So, without further adieu, here is Scott's story. Looks like he's an Albany personal injury attorney and Saratoga Springs Employment lawyer. Enjoy!
I just read your post, and read your blog with some frequency. Here's my story:What's your story? What made you decide to start a law firm? How's it going? Let me know, tell me something interesting, and I'll post it.
I am 32. I worked for a small(ish) firm out of lawschool for about 5 years. It was a great group of people, and I am greatful for the lessons that I learned during those years. I had always thought about going out on my own, and found myself very interested to talk with friends who had made the decision. My largest concern, obviously, was business, and that was the one thing I was not really picking up at my firm - how to develop business.
With some hesitation I left the firm and took a position with a larger firm as a partner, co-leading the litigation group. I initially enjoyed the work, which allowed me to represent plaintiffs in employment and serious personal injury cases. I quickly realized, however, that the firm was not a good fit for me. Once I realized that I decided it was time. After talking it over with my wife, who is also a lawyer (and my biggest supporter), I gave notice and was on my way.
I opened the doors to Peterson Law Firm around April 1. (I didn't literally open them, I worked from my home office until I found space that I was comfortable with, both financially and professionally). I was fortunate to have had a handful of great clients come with me, but since I represent mostly individuals in employment and personal injury cases, there is always that underlying concern over where the next case will come from.
So far business has been consistent. Some days I feel overwhelmed being on my own, but I've tried my best thus far to leverage technology to help. I quickly signed up for a cloud based file management system, which also does time keeping. I've set up dropbox for offsite file storage (love the iphone app), and I've outsourced my phone answering service as well as my dictation. I'm not quite ready for live help, but my goal is to be able to comfortably hire an assistant at the end of my first year.
It's been a crazy couple of months. There is absolutely nothing like working for yourself, and I honestly don't know that I'd ever work for someone else again (unless I had to). Thus far my biggest struggles have been with time management (it's been an adjustment coming from always having a full time assistant) and staying on top of my marketing. I have good contact with the legal community, and am going to begin writing a monthly column for my local bar journal next month. I have two blogs, although they have not been updated nearly enough. I built my website for the time being, and I have to say I'm enjoying seeing it moving up the search rankings (although not fast enough for me).
You are right on point about outsourcing. I constantly get messages from vendors trying to sell me a package which will "get [me] on the first page of google." Problem is, when I search for some of their clients (always ask for this), they are not on the first page of google.
For what it's worth to those considering going out on their own, I have had no less than 10 attorneys at larger firms tell me how much credit they gave me for, in the words of one, "doing something that most of us don't have the b*lls to do."
Have a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment