Category: start a law firm

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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 | The Client Call

I haven’t talked much in this blog about how to actually answer a potential client phone call (assuming you have figured out how to get the phone to ring).   Stated another way:   How do you discuss a legal problem with a potential client whom you would like to hire you for your legal services?  After all, starting a law firm means you have to get people to hire you to be their lawyer.

First and foremost, you owe the client a duty to be competent to answer their questions in a lawyerly manner.  Competency is Rule Number 1 for a reason.  Additionally, I hope you know that your discussion is confidential.  If, in the middle of the phone call, you realize you can’t give competent legal advice, say so, and refer the person to another attorney or source that may be able to assist them.

Second, you owe a duty to the client to charge a reasonable rate which is determined by the legal market prices in your community and your level of experience.  In other words, your quoted billable rate must be reasonable.

Assuming you are competent to handle the matter, you can feel free to listen to the legal problem and give legal advice.  The question I often have in my practice is how long I need to listen and to what extent.  After all, many people will try and pump you for free legal advice.  Starting a successful law firm is not about giving free legal advice.

But, to some extent, you should be willing to give the client time to initially discuss their problem.  The ultimate choice about how much time you give them is yours. In my experience, many attorney will do one of two things when a new client calls:  (1) not answer the phone at all and simply ask the client to leave a message or have staff talk briefly with them or, (2) answer the phone, but only talk to the client briefly before telling them to schedule an appointment.

I don’t think the approaches listed above are necessarily wrong.  In fact, I have done some variation of both at one time or another.  However, my policy is to give EVERY caller time to explain their problem.  I am not always perfect about it, but this is my goal.

Why is this my goal?  Because clients are people and people want somebody to listen to them.   People don’t want to schedule an appointment to have somebody listen to their problem.  They want somebody to listen and understand right now.  That is just human nature.

I have often told people that I feel more like a social worker or a psychiatrist, at times, than a lawyer.  Maybe this is because I have taken on quite a few family law clients.  If you start a law firm and don’t chose family law as a niche area, perhaps your experience or approach will be different.  Still, I have found that clients – whether in the family law field or another legal field – want to talk about their problem.  I believe that my initial obligation is to listen.

If you want to start a law firm, you need to know how to get clients to hire you and how to keep them.  Doing this often means that you have to be really nice to people.  If you can do that, I would bet that you are putting yourself far ahead of many other lawyers.  My guess (although subjective and I have no real proof) is that attorneys often don’t treat people with a lot of respect.  This is a big mistake.

Starting a law firm, means that you have to have people skills.  If you don’t, I wish you luck. Me, I am going to continue to treat the client with the utmost respect, as if they are the boss, and with the belief that I am here to cater to their needs (within reason).

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Starting a Law Firm | Learning From Failure

The fear involved with starting a law firm can be palpable.  There are so many questions that go through your head as you begin the journey.  Those thoughts can be both positive and negative.  But, I would guess that a lot of the anxiety results from the fear of failure.

I’ll admit to the fear of failure in starting my own law firm.  I will also admit to a generally pesimistic attitude at times.  I may be wrong, but I would guess that many lawyers have an unhealthy amount of pessimism about some things – including starting a law firm.  But, luckily, I was listening to a particular interesting edition of Morning Edition on NPR lately, and there is hope for those who fail.

NPR interviewed Tim Harford, a financial columnist for the The Financial Times, to talk about his book Adapt.  The program and interview was extremely enlightening – enough for me to want to share it on my law firm start-up blog.  The subtitle of the book is “Why Success Always Starts With Failure”.  According to Mr. Harford, failure is inevitable – in life, in business, in everything.  What a relief!  Somebody said it.

I write this somewhat tongue-and-cheek.  It is an obvious premise, but I think it is a perspective that is not focused on enough.  Failing and adapting is a hallmark of many successful entrepreneurs.

One example from the interview that I found particularly interesting was an anecdote told by Mr. Harford about professional gamblers.  I am paraphrasing from the NPR interview, but the general extant of the story was something like this:  professional gamblers know that they are most vulnerable after they have lost a bet.  This is because it is the natural tendency of all people to want to play recklessly after they have lost and try to get all of their money back quickly.  It is a mental block that must be fought.  The good professional gambler knows that if he fails and adapts, his chances of winning are greatly increased.  As noted on the NPR article:

“If the whole process of learning from failure means discarding stuff that’s not working, but in fact, our natural reaction is to keep going, to throw more money behind it, to throw more emotional energy behind it … that’s a real problem,” he says.

I know this feeling.  I know the desire to try and achieve too much too quickly after I fail.  I’ve done it and, it would appear, I may have failed to adapt from that experience.   I hope I don’t do it again.  But, at the very least, I know that failure is ok as long as I use it as a positive and learn from my mistakes.  I am ok with this, just as long as starting a law firm doesn’t mean I end up like Johannes Gutenberg and invent the printing press but go broke doing it.