Top 10
Things to
Consider
When Building
Your Own Solo
or Small Firm
Shari-Lynn Cuomo Shore is
experienced in family law,
estate planning, juvenile law,
probate matters, and residential closings and practices at
her Hamden-based law firm,
Wolf & Shore LLC. She is a
member of the CBA Family Law Section,
Estates and Probate Section, the Professionalism and CLE Committee, and the Young
Lawyers Executive Committee, on which she
serves as Solo and Small Firms co-chair.
Attorney Shore served on the faculty of the
CBA’s recent Legal Entrepreneur Series.
By Shari-Lynn Cuomo Shore
14
Connecticut Lawyer
December 2014/January 2015
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I graduated law school in 2008. It was
not the best time to find a job in the legal
field. So, after law school, I worked for a
year and a half in a non-legal job. I started
to get complacent, and then I realized
that I should probably do something with
the law degree that I worked so hard to
obtain. If I had not wanted to be a practicing attorney, I never would have gone
to law school, never would have taken the
bar exam, and I definitely would not have
studied as hard as I did. I knew it was
time for a change.
After perusing more job postings, I grew
to realize that none of the available jobs
really fit the bill. I did not want to work
at a large firm. I did not want to practice
corporate law. I did not want to make the
same money that I was making at my nonlegal job and work twice as many hours. I
knew that I wanted to learn, I wanted to
be challenged, and that I wanted to practice in a field that I could find interesting.
It was at that point that I started speaking
with someone else who was in a similar
situation, and she suggested that we open
our own law firm. Along with another
colleague in a similar position, the three
of us joined forces. In December 2009, I
opened my first law firm, and I got to see
firsthand what one needs to do to build a
solo or small practice.
I never planned to own my own law
firm—it just kind of happened. In retrospect, we went into it fairly blindly and
just happened to be lucky that we were
quick learners. We had to play the “fake
it till you make it” game. Then again, everyone needs to do that in the beginning.
The beauty of starting your own firm is
that it can become anything you want it to
be. We were all hard workers and we all
wanted to have a successful practice. So
we worked. We worked hard. We read the
practice book constantly. We spent time
researching everything—not just the law,
but ethical rules, grievance decisions, articles about how to attract clients, and the
like. We knew that if we wanted to make a
name for ourselves, we would have to put
ourselves out there. So we did.
At the end of 2011, one of the women
from my first firm and I decided to start
a new practice, so we opened our current law firm, Wolf & Shore LLC. We are
now in our fourth successful year of business and are looking forward to an even
brighter future. We are fortunate enough
to say that we have grown our office each
year. We started off with just the two of
us and we now have an additional staff
of four. We know that we cannot become
complacent, because once we do, we will
likely stop growing. I have compiled a list
of the top 10 things you should consider
when you want to build your own solo or
small firm, based on my own experience.
I hope that you find the input helpful.
More importantly, I hope that you know
that if you truly want to go out and hang
your own shingle, you can do it. There are
plenty of people who are willing to help
you, to act as your mentor, to point you
in the right direction, or to even refer you
clients.
1.
Understand That You
Always Have to Be “On”
Have you heard the saying, “Dress for
the job that you want, not the job that
you have?” Owning your own law firm
is pretty much like that, 24/7. First, you
can’t go to court in sweatpants (even
though most of us wish we could). You
actually do need to invest in some nice
suits and look appropriate in court. You
need to look the part and you need to be
confident when you are working. If you
are not dressed like everyone else in the
courtroom (or your office, as the case
may be), you are not going to feel confident—no matter how prepared you actually are. After you have been practicing a
while, you will learn the unspoken dress
codes in each individual court, and if you
decide to become more lax at that point,
you probably can. However, play it safe in
the beginning. Keep in mind that if you
are just starting your career, no one else
in the room knows you yet. First impressions are everything and they will follow
you throughout your career.
Second, aside from dressing the part, you
actually do have to act like a lawyer/business owner most of the time. Would you
want to hire an attorney that you saw
acting wild in a bar on a Saturday night?
If the answer is no, then you should not
present yourself in public like that either. You never know where your next
client is going to come from (or where
your current clients are). When you own
your own business, you will quickly realize that your family and friends (i.e. your
close and already-existing network) will
be one of your largest referral sources.
This means that you may meet potential
clients while you are at a family gathering, or even while playing trivia at your
local watering hole (both of those scenarios happened to me in my first year of
practice). In order to actually sign those
clients that your friends and/or family have referred to you, you will need to
come across as professional and competent. Even more important, once you retain that client, you will always want to
put your best foot forward because now
he or she will be a referral source for you
as well. The more you present yourself
to the public as the professional that you
want to be, the closer you will get to becoming that professional.
Connecticut Lawyer
December 2014/January 2015 15
2.
You Need to Want It
People build successful firms by having
the passion and drive to build a better
business. It does not happen overnight,
but if you truly work at it, it eventually
will. It is unrealistic to think that you can
be your own boss and just get a paycheck
without putting in much effort. There is
no other phrase for that other than “pipe
dream.” Ultimately, if it is your own business (whether you have a solo practice
or a small firm), if you are not working,
you probably are not making money—at
least in the beginning. An office cannot
run itself, and even though you may not
have a boss “above” you that will check
in on you, your clients will each individually function as your “boss.” You will need
to report back to them, you will need to
keep them satisfied, and you should understand that those are the people that
give you your paycheck.
