Starting a Law Firm | Hiring Another Lawyer

Just like I told you all a few weeks ago, I have hired my first associate attorney! This blog is quickly going from the "how to start a law firm" category to the "how to sustain and grow a law firm" category. But that's okay. There will always be a ton of information here that someone can use when they want to start a law firm. They might just need to go back and read from the beginning to see exactly what's going on.

Here's how this new associate hiring went down. I finally broke down and saw that I needed some help. I want to pursue this more, I want to focus more on running the law firm and making sure everything works smoothly within it, and I couldn't do that with all of the legal work that we were starting to get (this month has been our best month by far). I realized that the cost of an associate would be more than offset by the value I could bring elsewhere - in other words, an associate attorney would more than pay for themselves.

The Process of Hiring an Associate Attorney

For me, the process was pretty straight forward. First, I put an ad out with the local law schools for the position. Not only do new law school students see this information, but their alumni and others that subscribe see it to. This was my posting:

We are looking for an associate attorney to join our criminal defense practice. We're a young group but an energetic one. We're looking for someone excited about criminal defense (and DUI defense in particular) with a strong work ethic, strong attention to detail, and a competitive fire. You've also got to have a car you can drive (there are many court appearances to go to).

Good things about this job - (1) you'll get a lot of experience; (2) you'll work in a fun environment; (3) you'll be pushed; (4) there's will be a lot of opportunity for growth.

Bad things about this job - (1) at the beginning, the pay will suck.

If you're interested please send a cover letter, resume, transcript, and short writing sample (5 pages or less). In the cover letter, tell me these three things; why you're interested in criminal defense; why you're better than everyone else; and what your favorite sports team is.

As you might expect, it's a little out of the ordinary. But I didn't just want an ordinary attorney - I wanted someone better than that. And that's exactly what I got.

My new associate started this week. He's hitting the ground running, is pumped to be here, and I think has been enjoying it so far. As he gets more and more comfortable here and with our cases, I think he's going to like it even more.

I know, I know, you all want to know what I'm paying him and all that stuff. Well, I'm not going to tell you. It's none of your business!

I'm kidding, it's kind of your business because I've come here and shared so much with you. Here's what I'll tell you about the pay - it's set up so that the salary is low. Very low. But, there is the opportunity to make more money, a performance bonus if you will, based on the number of people that sign up. More people sign up, he makes more money. The sky is the limit as far as that is concerned. That's all you get to know about that.

The Interview Process

After I checked the people out, I set up an interview with the five or so people that I thought were the best candidates - ended up being 3 guys and 2 gals. I gave them each an hour and brought them into the office, sat them down, and chatted them up.

For these interviews I wanted the pace to a lot more conversational than I'd done in the past. If you're a criminal defense attorney you need to be able to think on your feet, to show a little passion every now and then, and to really sell yourself. So I tried to ask questions that allowed people to show me that. Some did, some didn't.

After the interview it came down to two candidates, and both were very well qualified. The decision at the end of the day just came down the person that I thought was the best fit for the firm (which is what I tell people to do when they are choosing a lawyer).

Getting Ready for the Associate

One of the major things about hiring a new attorney is that the processes really need to be more streamlined, written down, and adhered to. When it was just me, it was easy to kind of keep a list of to-dos in my head and then just coordinate that stuff with my assistant. With another attorney in the mix, it's important that we all rely on the systems in place to keep track of what's going on so nothing is missed, or things aren't done twice. For us, that started with the weekly planning meeting to make sure we all know what we're supposed to be doing.

The weekly meeting is pretty straightforward. We have all of our open cases in a spreadsheet, we figure out what we need to do next on the cases, and sometimes we note the thing that needs to be done after that, and then we get to work for the week. The next week, we figure out what's been done, and move on to the next thing after that. We keep track of what we're doing in that spreadsheet (we all have access to it and can cross stuff off when it's done), highrise, which is where our cases are managed, and just the open lines of communication.

Okay, gotta run. More to come on this later. I know you all have questions! Ask them! I'd love to talk to you.

More on the horizon. More to come. Looking forward to this year - it's going to be epic!

Oh, and, by the way, been doing some crazy good stuff with the search engine stuff for the people that signed up. Going to talk about that over at my law firm marketing blog. Go check it out.