My Law Clerk Quit Today!

If you've read my previous posts you know that in the past 6 weeks or so I've hired both a law clerk and a legal assistant. Since that time I've been really pleased with the way the things were going, particularly with the legal assistant. She's got a good attention to detail, she shows up to work every day on time, she's got a good personality, basically though it's early she's looking like a great hire.

The law clerk, on the other hand, I wasn't so pleased with. Though I thought she was trying hard I just plain didn't think she was taking enough ownership of her work. She was kind of new to the criminal defense world, which I was fine with, and I have a lot of forms to get her started both on research and on writing the assignments that I gave her. But it just seemed like the effort wasn't there. And I told her that.

The way I told her I thought was great. And it's totally my style. I wasn't mean, I was open to hearing that some of it was my fault (which it undoubtedly was - it's always hard to be as clear as you want to be or think you are), and all I was looking for was continued improvement over time. I mean it's impossible for me to be judgmental when maybe I wasn't as clear about what I wanted as I should have been.

At the end of our talk I gave her an assignment and we got to work. I thought everything was good and I was looking forward to her growing as an attorney - I mean, let's be honest, law school doesn't teach you a thing about being a lawyer - when most people graduate from law school they wouldn't know how to find the courthouse without GPS. She gave me her work for the day and left.

Then I get a voice mail today. It says, basically "I wanted to call to say I won't be working for you anymore. School is just taking up too much of my time, and with finals coming up I just don't think I'm going to be able to do both. If you want to talk about it that's great, give me a call." Really, did I just get broken up with (work-wise, of course) by voice mail? Yes, I think I did.

I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one and hope that she was just too busy to do both. But I remember what life was like when I was a 2L, and my alcohol consumed to class attended ratio was extremely high. Maybe she's different. I hope she just didn't like the criticism and quit. Either way though I guess we just weren't a good fit for each other.

No matter what the outcome, win or loss (and I won't tell you what I consider this), there are always lessons to be learned and applied to starting a law firm. And here is what I learned:

1. I need to create a better idea in my mind of what I'm looking for in a law clerk;

2. I need to continue to be up front with my employees about my expectations and whether or not they are being met;

3. I need to take the same time and care picking out a law clerk that I did for a legal assistant (all law students are not created equally); and

4. It's way cooler being the boss than being the law clerk!

Stay tuned for Friday when I'll talk about what I think law school students should focus on in law school if they know or are leaning strongly toward starting a law firm when the graduate. To give you a hint, there are some things you should definitely be doing today!

Hiring an Assistant | Norton Internet Security 2011 | Mastermind - Networking

I talked a little bit yesterday about a mastermind session, about a law firm printer, and about nolo.com. Today, I'm going to talk about hiring an assistant, norton internet security 2011, and some things I learned from my mastermind session regarding law firm marketing.

Starting a Law Firm | Hiring an Assistant

If you read the last post, then you know it was time for me to get some help. I didn't realize that more than today when my law clerk came in and helped me out. I gave her a bunch of stuff I'd usually be doing and for a fraction of what I can make an hour she did it all and did it well. So I'm moving forward hiring an assistant. And I'm going tell you exactly what I did (and what I'm doing) to get there.

First things first, I posted an ad on craigslist. Here's the ad:

When running a small business it is critical to have a wide range of skills, and a willingness to perform both menial and advanced tasks. When a small business is poised for growth, hiring someone with a similar skill set is critical. This role is a combination of executive admin, marketing expert, technical assistant, and more. If you're interested in helping to grow a small criminal defense law firm dedicated to protecting its clients, this may be a good fit for you. The optimal candidate will have a passion for these subjects, but will be willing to "pay their dues" in order to help grow a business. In other words, the pay may not be great to start with, but you'll have the opportunity to focus your efforts on growing the business, and will be rewarded with pay that is commensurate to your efforts.

