Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute

By Ned Daze

Ned Daze and Lee Rosen speak to aspiring entrepreneurial and tenured law professionals on law practice management, marketing, technology and finance, increasing your revenues and helping you implement... more

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The podcast currently has 687 episodes available.

Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute episodes:

October 06, 2017 Are You Busy and Broke?
How is it possible for a lawyer to be both busy and broke?
Busy? Sure. But we shouldn’t be broke if we’re busy, right?
Wrong.
Busy and broke is an easy cycle to get stuck in, actually. A lot of us are overloaded with work, yet our bank account balances are at zero - or worse.
And, unfortunately, busy and broke is shockingly common.
I meet lawyers all the time who are working like crazy, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, yet they have no money.
They are living hand-to-mouth. It takes every penny they make to get by. The only benefit of their busyness is that they don’t have time to think about being broke.
Busyness is just stress relief by distraction.
If we don’t have time to worry then we don’t worry, right? Except at 3 AM when the room is dark, the streets are silent, and we’re staring at the ceiling.
That’s when the panic comes flooding in.
In those moments we want to jump out of bed, get busy, and stop thinking about being broke.
The busy and broke phenomenon is not limited to new solo attorneys striking out on their own. It affects old solos, and lawyers of all experience levels practicing in every setting.
It’s a non-discriminatory state of being. We feel it without regard to our actual income. We’re all vulnerable to the busy-but-broke trap.
Busy and broke is its own kind of pressure. We feel locked in, surrounded by obstacles, and we’re always on the hunt for an escape route.
Escape Hatch #1 - Productivity Hacks
When we’re busy and broke, we search for ways to get more done in less time.
We seek to become efficient. We try hiring people, buying software, documenting systems, and mixing up our approach.
We try bullet journals, task managers, and virtual assistants. We buy document creation software, practice management systems, and we read every quick-fix article we can find.
It all helps a little bit, but as we become more efficient, we still find ourselves busy and broke.
There are limits to efficiency. We max out on it pretty quickly.
It’s tough, for instance, to make more time by cutting client calls. Our clients need to say what they need to say, and the harder we resist, the more they persist. They're going to get heard one way or another.
Everyone gets the same twenty-four hours each day. Even the most sophisticated hacks and tactics can only do so much.
Escape Hatch #2 - Raise Prices
Then, one night, probably at 3 AM, we realize that we should raise our prices.
If we charge more, we might lose some clients, but that’ll give us some free time that will be paid for by the higher rates of the clients who stick around.
More money for the same effort might not solve the busy problem, but it'll help fix the broke problem. That thought allows us to drift back to sleep.
Then the sun rises the next morning and we worry that our solution isn't really the answer.
What if higher prices don’t just run off some clients – it runs off MOST clients?
We get caught in our circular worries and start going back and forth through our client list.
Some might pay more. Some clearly won't.
What about all those people who call into our office and their first question is "How much is a ________?" Those folks don't even want to pay what we're charging now.
What if raising our prices puts us out of business?
At least we won't be busy anymore. Well, we'll have plenty of time for searching the dumpster behind the grocery store for food.
Then, like a gift from above, at 3 AM we have another realization. Maybe it comes as we flip from side to side, back and forth, drenched in sweat. (Is that just me?)
We realize that a price increase would be easy if we had better clients.
Yep, better clients would pay the increased price because they understand the value of the service we offer.
Plus, they're not anxious about every penny the…
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25min
October 05, 2017 Podcast: Adapt or Give Up
You can either manage your environment or be ruled by chance. In this episode, I teach you to adopt a systemization mindset, designed to deliver your desired outcome.

