Building a Law Practice: "Get famous. Make contact. Repeat."

Mark Herrmann’s “Inside Straight: Building A Practice — A Case Study” at Above the Law. In the nearly six months that has passed since my last post, I’ve read a lot of blog posts, articles, and other resources, many of which will show up on these pages in the days and weeks to come. But when I read Herrmann’s post in mid-December, I knew right away I would use to kick off the new blogging season. Why? There are several reasons, actually, but here are just three:

1. Because it describes specific steps Herrmann and his former colleagues took in their quest to build a drug and device product liability practice. It’s not vague advice of the tell-people-what-you-do-and-wait-for-them-to-hire-you variety, but rather “I wrote or co-authored three articles in 1998, seven in 1999, four in 2000, one in 2001, two in 2002, and five in 2003.” Big difference.
2. Because building a practice – any practice – in a saturated, highly competitive legal market is hard to do. Really. Hard. To. Do. And Herrmann did it, building with his team an eight-figure practice over the course of ten years (with meaningful client work only coming in the last three of those years).
3. Because the most important theme that you’ll take away from the post is easy to understand: building a practice is work. Hard work. Tiring Work. And a lot of it. But it’s the only thing that gets you from Point A to Point B.

Read the post. Lay out the steps for building your own practice, and get to work. And have a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012.

Making your firm's pitch exemplary. But not in the "don't do this" way.

Mark Herrmann's "Inside Straight: A Tale of Two Pitches" at Above the Law. It's hard to say what makes a pitch successful. Or unsuccessful for that matter, though the anecdotes are generally a lot more interesting when pitches don't go well. Most of the time it's just a matter of degree, of nuance, of being able to convince the in-house team that you and your firm are smarter / more experienced / more efficient and that you really can help them better / cheaper / more quickly than the others. Herrmann's post gives a little bit of insight into those nuances, the ones that make the difference between doing it right and doing it wrong.

Too big to succeed? A client's take on hiring law firms.

Mark Herrmann's "Inside Straight: Hiring Law Firms or Lawyers?" at Above The Law. Yes, it would be nice to put this question to rest, as Herrmann longingly suggests. But that's probably not going to happen, at least not until law firms realize that their brand isn't their firm, but their people (right Mr Hellerman?). But this post is more than an exploration -- albeit an exhaustive one -- of why clients hire lawyers and not law firms. It's also a gauntlet thrown down at the feet of every firm that seeks to provide comprehensive service across multiple jurisdictions. It's an indictment of the "bigger is better" theory. It's a call for law firms to step up and apply stringent standards of quality across the board (and maybe even the globe). How are you going to respond?

So what do you want to do when you grow up?

Jay Shepherd's "Small Firms, Big Lawyers: The Key Question for Shingle-Hangers" at Above the Law. Running a law firm is more than doing great client work. You've got to rent space and buy equipment. Pay the bills and do the books. Market your practice and send out invoices and water the plants and wait for the repair guy to come out and fix your DSL connection. While doing all of the client work that makes it all possible. It's not for everyone. But it might just be for you. Read this post before you decide. And while you're at it, read this response from Carolyn Elefant.