Turn Your Passion for Helping Others into a Lucrative Law Practice

Build a Life and Law Practice You Love. Give your clients and their families what they really want and need. Heart-centered decision-making solutions they can count on.

Have a passion for helping others and want to monetize it? Then you have to read this article about how to start and build your law practice. It covers such things as:

The first things you need to do to get started
Where and how to get your first client
How much to charge clients
Top skills clients are looking for
Together we’ll cover:
Knowing what to do to protect what you’ve built, and what you’re building.
Understanding the human impacts in your law practice and the real value of employees.
Creating value in your law practice so that you can put an exit plan in place, even if you’ve just started.
And so much more!

Looking at assets, liabilities, cash flow, and protective elements of your law practice is one thing. Taking them to the next level of protecting, growing, and creating value is another.

What Are The ‘5 Parts of Every Business’?

There are 5 Parts of Every Business [even law firms], each of which flows into the next:

Value Creation – Discovering what people need or want, then creating it.
Marketing – Attracting attention and building demand for what you’ve created.
Sales – Turning prospective customers into paying customers.
Value Delivery – Giving your customers what you’ve promised and ensuring that they’re satisfied.
Finance – Bringing in enough money to keep going and make your effort worthwhile.

Take away any one of these five parts, and it’s not a business.

When planning a new business or analyzing an existing venture, always begin with the five parts – they will help you discover any major issues or gaps quickly.

The ‘5 Parts of Every Business Explained’

Roughly defined, a business is a repeatable process that:

Creates and delivers something of value…
That other people want or need…
At a price they’re willing to pay…
In a way that satisfies the customer’s needs and expectations…
So that the business brings in sufficient profit to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.

It doesn’t matter if you’re running a solo venture, law practice or a billion-dollar brand. Take any one of these five factors away, and you don’t have a business — you have something else.

A venture that doesn’t create value for others is a hobby.
A venture that doesn’t attract attention is a flop.
A venture that doesn’t sell the value it creates is a non-profit.
A venture that doesn’t deliver what it promises is a scam.
A venture that doesn’t bring in enough money to keep operating will inevitably close.

At the core, every business is fundamentally a collection of five Interdependent processes, each of which flows into the next:

Value-Creation. Discovering what people need, want, or could be encouraged to want, then creating it.
Marketing. Attracting attention and building demand for what you’ve created.
Sales. Turning prospective customers into paying customers by completing a transaction.
Value-Delivery. Giving your customers what you’ve promised and ensuring they’re satisfied with the transaction.
Finance. Bringing in enough money to keep going and make your effort worthwhile.

If these five things sound simple, it’s because they are. Business is not (and has never been) rocket science — it’s simply a process of identifying a problem and finding a way to solve it in a way that benefits both parties.

Anyone who tries to make business sound more complicated than this is either trying to impress you with their worldliness or sell you something you don’t need.

The 5 Parts of Every Business are the basis of every good business idea and business plan. If you can clearly define each of these five processes for any business, you’ll have a complete understanding of how it works.

If you’re thinking about starting a new law practice or small business, defining what these processes might look like is the best place to start. If you can’t describe or diagram your business idea in terms of these core processes, you don’t understand it well enough to make it work.

What Lawyers Tell Us About Their Business or Profession

[1]: “I knew there had to be a better way to practice. I went to law school to make a real difference in the world, but after joining one of the best law firms in the country, I became disillusioned with the practice of law. I knew the plans I was creating would fail, just like my father-in-law’s plan did when he died.”

[2]: “After hanging my own shingle, I got to see just how broken the traditional law practice model was, even for lawyers in solo/small firm practice, I wanted a way to use my law degree to create a meaningful legacy and help families in your community do the same.”

[3]: “I’d gotten to a point in my law firm career where, to keep progressing up the ladder, I felt like I was going to be bringing a lot more value to the firm than they were to me.”

[4]: “I want to leave a big law to start my own firm. I want to earn over $30,000 per month in revenue in as little as my first six months. I want to be on my way to a $500k+ year.

[5]: I want to work part-time and make six figures I know this doesn’t happen overnight but is a reality that can created by investing my time, energy, attention, and money wisely. I want to build my life and law practice on my terms.

1 Day with Us Will Put You on the Road to High Performance

The legal industry is changing, and several factors threaten law firm profitability. Falling demand and productivity, rising expenses, changing client preferences, political and economic uncertainty, pandemic lifestyle changes and the rising cost of legal talent top the list.

Attorneys spend years learning how to form comprehensive legal arguments, but law school never teaches them how to market themselves in a competitive industry.

We Offer Personal Help to Create Your Very Own Successful and Profitable Law Practice

The opportunity to start making $10k, $30k, or even $100k PER MONTH is real.

How do ew know this? Because we’ve helped many other business owners, just like you, with nothing but passion and a message in their heart they wanted to share with others. It only takes a few clients to make a significant income and we can show you how to build your practice to reach your financial dreams!

Our goal is to help you build your practice and multiply your earnings by 5-10x in your first 90-120 days after we meet.

And to be sure you can really focus and get the most out of our time together, we will reserve a place for you to meet with us on Zoom, the phone, email or in person. You are not going to want to miss this opportunity to invest in yourself, your practice and your dreams!

But first, we want to be sure this is a great fit for you. Review these materials.

All you need to do is let us know you would like to hear more about it.

To Create-Build a New-Better Practice Requires You Know and Consider the 4 Parts to Your Practice

Managing clients and creating collaborative relationships

2. Practice considerations for your practice

3. Improving your skills and managing your caseload

4. Developing yourself and your practice, which includes everything from getting paid to improving efficiency to managing your caseload to improving your legal writing

12 Success Tips to Help You Become a Better, Effective and More Prosperous Lawyer

SUCCESS TIP# [1]: HOW TO CREATE SUCCESS WITH EASE

Most solo and small law firm attorneys we encounter want success. They can visualize a life where they are making more than enough money and spending ample amounts of free time doing what brings them joy, whether that’s sitting on a beach, watching their kids perform in the school play, or just relaxing and not having to get up super early or be somewhere at a certain time.

And while we can envision what we want our success to look like, we see people who we perceive as successful leading lives that drastically differ from this ideal. They are working 80 hours a week. They’re exhausted. They may be moody. They may have health problems. They may just have a negative outlook on life.

In many cases, our brains will take this conflicting information and decide it must mean we can’t have it all. That you can only have so much of a good thing. We convince ourselves we must choose which good thing we want the most and forego the rest.

We must choose between being a great parent, or being successful, or making a lot of money, or enjoying a quality of life. And then we find ourselves striving for something that is antithetical to what we truly want for ourselves – we want it all.

The belief “I can’t have it all” gets us trapped in wishy-washy behavior. For example, say you want free time. But your thoughts about success say, “if I have free time, I’m only going to make so much money and I’m not going to be successful.” So, you start flipping back and forth between both of those realities: Sometimes you’re pursuing success; sometimes you’re pursuing rest and relaxation. Never both. As if those two things run counter to each other.

Doesn’t this sound exhausting? Disheartening? It is.

So, let’s change that.

We want to share with you a framework for success that will get you out of this mental trap and revamp how you approach your goals in the future.

CREATE SUCCESS EASIER, FASTER, AND WITH MORE EASE

Before we tell you the “how”, we need you to promise yourself that you’ll read this message to the end. That you won’t tune out right away. Because we know it will sound like something you’ve heard before. But we promise, there’s more to it than you think.

Ready? Here we go: The easiest way to create success is simply to create the vision.

Still with me? Excellent! So, let’s dive into what I mean by that. Having a defined vision for what success means to you is the critical piece to creating success with ease because it ensures that you’re only acting on things that will get you closer to that specific reality.

This is the only way to avoid the inherent dissatisfaction that comes with creating something that is not tied to the vision that you have for your life. But we promised you a framework, right? Let’s dive into the steps and what they entail.

6-STEP FRAMEWORK FOR PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS

STEP 1:

When you create the vision, you have to get crystal clear on what it will require and what it will contain.

That means that you have to get clear on things like money. Even if the goal is to enjoy your life, not stockpile money, it will take some amount of money to get you to that goal. You need to know what is actually required to fund your dream lifestyle.