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Take this Podcast One Step Further
Join the Systems Course and replace your struggles with accelerated growth.
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18min
September 29, 2017 Office Space is More than Just a Place to Meet
“I can’t afford to be here, but I can’t afford not to be here.”
I’ve reflected on that statement since I heard it from my office neighbor.
Fast forward more than 27 years and there’s a discussion in the Rosen Institute premium member section about real estate.
(We talk 24/7 on Slack about everything. It’s useful at many levels and always comforting to know that we’re not alone when we need help).
One member asked how much others are spending (as a percentage of their budget) on work accommodations – whether they rent an office, own a building, work remotely, etc.
Some members reported spending as little as three percent. Some are spending more. I was struck by the low numbers.
For some members, the low percentage could reflect soaring revenues. In fact, one member told me that was the case.
For others, the low percentage could just mean cheap space.
Can't Afford Not to be Here?
I heard the quote above from Dave, my office neighbor, the day I moved into our beautiful space back in 1990.
He later became my accountant and friend. He sold his very successful practice some years back.
I had just moved into the office building and it was expensive. My buddy was in a big suite next door and he was spending even more.
We started talking about the rent. It was high, but this building was nice. It was brand new, Class A space, built with the finest materials. Some very high-end national law firm (Ogletree, Deakins), consulting (McKinsey & Company), and banking executives consumed most of the building.
Dave said, “I can’t afford to be here, and I can’t afford not to be here.”
I was young and naïve, and I had to get my dad to personally guarantee the lease. So I wasn’t really sure what Dave meant.
He pontificated - as he was wont to do - and made three points:
1. The space is expensive.
It’s more expensive than most spaces in the city. Having a premier address in a high-end building doesn’t come cheaply.
2. The expensive location sends a message.
The message gets broadcast by others. It tells clients that you’re successful. It tells them that you have other clients supporting the business and they can trust you because others trust you.
We all know lawyers who whistle out loud when they hear that a particular firm has moved into a particular building. It gets people talking.
3. The physical space builds trust because it projects power.
When clients show up in a nice building, they sense they’ve come to the right place to see the right people.
It’s not an accident that throughout history the rich and powerful have sequestered themselves in massive, impressive structures (before and after death). They use physical space to take and keep power.
Office space, while not the only way to build trust, is one quick way to do it. It may not be logical, but humans love a good building.
Recently, I stood on the sidewalk with a lawyer, in front of her office.
Her space was built out nicely and took up a corner of a pleasant two-story building in a pleasant area.
The space was great, but it's not a building people talk about, think about, or notice.
She pointed down the street to a towering office building in the center of the downtown area. She commented that lawyers in those buildings charged twice as much as she did for the “exact same service.”
She couldn't understand why clients were willing to pay more for the same thing.
What if it's the Building?
What if spending six or twelve percent on rent, instead of three percent, means doubling your revenue? Unless you're bad at math, you should be able to see that leasing pricier space is sometimes a smart move.
That's what Dave meant when he said, “I can’t afford to be here, but I can’t afford not to be here.”
Every firm has a different position in the market. That position is driven by the vision of the o…
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14min
September 28, 2017 Podcast: The Best Way to Market Your Law Firm
Marketing works. How well it works is a function of effort plus implementation. In this episode, I teach you how to squeeze optimal results from whatever technique you try.

