If you're one of the many young attorneys, with JD in hand and
no job in sight, you might be thinking about opening your own law
practice. Starting a law firm is easy - print some business cards
and you're open for business. Running it successfully (and
enjoyably) is hard. Jumping in without a plan is a recipe for
failure. Law school taught you the theory of law, but to be
successful as the owner of a law firm you have to also learn both
the practice of law and the business of law.
The practice of law
How do you file or caption a motion? How do you comply with
Superior Court Rule 9A? How do you schedule a hearing date? Those
are issues that come up in practice every day in addition to
knowing the laws, rules and procedure of your chosen practice
area.
The traditional advice given to young lawyers is that you must
first find a mentor. It's good advice but other lawyers are busy
and you, not being as well connected because you're young, it might
be hard to find a lawyer to mentor you and who's willing to spend
the time to answer all your questions. The Massachusetts Bar
Association recently redesigned their online portal and now offers
"communal mentorship" through their My Bar Access discussion
groups. Solosez (operated by the ABA) is an online listserv that
also works like communal mentorship. Instead of having one mentor,
you can have thousands of mentors from across the country. You
simply post a question to the Solosez listserv and usually within
the hour, you'll get an answer or even forms for your particular
question. Along those same lines, MASSFORUM (operated by Lawyer's
Weekly) is a local Solosez just for Massachusetts lawyers. Another
great organization to join if you start a practice straight out of
law school is Starting Out Solo (www.startingoutsolo.com).
When you're a young attorney, chances are you have a lot of free
time. Take a lot of CLEs - many of them are free through the MBA.
The MBA offers the monthly "Feed Your Mind: Legal Lunch Series" on
substantive topics of law. In addition the MBA often hosts free Law
Practice Management lunch programs. If you don't have the time or
don't want to travel as far, MBA On Demand allows you to
participate in programs via real-time webcast from the comfort of
your couch.
Another good way to learn the practice of law and also at the same
time help other people, is to do volunteer work. The MBA hosts a
monthly Dial-A-Lawyer night where you can give free legal advice to
callers, which, in turn, teaches you confidence in giving legal
advice. Volunteer for Lawyer of the Day at the probate courts if
you're a family attorney. The clerks will help and teach you while
you're also helping pro se litigants. Help with The Volunteer
Lawyers Project and Senior Partners for Justice to take on civil
cases. They will give you administrative support, free training and
free MCLE classes in return. For criminal practice, try getting on
the CPCS (Committee for Public Counsel Services) list for criminal
defense practice.
The business of law
There are only a handful of law schools in the country that offers
a course on law practice management yet a majority of attorneys
practice in solo or small firm settings. The business of law - how
to run a law practice, manage employees and marketing - is just as
important as knowing the practice of law. After all, if you don't
have clients, it doesn't matter how great your legal skills
are.
Before hanging your shingle, first prepare a business plan. It
doesn't have to be formal. Just write down what resources you have
to fund your firm, the projected start-up costs, income sources,
firm structure (LLC, PC, Partnership, etc.) and location (shared
suite, virtual office, home office, etc.) The next step is to write
down a marketing plan. What are the different ways you plan on
marketing your law firm and what is the cost for each of those
activities? Think about a website, blog, networking groups (such as
Chamber of Commerce, local trade groups, StartingOutSolo.com, Women
Attorneys Network), free online directories (Avvo, Justia,
JDSupra), LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, print advertisements, church
and faith-based groups, seminars, newsletters and mailings. Some
activities will be costly in terms of money and/or time. The key is
to keep track of where your business is coming from so that you can
adjust your marketing plan accordingly to get the most return for
your marketing dollar.
Marketing is a continuous process. You cannot implement a
marketing idea, sit back and relax, and hope that the money
continues to flow in. If you stop marketing, the business will
eventually stop. If you market only when you see your business dry
up, you will lose credibility with your clients and they will smell
your desperation and won't engage you. If you put all your
marketing eggs in one basket, you run the risk of sinking your firm
when the referral source dries up. As with investments,
diversify.
Starting a law firm and running it successfully takes hard work,
long hours and dedication. Any young attorney can do it, but it is
not for every young attorney. Make sure you have what it takes and
do your homework before taking the plunge.
Gabriel Cheong is the owner of Infinity Law Group LLC. For
more information about how he started a practice straight from law
school, visit www.infinlaw.com and www.startingoutsolo.com.