Attorney and Law Firm Guide to
THE BUSINESS OF LAW, 2nd
By Edward Poll
American Bar Association, 750 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60611
$119.95; Law Practice Management section members $99.95
600 pages; ISBN 1-57073-991-9 (2002).
Edward Poll practiced law for twenty-five years and is the author of numerous books aimed at helping lawyers become successful in their practices. He is also a law firm management consultant who uses his vast experience to help attorneys become more responsive to their clients, more efficient in their work, and ultimately more profitable.
While we all agree that the practice of law is an " honorable profession" and should be done with the utmost care for our clients' needs, it's also clear that "law is a business." As such, many young lawyers – and sadly many not-so-young lawyers – are ill equipped to deal with the business aspect of a legal practice. Mr. Poll succinctly points out that to be successful, all businesses have to do three things: 1) get customers, 2) do quality work, and 3) get paid.
Failure in any of the three areas spells disaster. It's no different in the legal field, argues Mr. Poll. The basic structure of a legal business to be successful is very similar:
· Marketing (get the customer)
· Technical (do quality work)
· Financial (get paid).
It is important for lawyers, especially for solos and those in small firms, to not only be technically competent in the law, but also understand business factors such as: marketing, accounting, collections of accounts receivable, insurance, write-offs, branding, cash flow, financial statements, leverage, financial management, banking, technology, hiring and firing, appraisals, managing employees and many other matters essential to the successful practice of law as a business. Luckily, Mr. Poll deals with each of these topics (and more) in an easy-to-understand manner that will be sure to improve your bottom line.
This is a big book packed with practical information on every page. In addition to all the topics already mentioned, Mr. Poll provides checklists for starting a new practice, provides the basic steps of the planning process, discusses setting goals, various marketing plans, use of business cards and stationery to support rainmaking, improving client relationships and creating bills that clients want to pay, bank loans, equipment leasing, client trust accounts and other topics.
The book is strengthened by the assistance in many chapters of numerous contributors with special areas of expertise. This practice of having other experts assist in writing certain parts of the book lends an air of credibility with the reader. It's helpful to know that the ideas presented are not merely theories of good business practices, but are grounded in solid, real-world experiences.
The book comes with appendices containing cash flow projection forms, sample profit & loss statements, revenue and expense forms, payment pattern analysis forms, considerations for purchasing law library materials and other business forms. The appendices are also contained on a 3 ½-inch floppy disk included with the book. However, the materials are presented in pdf format, are non-interactive and fail to contain many of the other forms scattered throughout the book that would be extremely useful. For the disk to contain any added benefit, these concerns should be addressed.
If your practice is not generating enough income, if your receipts seem to be devoured by your expenses, if you need some new ideas about obtaining and keeping clients who pay their bills on a timely basis, or if you just want a refresher course on running your legal practice like a business, this book is for you. Practical, instructive, clever and informative – this book will pay for itself many times over.
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