Have fun with this part! Get into the juicy details of dreaming out loud. What kind of house are you going to have, what kind of flooring? What light fixtures, what neighborhood? When start creating your vision, you are creating a roadmap for your mind to manifest what you desire.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you create your vision:

If money was no object, if people’s judgments and thoughts about this lifestyle were no object whatsoever, what would “the dream” be for me?
Where am I going to live? Am I going to have one house or more than one house?
What kind of cars am I going to drive?
What kind of clothing am I going to wear?
How frequently am I dining out? Do I have a personal chef when I’m home? Or am I going to love to prepare my own meals?

The answers don’t have to be lavish. They just have to be TRUE. Whatever you want to spend your time doing and whatever you want to spend your money on needs to have very clear, defined activity and that activity needs to be written down.

STEP 2: Write your vision down.

This will help you put energy behind this vision and the more energy you put in the direction of what you want, the easier it is to have. Hold on to this every time your brain tries to throw rationalizations at you as to why you can’t have what you want before you even start seeking it.

STEP 3: Plan for the eventuality of your vision becoming reality.

This is arguably the least sexy step, but you don’t get to skip it. Consider what your life will look like when you are the person you want to be and start planning now for the changes that have to happen in order for you to be, do, and have what you need to create that dream life. We want you to think about who or what is going to need to join your life, and who or what may need to go, in order for your vision to become reality.

STEP 4: Embody the traits and behaviors of a person who already has your ideal lifestyle.

And no, I’m not telling you to go out and spend all your money as if you’re a multimillionaire today. This is about how you show up. How you make decisions, interact with people, the standards you hold yourself to, the boundaries you set, the people you surround yourself with, and the places and things that bring you joy.

STEP 5: Create evidence that you can believe in.

One of the things that we love to talk about with our coaching clients is why they have developed certain beliefs and how those beliefs are serving them or not serving them. And for those beliefs that are not serving them, the trick is to replace them with very intentional thoughts that will shift their energy, their narrative, and their directives over to the new belief that best serves them.

Let me give you an example:

Maybe you’re thinking “I’m not happy with my law firm because I don’t think I have a good team. Some of them have bad attitudes. Some of them are not productive. I haven’t replaced them yet because I can’t find the right person on the market or I’m not really looking for the right person because I don’t believe anyone’s going to be better. I feel like I just have to suck it up and deal with these people.”

When that belief is so well-worn into the grooves in your mind, you start to accept this belief for fact. So you need to intentionally give yourself the a new thought to hold on to that is going to counter this well-worn negative belief.

So how do we do that?

There are a lot of options. One is the One Hundred Ways exercise, where you right out 100 ways that the new view will serve you.

Based on the example above, you would start to write out things about your team that are supportive of your environment and from there, one step further, if you had the ideal team, what are the attributes would you want to see?

This gives you an opportunity to see the value in what you have and to extrapolate and dream out loud to really expand what it is that you want. Just that alone allows you to start focusing your energy in the direction of your desire, which helps you uncover the things that are necessary for you to create the desired outcome.

STEP 6: Agree now not to stop.

This one is super challenging but massively impactful. This means you have to be aware that certain triggers will inevitably come up that would give you the excuse or justification to say “even though I want to grow, even though I have this beautiful vision, I can’t create that vision because something got in the way.”

That “something getting in the way” could be your best associate resigning. Or something more personal, like a family member or spouse starting to complain that you’re not around enough as you grow your business.

It’s important to be aware that when you start making changes, even GOOD changes, your subconscious mind goes nuts and starts making up a whole host of reasons to try to get you to agree that it’s time to stop growing.

Because growing means change, and change is not safe. But if you decide now that you’re not going to stop regardless of what your subconscious mind throws at you, and that you will find a way through any obstacle, you are that much closer to realizing your success.

Creating success is never a one-size-fits-all. But if you are swimming upstream against your own interests and having difficulty, We hope this framework can serve as the rock you can hold on to. By following these six steps, you can create and realize the vision you have for your life with fewer stops and a little more ease along the way. We recommend you read the Master Key System by Charles Haarnel.

The Master Key System was among the first books to use the phrase Law of Attraction, which has become such a popular term today when referring to the most powerful force in the universe.

Covering everything from how to create abundance and wealth to how to get healthy, the author Charles F Haanel leaves no stone unturned. We have been using it as a coaching tool for quite some time in our MKS Master Key Coaching Programs.

The Master Key System was given to the world as a means of tapping the great Cosmic Intelligence and attracting from it that which corresponds to the ambitions, and aspirations of each reader.

SUCCESS TIP# [2]: How to Make All the Money you Want. The Andrew Carnegie Success Formula
by Napoleon Hill

The method by which DESIRE for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definite, practical steps, viz:

First. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will be described in a subsequent chapter).
Second. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.)
Third. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
Fourth. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Fifth. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
Sixth. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning.

AS YOU READ-SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

It is important that you follow the instructions described in these six steps. It is especially important that you observe, and follow the instructions in the sixth paragraph. You may complain that it is impossible for you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it.

Here is where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid. If you truly DESIRE money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it.

The object is to want money, and to become so determined to have it that you CONVINCE yourself you will have it.

To the uninitiated, who has not been schooled in the working principles of the human mind, these instructions may appear impractical. It may be helpful, to all who fail to recognize the soundness of the six steps, to know that the information they convey, was received from Andrew Carnegie, who began as an ordinary laborer in the steel mills, but managed, despite his humble beginning, to make these principles yield him a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars. Napoleon Hill

SUCCESS TIP# [3]: How to $500K/Year or a Million Dollars

How to expand your $ comfort level.

You don’t need to choose between creating more money in your law business and staying in alignment with your core values.

You can have both.

We’ll give you a coaching exercise that will powerfully support you in expanding your money comfort zone, so you can create…

More money coming into your legal business.

More money in your bank account.

More credit line on your credit card.

More money in your savings.

More money in your wallet.

Because when ‘more’ shows up everywhere for you, this is what happens:

You put it to use in ways that align with your most important values.

You empower more people and make a bigger difference in the world.

You shift the legacy of people and wealth in your family.

BUT…first you gotta break the rules and change how you think about creating more money in your business!

Join us and discover a coaching program that will powerfully support you in expanding your money comfort zone, so you can create more money in your life and business. For example:

Would you do this for $500K/year or a million dollars?

If we offered you $1,000,000 to use a new way to get more new clients, would you, do it?

What about $100,000?

Of course, you would.

This is an example on how you build a $500K/year law firm

It is incredibly simple formula to grow your law firm to $500K and beyond. Let us break it down.

If you said to hit $500K/year you need to know a few numbers. Here they are:

LTV (Lifetime Value) [per client = $10,000 (conservative average)

Your Client Closing Rate = 10% (benchmark, we like to see higher)

Lead Cost= $70 (national average)

So, if we want $500K/year we need 50 clients per year paying us around $10,000

That is about 4 clients per month

Now if we need 4 new clients and we cost leads at 10% we need 40 leads each month

If you are paying $70 per lead that means you need to spend $2,800 on ads plus there will be agency fees.

There are the numbers. They are VERY profitable, and they can be improved upon.

If you want to learn more about this system, book a FREE Discovery call what us. We have a ridiculous guarantee for your services! NO QUESTIONS ASKED GUARANTEE.

SUCCESS TIP# [4]: How to Relate to New Clients

It’s a familiar but true idiom: People do business with people they know like and trust. According to Anthony Iannarino’s “The Lost Art of Closing,” turning a stranger into a new client involves building relationship of trust, creating value, collaborating and delivering exceptional results.

To accomplish this, you have to understand the challenges your would-be client is facing and try to help him solve his problems.

A simple yet effective way to improve client relationships is by asking for feedback. You can encourage the client to address any complaints they have with your services and invite them to offer improvement suggestions. By implementing this feedback into your processes, you can provide better services on future projects.

Be open-minded Your client may have requests or suggestions for the project timeline or product design. Do what you can to incorporate your client’s needs and wants into the process. Accommodate their needs to the best of your ability, and remain open-minded when fielding their suggestions and wishes.

Think about adding some value, such as ideas and advice, for your potential new clients before requesting a commitment. Become “others-minded.” Read: How to Win Friends and Influence People.

