*Guest post by Susan Cartier Liebel – Solo Practice University* In part one of Staying the Course When Deciding to Go Solo (Part I) I talked about creating that mantra that helps you to work through your fears of starting a solo practice, those fears which inevitably surface after the initial rush of adrenalin you…
Category Archives: Law Office Management
Staying the Course When Deciding to Go Solo (Part I)
*Guest post by Susan Cartier Liebel – Solo Practice University* When you first commit to the whole concept of entrepreneurship, starting a solo practice, you are simultaneously ecstatic and frantic and giddy and fretful. Once the decision is made, though, it seems you can’t get started soon enough. You want to realize your dreams of…
A Solo Attorney’s Personal Crisis
by Shanda Tinney On August 15th my entire life changed. My husband and I had just sold our home and were moving. Closing day was scheduled for August 15th. We had been packing and sorting all month and started moving the week before. My husband became very ill. He had been tired the whole week…
When is it time to call it quits
That’s the Charlie Brown advice we were taught growing up. Never, ever give up. Quitting is for losers. Now that we’re grown up, things are just never that simple. I recently came across the story of a new solo from Washington who started his law practice. He was doing well for about 6-months (and by…
When to Hire Employees for Your Law Firm
If you search the wisdom of the Internet, you will find a million answers to this question: When should you hire your first employee? Any of the answers you find, could be right for your specific situation. As lawyers often say, it depends. For me, I hired my first employee – an intern- when I…
How to Sell Your Legal Services to a Skeptical Client
[Attorney]: The fee for the legal service is $250/hr with a $5,000 retainer. [Client]: That’s too much. Can we do $200/hr with $1,000 retainer? I promise I’ll pay. And I can refer my friends to you. We’ve all, at one time for another, had a client say a version of the above conversation to us….
The Most Important Part of Running a Law Firm
What’s the most important part of running a law firm? In my opinion, it’s getting paid and it harder to do than it sounds. Most solos and law firm owners know this – getting clients to pay the full bill is like pulling teeth. You either won’t get paid at all by some clients, or…
Setting Up Systems to Run Your Law Firm
I’m out of the office for a week. A whole seven days. I’ve been out of the office before but not while I’ve had the caseload I have now and not while I’ve had associates to manage. Your law practice gets harder and harder to manage because the business and the firm is growing. However,…