Book Description

Attorney Robert Schaller and the Schaller Law Firm offer young lawyers in Starting a Law Firm in 2020-2021 a must-have desk reference book for building a law firm. Lawyers should invest in their future! Young lawyers worked hard in college and again in law school. Now it is time to reap the rewards of the intensive legal training. Earn the profits deserved. Develop pride and earn respect from your peers. Any lawyer who possesses a heartfelt desire to build a respected legal career, along with the vision and drive to succeed, should read and embrace the steps set forth in this book. This book is dedicated to the young lawyers who are unfulfilled working as associates for other lawyers or who recently graduated from law school with the courage to “hang out a shingle” and start their own law firm. This book provides concrete guidance about issues the author wished someone had taught him before he started his own law firm. Some lawyers have the courage to open a solo-practice law firm. Other lawyers start a law firm with one or two other lawyers they know and trust. There is strength in numbers. It is appealing to young lawyers in particular to have a law school classmate or fellow associate nearby for support. Others establish an “affiliation” with an existing firm. Sometimes a lawyer needs another lawyer to brainstorm and bounce ideas around. Deciding whether to start a law firm is a tough decision. You gain the freedom described above, but you lose the security of working for an established firm as an associate. But is that freedom? In the short run, a young lawyer likes the security of knowing a paycheck is coming twice a month. But all private practice lawyers ultimately realize that they “eat what they kill.” Therefore, the early shelter and protection offered by an established firm is lost after a few years when the developing lawyer is required to either leave the firm or develop a pool of clients that generate sufficient profits for the firm to justify the lawyer’s salary. In essence, the lawyer has to develop the lawyer’s own “profit center” or the lawyer’s own “solo firm” within the firm. Either way, the lawyer has to know how to start a practice and thrive. This book will help striving lawyers get on the path to success. Testing Your Entrepreneurial Spirit: Answer the questions below to determine if you have what it takes to start a law firm. Lawyers who want to start their own firm should answer affirmatively to most of the questions below or should partner with another lawyer who answers affirmatively to most questions. 1. Do you have a passion to do something great with your career? 2. Do you want to build a business to create wealth for yourself and not someone else? 3. Can you visualize your definition of success? 4. Do you have the determination and resolve to achieve your definition of success? 5. Are you an independent person? 6. Are you self-confident (despite the humiliation of law school)? 7. Are you ambitious? 8. Are you self-motivated? 9. Are you a self-starter? 10. Are you decisive after studying the pros and cons of an issue? 11. Are you a problem-solver? 12. Do you have effective communication skills? 13. Can you set timetables and stick to them without procrastinating? 14. Do you have a dream to be your own boss? 15. Do you have a passion to help clients? 16. Are you cognizant of your strengths and weaknesses? 17. Do you know when it is time to seek guidance from a more experienced attorney? 18. Are you resilient to temporary setbacks? 19. Are you flexible when a course correction is recognized? 20. Can you view a temporarily setback as an opportunity for improvement? 21. Are you able to convince strangers that you know what you are talking about? 22. Do you have the desire to continuously study a particular substantive area of law? 23. Are you looking to build your future instead of looking for something to do until you can find another job? 24. Do you want to start a law firm by yourself, classmate, colleague, or more senior attorney?