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