Valuable Tips for New Lawyers
By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance Program
A number of new lawyers have recently joined the ranks of the Oklahoma Bar Association in September. This Oklahoma Bar Journal theme issue on law office management and technology presents a good opportunity to provide some tips for lawyers just starting out in private practice or for the more seasoned OBA members who may be contemplating leaving employment at their firm to open their own practice. Actually many of these tips would be useful for any lawyer, no matter what their practice setting.
Originally several of these tips were posted in a thread on the OBA-NET.
These tips are presented in no particular order — certainly not in order of importance.
1) Buy Jay Foonberg’s “How to Start and Build a Law Practice, 5th Ed.” This may be purchased through the OBA Management Assistance Program for the price of $52 if picked up at the Oklahoma Bar Center or $57 if you wish it mailed to you. Contact me or OBA MAP assistant Sharon Dotson at (405) 416-7050.
2) Once you have purchased it, read the Foonberg book. Don’t just leave it sitting on the shelf. You do not have to read it from front to back. Pick out a chapter on a topic you are confronting at the moment. Note that we’ve dedicated two tips to this single book. It is that important.
3) Try to get a retainer in advance that will cover most all of your fees. If the client is not motivated to pay you when the matter is pending, how much less motivated will they be when it is over?
4) Always return your phone calls. The less you want to talk to the person, the greater is the need to return the phone call. Delay only makes matters worse. Many clients complain that lawyers do not return their phone calls. Many lawyers complain that other lawyers do not return their phone calls. You start off of the right foot with your practice by returning your phone calls.
5) Attend the OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference next summer. This program features great networking opportunities, CLE targeted exactly to your needs and many vendors whose products you will find valuable. (Mark your calendar now for June 23-25, 2005.)
6) Try to represent yourself at least half a day each week for the first year. Schedule at least three hours a week to work on marketing, office processes, software acquisitions and training, long term planning, attorney-client engagement letters and other long-term administrative matters. If you do this for at least the first year of your practice, you may decide it is a good permanent plan.
7) Select, install, and start using a case management software package now while things may be a bit less frantic. You’ll likely never have more time than now and it’s best to get that software up and running with fewer matters rather than more.
8) Watch your finances. The majority of businesses fail during the first year. Prepare a profit/loss cash flow analysis every single month and review it. You can do this with accounting software like Quickbooks or manually, depending on your needs and preferences.
9) Watch your overhead. Do not rush out to sign contracts for legal vendors or buy expensive items for small monthly payments. Think about starting out with used furniture or file cabinets purchased at auctions. Do everything you can to avoid unnecessary monthly expenses which can really add up when things are tight.
10) Watch your receivables. Review them every month as well. Contact clients when they fall behind on agreed payments or ignore statements. Otherwise they may just fall further behind.
11) Take an accountant to lunch. You need at least one good relationship with an accountant. Pay one to do your taxes for you. You can’t call TurboTax and ask a question when you’ve got a difficult tax issue and no time to research it.
12) Develop a specialty. We cannot formally specialize in Oklahoma, but become really good at something that complements your other practice areas. Feel free to teach a CLE to your county bar on a narrow topic and tell lawyers they can call you with questions in that substantive area for free.
13) Decide what matters you don’t want to handle and then don’t handle them. Find a good place to refer these, hopefully to a lawyer who does not like doing what you do and will refer you that business.
14) Go out of your way to introduce yourself to every lawyer in town (or your city neighborhood) and re-introduce yourself when you are in a room with them and you don’t think they recall meeting you. If they ask what you do, tell them. If you would like to be considered for referrals of their overflow work, ask them.
15) Always be honest and truthful when dealing with the court, clients and other counsel. Your reputation is your most valuable business asset and the one most difficult to repair if it is damaged.
16) Readily associate with other lawyers on larger matters you may not be ready to handle or when you are unsure of yourself. It is far better to get part of an attorney’s fee on this matter than a bar complaint and you will learn from the other lawyer.
17) Next time you are in the Oklahoma City area, make an appointment to stop by and see one of us at the OBA Management Assistance Program for a free half hour appointment. We do our best to be a good resource for all Oklahoma lawyers and we are a good place to ask those questions you don’t want to ask elsewhere. We have a lending library of law practice management books you may want to look over.
18) Believe in your clients. Believe in what they tell you, but cultivate a healthy skepticism. People who are involved in the thick of a legal problem are not always the most objective and accurate people. Trust, but verify.
19) Do not hesitate to reject a potential client when you do not believe them or simply do not feel comfortable with them. Always respect your instincts in this situation. There is a lawyer for everyone, but it does not always have to be you. Beware of taking a case when the client says it is for “the principle” and money is no object. Be cautious about taking a case where there have been several other lawyers on the case before you.
20) Become active in your community. Join your county bar association and attend its meetings. Join an OBA section and/or the OBA Young Lawyers Division. Join a civic or community group if you are interested in its work. (But never do this just to get business as it will likely backfire on you.)
21) Get up to speed on law office technology and stay reasonably current with the trends. Subscribe to publications like Law Technology News (free) or Law Office Computing. Technology and the practice of law are entwined and likely will continue to be, particularly if you are a solo lawyer and have to be your own tech support.
22) Find a mentor if you can. This can be difficult, but there is great value in having an experienced lawyer who is available for advice. Take the more experienced lawyer out to lunch and make a point of picking up the check. Offer to handle some filing or other tasks in return for free advice. There are many things about the law that can be explained and understood simply, but would take hours of research to locate.
23) Register for and use the OBA-NET. This free resource is provided by your bar association to assist you in your practice. Don’t reinvent the wheel when you can learn how others have done things.
24) Be nice and polite to the judge’s secretary, bailiffs, court clerks and other staff people you may encounter. They can really assist you in times of need or by just letting you know how the court likes to handle certain things. If you treat them in a disrespectful and high-handed manner, they will have an opportunity to put you in your place at some point and you will be quite unhappy when that occurs.
25) Become familiar with the free legal research tools available. This does not mean that you will not have a commercial legal research provider, but first you should know what you can get from free from www.oscn.net, www.findlaw.com, www.lexisone.com and your local county law library’s hardbound and online research services. See Tom Mighell’s article on this topic elsewhere in this issue.
(Note: Thanks to Jody Nathan, Carolyn Smith, Steve Presson, Brande Kaufman, Avery A. “Chip” Eeds, Jr., Fred Boss and the other OBA-NETTERs who posted advice on this topic on OBA-NET.)
Originally published in the Oklahoma
Bar Journal November 6 , 2004 - Vol. 75; No.31 |