To be considered, a candidate must offer the following:
- Fast learner
- Conscientious
- Honest
- Hard-working
- Entrepreneurial spirit
- Strong attention to detail
- Focus on exceptional customer service
- Ability to prioritize tasks
- Knowledge of Microsoft Office suite of applications

Even better, the ideal candidate will offer the following:
- Bachelor's Degree
- Strong grammar and spelling skills
- Strong customer service skills
- Ability to work independently
- Strong organizational skills
- Comfortable and familiar with technology

In short, someone willing to act as an executive admin but interested in marketing and working to grow a business to mutual benefit would be the ideal candidate.

Typical tasks for this job will include:
- Answering the phones - scheduling client meetings
- Managing the office calendar
- Preparing and filing court and other required documents
- Assisting in firm marketing efforts
- Handle incoming and outgoing mail
- Responding to client inquiries
- Managing schedules for travel and deadlines
- Being the "go-to" person for all manner of work related to managing and growing the business

The reality is that the right candidate will be a very unique individual, who will stand out from the crowd. Quite likely, the best candidate will be someone who is worth a big paycheck, but who is willing to work for a small paycheck in recognition of strong upside potential. In other words, the right candidate will have confidence that they're able to assist in creating growth for a business to the extent that they'll be rewarded financially in the process. That also means that someone who is looking for an easy ride shouldn't bother applying.

In the interest of helping you succeed, a small hint is offered: The best candidate will submit their resume with a note explaining something about them. If you are going to simply submit saying "attached is my resume" and nothing else, you probably shouldn't bother applying.

Interviews will begin next week.

This is a part-time job, 8-noon, Monday through Friday, with the opportunity for full time work when it presents itself.

In about a day and a half I got around 150 responses. And a large majority of them were qualified. I had several things in mind that I was looking for for my particular situation, used those to cut the list down to 5 or 6, and then scheduled them each for individual half hour interviews (at least I gave them half hour time slots). After that I will probably have a follow up interview with the two or three best candidates and choose the best one. I'll let you know how it goes.

I must admit, however, that I'm a little bit nervous. I've never really interviewed anyone for a job (though I've interviewed many witnesses and clients) and I want to make sure I pick the right person. So if you have any good advice, let me know.

Norton Internet Security 2011

I think one of the things lawyers are most concerned about when they open their practice and think about using technology to leverage their time and money is security. Maybe it's just my generation, maybe it's just me, but I was never really too concerned about it. For one thing, I think people who are stealing things that might be stolen from my firm (client files, etc.) aren't really snooping around for people like me. They've got bigger fish to fry. And for another, the security that's set up automatically by the web browsers and your operating system is not too bad.

But I finally caved (or wised up, depending on who you ask) and bought some security for the computer. I think a little bit of it had to do with having the additional staff come in. I know that I wouldn't be dumb enough to open suspect emails or go to suspect websites, but I don't know that about them (yet). So I bought Norton Internet Security 2011. I didn't really buy it because of anything in particular. It just looked like it would provide the protection I needed, which is help against things that come at me over the internet. So I've got it, and it seems to be working. If it doesn't I'll be sure to let you know.

MasterMind and Law Firm Marketing

If you haven't realized it yet, a key ingredient of a successful law firm is having clients. And the way you get clients is through law firm marketing. This includes internet advertising, website conversions, referrals, and everything else you can think of. In some way, shape, and form it's all advertising.

When I wrote down my three biggest problems with my firm, one of the problems was getting more consistent phone calls. So we talked about that for a long time. One of the things we discovered was that my website wasn't converting as well as it should have (this is the DUI site we're talking about primarily). We started talking about what the site looked like and how it could be made better. And this is what I learned, when you are doing law firm internet marketing, particularly on your website, it is important to know who your ideal client is and let them know how you can help them.

What this meant for me was not only having a DUI only site, but breaking it up further into 1st DUI, 2nd DUI, and 3rd DUI information (because the strategies for each are so different). And then within those deviations make sure that I am appealing to my target audience and answering their questions. Another thing RJon encouraged me to do was put up videos discussing each of the categories.

My plan, then, is to incorporate this into my next round of website updates (coming soon). I'm going to create some videos and put them on the site. I'm going to tell people how I can help them. I am going to market my law firm in a way that increases calls. And I'm going to let you know how it turns out.

Remember, if you have any questions or comments about starting a law firm, let me know!

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.