Your Law Firm - Lee Rosen Of Rosen Institute

She’s sharp. She’s motivated. She’s excited. She’s exactly the kind of employee you’d been hoping to find. But she needs to know what kind of advancement she can expect at your practice. You may not have the 'bigger and better' to offer -- that’s the state of affairs in most small law firms. In large part, small firms stay small. That’s a feature, not a bug for many of us. If you don't offer the candidate a chance for advancement then don't expect your offer to be accepted. You need a solid answer to this tough question.

When the economy turns against you, it's very difficult to fight the larger forces at work. We're swimming against the tide. We're fighting nature. A rising tide lifts all boats. A falling tide sinks many ships. Of course, you don't need my permission. But, I wanted to give it to you. Sometimes having someone, anyone really, tell you that it's okay makes it easier. In times like this, we get a free pass to quit. Everyone understands. No one thinks less of you.

You’re taking nothing other than a laptop, a cell phone, and a legal education and turning it into money. It’s incredibly difficult to turn nothing into something. You’ve got to see it in your mind, believe it’s real, and then convince others to see it as well. It’s great until you think about it, and then it’s overwhelming.

The theory behind a partnership seems sound - that bringing in a partner shares the risk, creates synergy, and doubles the odds of success. The reality is that many law firm partners spend all their energy fighting for a bigger share of a pathetic little pie. Instead of synergy, they get misery when the relationship unravels and the partnership fails. The business relationship has failed, and more often than not, the personal relationship has soured as well.

The law firm’s equivalent of a hair on the appetizer or a fly in the soup is a slow response to the initial contact. The potential client calls, emails, texts, or uses your chatbot only to get no answer for what feels like too long. Maybe it’s not too long in your mind (perhaps they thought the butter was warm enough?). But, it’s too long for the prospective client.

Getting your team, no matter how small, into alignment to achieve goals is essential. The law firm you've created in your mind's eye will only come to fruition is you bring your team into alignment. Everyone needs to know what you're trying to buld and why it matters. Communication is how you make that happen. Without effective communication, everyone heads in a different direction. Things get done, but they’re often not the things that need doing.

Some of us leave a good job because we’re tired of being told what to do. Some of us start our own practice straight out of law school after three years of being bossed around by our professors. We each come to the point of starting our law firms from different places and for different reasons, but freedom is always a component.

Law firm associates have a nasty tendency to pack up their toys and go start their own law firms. Keeping them in our employ, doing the work which needs doing, is difficult. The grass is often greener elsewhere. They’re tempted by other offers or, quite often, the option of opening their own practices. The reality of today’s marketplace and economic environment is that your associate, practicing on his own, in a low overhead situation, has a decent chance of making more money than you in your larger firm. The resourceful, aggressive, nimble solo practitioner is often the most profitable lawyer in the marketplace.

Lawyers need to change people’s minds - jurors, judges, other lawyers, our staff, and especially our clients. We need tools to make that happen. We’re constantly searching for tips, tricks, and techniques. Our quest for insight into persuasion is never satisfied. Tips, tricks, and techniques are helpful but insufficient. We need something more. No matter how many books we read, seminars we attend, or videos we watch we're disappointed with the results.

When I practiced law, I often let my competitors steer me in the wrong direction. I’d see another firm buying ads, or publishing articles, or throwing a party and decide we should do that too. I’d get desperate for better ads, more articles, and a bigger party. I’d neglect what we were already doing in order to catch up with what they had decided to do. Shifting my focus led me to abandon partially finished projects in order to work on half-baked ideas prompted by others.

Most of us fear that we're being too aggressive, or worry that if we're too pushy, we'll end up shooting ourselves in the foot. Chances are that you're not even close to being too pushy.

Productivity hacks don’t stick. Sure, they work for a minute or a day or even a week if you’re lucky. You’ll briefly be more productive when you decide to take action. But, your productivity won’t improve because of the hack. Your productivity improves because you made a decision to focus, commit time, and decide to do the work. It’s not the hack. The hack just briefly encouraged you. Diet books work too - for a few days.

I wanted to do things differently. I was confident that the vision I created of a different kind of law firm would make me, my clients, and my team happier. Once I saw a better law firm in my mind, I felt a strong sense of purpose and certainty. My newly created vision energized me. I was fired up and ready to go. Then, life took over. Client deadlines came and went. Family emergencies popped up. Financial pressures distracted me from thinking long-term. The vision faded in the chaos of my life. I wasn’t making the progress I imagined.

We hear stories about big firm associates billing crazy numbers of hours. When I got out of law school back in 1987, the story was that big-firm lawyers billed a minimum of 1,800 hours per year. Don’t automatically trust the numbers you hear. Be skeptical. It’s not uncommon for a lawyer to hear someone else’s numbers and react with a “that’s impossible”. It very well may be impossible to replicate what you’re hearing in your particular practice area. It’s key to apply critical thinking skills when hearing the numbers of others. Even if the story you’re hearing is accurate it may have no relationship to what’s realistic in your practice setting.

When determining associate compensation, we need to know what’s fair while also understanding what amount will allow the firm to remain profitable. We can’t afford to experiment. We often end up paying whatever it takes to keep people from leaving. We come up with complicated and sophisticated approaches to associate pay, but if we start losing people, we fix the system to stop the attrition. When the team is making money for the law firm, we want to keep the team.

Rejecting candidates, even where they're unqualified, is hard. It's tough to respond to the resume submission with a rejection message because it's often clear that the applicant put a great deal of effort into the effort. I hate being the source of bad news. Most of us don't want to be the bad guy in this scenario.

It’s probably not the coffee that’s breaking the bank. Many of us focus on the $3 coffee or the few bucks we’re wasting on the wrong mobile phone plan, the weekly car wash, or the periodic massages. Nope, it’s not the little stuff. For many of us, the problem isn’t happening at home. It’s happening at the office. We’re hemorrhaging cash inside the law firm before the money ever makes it to the house.

Sending an email should be very straightforward. It’s dramatically simpler than sending a letter, on paper, as we did in the old days. An email, today, is the equivalent of yesterday’s printed, stamped, mailed letter. It’s faster, cheaper, and more reliable. We live in amazing times. Life is good. This doesn’t need to be complicated.