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Originally published in Student
Lawyer magazine, April 2006 (Vol. 34, No. 9). All rights
reserved.
Hot Practice
Management issues are key to law practice
ABA Resources on Law Practice Management
by Lisa Stansky
Most students are so busy learning the law that they have little
time to learn about the business of law. But developing a skill
set in this area can be just as important to the overall health
of your career.
Lawyers who focus on law practice management say the area actually
has four aspects: management, marketing, technology, and finance.
Knowing the importance of these business factors now, they say,
will give you a boost when you make the leap from law student to
lawyer.
New graduates tend to be up on technology but still need to develop
other business skills, says Thomas Grella, chair-elect of the ABA
Law Practice Management Section. Grella is managing partner at the
18-lawyer firm of McGuire Wood & Bissette in Asheville, N.C.
“You come out of law school and you don’t know anything
about running a business,” Grella says. He adds that those
who plan to fly solo have an even greater need to sharpen their
tools for handling the business end of running a law practice.
Don’t assume that going to work for a firm (even a big one)
eliminates the need to develop management savvy. Your career trajectory
could land you someday in a partner’s chair, where you will
be expected to help run the show.
Remember to think about the partners you work for. “You
have to be cognizant of the fact that eventually you have to bring
in the business as a partner,” says David Joseph Scriven-Young,
chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division’s law practice management
committee. In the meantime, serve those partners well and learn
from them. “The first thing that all young lawyers have to
remember [is that] the partners in the firm are your most important
clients,” says Scriven-Young, a lawyer in the Chicago office
of McDermott Will & Emery.
As for the marketing prong of law practice management, it’s
important to build name recognition as soon as you can. Seeing your
byline as the author of published legal articles is one of Scriven-Young’s
top picks for boosting a new lawyer’s marketing clout. “Name
recognition is huge,” he says. Keeping up with those old school
ties is also key on the marketing front, he adds.
Although working on your management and marketing savvy will enhance
your career later on, Scriven-Young suggests that a young lawyer’s
first priority is to get a handle on the substantive law.
Your life outside the office is a marketing opportunity, says
Randi Brent Whitehead, vice chair of the Young Lawyers Division’s
law practice management committee and a lawyer in Sarasota, Fla.
“Every other part of your life, you can be marketing,”
she says. “Always have business cards with you.”
Law practice management skills include time management, one of
the toughest jobs for any lawyer. Communications technology can
be a lawyer’s best friend, as long as one knows how to control
the insistent rings, bleeps, and buzzes emanating from phones, computers,
handhelds, and other devices clamoring for their attention.
“People have allowed these technological devices to take
over their lives,” Grella says. “I turn off all sounds
on all of my devices.”
Constant interruptions from phone and computer signals can eat
into your concentration and your time. Grella suggests having set
times to review e-mail. “If you don’t control e-mail,
it will control you,” he warns.
Turning off the volume does not mean tuning out, however. “I
do subscribe to the theory of not leaving [the office] without answering
or having someone answer” all messages, Grella says.
Edward Poll, principal of LawBiz Management Co. in Venice, Calif.,
echoes Grella’s emphasis on client responsiveness. He urges
lawyers to understand what good client relations entails, reminding
them they are practicing law only because clients have issues that
demand their help.
“It’s all about the customer, it’s all about
the client,” says Poll, whose book Collecting Your Fee:
Getting Paid From Intake to Invoice was published by the ABA
Law Practice Management Section (available at www.ababooks.org).
“Actively listen to the client…. Understand the client’s
environment and make sure the client understands your environment,”
Poll says, explaining that it is critical for lawyers and clients
to have a firm grasp of one another’s expectations from the
start.
Even though it’s not all about the money, the finance prong
of law practice management is critical to keeping the enterprise
alive and thriving. Lawyers, even those starting out, must focus
on what it takes to bring in business.
“[Lawyers] always need to be thinking of building a book
of business on their own … a network of business or contact
opportunities,” says Angela Dalton, a partner with Goldring
Edwards & Dalton of Tinton Falls, N.J., and the Young Lawyers
Division liaison to the Law Practice Management Section.
Law practice management skills are particularly important for
Dalton’s three-lawyer firm. “You’re wearing a
lot of different hats,” she says.
No matter the size of their firm, new lawyers should take an interest
in where they fit into the firm’s financial picture. Grella
says new lawyers should be aware of what it costs a firm to keep
them there and take note of ways to become more efficient. Whitehead
also advises new lawyers to understand their role on the firm’s
balance sheet, in terms of what they contribute and what they cost.
This is especially true for small firms with less financial wiggle
room, she says.
As for using technology to your advantage, Grella says lawyers
must understand that technology is not perfect, adding that it’s
a good idea to seek help from information technology professionals.
Whitehead urges new lawyers to use the Internet and other online
resources for the information that will advance their work without
letting it overwhelm them. And Dalton says there are some things,
like quality software and hardware, lawyers should not skimp on.
To get a handle on these and otherissues, Grella suggests every
lawyer’s bookshelf should include a copy of The Successful
Lawyer: Powerful Strategies for Transforming Your Practice,
written by Gerald Riskin and published by the Law Practice Management
Section (available at www.ababooks.org).
In fact, the Law Practice Management Section’s web site
has a host of guides on the management, marketing, finance, and
technology angles, including Jay Foonberg’s How to Start
and Build a Law Practice.
As you launch into practice, you can carry over your evolving
management skills into the other spheres of your life. “Think
about balancing your life and your work,” Whitehead advises.
“Find time to be involved with the things you care about.”
Lisa Stansky (
lstansky@mcglinchey.com)
is a lawyer with the New Orleans office of McGlinchey Stafford.
Are you interested in other fields of law? Read previous Hot
Practice columns online at www.abanet.org/lsd/studentlawyer.
ABA Resources on Law Practice Management
ABA law student members can receive informative publications, invitations
to meetings with lawyers, access to online forums, and other resources
by joining one or more of these ABA sections—often free of
charge or at a reduced rate:
Law
Practice Management Section
Section
of Business Law
Law Firms Committee
Use of Paralegals in a Business Law Practice Committee
Section
of Family Law
Law Practice Management Committee
Young
Lawyers Division
Law Practice Management Committee
Customize your membership
To add a section to your member profile, call 800-285-2221 or visit
www.abanet.org/join.
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