The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Let me be clear: your job as a lawyer is NOT to be the next  Andrew Carnegie .   That’s in part because law firms are inherently geographically - limited business es  -- in the main.   What’s to stop Wal-mart from opening another location across the state line?  Essentially nothing.  What’s to stop a law firm from doing the same thing?  Well, another bar exam passage (or waive-in process), for one.  For another, there may be restrictive rules relating to physical office space requirements for law firms, as well as a host of other protectionist measures to keep out-of-state lawyers, well . . . out of state.  Then there’s the practical difficulty of managing various ethics rules regimes, for each state you locate an office (virtual or otherwise) in.   Because most law firms are still referral-based busines ses,  they rely heavily on local connections.  Usually the big kahuna at a law firm is going to be out and a...

You know what they say: good people are hard to find.  And, if you run a business, you know that it’s true.   The most difficult hurdle to law firm growth is staffing up.  Managing people is definitely tough; but, so is hiring the right people in the first place.  The good news is that hiring well can be a learned skill, too, just like becoming a good manager.   If you’ve never hired before, or screwed it up in the past, here are some tips for  getting it right the first time  . . .  or the next time:   - Build a candidate profile.   Most lawyers just draft a job description (or have someone else do it), and that’s that.  But, that doesn’t give you  a  complete picture of  what  you  want ; it’s just a snapshot of what you  need .  You’re more likely to find the perfect candidate  i f you have a notion of what that person looks like.  Drill down to specifics. ...