much work I have to do before I can open-up-shop and start practicing law again.   Calling it overwhelming would be an understatement.  Luckily, I have the greatest person I have ever met to listen to me in my dark moments:  my wife.

After discussing a myriad of concerns with her about how impossible it was to get everything done, I realized that my main concern right now is competency.  I’m a licensed attorney in Indiana, but I am hoping to be admitted to the Minnesota Bar in the relatively near future.  Until I am licensed in Minnesota, I have been doing the whatever due diligence work I can to get ready.  In other words, I need to train myself all over again.  Furthermore,  I cannot begin taking on cases in Minnesota unless I can competently handle the issue.  As I’ve discussed, my main practice area is and has been family law.  I’ve done a smattering of other legal work, but I feel the most comfortable saying I know what I am doing in family law.

However, I practiced for nearly four years in Indiana.  Indiana has different laws and different rules.  Indiana has different courts.  Indiana has different forms, filing fees, deadlines, etc, etc.  I could go on.

It is true that laws are very similar in many states.  However, I know from practicing law that the bar exam and law school doesn’t teach you how to be a competent practicing attorney.  I thought I was getting good at my job in Indiana, but Minnesota has different forms, rules, law, procedures, courts, etc.  It is scary.

In light of this, I have come to the conclusion that I have two options: (1) join a law firm, get Minnesota-centric experience, build a network, and then open a law practice, or (2) go to the law library and read, read, read, gain competency in the details, and then start a law firm.

At this point, I am going with option 2.  After I teach myself, I will talk to as many local attorneys as I can and, possibly, do a unpaid internship of sorts.  Also, as I stated in my previous post, I’m looking into trying to find a family law mentor of some kind.

Luckily, I have a couple of friends who practice family law close by.  I plan to pump them for as much information as I can.  Also, I remembered today that divorce pleadings are typically matters of public record.  I simply need to go to a courthouse and find a completed dissolution of marriage file and review the pleadings – preferably a case handled by a good, experienced lawyer.  I used this trick often in Indiana.  When in doubt, go look at the quality work of those that have gone before you.

Learning the law over again is not fun.  It is especially not fun when you have already learned one jurisdiction’s law.  But, it is necessary.

After practicing law for a little while I know that I have my client’s lives in my hands.  I cannot fail to meet the burden of that trust.  I cannot be incompetent.  If, after trying to teach myself the finer points of Minnesota practice, I don’t feel I am competent to handle family law work, I’m not going to start a law firm.  End of story.

Book Review: “Solo By Choice, 2011-2012 Edition”, by Carolyn Elefant

I like it.  I recommend it.  Go get yourself a copy.

I have talked about Ms. Carolyn Elefant a lot here and it is for good reason.  She writes well, she is honest, talented, and (as far as I can tell) she has been down the path that so many solo attorneys face:  she has actually started and maintained a successful law practice.  She is kind of my hero.

Not only has she done all that, but she has written a book about it and has now issued an update:  “Solo By Choice, 2011-2012 Edition“.

As readers of this blog should already know, Ms. Elefant published her first book “Solo By Choice” in 2007.  I don’t know what her sales are, but I bought the first edition and loved it.  I have purchased several other “start your own law practice guides”; including the laudable J. Foonberg’s “How to Start and Build a Law Practice“.  However, in my opinion, Ms. Elefant’s book is the best book on the market about being a solo attorney and building your own law practice.

But, you may ask, if the book was published in 2007, why is there a need for a new edition?  I’m not sure and can only guess at more book sales, but it’s no leap to say that this edition is better than the previous one.

The new version contains more meat and new sections which reflect the change in the solo-attorney-legal-market in the last few years.  If you haven’t noticed, there has been a shift in a thing called the world-economy.  This has had a considerable effect on many professions – including the practice of law.  Ms. Elefant is keenly aware of this and blogs about it at MyShingle.com.

The new edition reflects these changes.  In recent years, there has been an “explosion” of new solo lawyers.  The reason appears to be the economy and the continual rise of the digital age.  I, and this blog, fit squarely in this purview.

So What’s New?

For starters, the new version (without the companion piece) clocks in at 304 pages while the previous version had about 300 pages.  However, what is taken out is mainly in the companion guide (134 pages) and what is put back in is better.

Notably, the companian piece titled, The Companion Guide, 34 Questions that could Transform Your Legal Career”, is wonderful.  Even if she hadn’t changed a thing, I would buy the book just for the add-on.

