Solo In Chicago…Grow Your Practice!

So we’re off to Skandia, Michigan (the U.P.) for five days of Thanksgiving festivities. It’s nice…they actually get snow up there unlike the Chicago area. And it’s QUIET! Plus, since there are only three television channels and dial-up Internet access I’ll be doing some reading. Here’s what I’m bringing:

The Marine Corps Way: Using Maneuver Warfare to Lead a Winning Organization.

Blogging for Business: Everything you need to know and why you should care.

Richard Nixon: A Life in Full.

Well, this was a recent bad experience that I had. Really I had to do what I did but maybe I “push” the client a bit more the next time we have this scenario…

The case was some post-divorce stuff…Petition for Rule (unpaid school/medical), 513 College Expense Petition and a Motion to Modify Child Support. There was not going to be agreement on some issues but there appeared to be agreement on reimbursement for the unpaid 50% of the school/medical. So we’d started a hearing, then had a pretrial with the judge in chambers and it’s 415pm on the 19th floor at Daley. We have an agreement essentially so that my client gets paid approx. 5k. Then my client raises an issues, no change in dollars have you, just shifting part of the orthodontia payment TO THE DOCTOR and less to her.

Long story short, the judge leaves at 430pm and we agreed to have the order entered the next morning and lo and behold. The next day the opposing party backs out! So nothing gets resolved and likely thousands of dollars of additional fees will get expended.

Here’s Law.com’s recent contribution to the discussion. The article’s point of view is that of big, corporate general counsel’s who are requiring flat fee arrangements from the law firms they utilize. I’ve been amazed at the negative reaction of many small firm lawyers on some of the list serves that I’m on to the article.

We’re doing flat fee quit a bit…even in some family law areas. I think if you can play it right the marketing advantage of this offering can potentially bring in enough new business that it will off-set the occasional case where you under-price your services. Of course I can think of one case right now where the opposing attorney is the biggest jerk I’ve ever dealt with as a lawyer and I wouldn’t like to have a flat fee in that case!

Here’s a link to the November issue. I found the piece entitled, “Network Your Way to an International Practice” quite good. The blogging piece seems to be written by someone who doesn’t blog.

A good how-to piece from the NYTimes about small business resources. Funny this blog didn’t make the list.

An unoriginal but interesting piece about various off-shore service providers for day-to-day assistant tasks. I’m sure there’s an application to the small firm lawyer in there somewhere. I know on any of the eLance projects that we’ve posted nearly all of the respondents are non-U.S. companies…sort of cool.

A couple thoughts on job searches and the tightness of the Chicago area attorney market…

First, so our firm has had a job posted for the last few weeks just looking for some general assistance and court coverage. It’s amazing how many resumes that I’ve been sent for a part time job…nearing 100. Just a thought on resumes, I find that way too many of them are too narrowly “legal” focused. A person’s life doesn’t start with law school and summer associate positions. I want to know about undergraduate majors and previous work positions…this gives me a much broader picture of an individual and his/her talents. And even hobby stuff…I think at some level people are more attracted to others where they share things in common. Talk to me about your love of triathlons and Richard Nixon!

Second, I just continue to be amazed at the calls and e-mails about new graduates struggling to find work. I’ve had 4 lunches in the last week with persons in this category. I don’t have a silver bullet but I thought this was an informative post.

Here’s another one of my growing list of “blog friends” who’s just started a solo practice and he’s got a nice family law blog too.

Here’s ABA’s 10 question survey to evaluate your firms “digitalness.” Not quite comprehensive but maybe a little helpful.

better referral sources.