When you look at your financials you should quickly see the picture they paint of your legal business’s performance. Your financials should serve as a confirmation of your financial positioning, a tool in which to measure your goal progression, and a compass guiding you into your financial future. Do yours?
You want more time with your family and do the things you love doing (besides practicing law). You also wanted a plethora of funds to support this. It would make sense that you now monitor these two things, time and money, like a hawk to make sure you’re getting what you originally set out to get from all this, right? Nope, in fact many practice owners run from basic accounting requirements (if this is you, for the love of law please keep reading). So why are you running from the thing you set out to gain?
Going solo with intention and doing it the right way is going solo by design. Who better to present a jam-packed guest lecture on this subject than Gary Bauer, lawyer and Chairman of the General Practice Solo Concentration for twenty years at WMU Cooley Law School. Gary and I are kindred spirits. His information is purposeful, thoughtful and complete. Listen and learn.
Last month I shared my first monthly report. The response really surprised me.
That post has had three times as many views as anything I’ve ever written. Some people called it brave, others called it unwise, but it definitely generated interest. I believe it’s because we lawyers are so inclined to hide or posture or self-deceive. Transparency inspires us because we are so disinclined to be transparent.
I don’t intend to shake up the industry or anything, nor do I believe this little blog has that capacity. But one day, years from now, a new attorney will land on these monthly reports. She will see that an idiot like me can stumble through and succeed, and she’ll see a path forward. That’s why I’m doing this.
Influencers offer the authenticity that buyers trust. Their relationship with their audience is not centered around selling merchandise, but rather, around informative and relevant content that interests their followers. When an influencer tells your brand’s story, it comes from the perspective of a consumer, rather than that of a business or marketing strategy. How does an influencer impact your solo/small firm practice? How can you reach them? Find out.
Starting or restarting a law practice can be daunting, especially when you can’t get a handle on a business plan in action, in real time. That’s why we are so excited that Attorney Mike Whelan is tracking the relaunch of his law practice. He shares everything from income to costs. We hope you benefit from Mike’s efforts.
Professionalism is not well-defined in our profession. We all know unprofessionalism when we see it. The lawyer who seems to be more concerned about his fees than he is about the merits of the case. The lawyer who disrespects the court or other lawyers. The lawyer who bloviates and obfuscates when she doesn’t understand the law or her own argument. The lawyer who gets disciplined for trust accounting violations or failing to communicate with the client. But do we always know professionalism when we see it?
I’ve mentioned that before I went to law school I had a career in information systems technology. I worked for about nine different companies – mostly because the original company that hired me merged once or twice or three times while I was there – during the Dot.com boom and bust of the late 90′s and early 2000′s.
We had a motto back then: “Fail fast, fail often.” So what does that have to do with the practice of law? Plenty.
Working from home can be an amazing experience if it is planned correctly; an unmitigated disaster if it’s not. More importantly, if handled incorrectly there can be a lot of friction in your home. Why? Because, while your spouse and kids go off to work and school to then come home to their ‘sanctuary’, you are carefully and thoughtfully converting your sanctuary into a work space for a finite number of hours each day. This is a major psychological challenge. How do you do it successfully?
I had lunch recently with a young lawyer who has been out of work for a while. She had worked for a BigLaw firm for a couple of years before getting caught up in a layoff. Several months later, she was still searching for a law firm that wanted to hire her. She was, quite […]
Why Going Solo as a Young Attorney Could Be the Best Decision Ever with Susan Cartier Liebel from Solo Practice University®.
On this episode of New Solo from the Legal Talk Network, Adriana Linares interviews Susan Cartier Liebel from Solo Practice University® about how to stay motivated throughout the process of starting a solo law practice.
Motivation in life is very important. I share seminal moments which have shaped me as a human being and helped me become who I am today.
On this podcast from Lawpreneur Radio, Miranda McCroskey interviews Susan Cartier Liebel from Solo Practice University® about perceptions of fear, failure and other issues facing solos.
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