Much has been discussed about how solo attorneys often face personal and professional isolation.  Let’s face it:  solo = alone.  The Companion Guide is like your new cadre of lawyer best-friends.  It’s other solos out there talking about real issues about the practice of law.

Topics range from:  In the Beginning, A Day in the Life, The Business of Solo’ing, Reflections, and Expanded Profiles.  I have to say, reading this companion piece makes me excited to be a lawyer again.  That feeling is worth the price of purchase by itself.

To be fair, much of the companion piece is a little obvious.  There is a lot of talk about what not to do, what I like, and how I shouldn’t have spent so much on overhead at first.  Etc. However, the simplicity rings true.  When you whittle things to the nub, the truth often comes out – simple or not.  I like that so many of the attorneys in the companion piece echo each other.  It’s obvious that they are happy and enjoying what they are doing.  Isn’t that what ‘solo by choice’ is all about?

As far the new edition itself goes, Ms. Elefant has updated many sections to reflect the changes of running a law practice and marketing it.  She has beefed up the “Dealing with Clients” chapter a bit.  I appreciated that because I am a young attorney who sometimes needs to think about competence more than marketing.

She has also made some changes to the marketing section of the book.  In particular, a new chapter is entitled “Marketing in an Age of Changing Technology.”  This chapter includes some re-hash from the previous edition, but most of it is new.  I particularly appreciated the topics of ‘website optimization’, ‘smart-phone apps.’, ‘SEO’, and other pertinent digital-media marketing.

If you follow her blog, you will also see new and better discussion of video and teleconference marketing.  Some of the discussion isn’t so good for people like me who run a family law practice, but it’s all there and should be read.

What I particularly enjoyed about the new content can be summarized by her new “Argument #6.  Opportunity to Innovate” in Chapter 1, titled “The Case for Solo Practice”. Much of the discussion revolves around the changes in technology which make the practice of law better.   Things like cloud-computing, teleconferencing, webinars, and host of technological advancements that make a solo practice better get their due.

Furthermore, I appreciated her citation to a ABA Technology Report, which provides that “nearly half of solo and small firm lawyer lack even rudimentary online presence.”  That is not surprising, and maybe even good for new solos who can leverage new technology better than their competition.  Reading this new content isn’t a game-changer, it’s a refresher on why you wanted to be solo in the first place.

In sum, I’ll quote Ms. Elefant from her new companion guide:

[Y]ou can take comfort in this:  the dozen of solos cited in the Companion Guide once stood at the same precipice where you are now and none of them too the leap without regret.

Well said, Carolyn, well said.

 

If You Want to Do It, Just Do It

I’ve been wanting to post for several days now and I just can’t seem to get one out.  I’m too busy working on my website, which I plan to talk about in detail because I made a bunch of mistakes that somebody can learn from.  Anyway, I’m posting now.

When I think about starting a law firm – and I think about it all day, every day – a comment by Steve Pennaz keeps coming back to me.  Who is Steve Pennaz?  Clearly you don’t fish.  Pennaz is the head of the North American Fishing Club.  That is not important.  What is important is a comment he made in a recent fishing show about his early salad days when he was a little guy and the world was a big, big place.

I wanted to share his comment.  I’m paraphrasing, but here goes:  during the show, Pennaz was asked about getting started in the fishing business.  He talked about how he wanted to be a fishing guru and head-honcho of the fishing industry soon after college or something.

To that end, he shared that, while he was still college, he went to a fishing seminar at which Babe Winkelman was the keynote speaker.  (Oh, you don’t know who Babe Winkelman is either?).  Pennaz shared that he went up to Babe Winkelman and asked:  “How did you start your own fishing show?”  To which, Winkelman replied:  “What do you mean ‘how’, I just did it.”

Whether or not you like fishing or embroidery, the message in that statement is clear.  If you want to do something, just do it and don’t look back.  That’s my new moto:  “I just did it.”

Starting a Law Firm Update, Various Odds & Ends

I apologize for not posting for a while.  Still here, just a little busy.  Blogging for legal business can be a real task master.  Think twice before getting into this whole blogging game.  You had better like to write.

So, my wife and I took an overdue trip to Paris and Luxembourg a couple weeks ago.  We skipped a real honeymoon because I didn’t want to make the partners at my old law firm upset that I was taking vacation during my first year as an associate.  Now that I’m no longer at the firm, I guess I can take vacation.  I’ll say this:  I’ve gained a little perspective about what I want out of life since my first year of marriage and my first year as an associate attorney.  Marriage is much more important.  Is it any wonder that I am starting a law firm?

