New Modern Lawyer Podcast

I was listening to a lawyer I greatly admire speak about how to be a good lawyer. And one statement he made really stuck out to me. He was talking about his background prior to becoming a lawyer and how his experience made him a better lawyer today. Now I thought he would focus on his time as a sports broadcaster, or maybe his time in sales, as the reason he is consistently rated as one of the best lawyers in the area. But he didn’t. Instead, he said that some of the most important skills for a lawyer are those he honed being a teacher.

TAKEAWAY: one of the best ways to become a better lawyer is to improve your teaching skills.

As a lawyer, you’ve probably heard the saying that you should always put your clients first. That your clients are the reason you are a lawyer and have a law practice, and so you do what you have to do to help them – even if that means making some sacrifices in other areas of your life. You may even believe that to be true.

But, is putting the needs (and wants) of your client before your own always best? Is sacrificing your physical, mental, and emotional well-being for your clients going to provide them with the best legal services? Or maybe, is there another way – a better way – to provide great service to your clients that doesn’t require making those sacrifices?

In this episode I am going to talk about what it means to make your law practice more client-centric, rather than client-first, and the steps you can take to improve the experience your clients have working with you.

TAKEAWAY: making small improvements to the client experience can have a huge impact on the quality of services you provide, and are better for both you (and your staff) and your clients than always putting their needs before your own.

One of the biggest mistakes I think that you can make in your law practice is undercharging for your services. In other words, not properly valuing the value you are providing to your clients. And it’s not just an issue of you making less money, although that happens too. When you undercharge, you are actually doing a disservice to yourself and your clients. Yep – to your clients as well.

In this episode I talk about the two main reasons why lawyers undercharge and why you should actually look at increasing your prices rather than reduce them for your clients.

TAKEAWAY: undercharging your clients is bad for both you and them.

This is kind of an off-the-cuff episode that was inspired by the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. For many people, gratitude and giving thanks is something that comes around once a year. But really, gratitude should always be on your mind.

This episode is primarily focused on being thankful for the “good” things in your life and creating a habit of gratitude, but when you truly live in gratitude, you are thankful for everything in your life – even the “bad” things that happen. Because as I talked about in last week’s podcast episode, things don’t happen to you, they happen for you.

TAKEAWAY: gratitude isn’t just something you do once a year as part of a holiday, it should be a daily part of your life.

When is the last time that something bad happened to you? Or that you were triggered by someone? Chances are, you complained about it – maybe even mentioned all the bad things that had happened to you. But that is the wrong way to look at things. Those bad things in your life: they aren’t happening to you, they are happening for your benefit.

In this episode I want to talk about how triggers and problems – like difficult clients – are actually a blessing because of the power they have to help you change your law practice as well as your life.

This episode is an interview with Jordan Ostroff. Jordan runs a small personal injury firm in Orlando, Florida, where he also owns a marketing company. Despite being a lawyer, Jordan doesn’t practice law; instead, he is the CEO of his firm, overseeing the lawyers, paralegals, and other staff members that work for him.

Jordan started his firm as many solo and small firm lawyers do, throwing money at marketing and chasing bad leads in the attempt to grow his firm. The firm was $200,000 in debt when his wife announced she was pregnant – he knew things needed to change. He became very intentional about his law practice and has created a firm where he only works 2-3 days a week, focuses his time on the tasks he enjoys and is best at, and is currently in the middle of an 11-month cross-country trip with his family.

In this episode Jordan talks about his journey from 6-figure debt, staffing his law firm, and why the number one thing for law firm success is knowing your ideal client.

I spend a lot of time thinking about why so many solo and small firm lawyers are unhappy. There is a big push in the legal profession right now – and elsewhere as well – around mental health and happiness in your practice. Because there are a lot of lawyers right now that are NOT happy in their current practices; and you may be one of them.

A lot of the mental health and burnout talk centers around working long hours, some of which is driven by being a high achiever and always looking to achieve. And this is definitely a problem many lawyers face. But another side that isn’t getting much attention is on those lawyers who push themselves yet never feel a sense of accomplishment because they never allow themselves to achieve their goals. That is what I want to talk about in this episode.

TAKEAWAY: to be aware if the unhappiness or other negative feelings you have towards your law practice are the result of you always moving the goal post before you can reach the line

You’ve probably heard a lot of people talk about the importance of your own expectations for yourself. The fact that whether you believe you can do something, or you believe you can’t do it, either way you are right.

In this episode, though, I want to talk about how we are influenced by the expectations of those around you. And why it is important that you set high expectations for your team, and that you surround yourself with people who have high expectations of you.

TAKEAWAY: it is important to be aware of the impact of your expectations on others, and on the expectations of those around you on you

This episode was inspired by my friend and mentor Dr. Katie Deming. Katie is a radiation oncologist, meaning she works with cancer patients. On a recent episode of her new podcast, she talked about the difference between curing vs. healing, and delved into the topic of what is or should the role of doctors be. And it caused me to consider the same thing for lawyers: what should the role of lawyers be for our clients?

In her episode, Katie told the story of the villager and the river. I share that story in this episode to hopefully get you to think about what I believe is a very important topic for lawyers. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, which you can share with me at [email protected].

The past few days I have been working on getting my laptop up and running after it had been slowing down noticeably lately. As a solo, if something like that needs done, I have to do it. Even if you have staff, for many things the bucks stops with you. Along with the work you do for your clients, all those small little things can add up, leading to stress and burnout for you.

In this informal episode I want to talk about the things in your firm you can delegate to a staff member, and those things that you as the law firm owner need to handle yourself. I hope you find this episode valuable.

TAKEAWAY: law firm owners have a lot to juggle, and it is important to know what tasks you can delegate and which you should be handling yourself.