SUCCESS TIP# [5]: How to Communicate with Clients

Most lawyers cringe when they first hear about Automating client communications. Why do they cringe? Because many lawyers hold onto the belief that communications can’t be automated without sacrificing the client

And that is true – to an extent. Personally engaging with your clients is always going to be your best differentiator as a lawyer because no one else can sound like you, act like you, or have the same way of approaching things as you.

But many lawyers are missing out on the huge opportunity automated communications provide to be highly effective and get a lot more done without having to personally invest time or energy in doing so.

Now, we’re not suggesting that automated communications can or should eliminate all customized communications. Things happen during a case, and obviously you have to be able to pivot and respond. But a lot of the mundane, step-by-step, FYI communications lend themselves perfectly to some form of automaticity.

Typically, these kinds of communications are delegated to a paraprofessional, which – while still better than having it be done by you if it’s not legal advice – is not as efficient as having it run automatically.

HOW TO APPROACH DRIP CAMPAIGNS FOR YOUR CLIENTS

When you hear the words “drip campaign”, you probably think of marketing. And to some degree, we are talking about marketing to our existing clients. But there are a lot of other ways to be effective using this type of process in your law firm, including some of your more basic communications.

[A]: “CONVEYER BELT” COMMUNICATIONS

Start by thinking about the trajectory of a case from beginning to end. You probably have a series of documented steps, including things like filing pleadings, receiving responsive pleadings, etc. There is some form of transactional activity, whether that transaction is negotiation or advocacy, or explicating the details of your matter so that someone can ultimately decide upon your matter. And then there is some form of closing to the matter, and your client is going to experience that matter at different stages based on where they fall within the process.

Oftentimes, you are doing a lot of things behind the scenes to move the matter forward. In these cases, if you don’t tell your clients you’re working hard, they don’t know it. They just assume if they’re not hearing anything, nothing is happening.

So, the next step is to think about all those times when you have received some form of communication from your client that caused you to realize that the client doesn’t seem to understand how hard you’re working. The client doesn’t seem to grasp how much is involved, and the client doesn’t seem to appreciate that you are putting in a lot of effort on their behalf to get to a good result.

A drip campaign is your opportunity to eliminate that confusion.

You can build workflows whereby every time something happens, you communicate that activity to a software program and the next communication goes out to your client. Even if some of this information was included in your new client intake packet, let’s be real: They may have never read it, or they’ve already forgotten what they read.

Here are just two examples of what these “Conveyer Belt” communications might be:

“Hi! We’ve just received our file pleading. The next step is that we’re going to serve the adverse party and upon serving them, they will have X number of days to respond.”
Every time you get a court notice, you send it out to the client by attaching it to an email that’s already built out in a workflow. The email tells them, “Here’s this type of notice, this is what it means, I want you to look at this part of the notice where it says X, and this is your next court date, etc.”
Think about what you can communicate to curate their experience so that they are reminded of things they need to know. If they are continuously informed or reminded of next steps, you’ve essentially got them on a conveyor belt from the beginning of coming into your law firm to the end of working with your law firm.

The more processes and systems you build into that process, the more confidence you’re going to instill in your client that they made the right choice in you. Why? Not only do you have the information, but you are sharing it with them. Rarely is there going to be a time where you’re going to over-educate your clients.

[B]: “PERSONAL TOUCH” COMMUNICATIONS

For most people, building out the workflow is a big enough process, so they don’t necessarily get to this type of communication right away – but it’s a gamechanger when you’re ready. The idea is to create workflows and automated communications that add in personal connection in a way that doesn’t require personal activity.

One way to do this is to record a video for your clients. You can embed video emails into your workflows to add a personal touch. They don’t even have to be of you; it could be your paralegal or administrative assistant, as well.

Here’ s one example of what this communication could be:

Video of you stating “Hi, we just got a notice. I wanted to send you this quick video to explain what this notice is.” You could even get super fancy and incorporate screen sharing, as well.

[C]: “ADDITIONAL SUPPORT” COMMUNICATIONS

When you think about creating automaticity in your communications, there’s also an opportunity to offer an additional level of support that has little to do with the actual subject matter of your representation. Start to think about ways you can train people or provide additional resources on how to deal with the emotional toll of being involved in contested litigation, for example, or how to prepare yourself psychologically for reviewing the transactional document that’s been created.

Here are a few examples of this type of communication:

If you’re an estate planning attorney, you can have educational videos built into a system for your client on “Here’s how to have challenging conversations about end of life with your loved one.”
If you’re a family law attorney, you can send information on “How to start making plans for rebuilding your friendship group after divorce.”
If you’re a real estate attorney, you could provide video trainings on “How to manage your finances now that you’ve closed on your home.”

TOP 3 GOALS AUTOMATED COMMUNICATIONS HELP YOU REACH

When you start communicating with people in this highly efficient but still personalized manner, you achieve three goals at once.

Goal 1: You ensure that you are communicating with your client. The number one complaint the public has about lawyers is lack of communication. That’s across all practice areas. When you start to see complaints come in from clients to the Office of Attorney Ethics, the most popular one is almost invariably lack of communication.
Goal 2: You create a personalized touch without having to be everywhere all at once. This allows you to have more communication with a client while still preserving your time and energy. As lawyers, we need that energy to make sure we’re performing at our best when doing the things that people hire us for. Being on the phone all day, every day, running from person to person is not the best use of that energy.
Goal 3: You increase the number of touchpoints that you have with your client, and you are giving them value that can be compensable. The fact that you have previously built out a workflow doesn’t mean you can’t charge for the very substantive communication that you’re going to give them in a particular communication. If you’re giving them substantive legal value, you’re allowed to charge for legal value. If you’re concerned about the ethics behind this, check with your Office of Attorney Ethics before you do anything that’s recommended because, ultimately, your license is yours to protect. But we throw it out there for your consideration because it’s a way to expand the pie of your available resources while still giving your client a great experience.

As you begin your journey to building out automated communications, they will enable you to:

Help your client feel an unparalleled – and unexpected – level of education, information, guidance, and support in excess of what is minimally required by your retainer agreement.
Generate more work from the existing client. If the client is triggered to ask you questions or call to schedule appointments because you need to talk through certain things, depending on the type of matter that you have and your fee structure, you may be able to generate additional work and additional revenue.
Make those one-to-one communications you’re bound to have with them feel even more valuable because of the high-level communications they already receive from you as part of your standard practice.

SUCCESS TIP# [6]: Eight Steps for Keeping a Happy Client

Maintain contact – Your client needs information and your assurances.
Answer and immediately issue discovery
Engage in aggressive motion practice, as needed – Your client needs to know she is a priority and you need the proper responses to best represent her.
Make an early evaluation of liability and potential damages – This is key throughout because your client is attempting to evaluate risk and set reserves.
Conduct an early analysis for resolution strategies – Positioning cases for early resolution may not positively affect your billable hours, but your client will be happier and happy clients keep sending work.
Present a balanced view of a case’s strengths and weaknesses – Sugarcoating your analysis may lead to false expectations that lead to doubt and mistrust.
Provide a proposed budget – Aids in sound decision making.
Explain tactics and procedural issues – Your relationship with the client should be collaborative because your interests are aligned.

^{Adapted from “Building a Better Law Practice: Become a Better Lawyer in Five Minutes}

SUCCESS TIP# [7]: Getting Paid by Your Clients

It depends. Different types of practices need to undertake different strategies to make sure they get paid.

Lawyers are ethically obligated to charge only “reasonable”—and not excessive—fees. The method used to charge fees is one of the things to consider in deciding if a fee is reasonable. You should understand the different fee structures before you make any decision.

At your first meeting, the lawyer should estimate how much the total case will cost and inform of the method he or she will use to charge for the work. As with any bill, you should offer an explanation for any charges the client does not understand.

The following questions and answers should provide you some guidance on these issues.

What billing method do most lawyers use?

The most common billing method is to charge a set amount for each hour of time the lawyer works on your case. More experienced lawyers tend to charge more per hour than those with less experience—but they also may take less time to do the same legal work. In addition, the same lawyer will usually charge more for time spent in the courtroom than for hours spent in the office or library.

