Update & Lessons Learned Part 1

One of the benefits of solo practice is that (in the absence of any pending work that needs to get done your time is your own). Its now 10:35AM, I took a long weekend with the family at the beach and have spent the morning going through email etc. I have a 12:00PM lunch with a former business school classmate who is thinking of starting a company and wants some advice. So I have about an extra hour and thought, I would get back on the blog horse and put off the real legal work I have to do to the afternoon. (Thanks basquette for the encouragement . . . I need it!)

So I am now a little more than 4 months into this Project Solo and it has been a little over a month since my last post out here so I have lots to cover. These next few posts are going to be a mix of “lessons learned” and other random observations in no particular order or importance.

Grooving on Technology, Marketing etc. I’ll start with the bottom line here, put networking and getting clients at the top of your list ahead of stationary, computers, web sites, filing systems, practice management software, quickbooks etc. Do you have a networking strategy? Do you have a plan to get involved with other attorney groups? Do you have an address list to send announcements to? I know I secretly thought more business would come through the web site and, over time perhaps it will, but at the start I believe most of your clients are going to come from word-of-mouth referrals from family, friends, other lawyers you meet or other people in the business. Purchase an alumnae directory, contact non-lawyers who might work with your target client base, contact local lawyers who work in other (related?) practice areas and let them know you are out there. I only make this comment because I plead guilty to spending too much time building a web sites, buying office furniture, searching for the lowest priced computer, finding the best flat screen LCD monitor, searching Craigs list for a good deal on a Herman Miller office chair (yes I found one!) and not enough time focused on finding clients. I call this grooving on the technology [or insert your favorite topic you like here] because it is all too easy to spend time doing stuff you enjoy (e.g. Internet product research) and not the stuff that not many of us enjoy (e.g. networking or selling yourself). Not that all that other stuff is not important and can take an amazing amount of time but just make sure client development is getting is fair share of focus.

In other news, I may have my second corporate client which would yield about 1 day per week in recurring business. This would allow me to replace about 50% of my pre-solo corporate salary. I found an ad for a full-time corporate in-house attorney at a small business that fit my target profile (up to about 100 employees, no general counsel or other lawyer) so I sent off an email to the CFO that said basically “not interested in the full-time position but would you consider a part-time position while you looked for full-time” and included a link to my web site and bio. Within 2 hours of sending that email, I got a phone call from the CFO saying he was interested, they had considered part-time as an alternative to full-time etc., we scheduled a later time to talk in more detail which gave me a few days to think about what kind of rate to charge I have an hourly target rate of $200/hour but then drop it down if there is a commitment for a specific amount of work per month (right now its anywhere from 3 to 4 8 hour days per month). He seemed very positive and indicated he would hire me, I just needed to set up a time to meet with the CEO. I haven’t been able to do that but it sounds like this will happen. More details to come. I guess the lesson learned here is that you never know where the leads will come from. I have sent out many emails to former friends an colleagues letting people know what I am up, many have responded, many have not (which I find a little annoying). This particular lead was one item among many on my “to-do” list, it probably took about 45 minutes to an hour to look into the company, compose an email, reverse engineer the CFO’s email address etc. I could have easily overlooked this or not followed through as it seemed like a long shot. But I am glad I did, its another mental boost and validation of my model. That said, we haven’t signed an engagmetn letter yet and the CFO didn’t return my email today asking about good times to meet with the CEO so doubts are creeping in.

I am finishing this post up at the end of the day. I am off to a dinner with some local solo lawyers at a nearby restaurant.