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13min
September 22, 2017 10 Tips for Incentivizing Law Firm Associates
Lock a group of law firm owners in a room and eventually the conversation will turn to the subject of motivating associates.
You see, law firm owners are usually motivated by money. That’s a piece of what drives us.
We assume, often erroneously, that other lawyers think the same way. This assumption impacts how we manage our employee-associates. We believe we can encourage certain behaviors if we create opportunities for our associates to earn more money.
So we come up with creative plans to pay associates in a way that encourages them to make positive impacts on the business. We try to devise the perfect environment for mutual success.
Typically, these plans are intended to make the team more productive, make clients happier, or generate new business. Instead of a flat salary, they involve some type of payment system that rewards the behaviors we desire.
Sometimes these incentive-based approaches work. But in most cases, they work a little, but not as much as we hope.
It rarely works at first
Once the incentive-based system is up and running, we start changing it. This happens when we realize that the behavior we desire isn’t the behavior we’re getting. Sometimes we also get surprised by nasty, unintended consequences.
The problem with getting it right the first time, and having it last for a long time, is people. People aren’t all motivated the same way, they don’t see the world the same way, and they don’t all want the same things.
Everybody is different, even about money
Since the owner, the associate, and the other associates all have different perspectives, creating a compensation system for everyone is complicated. The system is never exactly right. Whenever it gets close to being right, some key variable changes, screwing the whole thing up. It’s always a work in progress.
My guess is that you’ve already tried to optimize your system. I have too. If there’s a perfect system, I haven’t discovered it yet.
But I have a bunch of ideas for you to consider as you develop, refine, and revise your approach. These will help you create a system which will hopefully last a while.
1. Not everyone cares
Here in the real world, shockingly, not everyone is motivated by money. As a business owner, I struggle with that reality. But it’s true. Some people care about stuff like quality of life, or intellectual stimulation, or making a difference in the world. Baffling, but you’d better appreciate that others are different or you’re going to have great difficulty managing people.
If you want people who are motivated by money, then hire for it. Figure out how to pick those folks out of the crowd and put them to work. If you find yourself getting lots of questions about “base salary,” then you’re not talking to the right applicants. Money-motivated lawyers want to take on more risk (they’re more like you and me).
Be cognizant of the differences between associates. Incentive systems are exciting to some, terrifying to others, and of little significance to many. Hiring the kind of folks who appreciate (and will thrive under) incentive plans is the key. Attempting to modify an existing system with current employees is likely to upset the delicate balance. I've written about how to make the shift from salary to an incentive system, but changes to compensation invariably result in some folks leaving. If you’re going to attempt the transition, expect some turbulence.
2. Keep it simple and quick
Whatever system you adopt needs to be simple. The simpler, the better.
Think “pull the lever, get a pellet of food” simple. If you put more distance between the desired behavior and the reward, you reduce the likelihood of the reward driving the behavior. We’re not monkeys, but we’re close.
At my firm, we started with bonus percentages at different revenue le…
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25min
September 15, 2017 Quitting Can be the Best Damn Decision
I spend an inordinate amount of time pushing lawyers to create a vision, take action, and stick with it.
But that’s not always the right course.
Much of my success came from sticking with something as others fell by the wayside. Persistence works for me and it’ll work for you.
But what if you’re wrong? Yes, sometimes I'm overcome with doubts. You are too, I suspect. We worry that the thing we've chosen won't turn out to be the thing we want.
I watched a young woman quit law school after her first semester to work at Disney World. She was my hero for a while.
Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to switch gears, walk away, and start over. It’s hard, but it’s okay.
It’s hard to step away from the law after three years in school and $100,000 of debt.
It’s hard to leave a law firm when you’ve told everyone how great it is, made friends, become proficient at getting the work done, and started living on every penny of the paycheck.
It’s hard to leave a partnership when you’ve planned it all together, become close to one another’s families, intertwined your finances, and pledged your allegiance to the effort.
It’s hard to abandon a solo business when you’ve leased a space, bragged to all your friends, and had those fancy business cards engraved.
But sometimes we have to do what’s hard. Pushing for something we no longer want makes us miserable. I've lost count of all the lawyers I've met who are suffering. They switch practice areas, join firms, quit firms, go solo, or find jobs in the government. Eventually they become miserable and make another switch, then again, then again...
“Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.” — Aubrey De Grey
The time we invested in our mistakes is behind us. It’s gone. Clinging to that time doesn't help.
The time we continue to spend - living the mistake - is what matters. It’s happening right now.
Sometimes the need to make a change is bigger than all the pieces added together. Sometimes the sunk cost is simply sunk.
Being persistent is admirable. Knowing when it’s time to stop is commendable too.

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8min
September 14, 2017 Podcast: 11 Ways to Simplify Your Law Practice
Not long after I stepped into the fray as a solo, I had a conversation with a much more tenured lawyer. We stood outside the county courthouse and I watched a stream of people come and go from his newly renovated firm across the square.