Is there anyway to set a flat fee so the client will know what they are paying up front?

Lawyers may use a flat fee in handling certain cases where the work involved is usually straightforward, predictable, and routine. Thus some lawyers may use flat fees or set rates in uncontested divorces, simple wills, traffic tickets and misdemeanors, adoptions and name changes.

What if the client’s case is quick and hardly takes the lawyer any time at all. Will the client get money back?

A flat fee is usually paid ahead of time and does not vary depending on the amount of time or work involved. No refund is due if the work takes less time than expected and no additional charge is made if the case is longer or more complex than usual.

What are contingent fees?

A client pays a contingent fee to a lawyer only if the lawyer handles a case successfully. Lawyers and clients use this arrangement only in cases where money is being claimed—most often in cases involving personal injury or workers’ compensation.

In a contingent fee arrangement, the lawyer agrees to accept a fixed percentage (often one-third to 40 percent) of the recovery, which is the amount finally paid to the client. If you win the case, the lawyer’s fee comes out of the money awarded to you. If you lose, neither you nor the lawyer will get any money, but you will not be required to pay your attorney for the work done on the case.

On the other hand, win or lose, you probably will have to pay court filing fees, the costs related to gathering evidence, and similar charges.

Are there other ways that you can charge fees?

Yes. If an hourly fee or a contingent fee doesn’t work for you, talk to the client who would like to hire you and see if you can work out another arrangement. Given the current economic situation across the nation, some lawyers have begun to offer more flexible payment structures, including set monthly fees and allowing clients to pay in installments.

Which attorneys make the most money?

Medical Lawyers –$150,881 per year. If you can’t or don’t want to be a doctor, you can still make a good living in the medical field as a medical
IP Attorneys –$140,972 per year.
Trial Attorneys –$101,086 per year.
Tax Attorneys –$99,690 per year.
Corporate Lawyer –$98,822 per year.

How much should I expect to paid?

The range for hourly rates is huge. A junior lawyer at a small firm in a smaller city may charge $150 an hour, while senior partners in big firms in major cities have been known to charge over $1,000 an hour. While the hourly rate is certainly a crucial part of the costs, you’ll also want to consider the mix of lawyers that will doing your work.

How much would your client have to pay you?

There are no ‘standard’ attorney’s fees, but the hourly charge typically ranges from $250 to $600/hour depending on where you live and the size of the law firm. Some lawyers do state work for $50/hour, and law firms in New York City that far exceed the $600/hour mark.

How much does a lawyer get paid on average?

As of Mar 26, 2022, the average monthly pay for a Lawyer in the United States is $6,729 a month. While ZipRecruiter is seeing monthly salaries as high as $11,792 and as low as $1,250, the majority of Lawyer salaries currently range between $5,000 (25th percentile) to $8,042 (75th percentile) across the United States.

How does a lawyer protect getting paid?

A personal injury attorney needs to make sure her firm’s name is on the settlement check along with the client, because if it goes into the client’s bank account first, the lawyer is never going to see her share of the money.

For firms with individual and small business clients, get a retainer up front, because if you are only billing your clients after the work is done, you are going to end up doing a lot of work for free.

For those who have an insurance defense practice, the client gives you billing guidelines with which you have to be compliant; a failure to comply with the structure you’re given will result in you not getting paid, regardless of the quality of the work-product.

SUCCESS TIP# [8]: Storytelling is Essential to Trial Attorneys

We can’t successfully force feed facts and opinions. We have to find a way to connect with the universals we think are present within a jury.

A good story should strike a nerve with jurors that make them want to retell it. It has to have sticking power that drives the hearer to retell it in her own way, filtered through her own values, and what has struck her as important.

We have to find elements that are contagious and intersect with a common ground that we feel is reasonably probable with this specific jury.

Importance of Telling Effective Stories

The first thing that most law schools teach fresh-faced aspiring lawyers is that the practice of law is nothing like what they’ve seen come out of Hollywood. No one ever forces a witness to completely lose it on the stand like Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee did during his cross-examination in A Few Good Men. And certainly no one ever delivers closing statements as profound as Atticus Finch’s in To Kill a Mockingbird.

The truth is performances such as these probably do only happen in Hollywood. But in stamping out the collective memories of movies like these and others, law schools forget to teach that the practice of law isn’t merely about applying static rules and doctrines to the facts of a dispute. The practice of law, and trial work in particular, is about storytelling.

“Since a trial is a war of impression and not logic successful trial lawyers must become masterful story tellers who engage jurors on a visceral level with the magic of storytelling.”

Regardless of the type of case or the claims lodged, storytelling is absolutely critical to the success of any case. Humans think in stories, learn from stories, and generally communicate in stories. Stories engage audiences in ways that logic and the law alone can’t. So naturally, a properly structured, compelling story is the most persuasive way to present information and convince a judge or jury that your client should win.

Yet, storytelling isn’t taught in law schools. To the contrary, law schools often stifle creativity, and law students graduate having no idea how to tell an engaging, attention-grabbing story. This article explores the components of effective stories and outlines the Pixar formula for structuring stories. So even if you’re one of the poor souls who didn’t learn the art of storytelling in law school, the information in this article will have you winning cases “to infinity and beyond.”

Components of Effective Stories

The old adage goes that people remember how you made them feel long after they forget what you told them. It still rings true today. The best trial attorneys have a penchant for making their audiences a part of the unfolding drama, not just sideline observers. They transport judges and jurors into the worlds of their stories. They all, seemingly innately, know that the best stories have a few things common: a strong, universally appealing theme, identifiable characters, and vivid imagery.

Craft a Compelling, Relatable Theme

The importance of a strong, universally appealing theme cannot be stressed enough. It should be thought of as a poster or trailer for a movie. It tells your audience why your case is important, why they should buy in, and why your client should win.

It’s also the guiding principle for every decision in your case. Whether it’s deciding what initial pretrial motions to file or which exhibits to use in your closing argument, every decision should be made in furtherance of the theme of the story. Establishing a theme will help you decide on the next major component – the characters.

Develop Your Characters

The selection and development of characters is crucial because most of the time you will be telling your client’s story from the perspective of one or more of them. Characters are usually witnesses, but they don’t have to be. They can be inanimate objects, fictional entities, or even events. Some will fulfill lead roles. Some will only play small supporting parts. The important thing is that you identify the characters, develop them, and know how each is relevant to your client’s story.

For example, you may even have to tell part of your client’s story through an antagonist during cross-examination. Don’t shy away from it. Great trial attorneys know cross-examination with properly worded leading questions isn’t really an “examination” at all; it’s an opportunity to talk directly to the judge or jury and tell a portion of their client’s story.

When selecting and developing characters, it’s also important to remember to show their humanity. We all have successes, failures, hopes, and dreams. Play on this. Show your audience how your client is a person just like them.

If your client is a corporation, explain to the audience that it employs a group of hard-working people just like them. If relevant, talk about the history of the company. If it had humble beginnings, emphasize this. Share with the audience how the corporation is the American Dream realized for the mom and pop who started it.

Put faces on the people who work for the corporation. If you have to examine the chief executive officer, let her share her journey of how she rose from intern to the first female head of the company. If you’re examining a junior-level product developer, let her share her aspirations of one day revolutionizing the industry by creating a process that will allow the company to create bigger, faster, stronger widgets with a net-zero effect on carbon emissions.

Use Vivid Imagery

Finally, use vivid imagery. Leave the legal jargon at the office. No one understands it and it’s boring. You might win the contest for smartest person in the courtroom, but you’ll lose the trial if no one knows what you are saying.

Neither jurors nor judges need to hear every single fact. The ability to recite the most minute details and nuanced aspects of a case is great when you’re an associate trying to impress a partner, but its bores jurors and judges to death.

You don’t want a judge or juror to become so bogged down by the facts that they lose sight of your theme. Instead, focus on a few key events or moments and use impact adjectives to explain how those events and moments led to the dispute.

Use relevant exhibits and audiovisual media when possible. People remember what they see more often than what they hear. Plus, exhibits and other audiovisual media fill in the gaps left by the testimonial evidence, aid judges and jurors in putting themselves in the shoes of the characters, and help bring the world of the story to life.

