Are You a Lawyer or a Law Firm Owner?

Working

The question is, do you love working “on” your business or “in” your business? Lawyers work in the business: they have a job working for clients. A law firm owner works on the business and deals with management, marketing, technology, and finance issues. Depending on the size of the business, owners may also work in the business as well.

How do you define yourself? Lawyer or owner?

They’re both good things to be. There is no more honor in one role or the other. You’ve got to decide what you’re doing and how you choose to look at your role.

If you’re the lawyer working in your business, then you need to accept certain limitations. You’re not likely to grow quickly. You’re not likely to be particularly well managed. Your technology may be an afterthought, and you may struggle to keep up. That’s okay, because you’ll be on the path to being an exceptional attorney.

If you’re working on the business, you may never become an extraordinary lawyer. You may learn to become a great manager and marketer. You’ll likely know more about technology and finance than most of your peers. Your business will grow and improve. You might miss being a lawyer because as your business grows, you’ll have less and less time to practice law.

What’s your vision of yourself?

You’ve got to decide and become stronger and stronger within that vision.

The least happy lawyers are the lawyers who can’t decide whether it’s “in” or “on.” Those lawyers are perpetually unhappy with the status of their practices. They’re unhappy when they don’t get the big cases, and they’re unhappy when they don’t grow the business. They fail to focus. They won’t pick a role, and they never achieve their dream.

Are you a lawyer or a law firm owner?

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  • Leanna

    I am both lawyer and law firm owner. I find that acting in both roles at this point works for me. It also works better since I stopped being bookkeeper, accountant, CFO, administrative assistant, paralegal, coordinator of legal networking group, errand runner, PR person, graphic designer and receptionist and outsourced (and insourced) these to people much better suited to those roles.

    • http://divorcediscourse.com Lee Rosen

      Leanna,

      If it’s working for you, it’s working for me. It’s finding that balance that gets tricky for some people and they end up disappointed when their approach and their goals aren’t compatible. On top of having a good answer to this question it sounds like you’ve got a great handle on delegating. Congratulations, you’re unusual in being good at letting go.

      Thanks for reading and, especially, for commenting.

      Lee

      • Leanna

        The first bit of letting go is the hardest. I hired to a VA to do some basic estate plan drafting (with a virtual assistant I wasn’t taking on a person on payroll, so if my business slowed I just didn’t use her.) It was hard to get over the “no one can do this like I can” fear, but once I got past that I started delegating like crazy. I started with a shared, part time admin in the office who is now on payroll. When she is on vacation or we need her more than she can come in we have 2 temporary admins who fill in, I have access to a specialized paralegal for Medicaid issues that I hire on an as-needed basis, as well an an outsourced paralegal who does probate accounting work.

        Hiring contract workers, VAs or part time folks is a good way to not get caught in the catch-22 of needing help but not being able to afford it. I have also found that the months I generated the most revenue are the months I have made the most use of my “team” and they more than paid for themselves.

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  • http://twitter.com/JamesHartLaw Jim Hart

    Someone has been reading the “E-Myth”… These are great comments Lee. I struggle with this on a daily basis. The big question, which I have asked before is, at what point can your practice support more growth? I would have to believe that this is determined by consistent revenue, and it seems to be a catch 22. If you are not generating consistent revenue growth, then you can’t support more staff. However, without more staff, you will never generate consistent revenue growth.

    At some point we just have to take a leap of faith I guess. At this point, my goal is to develop systems in my practice that are measurable and that make it easier to teach new employees how to do what I want them to do.

  • http://www.GrahamLawCollaborative.com Kimberly

    How timely, as usual. I think I would rather be an owner, most of the time. But then times like today, when I get to help a 14 year old juvenile court client (with meth addict parents) deal with some issues, I love being a lawyer.

    I’ve thought recently of hiring an associate . . .not sure though, since my revenues don’t support me in the manner I’d like yet, if that’s prudent. What I’d hope to get from hiring an associate (on a contract basis, meaning they get to retain a percent of what they bring in, rather than a salary), is more time for me to be marketing, getting Clio or Rocket Matter up and running, getting the phone issues resolved, working with the virtual assistant/intern I now have, etc. But mostly marketing, including blogging, more referral lunches and writing my book that is s l o w l y coming into shape.

    As a single mom and lawyer, solo-practitioner, I end up awake at midnight or 1 a.m. (like right now) way too often for my health’s sake. (I get up at 6:45 with my son to get him ready and to school.) Very busy day in court today, thus all the business parts of the day had to get done sometime, and the blog checking and email returning too. I wonder if getting a contract associate would help or just be a waste of my and their time at this point?

    And when are you going to start your mentoring program for solo and small firm family lawyers?? You know, one of those mastermind group thingies? I think we should all meet in Asheville . . .

  • http://www.mikethelawyer.com Mike Mastracci

    Oh so true. Good stuff. Thank you. mike of mikethelawyer.com (was in, now on)

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