Anyway, I’m back and still trying to blog.  As I’ve posted, I’m still working on getting licensed in Minnesota.  This obviously creates a dilemma as far as writing many practice-related blog posts.  To be honest, I feel a little out of the game.  I am not hustling like I used to and I miss it.  But, there are many, many things to get done before officially hanging out my own shingle.  I’ll talk about that stuff instead.

In the main, I am concerned with two main things:  (1) office space and (2) my website.  Both of these things relate to my effort to focus a bit more and get my law firm start-up business plan in better shape.   I am going through my old business plan and re-thinking things now that I have relocated to Minneapolis from Indiana.  I have had an opportunity to scope out the market and competition a little better.  Naturally, that changes the plan a little.

I’ll post more on this stuff tomorrow, but I wanted to get a post out to say sorry and I’ll try and to better.   In the meantime, I’d appreciate any comments on my new website:  flanderslawfirm.com.

I’m still working on the website and I know that the picture of me is terrible.  I’ll get one up just as soon as somebody takes a professional looking picture of me that I like.  Also, if anybody goes to my website, would you mind leaving a comment here on exactly how long it took you to get there?  As in:  how long did it take to load?

Thanks.

Admission In Absentia

In my seemingly never-ending-quest to become licensed in the state I actually want to practice and start a law firm in, I moved one step closer today.  I appeared before Judge Mark of the Goodhue County District Court, State of Minnesota and swore my oath and pledge for admittance before the North Dakota Bar.  Doing this means I am one step closer to being licensed in Minnesota.  Thank God.

The irony of the whole thing is that I just appeared before a Minnesota judge so he could swear me into the North Dakota Bar when I would prefer to be admitted to the Minnesota Bar but must wait to be admitted by motion, instead.  I know, it is way too complicated and basically makes my life more difficult.

As any of the readers of this blog may know, I am licensed in Indiana and have just obtained licensure in North Dakota.  My ultimate goal is licensure in Minnesota and to do so, I have to request to be admitted by motion.  It’s a lot of work.

But enough about me.  I realize that people want to read blogs for at least some semblance of substance besides a personal diary.  To that end, I am going to include – right now – a breakdown of the necessities to be admitted “in absentia”.  Doing a quick Google search, I was only able to find this explanation for admission in absentia before the Supreme Court of Georgia.

The basic gist for admission in absentia appears to be this:

  1. You must either pass the bar exam or be admitted by motion;
  2. An oath or pledge must be administered to you by a Judge or judicial officer of a court of record in any state;
  3. You must sign the affirmation and the Judge must sign some form of attestation;
  4. The forms must be returned to the jurisdiction where you want to be licensed.

There is often a fee and possibly some other paperwork, but that mostly sums it up.  I talked with several attorneys in Minnesota who told me that they have gone through this process before.  When I began searching for Minnesota judges to admit me “in absentia” to the North Dakota Bar, I received a fair number of response which can fairly summarized as “no, we don’t do that”. Many of the judges or their staffs had questions about whether they had jurisdiction to even administer the oath.  Naturally, this was very frustrating.  I hope you have better luck than I.  However, I called around to quite a few different judges and found a couple who were willing to take time out of their busy schedules to administer the oath.  I made an appointment with their law clerk, and the rest is now history.

If you are trying to be admitted to a different jurisdiction in absentia, I hope this post helps you.  Basically, I suggest contacting the Supreme Court of the bar to which you want to be admitted.  Ask them what their admission in absentia policy is.  Then, you hopefully know a local judge who will be nice enough to help you.  I did and now I only have one step left to conquer:  admission by motion before the Minnesota Bar.

John Maynard Keynes and Spending to Start a Law Firm

Author John Cassidy, in the October 10, 2011 issue of the New Yorker magazine (which happens to be the annual “money” issue), wrote a though-provoking article on John Maynard Keynes and his economic philosophy as it relates to the current world-wide financial recession.  Much of the article, titled “The Demand Doctor“, posits (as far as I can tell) that Keynes was right in his argument that government spending creates demand and thereby boosts the economy out of recession.

As I’ve posted, I’m worried about how to start a law firm in this economy and the uncertain risks of being an entrepreneur.  I remember learning about Mr. Keynes as an undergraduate, but my level of knowledge is foggy at best.  I have noticed, however, that his name and ideas show up in my intellectual reading pursuits in an eerily frequent fashion.