The Pixar Formula: Providing Story Structure

Once you identify the components of your client’s story, you need to structure it. Structuring helps both the attorneys telling the story and the audience hearing the story. It allows attorneys to organize the evidence and distill the most important facts from mountains of information. It also draws out a clear narrative or plot that aids the judge or jury in evaluating the case.

The people at Pixar have structuring down pat. For over two decades, they have used the same formula to construct the stories in their animated films and made billions doing it. The Pixar formula is a bit more elaborate than the “beginning, middle, and end” structuring formula we learned in grade school, but it’s easy to apply.

From Toy Story to Coco, Pixar has used the following six steps to structure the stories in all of its films:

“Once upon a time, there was …” In Step 1, the author sets the scene, time, and place and lets the audience know that a story is going to follow. The audience is introduced to the main character and told why it should care about the rest of the story.
“Every day …” In Step 2, the author tells the audience the normal order of the story’s world. The audience learns what everyday life is like in this world.
“Until one day …” Step 3 is where the normal order of the world is upset or disrupted by some event or person. Usually this is where the main character’s routine is broken or he or she is presented with a challenge, whether it be an obstacle or villain, that must be overcome.
“Because of that …” Step 4 is generally where the negative consequences of Step 3 start to unfold. It’s typically where the initial action of the story takes place, and it’s unclear whether the main character will win in the end.
“Because of that …” In Step 5, the negative consequences continue to unfold and, most times, intensify. Usually by this point, the main character has tried and initially failed to overcome the challenge introduced in Step 3.
“Until finally …” Step 6 is the climax. It is where the main character finally figures out a way to reverse or stop the event or person from which the negative consequences flow. Generally, the main character overcomes the challenge and equilibrium is restored.

Conclusion

Most of this article is dedicated to telling your client’s story at trial, but you shouldn’t wait until it’s clear that trial is inevitable before you start crafting the story.

Starting the storytelling process early, especially theme development, saves time, costs, and headaches later. You should be thinking about the story you want to tell at every stage of a case, from the initial meeting with your client through closing argument. Employing the art of storytelling early helps you control the narrative of the case as well as identify and focus on the issues and facts that matter most.

Pretrial motion practice, for example, is a great platform for telling your client’s story because judges, like jurors, want to be entertained. Of course they apply the law, but they are persuaded by compelling stories just as much as any juror because, at the end of the day, they are regular people too.

So whether it’s a Rule 12 motion to dismiss or an eleventh hour motion in limine, you’ll have an easier time convincing the judge to grant what you’re requesting if you tell her a story.

Every brief you submit should follow the Pixar structure formula. Your theme should be clear and universally appealing, your characters should be well developed and relevant to the motion at issue, and you should include vivid imagery. This will help the judge understand your client’s position, process your legal arguments, and move him or her to decide in favor of your client’s interests.

And even if the judge isn’t moved by your story enough to grant the order you’re requesting, you’ll glean clues as to which parts of your story need refining, which will ultimately help you tell a better story in a later motion or at trial.

Think of pretrial motion practice as a laboratory for testing your story. Experiment. If a particular delivery of your story doesn’t work, figure out why, change it, and build a better story before trial.

Storytelling is the most potent tool in a trial attorney’s arsenal. There is no reason as trial lawyers why one cannot tell a captivating and compelling story at every stage of a case. By developing a compelling, relatable theme, carefully selecting and developing your story’s characters, making use of vivid imagery, and applying the Pixar formula, you can win cases to infinity and beyond! (Pun intended.)

SUCCESS TIP# [9]: 10 Tips for Better Legal Writing

The legal writing process is not “one size fits all” and “people need to find the one that fits them best, David Howard Spratt, professor of legal rhetoric at American University Washington College of Law, said in the recent “Landslide Webinar Series: Take Your Legal Writing from Good to Great—Drafting Tips from the Pros”. The webinar was sponsored by the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law and ABACLE.

No matter your personal style, all writers want to be considered credible. To do so, “the grammar has to be there and the proofreading has to be there, because those are the things that make the impression with your reader,” Spratt emphasized.

Spratt and his fellow panelists shared these basic musts:

Planning: Think about who you’re writing the document for, by asking yourself these questions:“Who is my reader?”“What is my reader’s relationship to me?” and “Why am I writing this? Is it to inform, persuade or to accomplish some other end?”

Spratt recommended giving your reader just what he needs to know. “Sometimes we write and regurgitate everything we know about a topic

Check verb tense. A singular subject should have a singular verb and a plural subject should have a plural verb.
Note word placement. “The verb should come after the subject and be as close to the subject as possible,” Spratt said.
Stay active. Writing in the active voice is clearer, more concise and easier for the reader to understand. Writing in the passive voice makes the reader “struggle to figure out what you’re saying,” he said.
Placement matters. “Put the modifying words as close as you can to the words you’re modifying,” Spratt said. Julie Schrager, legal writing coach at Schiff Hardin LLP in Chicago, said she’s often asked about where to place the word “only” in a sentence. It, too, should come as close as possible before the word or phrase that it modifies. “My trick is you generally push the only as far back in the sentence as you can until it doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Use the Oxford comma. “People fight this one all the time because sometimes in previous professions or in nonlegal writing – I call it ‘illegal writing’ – you don’t use the Oxford comma, but lawyers like to speak in terms of elements, and punctuation is very important,” said Spratt.
Utilize comma splices correctly. Spratt called these “very fashionable, but very wrong,” and added, “people are splitting sentences apart with a comma for no reason.” A few alternatives to the comma splice are a semicolon, adding the word “and” or making two separate sentences.
Avoid ambiguity. Stay away from words such as, “it,” “this,” “that,” “such” and “which,” to refer broadly to an idea in a preceding sentence because it could cause confusion.
Aim for clarity. Avoid double negatives: if you have no reason to use it, don’t use it. Words such as “not insignificant” and “not uncommon” generally confuse the reader and slow them down. In addition, one word can often easily replace several. Spratt used the examples of “in light of the fact that…” could easily read “because.” Replace “in order to” with “to” and “in the vicinity of” with “near.” By tightening your writing, you free up valuable space for substance. “These multiple word propositions do nothing but cloud your writing,” he said.
Use help to catch errors. Schrager uses the website, naturalreaders.com, which will read aloud what you copy and paste into it. “It’s easier to catch mistakes when someone else is reading it,” she said.
Emulate Warren Buffett. Schrager shared quotes from Warren Buffet, who is often cited for his high-quality writing in investor letters. His average sentence length is 13.5 words and his letters per word average around 4.9, which is difficult for lawyers to achieve, she said. Spratt recommended that lawyers “impress clients with the ability to get a favorable result instead of using big words.”

Panelist Kevin Nelson, also of Schiff Hardin, lauded Buffett’s writing as well. “Investor portfolio materials are some of the most dry materials, normally you’re going to see. So, the fact that he makes them interesting and relatable to the audience speaks volumes to what we can do as legal writers, he said. As a rule of thumb, Schrager said, “If it’s a word that Dickens or Shakespeare would have used, you shouldn’t be using it.” The more complicated a thought or concept, the shorter the sentence should be.

“The only way to improve your legal writing or any kind of writing is to keep doing it,” she said.

The experts recommended digital resources for writing:

Wordrake.com offers useful tips on clarity and precision

Briefcatch.com a legal editing tool that helps to tighten your writing

Naturalreaders.com help one to spot missing words, typos, punctuation mistakes

PurdueOWL, an online writing lab with writing exercises

Grammar Girl answers grammar questions.

And two books:

“Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers, 3^rd edition”, By Deborah E. Bouchoux.

“Plain English for Lawyers”, by Richard Wydick.

Turn to Stephen King for Writing Guidance. Why is that?

We should be reading great writers of every ilk. The more we read, the more we absorb and intuit what great writing consists of, what it sounds like, and most importantly, what it omits.

We cannot become great, or even good, writers without being voracious readers.

Stephen King’s “On Writing” is part memoir and part writing guide. It contains some useful tactics to help all writers improve their craft. And since a significant part of what most writers do is write it is an excellent resource for us. But Stephen King is not the only writer to provide a valuable resource on improving the writing craft; others we have found helpful include Anne Lamott, Jeff Goins, Joanna Penn and Shawn Coyne.

