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Tuning Up Your Law Practice:
An Analysis of Your Life, Talents and Place in the Profession
By: Claude E. Ducloux
Austin, Texas
ANALYZE YOUR TALENTS,
ACCOMMODATE YOUR SKILLS,
ACCEPT YOUR DUTIES AS A PROFESSIONAL, and
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR CLIENTS INTERESTS
Introduction: Where??s Waldo? And Does He Belong There?
The legal profession, like the world generally, is populated with scores of different personality types, talents, abilities, fears and passions. Generally, we try to employ our strengths and control our weaknesses in our efforts to make a living in this ever-more complicated world. Some efforts are more successful than others. Here are some of the best ideas for securing success, improving your performance and your success and comfort though a four-part analysis as follows:
1. Analyze Yourself: No one knows you better than you. We must each undertake a candid survey of our own strengths and weaknesses, abilities and faults. Integral to this analysis is a thoughtful listing of the things that make us happy. If you do not have, at least, a desire, hope and plan for happiness, any long-term endeavor in your life will ultimately fail. Ultimately, this is an ??existential?? analysis of why we do what we do.
2. Decide What Business You??re In: Understanding the business nature of your practice and circumstances. This involves the analysis of your financial macrocosm and financial microcosm. By that, every lawyer needs to understand how much you are going to need to earn almost on a daily basis to meet you personal goals for liquidity and, ultimately, happiness. Those lawyers who are trust babies and simply practice law because they like it may not need to take this as seriously as others. However, for most of us, law is our primary source of income and it??s important for us to have both a ??big picture?? and a ??little picture?? which validates our business plan.
3. Use the Right Equipment in Practice: Because we are all different personalities, we will need to concentrate on office systems that compliment our strengths and guard against overlooking something that exploits our weaknesses in interest or management style.
4. Evaluate Client Sources: Who is going to pay you? Evaluating your clients and sources of clientele is crucial. Once you??ve acknowledged that the practice of law is a business and, unless you are doing pro bono, you have to make sure that you are serving clientele that appropriately appreciate your services: in other words, they pay you.
Hang in there, while we discuss each of these concepts.
Part II: Self Analysis
It is important that you know your professional skills. At least once every few years, you should sit in a room when you have a good solid 30 minutes and ask yourself these questions:
1. Your World: What makes you happy? Things could be as simple as exercising, hiking, tending to animals or pets, hunting, performing, singing, simply spending time with family, spouse or significant others, reading or other activities.
Do you expect or seek fame?
How important are ??Creature comforts??? Cars? Boats?
What about your family??s expectations?
How are your personal relationships?
Do you make time for hobbies?
Is traveling important? Where? Why?
If you will write these things down, it will help you focus on the type of activities you are going to emphasize in your personal life to accomplish those interests. You will also see patterns emerge and ultimately you will find out how to do more of those things.
Many people have been brought up with a work ethic which indicates that happiness should only come as a secondary by-product of success at work. But it helps to remember: this is your one and only life. Make sure you minimize your regrets.
2. Your Skills. Ask yourself these questions:
a. What are you good at? List your skills.
b. Do you have good academic knowledge?
c. Are you good at finding the right answer?
d. Do you have good communication skills?
i.. Are you a good writer?
ii. Are you a good speaker and can you speak extemporaneously?
e. What are your memory skills?
f. Do you have interpersonal skills or ability to relate and empathize with clients?
g. What about your judgment when it comes to finding solutions?
h. Are you a ??detail?? person? Do you rely only on writings, or do you simply rely on memory?
i. Do you have technical or engineering skills that can be put to use in practice?
j. How much do you want to work?
If you are honest with yourself, it will help you to adjust your goals and income.
Part III: Seeing Law as a Business
1. The Concept of Practicing Law ??
a. What Impact to do you have on the work that you do?
b. What is your business model?
c. Will you only be performing hourly services?
d. Contingency Work?
e. Flat Fee for ??the whole job??? (How will you define it?)
2. Personal goals -
a. Do you want to be high profile, low profile?
b. Who will be your client base for this proposed business model?
