Solo In Chicago…Grow Your Practice!

This piece in the Trib. caught my attention recently regarding Chicago Blackhawks President John McDonough. Although I’m a jock-for-life I’m really not a hockey guy at all (though Miracle my be the best sports movie of all time) but some of things the Hawks have been doing recently have been exciting and likely transferable to your legal services business.  From the above piece:

The day after the Winter Classic, which drew high ratings on NBC and raves from those who witnessed it, Blackhawks President John McDonough huddled with fellow executives to discuss how they could have done it better.

McDonough uses two words to challenge and motivate his 60-person staff: “Think bigger.”

Are you thinking big enough regarding your legal services business (and I’m flat out asking these things right to myself too) in ’09? You don’t have to be a small and fledgling firm “solo” this year.

–What are your daily/weekly/month/annual “stretch” financial goals? They should be realistic but make them big enough too.

–What’s the picture of your firm in 1/5/20 years? You have have to at least the 1/5 year pictures (i.e. business plans) very centrally in your mind every day. Stephen Covey talks about everything have 2 creations…the first planned/imagined and the second being the actual execution of that creation. You need to proactively plan that first creation or invariably chance and outside forces do that “planning” and then the end creation isn’t what you really wanted it to be in the first place.

–Individually. Do you want to get an LLM or some new certification this year? Do you want to do a certain quality of legal writing this year?

Keep in mind that nearly all of the great businesses and banks and law firms that are making millions and billions and that have locations from Chicago to Dubai started tiny. Microsoft was Bill Gates & Paul Allen at Harvard in the late 70s; Walgreen was a mom and pop drug store down on Chicago’s Southside in the early 20th century; and Jenner & Block with 3 lawyers in beautiful downtown Chicago less than 100 years ago. This read about Goldman Sachs is next up on my reading list.

So lets say it together:  Think Bigger!

Have you ever been contacted by a collection agency or something, in a very adversarial and belligerent manner of course, where it wasn’t much $$ and the issue was them not having a correct address or something to that effect? I was recently and I wanted to address that in relation to your Firm’s collection of past due client balances. It was upsetting because it was something we’d never gotten a bill on due to creditor having wrong address.

And I’m surely NOT suggesting that rigorous follow-up isn’t critical and to require accountability from clients in terms of payment. Nope, that’s your meal ticket and sometimes at the end of the day sending stuff out to a collection agency is an option but it’s a last resort.

We have our greatest success in dealing with past due client situations through simply communicating with them via e-mail and phone every month about payment plans, what can be done, ect. But in a respectful, professional way. I’ve found 90% of clients dealt with in this manner are quite reasonable. I bet it would be different if the first communication they get about a past due debt is from jerk debt collector on our behalf.

Due to my recent foray to the UP as I wrote about and a subsequent death in my family that’s going to pull me out of town for another near week in a few days here I thought this was a good time to discuss the above. Plus I saw some colleagues discussing this on a list serve and some of the opinions expressed were mind-boggling.

Let me start by saying something I think is not controversial (but I saw several people essentially say that they don’t take vacations) which is simply, some time of vacation or refreshment is necessary and very beneficial compared to not taking any time off for mental/physical/spiritual health reasons and refreshment. I’m no doctor but I think if you’re saying no to vacations you’re likely saying yes to a future heat attack at your desk at age 50.

So, how does one balance the need for vacation with managing a small legal services business without a huge firm and large staff behind you??

This was the best advice I saw listed:

I go on vacation to vacation, not to work.  When solo I had a full time secretary.  She knew where I was going to be and had discretion to bother me if she deemed it important enough.  I also had arranged with a 7 member firm to pinch hit if need be.  Clients that were likely to call – usually business clients – I called and talked to in advance.  The longest vacation was 3 weeks in the middle east.  I found I was not indispensable and that all clients were willing to wait.  Didn’t lose a client or a case.  Yes, the work piles up; but that happens anyway.  You do need, and are entitled to, a vacation.

Personally I think you really just need to do a couple things. If it’s a vacation that’s been set well in advance you should be able to clear your calendar for 1-2 weeks without a problem. Then you contact your 2-4 attorney friends to see if they can cover for you in an emergency. I’ve never actually had to contact one of these people in such a situation but you need to know that there’s a person or two available if you need them. Lastly, if you have a fully staffed office they just handle things as if you were there or perhaps you have a part time assistant just check messages once a day and return calls if necessary or at the worst you check email/voicemail once a day and return only urgent matters.

Someone said this and I think he was serious (don’t let it be you)…

Vacation?  What’s that?

