Six Essential Traits of the Successful Legal Entrepreneur
Sometimes lawyers get so focused on honing their legal skills that they don’t recognize themselves as entrepreneurs. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an entrepreneur as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.”
Very few law schools have classes that actually teach a lawyer how to run a law practice. How can you know whether you will be any good at it? What if you aren’t graduating in the top 10% of your class? Does that mean you have limited potential for successfully running your own law firm?
Inc. magazine online shared advice from Steve Blank about entrepreneurism in a commencement speech to engineering students. It’s good advice for lawyers, too. He said:
“[G]reat grades and successful entrepreneurs have at best a zero correlation….You don’t get grades for resiliency, curiosity, agility, resourcefulness, pattern recognition and tenacity. You just get successful.”
In this post, I want to talk about why those qualities are essential for a successful legal practice. […]
How to Get That Thing Done That You Keep Putting Off
Most of us have something that we keep putting off until a looming deadline spurs us to action. Our modus operandi robs us of sleep and our confidence that we did our best work. Some unpleasant tasks don’t have a deadline, so we postpone them until we can’t function anymore without doing something about them. Like when you know you need to get a new computer, but that requires a disagreeable choice between researching to make the right selection, or surrendering to the influence of a salesperson. So you don’t do anything about it until your processing speed slows to a crawl.
Whatever you tend to procrastinate on, that increases your stress and lowers your self-esteem. Go through this list of suggestions and look at your practice with new eyes to find one thing you can do differently now. […]
The 4 R’s for Solving Dilemmas
Do you have a dilemma, a persistent worry, a recurring aggravation, or a deep concern? As lawyers we are trained to apply logic and rigorous analysis to solve problems. Some issues, however, call for a different approach – one of creativity and inner guidance. Here’s a little formula, “The 4 R’s,” for finding a solution: Rest, Relax, Reflect and Receive.
1. Rest
Many of our problems arise out of the stress created by the very busy-ness of our lives. Studies have shown that the average person needs eight hours of sleep per night, but today many of us cheat our bodies of some of that needed rest. In his book, The Promise of Sleep, William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D. describes studies showing that if you are only getting 6 hours of sleep per night during the work week, by Friday night you have accumulated 10 hours of “sleep debt” that must be repaid. Dr. Dement says, “As your debt grows, your energy, mood and cognition will be undermined.” Dr. Dement warns that you cannot work off a large sleep debt by getting one good night’s sleep. No wonder you find yourself sleeping late on the weekend and then still wanting a nap in the afternoon. […]
Introducing Guest Blogger Ryan Alesso – “Don’t Stop Marketing Your Law Firm the Old-Fashioned Ways”
Ryan comes from an ad and marketing background, and is now focused on the healthcare niche. He travels around the U.S. and speaks at conferences on healthcare marketing and management.
“Don’t Stop Marketing Your Law Firm the Old-Fashioned Ways”
Discounted services and buy-one, get-one-free coupons used to be the domain of shoe salesmen and oil change shops, but now the American Bar Association has sanctioned these tactics for use by lawyers as well. Attorneys who want to advertise over platforms like Groupon and LivingSocial are welcome to do so, reports the Association of Corporate Counsel. These new-found tactics may be a good way to reign in new clients, but they haven’t replaced some of the older and still-relevant forms of marketing.
Brochures
You can physically hand a brochure to prospective clients. It requires less effort for the recipient to look it over than searching your website. It also shares more information than a billboard or radio ad. Hard copy promotional items like these usually get placed somewhere conspicuous, such as on a desk or counter, and can therefore serve as a reminder to the recipient. […]
Strategies for Expanding into a New Practice Area
Many areas of law practice tend to cycle up and down over time. Savvy attorneys keep enough capital reserves to get them through the predictable lean times. The business volatility in recent years has some worried lawyers seeking to build up a practice in a different area of expertise. I wrote about ways to get experience that you don’t already have, but perhaps you dabble now and then in another area. Here are some tips on building up your visibility and expertise in a practice area you aren’t known for.
1. Choose an additional practice area that complements your existing practice.
Your credibility will be higher if there is some overlap between your new practice area and what you already have a reputation for. When real estate, securities or other transactional practices wane, some transactional lawyers step over into litigation involving similar subject matter expertise. To begin making such a transition, offer to consult on cases with trial lawyers you know. Many commercial litigators take on such a wide variety of cases that they don’t have your depth of expertise or awareness of the numerous laws that may impact the case they just took on. […]
Avoiding the Commoditization of Your Law Practice
My article in 2007 about some of the potential ramifications of law firms going public generated quite a number of reader responses. One email asked a question that intrigued me. The reader asked how he could keep his law practice from becoming commoditized. Both small and large law firms should be asking themselves that, because the tide has already turned toward the commoditization of many legal services.
What are commodity legal services? Generally, legal services that involve routine and predictable legal issues that can be systematized into forms and processes. […]