3. Making it Cash-Flow- you can??t pay the bills with good intentions.
Lawyers are paid problem solvers (i.e., pro bono aside, you can??t work for free), so it is important that every lawyer understand his/her financial macrocosm/microcosm? Perform this exercise, which is dubbed the ??4 hour per day method:??
a. Create a monthly budget for everything, including your office overhead, your personal overhead, home mortgage, car payments, etc. and then add a comfortable amount of savings on top of that of not less than $1,000.00 per month.
b. Take that total monthly budget and divide it by 20. This resulting figure is the typical amount you will have to earn daily during the practice of law, given that there are approximately 20 working days per month.
c. Divide your daily amount by 4. In a perfect world that final number should be not greater than the usual and customary billing rate for an attorney of your experience. Any lawyer in private practice should be able to survive on about 4 paid hours per day.
Example: Monthly needs for all purposes (household mortgage, bills, office overhead) = $15,000 per month. Divided by 20 = $750 per day. Divided by 4 = $187.50 per hour.
Therefore, your economic microcosm is to be able to look at your output or time records each day and ask yourself: ??Will these clients I served today pay me for 4 hours of my time today??? Note, this doesn??t mean that you get to the office at 8:00 a.m. and get to leave at 12:00 p.m. everyday. But, for many lawyers a substantial portion of office time is not legitimately billable due to other obligations, volunteer work or events that infiltrate their time.
d. What if this process results in a billing rate that is too high?
If the use of this formula results in a billing rate that is higher than a lawyer of your age, experience or geography can support, you will at least see how many billable and collectible hours you are challenged to accomplish daily. It will force you to adjust your expectations accordingly, as well as, perhaps, your spending habits, or find ways to adjust overhead.
CAVEAT: Make sure you also have included in your monthly overhead plan, unless you are a salaried employee, to include and pay your taxes in a timely fashion and put away adequate money for retirement.
Part IV: Office Systems
Once you??ve assessed your skills, talents and weaknesses, adjust your office systems to maximize your potential. These include the basic systems:
1. Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses;
a. What is your firm capacity? How many staff do you have?
Bottom line: Do you have enough to respond promptly to client needs and office work-product output?
b. What is your state of technology/equipment?
Bottom line: Does your technology support your information needs?
c. Are you having any fun based upon the availability of staff and equipment?
Although stress is a regular by-product of practice, if your equipment or lack thereof causes you more, look at changing or updating.
2. Keeping files;
a. What numbering system?
b. How are they kept and retired?
c. How do you backup items on the office system?
Bottom Line: can you easily access client information, and is it safely protected?
3. Financial control:
a. Reviewing statements and checks;
b. Who is allowed to sign checks; and
c. Categorizing expenses for tax purposes: Do you do this daily? Monthly? Do you use codes? Or, do you enter it into a tax software system?
4. Managing phone calls: Always return phone calls (or have staff do so).
5. The Scourge of Managing Emails. Should you have a ??quiet time?? where you do not turn on your machine?
6. Communications;
a. How do you record outgoing communications?
b. How do you record incoming communications?
c. Correspondence: do you take extra care to craft your outgoing correspondence? Would everything you??ve written today look good as a 3 ft. x 4 ft. exhibit?
7. Work Product - Four Tips for Work Product
a. Get a mentor or a lawyer you trust to read you drafts of briefs. You will be surprised how your arguments will change if you take the opportunity to have another lawyer look at that work. Unquestionably it will improve you work product.
b. Preparing for a hearing. Make sure you make your argument to either a group of friendly lawyers or others first. Always talk to people as if you were sitting at a kitchen table. Ask how the argument sounded to them. Did they understand you? Always make sure you tell an interesting story and have a theme.
c. The Rule of Primacy: When requesting relief from a Judge in a hearing always tell the Judge what you want first before you go into any background: ??Judge, in this motion I am asking you to compel X to attend a deposition next Tuesday.??
d. Drafting contracts and other documents. Make sure you understand the law involved. Don??t simply borrow a form from another lawyer. Always look at two or three different forms and compare provisions.