You work no matter where you are and no matter what others are doing.  You work when you should sleep.  You work on the weekend.  You work on vacation.  You work at the airport and on the airplane and you work often even at times when family matters should come first.

Ah, my favorite legal topic covered over in the WSJ…civil contempt. If you get into court much and thus need to deal with entering orders and inevitably enforcing orders ya better know your 4 types of contempt and how to get them and how to defend them.

One would think that this wouldn’t be too big of an issue for us well-educated legal professionals but for the record in the first 35 days of 2009 I’ve been party to 3 separate cases where opposing attorneys have failed to appear. I’m not sure that I’ve ever had that happen a single time in the past and now three times in just over a month.

I’m not sure why, in one case I think the lawyer’s client was unhappy with a result and may have stopped paying but you still MUST formally withdraw. Why open the door to a letter from the ARDC? If you have a record-keeping problem, calendar in two places one likely digital and one hard copy…simple, next question.

And I think it’s an instructive tale for you small firm practitioners out there: I took a long vacation (10 days) to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and I’ve (and this blog has too) paid the price since my return. I have no complaints and I don’t think the Firm’s suffered in the least, I just haven’t had a lot of extra blog time. On a very positive note, January ’09 has been one of the busiest months in our history and would expect for our monthly profit to show that (Hasn’t everyone heard the news that the economy is soft and dissolving marriages/financial partnerships might be best delayed??).

A nice review in the Bar Journal’s monthly Loss Prevention column. Some key points for sole practitioners:
What’s your name?

Me – a name I call myself. – “Do Re Mi”²

Let’s start with your firm’s name, which, like all communications about you and your services, must not be “false or misleading.” RPC 7.1.

One of the easiest ways to create a false and misleading name (if for some reason you want to do that) is to imply partnership where it doesn’t exist. RPC 7.5(d) states that “[l]awyers may state or imply that they practice in partnership or other organization only when that is the fact.” Here are a few common scenarios.

Imaginary Partners. Sometimes it’s lonely to be a solo. But don’t yield to the temptation to add “imaginary friends” to your letterhead. If Linda Lonewolf is a sole practitioner, she may not call her firm “Linda Lonewolf & Associates” because the “Associates” don’t exist…

Unjustified expectations. A communication is false or misleading if it “is likely to create an unjustified expectation about results the lawyer can achieve.” An ad stating “We’ll get you a settlement – fast,” by itself, suggests that the lawyer can do so in every case.

A former judge who joins a personal injury practice may not refer to herself as “Judge” in a business context, because this may lead to unjustified expectations about the results she can achieve for her clients. Note that it’s fine for her to be called “Judge” in a social context. ISBA Ethics Op 92-10…

What do you do?

An Illinois lawyer may state that she “concentrates” or “limits” her practice of law to a particular area or areas of practice. She may also give other information about her practice “which a reasonable person might regard as relevant in determining whether to seek the services offered.” RPC 7.4(a). And of course, this is also subject to the “false and misleading” test of RPC 7.1.

I must say my focus has been on really finishing ’08 out strong as I hurry to close-up shop before heading out of town on Christmas Eve but I saw this over at Consumerism Commentary…9 Tips for Choosing and Achieving a Purpose in Life. Sort of a kick-off to your ’09 goal setting.

Saw this little nugget recently:

Elder care. Public Act 95-823 requires long- term care facilities to complete annual “Consumer Choice Information Reports” and make them available to the public, including posting them on the internet and giving them to prospective residents and their families. These reports must include information on ownership, medical care, services, staffing, safety, security, meals, rooms, furnishings, family and volunteer support, visitation and special services and amenities. The Department of Aging, working in collaboration with the Attorney General, has the authority to verify the accuracy of the information. Violation of this Act constitutes an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Effective Jan. 1, 2009.

If you have sort of a family practice like me, nursing home and long-term care calls are plentiful. Now you have a resource. Here’s the full Act.

I don’t think I’ve dealt with a force majeure issue since first year Contracts but I am always on the lookout for some old fashion creative lawyering. And I found some reported recently regarding the new Trump development on the Chicago river…

Those assertions are made in a fascinating lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump, the real estate developer, television personality and best-selling author, in an effort to avoid paying $40 million that he personally guaranteed on a construction loan that Deutsche Bank says is due and payable.

Rather than have to pay the $40 million, Mr. Trump thinks the bank should pay him $3 billion for undermining the project and damaging his reputation.

He points to a “force majeure” clause in the lending agreement that allows the borrower to delay completion of the building if construction is hampered by such things as riots, floods or strikes. That clause has a catch-all section covering “any other event or circumstance not within the reasonable control of the borrower,” and Mr. Trump figures that lets him out, even though construction is continuing.