Where I saw model-worthy success, he expressed fatigue. With a tone that sounded, to my young ears, like ironic defeatism, he said, "If had it to do over again, I'd work out of my briefcase. I would have just done it all by myself."

What I couldn't comprehend at the time was the nature of complexity. It happens incrementally, stealthily, like weight gain or relationship disintegration.

We naively try to solve problems by layering services on top of old habits and procedures. We create the illusion of simplicity without tackling the underlying complexity we seek to eliminate.

Complexity burdens us. It hinders our ability to succeed and will exhaust us.

Before you reach the point of calling it quits, you need to simplify. These 11 tips will reset your path to unfettered success.

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...more
16min
September 08, 2017 Want Better Results? Use this Simple System
The wind picks up in the afternoon here in Zadar, Croatia. High wind means bigger waves, so the Adriatic gets choppy. Sometimes, under the setting sun, the wind whips water over the seawall, drenching tourists. My wife, Lisa, likes to swim. When we arrived, she attempted to swim in the afternoon, but the waves were too big. Just getting into the water was tricky due to the slick seawall. Once she was in the water, the choppiness tossed her around so much she felt seasick. Afternoon swimming wasn’t working. She needed to make a better plan.
Overcoming choppy seas requires a system
Thankfully, the sea is calm in the morning. She has been walking to the beach most mornings for her swim, without much incident. It took her a few days to learn the pattern. You see, it’s not immediately obvious that the water is calm in the morning and rough in the afternoon because the pattern isn’t 100% consistent. Occasionally, the pattern is reversed: morning chop, afternoon calm.
But most days, it works. She keeps her towel, goggles, and bag on a chair in the living room. I don't dare move them, because she wants her system to be easily replicated every day. The system leads to daily success.
A morning swim is her system for exercise, getting some time away from me, and building inspiration for her writing. She now has a swimming system that will last until we leave Zadar. Then she’ll have to develop a new way to balance work and exercise in our next destination (Tbilisi, Georgia, by the way). Development, modification, and refinement of systems never ends when your life involves perpetual travel.
Systems are optional, but optimal
A system is not, however, required. It would have been easy for Lisa to forgo a system. Instead of taking notes on the pattern, she could have left her exercise to chance. She could have said…
“It’s unpredictable. Some days, swimming conditions are better in the morning and some days they’re better in the afternoon.”
“It's too much trouble. This isn't a major life issue. I’ll just go with the flow.”
“It takes too much time. Gathering information, watching the weather, talking to locals… It consumes time I can use for other activities.”
“It won't always work. Even with a system, I still have to consider a range of ever-changing variables. It might be raining. It might be cold. We might have other plans. Just because I have a system doesn’t mean I won’t have to think, adapt and adjust.”
“It won't last. My system is temporary. It won't work outside of Zadar. My investment in this system will be wasted when we leave town.”
Instead of building her swimming system, she could have just jumped in. She could have donned her suit, applied her sun block, walked to the beach, and assessed the ocean’s condition each day. She could have used her powers of observation and judgment to make a decision in the moment. Sometimes she'd get to swim, but sometimes she wouldn't. Sometimes it's tough to know whether investing in a system is smart. It's often hard to see the value of systems before they’re created, documented, optimized, and given the chance to drive behavior forward.
The mindset matters
Second-guessing systems is stronger among those who lack a systems mindset. Some just folks don't get it. People who build systems regularly, however, see EVERYTHING as a system--even things that aren't working. A system that leads to failure is still a system.
Once you start to see the world as sets of systems, you don't hesitate to document them, optimize them, and use them for your benefit. You start to see how waking up a few minutes earlier translates into the kids getting to school on time, you getting to work on time, stress dissipating, calmer interactions with your paralegal, the paralegal sticking around for another year, rev…
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18min
September 07, 2017 Podcast: Your Vision is Fragile – How to Keep it Alive
I met with an ambitious lawyer. She was fired up about her firm and radiated enthusiasm.

Nine months ago, she had coordinated a weekend retreat with her team. They brought in a consultant, had fun between serious goal sessions, and headed home a stronger unit. She loved the retreat and described it to me as powerful, positive and team-building.

