As any readers of this blog know, I am starting a law firm in Minneapolis, MN just as soon as I can get licensed by the State of Minnesota. I have practiced for 3+ years in Indiana as both a small firm attorney (10 attorneys) and on my own as a solo practitioner. However, I have never practiced in Minnesota (my new residence) because I just took the bar exam and I am now playing the lawyer licensing waiting game.
My wife tells me that I should relax and enjoy my free time. The problem is that I am not very good at enjoying free time. I suspect that is why many of us became lawyers in the first place: we can’t let good enough alone and always strive to do just a little bit better. In an effort to “do a little bit better” I am going to continue to blog and try to have as much internet marketing help as I can before I can officially hang out my shingle in Minneapolis.
As I stated in a prior post about legal blogging for business, it is important to get content up on your blog on a constant basis. This is work. I’ll say it again: legal blogging is work. This creates the need to be diligent about posting and trying to make posts that are at least somewhat interesting to the public at large (or, at least, all you boring start-up lawyers out there). The problem lies in the fact that I don’t always know what may be relevant or interesting to my small readership. I will tell you that I get a lot more hits and responses from legal marketing and legal internet/blogging type posts. Why? Probably because that is what most attorneys are searching for when they find my blog – how to market their little firm and make it better.
I don’t know that I necessarily know how to market better than anybody else. I do, however, know that marketing is a must for starting a law firm. I did quite a bit of networking as an associate and on my own in Indiana and I can tell you that it works. This blog is meant to serve as a vehicle for two things: (1) explaining to younger attorneys how to start up and run a practice and (2) to serve as a marketing vehicle with link-back potential.
In the world of the internet, content is king. I strive to have good content on this blog and that is probably why I haven’t been posting as much lately – I just don’t have any good content at the moment. I plan to update this blog with posts about all of my Minneapolis firsts – first client, first office, first retainer check, etc. But, alas, I have to wait until I get licensed before any of that is relevant.
Thus, in a world where content is king, I will continue to try to blog about prior war stories and my general ideas about starting a firm. There are some things I can do, such as writing a more detailed legal business plan. I also need to get all my old office furniture so I can create home office with a virtual office space. This is all work and it can be blogged about.
Starting a law firm means being patient and staying the course. It is tough to be patient when waiting to be licensed because the bar examiners take so very very long. Hopefully I passed and licensure will come. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.