We recommend that lawyers read broadly in whatever interests them. Read for pleasure, but also be analytical as to what makes for enjoyable and consumable writing. The same components that make for good fiction and non-fiction also make for good legal writing.

SUCCESS TIP# [10]: Where to Put Most of Your Efforts in Building a Better Law Practice?

The Highest-Growth Legal Practice Areas in 2023 and Beyond

The fundamentals. For young lawyers, you have to develop good knowledge of your practice area(s), which often takes time to learn beyond the hours that are billable to clients. Emerging Areas of Law: https://www.clio.com/blog/emerging-areas-law/

The most exciting area of law to practice:

Tax law is complex and always evolving, so it is an exciting practice area to enter. Tax attorneys can help guide people through audits and other issues with the IRS, as well as with estate planning. This specialization is also very lucrative, with some lawyers making up to $190,00 annually .

The specialization areas for lawyers include:

Personal Injury Lawyer. If you’ve suffered injuries in an accident—for example, a car accident—the type of lawyer you’ll want to see is a personal injury lawyer.
Estate Planning Lawyer. Bankruptcy Lawyer. Intellectual Property Lawyer. Employment Lawyer. Corporate Lawyer. Immigration Lawyer. Criminal Lawyer. Medical Malpractice Lawyer. Tax Lawyer.

The areas of law for legal attorneys include:

Bankruptcy law. Bankruptcy lawyers work on behalf of debtors (individuals or businesses who owe debt) or creditors (individuals or businesses to whom debt is owed).
Business law. Civil rights law. Criminal law. Environmental law. Family law. Health law. Immigration law. Intellectual property law. Employment law.

Then you need to implement systems that will help you stay organized, manage your caseload and communicate regularly with clients.

Solo practitioners have the harder task of operating a business on top of practicing law. If they don’t understand the business of law, their practice will not likely succeed.

SUCCESS TIP# [11]: How to Deal with the Stress and Anxiety of Being a Lawyer

Lawyers work in an adversarial system with demanding schedules and heavy workloads, which may contribute to increased stress levels. Lawyer assistance programs (LAPS) are available to help lawyers manage stress effectively. Contact your state or local LAP. Chances are that you know a colleague experiencing high stress levels.

Stress affects all people and all professions. Stress in the legal profession, however, is well-documented. A lack of firm boundaries is a major source of lawyer stress. This means feeling like you need to be on call and responsive to work 24/7. Lawyers work in an adversarial system with demanding schedules and heavy workloads, which may contribute to increased stress levels. Lawyer assistance programs (LAPS) are available to help lawyers manage stress effectively.

Lawyers face multiple stressors every day. In addition to the pressure of helping clients through important or difficult legal matters, they also have to stay on top of an ever-changing industry and manage heavy workloads. Here are a few key reasons why being a lawyer is so stressful.

Why Being a Lawyer Is Stressful

Client facing

Whether you’re working remotely or interacting face-to-face, it is incredibly difficult to navigate challenging client personalities while shouldering and sharing the emotional burden of your clients’ situations. For example, if your client is going through a divorce, the stress of the situation can impact you as a lawyer.

It is also not unusual for clients to take their negative feelings and stress from their legal situations out on their lawyers. This can add to the emotional and mental toll lawyers experience.

Difficult matters

Practicing law is high stakes. Attorneys need to apply their professionalism to emotional or disturbing situations—in practice areas like criminal law, where you might be working on assault or murder cases. Working with clients or being around people who have experienced or are experiencing significant trauma and stress can take a toll on lawyers.

Long hours

It’s not a stereotype: Lawyers work very long hours. Most lawyers work outside the usual nine-to-five workday preparing court documents, communicating with clients, and catching up on non-billable work.

According to the 2018 Legal Trends Report, 75% of lawyers regularly work outside of regular business hours. Additionally, the report tells us that the average full-time lawyer works 49.6 hours each week and logs an extra 140 hours of unplanned work. This equates to about 3.5 weeks of extra, unplanned work a year. Those long days and unplanned hours add up over time and contribute to high lawyer stress.

The law is constantly changing

An attorney’s learning isn’t over the day they graduate from law school. In the legal profession, ongoing lawyer training is important—lawyers need to stay up-to-date with constantly changing rules and regulations in the law and important fields like cybercrime and data security.

Law school debt

Money is a big source of stress for anyone. The process of becoming a lawyer is highly expensive—student debt is all too common for law school graduates. According to a 2020 survey by the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, the average student debt of participating attorneys (with a median age of 32) is $160,000. Also, more than 75% of participating attorneys had at least $100,000 in student loans at graduation.

Starting a legal career with a lot of debt can seem insurmountable at first when you graduate and have to start paying it all back. This means many lawyers are practicing with personal financial burdens weighing on them from day one.

We must make a point of taking time for our own physical, emotional and intellectual well-being. Lawyers often treat their work as more important than themselves, but this is a well-trodden path to destruction.

7 Tips to Cope With Stress

Encountering stress is inevitable in the legal profession. But the way you handle it can make a big difference in how stress impacts your career, health, and emotional well-being.

As health psychologist and 2018 Clio Cloud Conference speaker Kelly McGonigal told us, there are active things that lawyers can do to counteract the effects of stress:

“Often, coping better with stress means looking for activities that increase joy or meaning or connection—activities that strengthen you—rather than choosing the mindset that you’re just looking for something that will let you fall asleep at night.”

Here are six strategies to mitigate lawyer stress

1. Go to therapy

Talking to someone like a trusted counselor or therapist that you feel comfortable with can be a powerful step for lawyers to proactively improve their mental wellness. In addition to helping you develop good coping mechanisms so you can manage stressful situations better, therapists can act as a non-judgmental sounding board.

2. Exercise

Moving your body with physical activity is time well spent for busy lawyers. Regular exercise is good for helping to keep your body healthy. Exercise also helps you relax and combat stress by stimulating endorphins and reducing levels of stress hormones.

As a Kukkiwon Certified 4th Degree I recommend signing up for Taekwondo.

Taekwondo, Tae Kwon Do or Taekwon-Do is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. The literal translation for tae kwon do is “kicking”, “punching”, and “the art or way of”.

3. Know your limits and draw boundaries

As lawyer coach Terry Demeo discusses on Clio’s Daily Matters podcast, a lack of firm boundaries is a major source of lawyer stress. This means feeling like you need to be on call and responsive to work 24/7.

To help manage stress, it’s important to set and express your workload limits and boundaries. For example, if you’re a solo lawyer, set a realistic limit for how many clients and how much work you can take on. Then, make sure you stick to it. If you work at a law firm, if possible, tell your boss when too much is too much. While this may seem uncomfortable, knowing your limits can help keep the detrimental effects of lawyer burnout at bay.

You should also set clear expectations with your clients about how much of your time is available to them. Set these expectations at the start of their client journey. Then, have a system in place to maintain it. Instead of dropping everything on the weekend to respond to an email in detail, you could send a one-line response (or set up an automated reply) to confirm receipt. This lets the sender know you have gotten their message and you’ll respond in full at a later time.

4. Keep up your hobbies

It’s important to recharge your batteries regularly. This means making time for non-work activities that bring you joy.

This could mean returning to a pastime that you once loved but have neglected because of work pressure. This could be the time to pull out your old sewing machine or juggling clubs, for example. Or, it could mean making an effort to explore new hobbies.

To help counter stress, we suggest activities that let you immerse yourself in something you find pleasurable—or challenging. Additionally, the area of law you practice in might dictate how much free time you have to dedicate to hobbies.

5. Make time for loved ones

Another lawyer stress solution could be sitting in your home or at the other end of a phone call. Connecting with your loved ones can be a wonderful way to manage stress. If you’ve had a long, stressful workday, try unplugging from your devices and spending time with the people in your life who make you feel happy.

Don’t stress about making elaborate plans all of the time, either: A simple video-call catch-up with a family member, playing a game with your kids, or watching a movie on the couch with your spouse can be an effective way to relax and recharge.

6. Practice mindfulness

You can’t eliminate stress, but you can change how you respond to it. This is why mindfulness is so powerful. Mindfulness—or learning to pay attention and stay present in a moment—may seem simple, but it can be challenging to slow down and focus your stressed mind.

