Starting a Law Firm | Hiring Staff

Right now I'm about 8 months into starting a law firm. It's been a great experience. I'm making a little money (let me stress a little), I'm helping people stay out of trouble (that's what Seattle DUI lawyers do, after all), and I'm having a great time of it. But I can sense myself getting busier and busier and I'm having a hard time determining when I will be busy enough to need someone to help.

There are a couple of things holding me back. First, I don't want to hire someone to help me out until I definitely need someone to help. I'd hate to bring someone on and then have to pay them while they sit around and twiddle their thumbs waiting for me to give them something to do. I have a feeling, though, that once I had someone come on and became comfortable delegating tasks it would free up a lot of time to do the lawyering I need to do.

And second, there is always that fear out there that business will dry up completely, I'll have all of these obligations to my new staff member, and I won't be able to meet them. Though I am doing well month to month, I don't yet have the feeling that a continuous cycle of work has been started that won't ever end. The idea of having a slow month or two still lingers in the back of my mind.

For me, though, there are some alternatives to hiring a full time staff member that I plan on exploring. First, there are first and second year law school students around that work for cheap (and are even subsidized by the school) to come and do exactly the things I need done. Second, there are third year law students that can get a temporary license to practice law and make routine court appearances for me if necessary. And last, but not least, there are an abundance of college students around that can in if necessary.

The downside to these options is the lack of stability over time. I want to give people the same experience every time they call us or work with us. To do that takes some training of staff. Every time someone leaves that means I have to train a new person. I just need to weight that against the benefit of less overhead.

I guess this is just another one of the steps that goes into starting a law firm. I probably won't be making a decision on this for a couple of months, but when I do, I'll be sure to let you know.