If you want to be successful, and you truly
put in the time to grow your business,
you will soon enough reap the fruits of
your labor. Eventually, you will be able to
put systems in place (i.e. specific procedures for each office task) and your staff
can help take some of the burden off of
you. This is the part that takes some time
to achieve, as it is essential that you have
the ability to make money on your own
first, and meet not only your individual
financial needs, but also the needs of the
business, before you can commit to paying other people.
3.
Get Comfortable Wearing
Multiple Hats
All lawyers are lawyers. Regardless of
the exact capacity, if you are a lawyer,
you are probably practicing some kind of
law. However, lawyers who work for others do not have to be a CEO, a CFO, a vice
president of marketing, an accountant,
a secretary, and a cleaning person every single day. In the beginning, you will
need to do all of those things (and more!).
When you first open your own business,
it is very likely that you will have to take
on the role of every office staff person you
will eventually want to hire. More impor-
16 Connecticut Lawyer
tantly, you will have to excel at all of those
jobs if you want to continually grow your
business.
After your business has become at least
somewhat established, you will likely
have the funds available to start hiring
people. It will be up to you who you hire,
how you pay them, and what responsibilities he or she will have. Even when you
have a full staff of people to help run your
office, you will continue to wear at least
two hats on a daily basis. You will still be
an attorney, which means that you will
still need to practice law in some capacity—even if it is advising your associates.
However, you will also still be a business
owner, and very often, you will probably
function as the manager of your business.
The responsibilities of continuing to grow
the business will likely still fall on you for
the majority of your career. Your own
practice can be anything that you want it
to be, but in the beginning, you need to
feel comfortable with getting your hands
dirty so that you can build a practice that
makes you proud.
In my opinion, the ability to wear multiple hats is one of the factors that set
aside the good business leaders from the
great business leaders. You would never
know if your filing system is the most efficient it can be if you did not at some point
have to file your own papers. Also, if you
do not remember what it is like to work
long hours and struggle to learn things,
you probably would not know how to
be a mentor to newer attorneys in your
practice. If you can become comfortable
wearing multiple hats, and even more
comfortable learning the lessons associated with those hats, you will easily succeed with your business.
4.
You Need to Spend Money
to Make Money
Kind of. You need some basic items to
start a law firm. You do not have to spend
an exorbitant amount of money, but you
will need to pay for the basics. If I had to
recommend the bare minimum items that
you have to have the day you open your
doors, it would be the following: a computer, a printer/scanner/copier, a phone,
December 2014/January 2015
some type of backup for your computer
(either an external hard drive or reliable
cloud computing backup), malpractice
insurance, an Internet connection, and a
bank account (comprised of your operating account to run the business and the
client trust [or IOLTA] account). Aside
from those items and your basic office
supplies, everything else is negotiable.
If you are considering the option of hanging your own shingle, you will soon find
that you have a variety of options available to you to quench your other needs.
Need an assistant? You can hire a virtual
one or an actual person. Need a conference room? You can rent one on an hourly
basis. Need to fax something? You can do
it from your computer. Need letterhead?
You can create your own or you can pay
someone to create it for you. The most
important part about these options is the
ability to know that you have them. If you
do your research, and follow the other
tips in this article, these opportunities
will almost present themselves to you. It
is at that point that you put on your business owner “hat” and make a decision
about what will work best for your practice.
5.
After You Make Money,
Invest in Things That Make
Your Life Easier
Once your practice is off to a running
start, you will likely find that you have
some disposable income. This is the point
at which you decide whether or not to invest that money back into your practice.
Usually, if you are still trying to grow your
practice, you will want to continue to invest in it. It makes sense to invest $1.00
where it easily turns into $2.00. There
are a variety of options you may have at
this point; one of which is speaking with
a financial advisor to see how you should
invest your money. Another option is to
have a “wish list” for your practice. A wish
list is simply a list compiled of things you
would like to add to your office. Again,
as the business owner, it will be up to
you to prioritize this list and see what
item(s) can help your office to run more
efficiently. A few “luxuries” that I would
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recommend once you reach this stage
are as follows: an accountant (to review
your books quarterly and do your taxes);
a time management software to help you
with billing, contacts, and also act as a
conflict checker; and a person who you
can hire to clean your office (no client
wants to walk in and see his or her attorney scrubbing a toilet). Depending on the
type of law you practice, you may have
other, more pressing needs, which you
will need to evaluate. Which brings me to
Number 6….
6.
You Don’t Know Everything
But, you probably know someone who
knows the information that you need.
The first step is to admit that you do not
know everything. The second step is to
know where to find the correct answer. If
you can obtain a mentor, I strongly urge
you to do so. My mentor has been invaluable to me and I still reach out to her occasionally. Many attorneys have been in
your position and want to offer you advice as to how to succeed. The caveat here
is that you should never rely on a mentor
(or any other colleague, for that matter),
to do the work for you. There is a big difference between a situation where you do
not know an answer, you have spent time
researching the answer, and you came up
with two different options, but you do
not know which is better, as compared
to a situation where you have a question,
did not put any effort into finding the
answer, and you then just randomly call
people and expect them to do the dirty
work. Make sure that your situation falls
into the former category before you reach
out to someone. You do not want to be labeled as someone who is lazy, or who is
not competent enough to do your own
legwork.
Another important point to keep in mind
is that while you can certainly learn
things that you do not know, you should
never take on a case that is outside of
your capabilities. If you know that a potential client has a case that will require
resources that you do not have, or a level
of knowledge about a specific practice
area that you simply cannot obtain, you
should have the good sense to refer him
or her to a colleague. You will make a
good impression with the potential client
for knowing your limits, and you will help
out a colleague in the process.
7.
Network
Most people do not like to network, but
it has to be done. However, there are
productive and appropriate ways to network, and unproductive/inappropriate
ways to network. It is helpful to go into
a networking situation with the attitude
of “How can I help the other people in this
room?” rather than “How can the other
people in this room help me?” The difference is that people want to refer business
to other people that they like. Everyone
likes to talk about themselves and everyone wants to feel special. Therefore,
if you can go into a networking situation
and make people feel good about themselves, (and establish real connections in
the process), you will be the person that
your colleagues remember.
There are two main areas in which you
should consider networking. First, you
should look at bar associations. Bar associations (whether local, statewide, or
national) will give you the opportunity to
interact with other attorneys. While it depends upon the specific associations that
you join, you will likely have the opportunity to meet other attorneys who practice
in your local area and your practice area.
These will be your connections that you
learn from and the people with whom
you can develop a good rapport. You may
also meet people who practice in different states or have different practice areas.
These are the people that you will want
to develop a referral relationship with so
that if you get a potential client that you
can’t assist, you can at least point them in
the direction of a trusted professional.
Outside of bar associations, it is often
helpful to join industry associations, or
chambers of commerce, depending on
what type of law you practice. These
types of associations will give you the
opportunity to develop professional connections. For example, if you are a real
estate attorney, it makes sense to get to
know realtors so that you have a basis for
a referral network. Alternatively, you may
meet a financial advisor that can help you
with your practice while you are attending a local chamber of commerce event.
Both of these situations are different, but
equally beneficial to your practice.
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Connecticut Lawyer
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8.
Do Not Spend More Than
You Earn
9.
Set Goals
If you start your business out in debt, or
you take on more expenses than you can
afford, you will likely always struggle to
stay afloat. One of the main differences
between having a salaried job where you
work for someone as compared to owning your own business is that the paycheck is not guaranteed. The inverse of
that is also that you can make as much
as you want. But, you cannot depend on
a steady check every month, either. If it’s
a slow month for signing clients, it’s likely
that your cash flow is going to hurt. Your
cash flow may also be dependent upon
the type of law that you practice. There
is a difference between doing divorces on
a retainer basis where you can bill your
clients hourly, and a worker’s compensation case in which you will only collect a
percentage of the final settlement based
upon a contingency agreement. Due to
these various scenarios, you should make
sure that you have some type of financial
cushion in case hard times come your
way. In addition, you should pay attention to your profit and loss analysis (preferably monthly, but at least quarterly), so
that you can see if there are any red flag
areas for expenditures. It is important
to understand that sticking to a budget
with your business is just as important as
sticking to a budget in your personal life.
If you do not set goals, you will not have
something in place for you to strive toward. It is important to set both longterm and short-term goals so that your
practice can have a defined direction. You
can cater these goals to your personal
preferences, but in general, you may
want to outline financial goals, personal
goals, and business growth goals so that
you can adequately check in on yourself.
You can have daily goals, weekly goals,
monthly goals, and/or yearly goals, but
you should set up a system for yourself
where you “check-in” to see what your
growth has been. Not only will this method allow you to see how much progress
you are making, it will also foster an opportunity for you to catch issues that may
become problems down the road, and it
will allow you the chance to fix said issues before they are detrimental to your
practice.
10.
Try to Maintain a Work-Life
Balance
Even though you may find it tempting to
work all day, every day, try to avoid that
temptation. In the beginning, you will feel
productive, and you will likely see a financial reward for your hard work. However,
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few people can keep up a pace like that
and ultimately, the end result is that you
will burn out.
A more productive and a healthier way to
run your business is to maintain a worklife balance. One of the benefits that come
with owning your practice is that you
can (mostly) make your own schedule.
That means you should try to allow time
for yourself to actually eat lunch (not in
front of your computer), go for a walk,
spend time with your family, etc. It is
also important to schedule a vacation for
yourself. You will have the opportunity
to plan around it and you will be a much
more productive person when you return
to the office. It will take you some time
to get used to it, but if you can embody
a mantra of “everything in moderation,”
you will have a happy life and a successful business.
Opening and building your own solo or
small firm is not an easy task, but it is a
goal that one can attain by putting in the
required work. If it’s something that you
are going to attempt, best of luck—you
will do great! CL
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