Just as you use tech tools to help your law firm run more smoothly, you can also use technology to adjust to a mindfulness practice easier. Meditation apps like Headspace can help guide you through a mindfulness practice when you feel disconnected or zoned out.

7. Set Goals

Similarly, setting lawyer goals can be a powerful way to leverage focus for reduced stress. Think about it: It’s much easier (and less stressful) to run with a finish-line in mind than it is to run aimlessly. That’s why setting and working towards goals can give you a stronger feeling of control. As soon as you introduce any element of control or autonomy, people become more resilient, even if the situation hasn’t changed.

Set goals that turn your attention to the bigger picture in your life and career. You can ask yourself, for example, where you want to be in a year, two years, and five years down the road.

Keep stress in check

It’s no surprise that being a lawyer means that you’ll encounter stressful situations. But that doesn’t mean that you have to be in a constant state of stress. Whether it’s due to your workload, the emotional toll of legal work, or the pressure to keep up in a competitive industry, stress can have serious impacts on our physical, mental, and social health.

While these stressors won’t go away, you can react to them and manage your stress more positively. The key is knowing how to handle stress and having strategies to smooth the peaks. From exercise to talking to experts to practicing mindfulness, the way that we respond to stress is within our power, with some practice.

It’s important to find meaning in things outside our vocation and pursue those things, whether it’s family, faith or creative outlets. If we can find some meaning in our lives, we’re going to live longer, be more joyful and be more pleasant to be around.

Certainly, the issue is more nuanced and complicated than this singular idea, but we think having a purpose outside the scope of our work is foundational to maintaining our well-being.

SUCCESS TIP# [12]: FACE YOUR FINANCES & GIVE YOUR MONEY A JOB!

A lot of law firm owners struggle with the shame and guilt that come with not knowing the numbers behind their business. Profit/loss statements? Revenue targets? Profit margins? I can feel many of you tensing up just reading about it. And that’s often because, as law firm owners, we’re expected to be the same badass in business as we are in law.

But the reality is that finance is an entire industry. So really, the only shame in ignorance is choosing to retain it.

If your numbers are a mystery to you, today is the day we start your journey to learning more about what you don’t know.

Remember: Your goal is to have a “job” for your money. Your money should be working for you, not you running from it. So how can you get to that point? We asked you the questions you need the answers to…

DAILY-MONTHLY WEALTH ASSESSMENTS

Ask yourself these questions daily and monthly for as long as you are in practice.

Q: What is better: Profit or Revenue? Why?

A: Profit is far more important than revenue. Revenue means nothing if you are spending everything that is coming in. There are many business owners out there who are not aware of whether they’re operating at a profit or loss. Without profit, your business will go under.

Q: What does strategic financial growth look like?

A: When I am growing my business quickly, I need to ensure that I’ve got key financial foundations in place. This means monitoring what matters. You need to be monitoring your cash level and debt levels. You need to be monitoring the expenses that are going out the door, ensuring that revenue coming in exceeds your expenses. The goal is to have that profit coming in month after month so that you can reinvest that profit into your business.

Q: How can I overcome resistance to learning more about a sophisticated area of knowledge like finance?

A: Resistance is easier to overcome when you know WHY you want to know more about your finances: So that you can make sound business decisions. When you understand your numbers, you understand how the decisions that you’re making affect your profit line. If you’re making decisions without this information, it’s like you’re driving a car with your eyes closed.

Q: What unique ability do I have to create wealth relative to someone who simply has a job?

A: Being a business owner means that you have way more control over the wealth that you’re creating in your personal life. You can reinvest your profits for growth, or you can consider investment opportunities – because you never want cash sitting there idly.

As business owners, you also have tax strategies and tax incentives that are not available for employees of companies. The more your business is worth, the wealthier you are as an individual because you own the business.

Q: How do I balance the desire for creating more wealth with the immediate heartstring goal of helping others?

Remember that these things go hand in hand. Wealth can be a very positive thing. There are so many opportunities when you’re building wealth within your business to affect positive change in the lives of those around you.

Whether it’s instant gratification through donating money or building a not-for-profit, it’s all about getting crystal clear on your goals and making financial decisions to support those goals. It takes time, patience, money, and willingness to constantly reinvest.

Q: How do I shift my mindset of “cash equals play day” or “cash equals excess that I have to get rid of” because my subconscious programming says to live within my needs?

A: Everybody comes to the table with a money mindset issue. Even if you’re making a ton of money, there’s usually some sort of issue there. When you get clear on what it is that you want to achieve in your life, you have direction.

If you don’t have financial goals planned out for yourself, you get in situations where you’re making a whole lot of money and you don’t know what to do with it. You never gave your money a “job”. So, you spend it. You’re not reinvesting your money, you’re not building your wealth, you’re not building your net worth. But if you know what you want, you’ll make better decisions to achieve it.

Responsibility Over Resistance

Remember, as the CEO of your business, you have a responsibility to check in with the financial health of your business. The more aggressive you get about your goals, the more remarkable things you can accomplish in a relatively short time.

Even if you hire people to help you and advise you, checking out of your finances is not an option as you grow into the business and CEO you want to be.

How Coaching, Consulting or Mentoring Can Help You Take Your Law Practice to the Next Level in Less Time with Greater Results

In order to be effective, lawyers need to commit to a reasonable budget for mentorship or coaching or consulting. Lawyers need to reach out to references to figure out how best grow their practice

People like grad school or clinical professors, former supervisors and co-clerks can provide valuable insight into what they need to thrive.

Let’s Get Started Now on Your New Practice

We’ll explore proven ways to position your law firm for success in today’s challenging market and learn how to:

Propel yourself forward by prioritizing essential activities that will fuel success, including building strong community alliances, generating more leads and creating a systemized approach for capturing new business.

Increase your momentum by implementing powerful employee attraction and retention strategies, build systems for lasting growth, reduce overhead, increase your sales close rates and boost revenue.

Map a course forward by examining your existing systems, identify gaps and solutions, and creating an action plan to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your business.

Enable your business to soar to new heights by implementing valuable financial strategies and leveraging data to improve your cash flow and protect your firm against economic downturns.

YOU’LL BECOME

· Current a business professional

· A strong but likable personality, with a compassionate side

· A self-motivated professional (no hand-holding required)

· Able to work independently, but willing to collaborate with a team

· Enjoy teaching, training and working one-to-one with your staff or clients, facilitating your mindset evolution while teaching you business acumen

· Enjoy the freedom to set your own schedule, utilizing excellent time management skills

· Able to distill complex subjects down to digestible, usable data points

· Be an avid learner and reader, with a perpetual desire for MORE

· Technologically capable (use of Zoom, Dropbox, social media and other tech tools as required)

We aren’t just giving you teaching or coaching or theory, we give you a whole new service model + the 6 systems to support you to build your law practice into a thriving business.

We’ll helping you take home $10,000 a month or build an empire taking home $40,000 per month or more. We’ll help you earn $25k a month working part-time, or build a multi-million dollar practices with multiple lawyers.

Whether you’re operating as an individual or as part of a law firm — we’ll help you develop:

Time management skills to drive balance in your business and in your life
A solid marketing plan to obtain real results
A personal brand that helps you compete
Networking with purpose

Sometimes, professional coaching might be what it takes to advance personal growth, and Reitenbach-Kissinger has the experience and expertise to assist you.

We’re celebrated our 40th anniversary as a firm serving California, and we’ll gladly act as a valued extension of your management team. With expert coaches, we can help any business — no matter where they are. If so, then this opportunity may be a perfect fit for your business. The Reitenbach-Kissinger Institute is a rapidly growing business coaching service for solo and small law firm owners. We help lawyers

In a Nutshell This is What You’ll Get From Professional Small Law Practice Coaching

We’ll provide guidance and support to you to help you achieve you goals. We work with clients to identify areas of improvement, develop action plans, and provide resources and advice. We also track progress and offer feedback to clients.

