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"x x x.
Top Ten Tips for Starting and Maintaining a Solo Practice (or any practice)
(1) Find a Mentor
Going solo does not mean that you need to practice entirely on your own. Identify a mentor and other more experienced lawyers, with whom you may consult, on your very first case, and on subsequent cases.
(2) Develop a Detailed Business Plan
For your first year, that includes the following:
-Expenses and earning needs/goals (keeping your overhead as low as possible)
-A Determination of how you plan to cover initial cash flow needs: for furniture, for office equipment, for electronic devices, for clerical staff, for bar association and other dues, etc. (Will you use savings, or loans (from a bank, from your family or friends)?)
-Identification of potential sources of business
(3) Do Low-Key, Inexpensive Advertising
-Write, and publish your writing.
-Create respectable business cards (no gimmicks) and a website.
-Post an announcement of the opening of your firm in your hometown newspaper, in the newspaper in which your office is located (if different) and in bar journals.
(4) Circulate, Circulate, Circulate
No one ever developed his or her first client without leaving the office.
(5) Other Strategies for Finding Clients
-Contact family, friends, and close colleagues from high school, college and law school. Get back in touch with former employers and former professional colleagues, and ask them for their business.
-Sign up for lawyer referral services.
-Publish business profiles and your content on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. (The strategy of which social media outlets to employ, and how to employ them, has been extensively written about, including here.)
-Attend business events sponsored by non-lawyers/non-lawyers’ groups. (When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously said, "Because that's where the money is.")
-Become involved in charitable and non-profit organizations, in order to meet a broader range of people (i.e.--prospective clients).
(6) Develop Your Lawyer’s Skills
-Consider drafting simple wills, or handling landlord-tenant matters for family and friends.
-Take cases from the Volunteer Lawyers Project, or other legal services organizations; they'll train you for free.
-Take court appointments, e.g.--in Boston Housing Court.
(7) How to Handle Your First Case
-Consider partnering with a more experienced lawyer; or,
-If you must turn business away, arrange for a quality referral. The client is interested in only one thing: having his or her case handled competently. Whether that competent handling is done by you, or by someone good that you recommend, is essentially immaterial to the client. If the client is satisfied, they’ll remember who provided them the referral.
(8) How to Set a Fee
-Set your fee based on the type of case. Ask around in order to obtain a range of rates charged by comparably experienced lawyers. Discount the rates charged by big firm associates: you don't have their high overhead and you’ve got to attract business on your own at reasonable rates.
-Flat fees are good for simple, predictable tasks (think: drafting an uncomplex will, or reviewing a lease); but, be prepared to undercharge the first few times you apply a flat fee until you determine how long it takes to accomplish these sorts of tasks.
-Hourly rates are preferred by most corporate clients, and are more appropriate when the amount of effort is not predictable.
-Beware of taking contingency cases without expert advice. The art is in valuing those cases, and (based on that valuation, and certain other factors) figuring out which cases to take, and which cases to refuse.
(9) Billing + Collections
-Next to compliance with the Rules of Professional Responsibility, the most important matter to attend to is your billing and collections.
-Keep track of your time on a daily basis; you’ll definitely short-change yourself and give a windfall to your clients if you try to reconstruct the time days or weeks later.
-Consistently bill at the first of the month; and, don't be shy about following up: it's your money. You worked hard through law school and the bar examination period, and now in your practice, to justify your fees; and, you're not a bank.
-Consider retainers if you can get them.
(10) Adopt the Proper Professional Attitude
You're a lawyer, and you had to go through three years of law school and then pass rigorous competency examinations and a character evaluation to be licensed. Act, think and dress like the select professional that you are. Clients expect no less. Consider your expectations when you visit an accountant or a physician.
(1) Find a Mentor
Going solo does not mean that you need to practice entirely on your own. Identify a mentor and other more experienced lawyers, with whom you may consult, on your very first case, and on subsequent cases.
(2) Develop a Detailed Business Plan
For your first year, that includes the following:
-Expenses and earning needs/goals (keeping your overhead as low as possible)
-A Determination of how you plan to cover initial cash flow needs: for furniture, for office equipment, for electronic devices, for clerical staff, for bar association and other dues, etc. (Will you use savings, or loans (from a bank, from your family or friends)?)
-Identification of potential sources of business
(3) Do Low-Key, Inexpensive Advertising
-Write, and publish your writing.
-Create respectable business cards (no gimmicks) and a website.
-Post an announcement of the opening of your firm in your hometown newspaper, in the newspaper in which your office is located (if different) and in bar journals.
(4) Circulate, Circulate, Circulate
No one ever developed his or her first client without leaving the office.
(5) Other Strategies for Finding Clients
-Contact family, friends, and close colleagues from high school, college and law school. Get back in touch with former employers and former professional colleagues, and ask them for their business.
-Sign up for lawyer referral services.
-Publish business profiles and your content on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. (The strategy of which social media outlets to employ, and how to employ them, has been extensively written about, including here.)
-Attend business events sponsored by non-lawyers/non-lawyers’ groups. (When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously said, "Because that's where the money is.")
-Become involved in charitable and non-profit organizations, in order to meet a broader range of people (i.e.--prospective clients).
(6) Develop Your Lawyer’s Skills
-Consider drafting simple wills, or handling landlord-tenant matters for family and friends.
-Take cases from the Volunteer Lawyers Project, or other legal services organizations; they'll train you for free.
-Take court appointments, e.g.--in Boston Housing Court.
(7) How to Handle Your First Case
-Consider partnering with a more experienced lawyer; or,
-If you must turn business away, arrange for a quality referral. The client is interested in only one thing: having his or her case handled competently. Whether that competent handling is done by you, or by someone good that you recommend, is essentially immaterial to the client. If the client is satisfied, they’ll remember who provided them the referral.
(8) How to Set a Fee
-Set your fee based on the type of case. Ask around in order to obtain a range of rates charged by comparably experienced lawyers. Discount the rates charged by big firm associates: you don't have their high overhead and you’ve got to attract business on your own at reasonable rates.
-Flat fees are good for simple, predictable tasks (think: drafting an uncomplex will, or reviewing a lease); but, be prepared to undercharge the first few times you apply a flat fee until you determine how long it takes to accomplish these sorts of tasks.
-Hourly rates are preferred by most corporate clients, and are more appropriate when the amount of effort is not predictable.
-Beware of taking contingency cases without expert advice. The art is in valuing those cases, and (based on that valuation, and certain other factors) figuring out which cases to take, and which cases to refuse.
(9) Billing + Collections
-Next to compliance with the Rules of Professional Responsibility, the most important matter to attend to is your billing and collections.
-Keep track of your time on a daily basis; you’ll definitely short-change yourself and give a windfall to your clients if you try to reconstruct the time days or weeks later.
-Consistently bill at the first of the month; and, don't be shy about following up: it's your money. You worked hard through law school and the bar examination period, and now in your practice, to justify your fees; and, you're not a bank.
-Consider retainers if you can get them.
(10) Adopt the Proper Professional Attitude
You're a lawyer, and you had to go through three years of law school and then pass rigorous competency examinations and a character evaluation to be licensed. Act, think and dress like the select professional that you are. Clients expect no less. Consider your expectations when you visit an accountant or a physician.
x x x."
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