Lawyers USA Your Business Partner

Over the last two decades, Big Law has led many to believe the legal profession operates outside the economic rules governing the rest of the world.

Just last year we read about first-year associates receiving astronomical annual salaries upwards of $200,000, sixth-year associates making $300,000 and partners earning $1 million or more.

But today we know that the legal profession is no different than any other. In the midst of the stock market implosion and shakeout and the now infamous “Bloody Thursday,” the profession is cluttered with out-of-work associates and partners wandering the streets dazed and confused. This is due in part to both the system’s own structural flaws and our unprecedented national and global economic crisis.

More than 250 years ago, 90 percent of Americans were entrepreneurs, mostly with home-based businesses. As we attempt to reconstruct our economy, I wonder if we’re about to see the return of the home-based entrepreneur, including home-based lawyers who will learn to turn up the pilot light on their long-dormant survival gene and never again work for another.

Solos are often ahead of the economic curve.

This is good news for progressive solos who have always understood economic reality.  Small, agile, able to make decisions quickly and holding little baggage, solos have traditionally been far ahead of the curve. This enables them to take advantage of opportunities the moment they surface. Great enterprises have always been built upon the ashes of great collapses.

Solos often forget that they are much better positioned in most economies because of their solo status. Today’s solos don’t have to worry about office politics, de-equitization and layoffs, giving them a tremendous leg up in shaky economic times. They have one focus and one focus only: creating their own thriving business.

But how quickly and deftly can they create and/or revamp their solo practices, shift gears, make adjustments in their personal and professional lives to service their clients and still turn a profit – all the while remaining sensitive to the potential clients’ economic strife?  Make no mistake: staying sensitive to and adjusting for this strife is the key to profitability and success.

Fashion business plans based on predicted need.

The answer to a solo attorney’s economic security lies, in part, in predicting those needs that will arise and fashioning a business plan to meet those needs.

Most solos do not practice securities and exchange or mergers and acquisitions law; they practice “average person” law – bankruptcy, divorce, trusts and estates, real estate, criminal, personal injury, small business incorporation, landlord/tenant, and DUI, or a combination of two or three.

The demand for legal advice in these areas, which most of us end up needing at some point in our lives, tends to increase in harsh economic times. As we are hunkering down for this long, cold winter, your clients are, too.

Look in the mirror. As a potential client of your own services, what would make you hire you? Think about your method of engagement, delivery of services, price points and payment methods. (If you say, “I do immigration, and I would never use my own services,” you are missing the point of this exercise.)

To ignore your personal circumstances when marketing to and engaging with potential clients is to be out of touch with your potential client base, business and marketing plan. You are setting yourself up for hardship and potential failure as a solo practitioner.

Next, ask yourself these questions: If you were to get a divorce, what would you expect to pay and what terms would you want? How tech-savvy, creative and considerate of your economic reality would you want your lawyer to be? What should he or she offer in terms of convenience, pricing and communications?

If you were declaring bankruptcy or trying to save your home from foreclosure, would thinking about the size of your legal bills stress you out even more? How can you address your clients’ fears? How can you encourage them to contact you knowing that pro se status is an option in most of these practice areas?  What message will you deliver that will resonate with them and encourage them to hire you instead?

Learn to live on less.

If you answer, “I’ll just target the very rich,” think again.

Everyone can’t service the ultra-wealthy. Focusing on premium pricing limits your options. Plus, not everyone wants to service the gilded class. There are many more people you can serve by reaching out to Main Street America – people who are also the most impacted by the poor economy.

To accomplish your objectives, become more efficient by cutting overhead. You can still deliver services if you use technology effectively and rely on creative pricing structures to the extent the law permits. By becoming more flexible, you’ll be able to accommodate your clients’ economic challenges while still turning a profit.

This philosophy should also extend to your personal life. If you want to survive, learn to live on less, which doesn’t prevent you from growing.  It does, however, create a habit of smart (not excessive) spending, which will allow you to profit with a limitless upside.

An attorney who started her own practice right out of law school, Susan Cartier Liebel is now a full-time coach/consultant for solos and small firms. She authors the blog Build A Solo Practice, LLC http://buildasolopractice.com and is the creator of Solo Practice University, a web 2.0 based educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students. http://solopracticeuniversity.com

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