Part V: Who is Going to Pay You? - Evaluating Clients
1. What do you know about this client that is coming in?
2. What do they want you to do?
3. Are you the first attorney to discuss this client??s problem? Are the you second? Are you the third?
4. Are you asking appropriate questions and are you finding out that the particular problem that this client is asking about is just ??the tip of the iceberg???
5. What is the likelihood of this client being able to pay you for the entire project? Hint: if the client is being sued for defaulting on a financial obligation, there is every danger that he will default on his obligation to you too.
6. Analyze your firm capacity. Do you have enough staff to handle a complex case? If you don??t, don??t attempt to do so.
7. Learn to say ??NO.??
Part VI: Working as an Ethical Lawyer: The Four Responsibilities
The Texas Lawyer??s Creed reminds us that we have four competing duties:
1. To your client;
2. To your fellow lawyer;
3. To the administration of justice; and
4. To yourself
All of your activities during the day should be vetted through these four responsibilities. Whenever you have a question or a difficult situation, consider applying a question of whether or not the responsibilities are being met through the proposed course of action.
Part VII: Bad Things Happen ?? How to Handle a Grievance
Every Lawyer should know where to find the Texas Rules of Disciplinary Procedure. The easiest place to instantly access them are at www.txethics.org, which is the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism. Outside those rules, however, here are the three most important tips, which lawyers familiar with the system will impart:
1. Always respond timely and completely;
2. Never respond pro se. Always have some lawyer you trust review your response or write it for you;
3. If the Grievance Committee finds ??just cause,?? know your deadlines: must make election within 20 days of receipt to either have an evidentiary panel or District Court.
Part VIII: Know What Clients Want
Few lawyers are aware, because we often do not listen to them, of what our client??s value about our services and advice, and want THEY want from us. A survey performed almost ten years ago revealed this desires, in this order of priority:
1. Collaboration (we try to achieve their goals);
2. Accessibility (we keep them ??in the loop??);
3. Good Listener/Effective Communicator (we make them feel that we hear their concerns);
4. Accountability (we don??t blame-shift, even to office staff or other team members);
5. Respect and Courtesy (remember, they??re the customer); and
6. Competence (isn??t that odd? Our professional competence is LEAST important!)
Part IX: Three Cardinal Rules for Success
Years of law practice inform me that these concepts are inviolate:
1. Always tell the truth. (Ultimately, there??s far less paperwork with the truth)
2. Treat every client like they were going to live next door to you for the rest of your life.
3. Never sue a client. It is fraught with peril.
Part X. Improve and Defend Your Profession: Give Something Back
As attorneys, we have both a professional duty not only to improve the profession, but to defend the profession from unwarranted attacks. We hold a public trust, at the very least:
a. to support the fair administration of justice;
b. to make sure people understand the judiciary is the third branch of government; and
c. to speak out as a true professional when you see undue criticism.
Part XI. Define Your Own Success:
Follow the Rules and Your Heart, and You will be a Success: Here is a definition for ??success:?? (attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)
??To laugh often and much; to win respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.??
Part XII: Resources Available from the State Bar:
1. Join the Texas Center for Legal Ethics & Professionalism; www.tethics.org. Cost is $100.00 per year and comes with 3 free hours of online legal ethics per year.
2. Law Practice Management ?? www.texasbarcle.com/cle/lphome.asp. This is the homepage for law practice management. It includes the following:
a. Resources on how to start and build a law practice;
b. Flying Solo;
c. Startup Kit for Small Firms;
d. The Ten Minute Mentor;
e. Hanging Out Your Shingle;
f. Opening and Managing a Law Office;
g. Secrets of Success;
h. The Guide to the Basics of Law Practice (also accessible through Texas Center for Legal Ethics);
i. The New Lawyer Course;
j. The Self-Assessment Tool.
The resource also includes the following sections on law practice management:
a. Professionalism, ethics, discipline and malpractice;
b. Where to practice;
c. Administrative and financial assistance;
d. Technology, including a product specific technology review and legal research advice;
e. Marketing client relations and business planning;
f. Practice areas;
g. Mentors and professional development;
h. Minority issues;
i. Quality of life issues; and
j. Non-traditional career paths. This includes a complete guide to contract lawyering.
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