Lawyer to Lawyer
Attorney Dan Jaffe is the CEO of LawLytics. This is his blog.How COVID-19 Is Changing the Business and Marketing of Law Firms
This blog post, which is my first on Covid-19 in a while, is an update on our observations about how the business of law firms has changed with a focus on how the solo practitioners and small firm owners are thinking about their online marketing.
My Early Lessons In Solo Law Practice Growth
In this post, I’m going to talk about how I weathered the learning curve of being a suddenly very busy attorney while trying to build my firm for the long term. They call it the “practice” of law for a reason. Every lawyer has a lifelong learning curve about not just law and procedure, but about the “soft skills” listed above and many others. As a solo lawyer, you need to know every aspect of your business, and often need to competently execute every bit of it yourself.
My Solo Law Practice Story: Discovering Online Legal Marketing
This is the seventh post in my blog series about how to start and build a solo law practice. This will be roughly a year-long series that will cover everything a lawyer needs to know about creating and growing a thriving law practice. In these early posts I’m taking...
My Solo Law Practice Story: How I Survived Until I Got My First Clients
In this post I’m going to talk about how I survived in the early months before I had a client base of my own, as well as cover some early legal marketing experiments.
New Realities and Habits That Will Form Your Law Firm’s Future
Just because they need you, or soon will, does not mean that they will engage you on your terms. Your potential clients’ buying habits are different now. And, when you understand and respect them, they actually make marketing, intake and client expectation management much easier.
My Story – Starting My First Law Firm
This is the fifth post in my blog series about how to start and build a solo law practice. At the beginning of the series I’m taking the time to tell my story, which I hope will frame the advice and opinions that I give in future posts. In the last post I covered the...
What Every Lawyer Should Know About Social Media Marketing
This article discusses the real value of social media for law firms to help attorneys understand what drives clients as opposed to bleeding profits.
What Every Lawyer Should Know About Legal Directories
Attorneys should understand how legal directories work to avoid the disadvantages of playing the games that directory businesses want them to play.
What Every Lawyer Should Know About Legal Marketing Agencies
The marketing agency model is ineffective for small law firms and solo practitioners at most budget levels, and there’s a modern more effective alternative.
My Story – The Time Between Law School Graduation and Opening My First Law Firm
Law school and the bar exam are a crucible of sorts. In experiencing and surviving a stressful and transformational experience, lifelong bonds are created with people with whom, prior to law school, the law student may have had little to nothing in common. There are several classmates that, had we met in the real world without the context of law school, we would have never become friends. Nevertheless, because of the law school experience, we’re friends for life. I keep in contact with many of my classmates, and a good many of them have become LawLytics customers.
For Job Security, Attorneys Should Own Their Firms Plus The Following
The good news is that, as an attorney, whether you’re a law firm owner now and want to gain more control, or whether you’re thinking about opening your own firm, your license to practice law comes with an implied license to take control of your future. Taking control, and achieving true independence, is easy to do once you have the right mindset.
How I Used Law School to Prepare to Open a Successful Solo Law Firm
If you want to start your own law practice right out of law school, you can absolutely do it, and it can absolutely give you a lucrative and highly fulfilling career. Whether you’re pre-law, a 1L or a 3L wondering when you’ll get the chance to take the bar exam (I’m writing this in the thick of the COVID-19 crisis lockdown), now is the time to embark on that solo practice journey, or start exploring whether it’s right for you. I hope my story, which outlines one of infinite possible paths, is helpful, and that the subsequent posts in this series will give you the tools and inspiration to successfully make that choice and that leap.
Intro To My Solo Law Practice Story
This is the second post in my new blog series about starting a solo law practice. The first was a general introduction to the series and topic, while this post is an introduction to my backstory, which I'll tell before tackling a range to topics and tricks to make...
We’re Wartime Lawyers Now – So Find Your Law Firm’s Strategic Inflection Point
As a law firm owner, you’re in control of your own destiny. You chose to be your own boss for a reason. You took risks and worked hard to attain that control and freedom of choice, and to put your destiny in your own hands. That choice is a reflection of who you are, of your entrepreneurial spirit. Even if your status quo has been disrupted (and who’s hasn’t?), you now have the opportunity — perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — to positioning you law practice to win post-crisis while at the same time serving your clients and your community through the crisis.
Starting a Solo Law Practice – Series Intro
If you’re a lawyer or law student thinking about starting your own practice, let me first say congratulations. You are contemplating a venture that is rich with rewards and satisfaction, and that, in my opinion, can provide the best quality of practice and of life in the law. The journey to a successful solo law practice starts with a single thought, and if you’re reading these words, you’re likely well on your way.
Webinar Replay: Leveraging Your Law Firm’s Downtime During COVID-19 to Gain a Competitive Edge
I hope that this webinar gives you some fresh ideas and that it inspires you to take action. We’re at a defining moment in history, and, as an attorney you have an unprecedented opportunity to both be of service and to build an enduring business advantage.
COVID-19 Crisis Office Closure Communication Best Practices For Lawyers
The more you can be a voice of clarity for your clients and potential clients during this time, the more creditability and respect you’ll earn. And the converse is also true. So put yourself in your clients’ shoes as you craft your message.
Thoughts on opportunity for unemployed lawyers and law grads
It's the last day of March 2020. Job losses are mounting. Three-million plus reported just last week. And if you’re like me, you probably suspect that reality will be much worse than the current numbers when overloaded state unemployment systems catch up to reality....
CARES Act Funding for Small Law Firms – Danger or Opportunity?
If I was a small law firm owner right now, and if I had access to government backing to keep good employees on staff (even when there isn’t the revenue or typical job description-aligned work to support remaining fully staffed), I would. But I would do so with a clear agreement with each and every member of my retained team that they would be working, every day, full days, to build a foundation for the next decade of success in the firm. I would let them know that, short of putting themselves or their families in harms way, I expect that the boundaries of the job description that they had before the COVID-19 crisis do not apply until further notice.
Google confirms our 3-16-2020 advice to lawyers – Don’t take your law firm’s website offline
I know this is a scary and frustrating time for attorneys who own solo practices and small law firms. It's easy to react impulsively to normal business down cycles. And what's happing right now with the COVID-19 pandemic is anything but normal. Knowing that many...