This makes me wonder:  Is Keynes simply a easy target for writers and economic neophytes?  Or, is he truly a revolutionary though-leader whose theories should be continuously revisited?  These are question I do have easy answers to. Perhaps more important is what can Mr. Keynes and his economic philosophy can teach me about being an astute capitalist who aims to start a law firm in an economy that is at a historic low.

Keynes argues that the government must spend and possibly cut taxes so that people like you and me will, in turn, spend.  The spending then boosts the economy, creates jobs, encourages lending, etc, etc.  Mr. Cassidy, quoting author Sylvia Nasar, summarizes the Keynsian position well:

What made the General Theory so radical was Keynes’s proof that it was possible for a free market economy to settle into states in which workers and machines remained idle for prolonged periods of time . . .  The only way to revive business confidence and get the private sector spending again was by cutting taxes and letting business and individuals keep more of their income so they could spend it.  Or, better yet, having the government spend more money directly , since that would guarantee that 100 percent of it would be spent rather than saved.  If the private sector couldn’t or wouldn’t spend, the government would have to do it.  For Keynes, the government had to be prepared to act as the spender of last resort, just as the central bank acted as the lender of last resort.

Keynes argued that (at a basic level) a large entity (the government) needs to spend in order to help the national economy grow – or at least not stagnate.  I find this basic premise interesting because my first instinct is to cut my spending and save, save, save when things start getting rough financially.  Apparently, as the author writes, former President Harry Truman had a similar reaction to Keynes’s ideas, stating that:

“Nobody can ever convince me that Government can spend a dollar that it’s not got,” he told Leon Keyserling, a Keynsian economist who chaired his Council of Economic Advisers.  “I’m just a country boy.”

In many ways, I echo President Truman’s sentiment.  I’m also somewhat of a country boy.  How can I justify spending more of my family’s hard earned money on investing in an entrepreneurial venture like starting a law firm?  Would it not be wiser to simply look for and obtain a job doing some form of legal work and thereby garner a steady salary?  Clearly, if the only goal is to make money and provide for my family, then starting a law firm is not a wise decision in the short-term.

The New Yorker piece also discusses the myriad of objections that Mr. Keynes’s ideas have received since he first published his seminal work “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” in 1936.  Many of the objection boil down to a fundamental disagreement that government cannot spend dollars when the government does not have dollars to spend.

With this understanding firmly in my mind about Keynes’s thought on stimulating a national economy, I believe that I can make a connection with starting and building a law firm.  In my mind, this sort of thought process is a akin to return-on-investment (ROI).  I have noticed that many law firm guru’s and other lawyers marketing blogs have discussed the importance of ROI.  I am not going to try to discuss the minutia of ROI as it relates to specific instances of law firm marketing.  My point here is only to share the excellent article by Mr. Cassidy in the New Yorker and to posit that starting a law firm (or any business for that matter) is akin to using Keynsian economic philosophy to stimulate the economy.

I also realize that starting a law firm is more individualistic  – it benefits me and my family but not the national or world as a whole.  Perhaps my leanings should be more socialist and less capitalist.  I don’t think so.  In addition to his academic career, he was also a privileged capitalist.  Mr. Cassidy quotes Keynes:

If I am going to pursue sectional interest at all, I shall pursue my own . . . [t]he Class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie.

I identify with Keynes’s sentiment.  Starting a law firm and being  capitalist in a down economy is not necessarily a bad idea or a strictly individualistic endevour.  The world needs spending and it needs entrepreneurs right now.  Whether or not you agree with Keynses’s economic philosophy, it is hard to argue with that fact.

I don’t mean to say that the journey will be easy or frought with risk.  It is and it will be.  Failure is also a reality.  But, I also believe in the maxim that nothing ventured is nothing gained.  As Mr. Cassidy concludes in his article:

It calls not merely for the management of risk but for something politically and intellectually far more demanding:  the acknowledgement of uncertainty.

 

“Above The Law” Seeks Solo Attorney Input

I wanted to let my readers out there know that one of the major blogs, Above The Law, is soliciting solo lawyers for worthy topics to be posted on its “Small Law Firms” section.

I don’t read their coverage of small firm matters often – mainly because their primary focus is on big law as far as I can tell.  However, I get some good chuckles from them now and again.  Also, providing worthy info on small firm practice or on starting a law firm to a major blog will do nothing but help publicize your blog or law firm website.

If you are so inclined, you probably couldn’t go wrong by providing something.