In the last few years, hyperinflation and the current coronavirus pandemic have led to significant damages for small law businesses, who are now having trouble securing clients and dealing with the effects of runaway inflation. Many small law business owners are close to losing their livelihood due to this collapse. They are relying on Reitenbach-Kissinger Business Coaches to help them recover revenue lost during the pandemic, as well as to assist them regain their businesses.

We have developed a groundbreaking ways that enables our clients to identify hidden opportunities for increasing revenue and profitability for ANY business and in any profession or industry. They can create additional revenue in 90 to 120 days.

We’ve received tremendous demand for our services, and we are working as fast as we can in order to keep up with demand. We’re looking for lawyers who need help get their struggling business to the point they want them .

All resources needed to succeed have been created and prepared for you, and we will provide you with professional solutions. Once you’ve contacted us, you can expect to earn a substantial income. You will set your own schedule, no travel needed, and we provide all coaching, consulting or mentoring services online. You can work with us from the comfort of your office or home. If you need help with your legal practice or small businesses and have an entrepreneurial spirit contact us today.

We will:

• Meet with you to discuss your business goals

• Identify areas of improvement

• Develop action plans

• Provide resources and advice

• Track progress and offer feedback

You’ll Get:

• Proven experience as a business coach or consultant

• Strong knowledge of business management principles

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

• Ability to build relationships of trust

• Organized and detail-oriented

We’ll help you build a practice that you love, that fits your lifestyle. A practice where you can create your own economy, your own income… the choices are up to you.”

We’ll help you adopted the best billing plan. We’ll help you increased your revenue by 25%, and build a 95% engagement rate.

We’ll help you finally run a practice whose success matches the incredible talent you possess.

We’ll help you build a business model with a practice area that gives you ability to control your life, income, profession and be an active part of your families busy schedules.
We’ll help you build a practice that is systematizable, meaning you can build a business around it…where, each client is interesting, fresh, and grateful for your services.
We’ll help you build a practice so you can make a great living and have a great life while doing so.

According to Recent Business Research the Benefits of Coaching and Consulting

Having trained coaching or consulting for your business is a no-brainer. It can:

Help staff to solve problems in new ways.
Answer questions that someone might have if they become confused during the coaching session.
Teach new skills with a clear learning plan in place.

When lawyers commit to learning new skills, they’re recognizing that they can increase their value to themselves and or their staff. They’re working hard to become a better.

If they’re looking to earn a salary increase or progress their career, this is a great way to go about it. By recognizing their value and their ability, you gain more confidence. This can lead to a strong and competitive law business and greater profitability.

The Common Pitfalls of Traditional Coaching or Consulting or Mentoring Programs

Coaches, consultants or mentors must be just as invested in the program as their mentees, and must show a willingness to commit the time and energy needed to make the relationship fruitful.

We provide formal training for partners who want to participate as a coach, consultant or mentor. For years, coaching, consulting or mentorship has been and remains a key professional development tool for small law business.

Taking a few practical, proactive steps to create a program that actually does what it’s designed to do can pay dividends.

What You Can Expect From Coaching or Consulting Programs To Take Your Law Firm to the Next Level in Less Time with Greater Results

Freedom and flexibility around when you work with your clients.
Access to proven systems and materials.
The opportunity to be part of a coaching team that cares about making a difference.
Professional Development and support for your continuous learning and growth.

The Reitenbach-Kissinger Offers You the Best Coaching, Consulting or Mentoring Services

As a business coach, mentor and consultant with over 30+ years experience, Michael Kissinger has taught business and law at 3 California Universities [Golden Gate University-Masters Program, San Francisco State University and Canada College. He has a proven track record. As a business coach, mentor and consultant who has helped over 5,000+ businesses.

The Reitenbach-Kissinger Institute provides business coaching to help solo and small law firm owners to stop the chaos and get to a level of efficiency that will give them a dramatically more successful firm as well as a life with more free time.

Our role will commence as an independent contractor arrangement, with considerable room for growth. We’ll serve as a contract to hire coach or consultant – open to hourly, part-time or full time consulting or coaching for 3-6 months engagement. To learn more about us please contact us now.

All services are totally confidential and are held in confidence.

Compensation is negotiable. Apply for this excellent opportunity now!

What We’ll Expect from You and What You’ll be Doing

Finding out where you are stuck and what you need to do next to move forward in a way that feels exciting to you.
Enthusiastically uplifting you. Encouraging your outlook and our systems, processes, and methods to support you in moving the needle in you business, getting phenomenal results, and successfully navigating the stress that comes along with building a business.
Sharing your ideas for improving your business and systems and processes based on experience as you go.
Knowing that your results and impact come most from who you and your clients are being, even more so than what we are doing.
Quickly learning and consistently using project management software, G-suite, multiple platforms and CRM to self-manage and to communicate with us as well.
Getting deep satisfaction from seeing you move through fears, and transform lives through changing up your business structure and implementing cutting edge strategies.

You’ll

SYSTEMIZE OPERATIONS: Objective guidance and advice, as well as insight into how to capitalize on strengths and weaknesses

GROW REVENUE: Maximize your performance in your law practice, while treating it like the business it is.

CREATE MORE FREE TIME: Learn from past mistakes and bounce back from them, stronger and more confident than ever.

We offer different levels of coaching programs and signature retreats that cover Systems, Sales, Marketing and Hiring.

Are you an attorney looking to join an amazing team to serve you in your business growth?

Would you like to join an established team of coaches dedicated to helping you achieve personal, professional and business growth?

Would you like to have coaching and consulting in the areas of Sales, Marketing, Personnel or Operations, Systems and/or Finance?

We offer a composite of private and group coaching, accountability calls and business retreats, including business planning, strategic advice, as well as a membership community.

Solo Practitioners or Small Firms Contact Us

If you’d like to make big, exciting plans for your law firm but find yourself stymied by client calls, employee inquiries, short-notice court appearances or other interruptions, this coaching will give you the tools you need to take your business to the next level. In other words, We will help you grow your revenues, crush chaos in business and make more money.

We are happy to provide valuable, actionable information to our clients via our library of free resources, Podcasts, our blog, and our private Facebook group.

We also offer One-to-One Private Business Coaching, Intensive Group Coaching Business Retreats, Law Firm Strategic Planning, and Transformational Courses.

You’ll Never Stop Growing

It’s unbelievable how many small businesses and firm owners we speak with tell us their firm sucks the life out of them. They spend too many hours producing too little income. Flying by the seat of their pants, hoping they don’t miss a deadline under the weight of all they have to do. Clients are running them ragged, and payroll is pounding on the door. Now you can end all of that!

Need Support?

Making seemingly impossible things happen in any area of your life or business is our specialty, and we have a proven process that goes against much of what you’ve learned about manifestation and goal achievement in the past.

Over 25,000,000 achievers have now used MKS Master Key System, the world’s #1 system, for self or business improvement. We’re grateful for this year and opportunity to serve you.

I know what you are thinking. Whose is this picture of? This is a picture of me when I was jumping with the 10th Special Forces Group. Like you I had to Break Through My Upper Limits.

Please enjoy the above programs! Wishing you and yours a wonderful New Year!

We hope you’ll deepen your practices of journaling, tracking your habits, setting your goals, and watching inspirational classes with us this year and beyond.

Let’s make the year extraordinary, together.

Cheering you on, always!

Join our “Year of MKS Master Key Mastery Coaching Programs and Systems”. We’ll spend the first Mondays of the Week with you taking you through advanced personal growth, business growth, profitability optimization and productivity so you can win this year and every years you are in business.

These are just a few tips to look out for when considering Breaking Through Your Upper Limits.

We personally believe this is the best way forward if you are looking for a Breaking Through Your Upper Limits. This is for people who have a dream or desire to be financially independent and are willing to put in the hard work to do so.

Wishing you prosperity and success. Remember You Were Born To Win!!

Michael Kissinger and Sydney Reitenbach

Phone: 650-515-7545

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kissinger-a66b214/

E-mail: mjkkissinger@yahoo.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.kissinger.35

CONTACT US: [LIFE SUCCESS ASSESSMENT] [READINESS ASSESSMENT] [SERVICES] [ABOUT COACHES] [FAQs] [FEE RANGE] [COACHING AGREEMENT] [SURVEY] [PRESS RELEASE] Home

Web: https://mksmasterkeycoaching.com

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