Services can be the fastest, the cheapest, or the highest in a measure of quality. It is not possible to be all of them. You can be world-class at one and might be able to do a combination of two. You cannot do them three. This choice is interrelated with the rest of your business…
Your organization’s values need not be identical to your personal values; however, as the founder, your values will influence, like DNA, the law firm. Values are harder to discover in your chair, hoping for insight. Values may be espoused or values in action. Oftentimes, we espouse values. I value fitness. However, we do not put…
Law firm values should be broad, enduring principles that drive decisions. Choose values that are broad enough to apply to different situations and decisions. Choose values that differentiate. Some values are “table stakes,” meaning they are values assumed by anyone who does business and need not be stated because they do not differentiate you. Costco’s…
If you love the practice of law and want to spend as much time as possible in the technical work of lawyering, consider whether a job in an associate attorney’s role is a good option. If you want economic rewards and autonomy, you may want to aim for government lawyering, of counsel, or an equity…
Lawyers, more than other professionals, are a skeptical bunch. Law firms can be Machiavellian. There is a low level of trust between lawyers, even between law partners. Larry Richard, J.D., Ph.D., says the average lawyer is more skeptical than 90% of professionals. That same study found that 80% of lawyers scored in the lower half…
Technician, Manager, Entrepreneur In his bestselling classic, The EMyth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber writes how an entrepreneur, such as an attorney, feels right before she starts a business. Gerber suggests that the employee experiences a seizure from working for someone else that triggers her desire to run her business. He calls this the Entrepreneurial Seizure. He…