I think that's great stuff. It's impossible to achieve your vision if there isn't a defined, guided direction for everyone.

But that dynamic weekend was nine months ago. Was it still working? I knew she had done little to reinforce the purpose of the retreat since returning to the office.

As I sat with her at lunch, I imagined her asking her associates about the purpose of their retreat. I pictured blank stares. Undoubtedly, their focus would be on the immediate project with a deadline. Then there's the car trouble, relationship woes, and after-work plans that all take precedence. Maybe a couple of people would regurgitate scripted lines, but the law firm's vision had most likely been lost in the day-to-day shuffle.

Without reinforcement, it's natural that your employees will lose sight of the vision you so clearly picture in your mind. In this episode, learn what it takes to keep your team energized and focused on the finish line.

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19min
September 01, 2017 Why I Love Paying Monthly Subscription Bills
Most law firms pay lots of monthly fees for different services. The lines in our credit card statements flow over to the second page. And those fees add up.
Some lawyers are enraged by those fees, but not me. I love them. I see those fees like I see the cost of groceries used to make dinner. They represent ingredients.
Over the past several years, many of us have shifted from buying technology products to renting them. We pay monthly instead of making a one-time payment to own it.
I pay monthly for our practice management system, document management system, phone system, legal research system, marketing products, and so on. The vendors love this model.
In the old model, a server in our office (or in some data center) ran software we owned.
Today, we "rent" the whole thing - hardware, software, development, and support. The vendor creates the software and runs it on their servers. We pay monthly for the use.
Recurring monthly fees drive some people nuts. They can’t stand all those small bills on their statement.
There are actually services that analyze your credit card statements, identify the billers, and help you cancel the ones you’re not using. Of course, those services bill monthly too.
When a company can sell a monthly service designed to cancel other monthly services, you know people are agitated with recurring fees.
Some lawyers get so upset by monthly subscriptions they find ways to return to buying instead of renting.
Some go to extremes…
I know a lawyer who bought and installed an internet server in his office to host his website because he was angry about paying his web host each month.
Another lawyer has a hosted wiki for his office procedures because he doesn’t want to pay a service specializing in checklists and systems documentation.
Many lawyers still own practice management software running on their own server in an office.
These lawyers can’t stand paying monthly bills so they’ve found a way to get things done without paying a vendor on a monthly basis. They're buying software, building software, and hosting it themselves in an effort to cut some of those monthly recurring expenses from their budget.
Unfortunately, they're being penny wise and pound foolish. They're sliding backward instead of plunging forward.
I love the monthly bills
I adore the recurring business model. I’ll happily pay my monthly bills, month after month, forever.
Those monthly bills are a big part of what has freed up my time, given me the opportunity to focus, and facilitated my full-time travel. These services let me work on the business instead of in the business.
I can use my limited brain capacity where it has the biggest impact. These services are key to why I'm writing this article as I watch boats sailing by on the Adriatic (where the water, by the way, is incredibly clear.)
I’m not bothered by the recurring billing model. I was annoyed at first. But over time, I adapted. Now I’m a fan.
I love seeing these on our credit card bill…
Salesforce - Our practice management system
G Suite - Our email, calendar, contacts system
Sharefile - Our document management system
Vonage - Our voice system provider
Zoom - Video conferencing and webinar provider
Expensify - Expense reimbursement provider
Front - Group email and customer support provider
XpressDox - Document assembly provider
SweetProcess - Systems document provider
ManageWp - Web host
CoSchedule - Marketing calendar
Google Adwords, Facebook - Advertising
And so much more
Why do I love a monthly fee?
It's variable, so it's affordable
I like the variable expense aspect of it. I'm all about variable expenses.
In fact, it's one of the key elements of the Rosen's Rules free course. Whether it's payroll, rent, or a software service, I always want my expens…
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24min

FAQs about Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute:

How many episodes does Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute have?

The podcast currently has 687 episodes available.

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