HOW TO START & BUILD A LAW PRACTICE

HOW TO START & BUILD A LAW PRACTICE
Platinum 5th Edition
By Jay G. Foonberg
American Bar Association 1-800-285-2221
$69.95, softcover, 663 pages; ISBN 1-59031-247-3 (2004).

It would be a mistake for anyone to think that this book is only directed at lawyers just starting to practice law or lawyers practicing on their own or in small firms. This book is for the seasoned practitioner as well as the newly admitted attorney. After all, who doesn't want to know how to more efficiently practice law and be more profitable?

If you haven't yet heard of this book, get your head out of the statutes and take a look. If you've read an earlier edition, it's time to get the new one and brush up on strategies that you've been missing. This Platinum 5th edition is chock full of useful ideas – any one of which will pay for the cost of the book many times over. How valuable is this book? Let's put it this way, I still have my copy of the 1st edition printed in 1976 (with a whopping 212 pages) on my bookshelf. This A to Z indispensable reference book just keeps getting better with every edition.

This 5th edition is jam packed with many new things not contained in even the most recent edition. As noted in the preface to the Platinum Edition:

There are several "new" topics that this fifth edition addresses, including:

1. E-mail and the Internet
2. Law firms merging to become mega-firms
3. Law firms of all sizes breaking up
4. The globalization of legal practice
5. The increasing size of student loans
6. Increasing attempts to convert the profession of law into a law business
7. Aggressive marketing being done by firms of all sizes, including cold calling by larger firms and the hiring of nonlawyer salespeople to seek clients for the firm
8. An aging population creating greater opportunities for serving senior clients and prompting the growth of elder law as a practice are of law
9. The huge increase in the number of nonlawyer consultants
10. The decreasing ability of courts to process the increased litigation needs of a growing population, causing an increasing use of alternate dispute resolution, which is often mandatory
11. When and how to safely and ethically close or destroy files
12. A brief history of some of the changes in our profession and the changes in law practice management
13. How to overcome the fears caused by lack of experience.

Foonberg goes on to note that this book addresses five major issues dealt with in earlier editions of the book. They are:

1. Increased expectation of the lawyer by clients
2. Client technology changing the clients' needs for lawyers
3. Lack of training of new lawyers by firms that are expecting billable hours from the untrained new lawyers
4. Lawyers finding themselves unemployed through no fault of their own
5. Quality-of-life expectations.

The meat of the book is divided up into 8 sections. Part I: Getting Started is filled with the nuts-and-bolts information to open your own law practice. Part II: Getting Located gives you ideas on where to open your office from both a cost point of view and a client point of view. Part III: Getting Equipment discusses how much cash you'll need to start your practice, provides checklists for the new law office and gives advice about office supplies, procedures and equipment. It is in this section that Foonberg offers three rules:

Rule 1. If it works, it's obsolete. Anything you buy will be obsolete in thirty months due to improvements and lack of vendor support for what you are using.
Rule 2. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, but if your clients or practice truly need something, don't hesitate to get it. You must be current to provide legal services competently and cost efficiently.
Rule 3. If your clients require, don't wait.

Part IV: Getting Clients is filled with ideas for new attorneys and seasoned veterans about how to acquire and attract more clients to your practice. This chapter discusses ways to market your services, attract better clients and ways to use cost-effective media advertising. It gives sage advice about the importance of accepting and promptly returning telephone calls in order to keep and satisfy your clients. Equally important is the section on cases and clients that should be turned down, and how to say "no" to a case.

Part V: Setting Fees deals with the engagement letter, referral fees, alternative billing arrangements, client costs, credit cards, wording invoices that clients are happy to pay, monthly billing, when and how to withdraw from a nonpaying matter and many more relevant topics. On the importance of getting cash up front, the author correlates Foonsberg's Rule and Shelly's Rule.

You might remember Shelly's Rule or The Rule in Shelly's Case or perhaps it sounds familiar but you can't remember it.

Shelly's Rule is: If A makes a conveyance to B for life, remainder to the heirs of B, A has not created a life estate and remainder. The conveyance will be treated as though B gets a Fee Simple.

My reason for discussing Shelly's Rule is that we are discussing fees, and it's simple (you may have to read the forgoing sentence 3 or 4 times until you understand it).

The client who can't or won't pay cash up front is usually the same client who can't or won't pay cash during the case or at the end of the case.

If you didn't remember Shelly's Rule or the Rule in Shelly's Case, perhaps you can remember the Rule in Foonberg's Case or Foonberg's Rule, which is:

You will then normally be left with one of two choices:

1. Do the work and not get paid or
2. Don't do the work and not get paid.

Foonberg's Rule is that it is better not doing the work and not getting paid, than doing the work and not getting paid, and you'll only learn whether or not you'll get paid when you ask for "cash up front."

Part VI: Managing the Law Office deals with time management, telephone skills, billing records, court forms, client interviews, Foonberg's Ten Rules of how to conduct a good meeting, negotiating skills, maintaining appropriate bank accounts, taxes and licenses, bookkeeping and accounting systems, organizing computer files, destroying old paper files, building a good form file, library needs and costs, squeezing extra hours into the day to make more money, and much more.

Part VII: Ethics and Professional Responsibility provides a clear understanding of 52 common ethical situations and how to avoid problems in dealing with them. Foonberg provides ten rules for avoiding disciplinary complaints, from discussing fees and having written fee agreements, to promptly returning telephone calls, being "holier than thou" when handling a client's money, keeping accurate time records and being honest and open with a client when a case is lost. These common sense rules are all to often disregarded by those being disciplined by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar.

Part VIII: Resources and Advice tells you where to look for help if you have questions that remain unanswered after reading Foonberg's book – though the likelihood of that seems slim. It also provides you with cost-effective ways to help build and expand your law practice and reminds lawyers that continuing education is important to you and your clients. Also included are tips on how to manage and collect accounts receivable.

Part IX: Quality of Life shows you how to deal with difficult people – including other lawyers, clients and judges (Foonberg has obviously never practiced in Maine where our judges are always calm, civil and even tempered). Foonberg ends his book with a reminder of the September 11, 2001 tragedy and notes that many of the nearly 3000 victims in burning buildings and airplanes made telephone calls shortly before their deaths. They didn't call their office or their clients: they called members of their families. He warns lawyers that they'll work long hours for the benefit of a client and their practice, but "family comes first. Clients come second. Don't get your priorities mixed up."

Foonberg offers this final rule:

Clients come and clients go, family is forever. Time with family will enrich your quality of life and their quality of life.

This best selling book has been a huge success for nearly 40 years because it is filled with proven advice, useful hints, generous tips, and tricks of the trade that would take years to learn on your own. It has useful ideas on nearly every page and more information than you'd acquire in a seminar lasting a week. My advice about this book is simple: buy it, read it, use it. You'll be amazed at the broad wealth of information it contains and how it will transform your work and allow you to profitably build your law practice while keeping your priorities in proper order.

Comments

[Phil]

I bought this book on your recommendation, and I'd like to thank you. It's really assured me that going solo after law school is the path I want to take, and a path I can take. The buzz in law school makes it seem like big firm life is the only way. With Mr. Foonberg's advice, I'm not afraid to hang my own shingle. Thank you for the recommendation.

[Al Nye]

Phil:

I'm glad you thought it was worthwhile. Good luck in opening your own office.

Al