going small or solo now what bc
DESCRIPTION
Presentation made at Boston Collage Law SchoolTRANSCRIPT
Rodney S. Dowell, Esq.Director, Law Office Management Assistance Program31 Milk Street, Suite 810Boston, MA [email protected]
Blog : www.masslomap.blogspot.com
Toll Free 888-545-6627Telephone 857-383-3250Facsimile 617-482-9909
Going Small or Solo − Now What?
JOINING A FIRM V. HANGING A SHINGLE
Know thyselfSelf-starterWilling to Market YourselfSales personSecretaryMail clerkTechnologyAccountant/bookkeeper
Reconcile personal accounts? Practice of Law:
Book learning v. practice (is an art not a science) market reality – what happens if no jobs
Find a mentor and learn to do it all
A founder (i.e. entrepreneur) Passion and Reality (51,000 active
lawyers) An Entrepreneur – accepts risk of start up
anyone can start a business – Success requires more
MUST DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF NO EASY ANSWER HAVE TO CHOOSE, FOCUS, MARKET,
EVALUATE, REINVENT, BEGIN AGAIN
STEP 1: How to start.
Passion and Reality (51,000 active lawyers) Business Plan and budget (cash flow is king)
How long till you earn money (i.e. can you put food on the table now)
Marketing Plan Technology Plan Management of the solo and small firm practice
Ultimate Question - Return on investment – Part of on-going evaluation
Referral Based Marketing (50% - 100% cases)
Fee sharing w/attorneys (not non-attorneys) If share fees – put it writing and pay fee
Client sign-off Keys to getting more referrals
Respond to client Keep referring attorney informed Thank you note, gifts, and personal delivery of
fee Referrals beget referrals Specialty/expertise
Office space and space sharing; Home office – Not for every practice or
every individual Pros:
Low cost Short commute
Cons: Clients are at house Not networking Hard to separate personal and business
Office space and space sharing; Office sharing – benefits and ethics concerns:
Pros: Lowers cost
On rent Shared cost of equipment Shared cost of internet access and research
Built in referral sources and mentors Cons:
Usually have little control of space Personality conflicts CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY IS ALWAYS AT RISK
MUST USE CAUTION Partnership by estoppel/malpractice claims due to
other attorneys errors – it happens
Your Computer: What do you want? PC v. Mac Desktop, laptop, tablet? Ad from Dell -
Intel® Core™2 Duo E7200 Processor (2.53ghz) Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic 19" Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor 2GB Memory* 250GB* Hard Drive DVD Burner 1-Year Next Business Day On-Site Service
Priced at $449.00
What is it missing?• no productivity software•2 screens (minimum of 20% productivity increase)•Extended service package – next day on site•No speakersKey Decisions•XP v. Vista•Home v. Business•Minimum 3GB memory•DVD and CD or just one•PCI Network card – get it – add wireless?•Security software•Adobe Standard for $35
What hardware do you need?
Home office: MFM laser– fax, scan, copy, print
Shared office: own fax, or efax, be careful at copier, desktop scanner
hard-drive back up /encrypted Flash drive with encryption
What software do you need? SOFTWARE
Windows/Linux/Mac OS INTEGRATED CLIENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE: Can I
say “JUST DO IT” – T&B, docket/calendar Office Suites:
Windows Office WordPerfect X4 OpenOffice(free)
PDF – Adobe/Nuance, or free and low cost alternatives (CutePDF, PDFforge)
Accounting software: TABS111, PCLaw, Quicken, QuickBooks, Microsoft Accounting Express
Time and Billing: Excel?, QB, Accounting Express, RTGBills, Billing Software for Attorneys (BSA), Tussman, Chaos Legal Billing, TurboLaw
Data Security Requirements
Federal 2003 Fair and Accurate Credit
Transaction Act Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial
Modernization Act of 1999 State
MGL 93H, Security Breaches (May 1, 2009)
Keys Hardware and software encryption
What can you use to encrypt? PGP Corp (Pretty Good Privacy):
www.pgp.com McAfee Data Protection:
http://dataprotection.mcfee.com TrueCrypt, Free Open-Source Disk
Encryption Software: www.truecrypt.org – no formal support (are you a tech geek?)
Windows OS – Built in – kind of Encrypted hard-drive or USB thumb drive
Backups and disaster planning NO EXCUSES
DAILY – tapes, flash drive, cd/dvd (something) Weekly – rotate 2/3 hard-drives – take off-site Weekly – on-line backup (Carbonite, Mozy,
Connected Backup for PC) Encrypted on your computer, you retain
encryption key Keep files off the floor – water
damage/fire/smoke List of critical contacts of site Insurance
.Most Useful Mass. Web-Sites
Massachusetts Court Rules and Dockets Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court Dock
et
Massachusetts Court Rules Massachusetts Trial Court dockets Massachusetts District Court Forms
Massachusetts Agencies Department of Industrial Accidents
(Workers Compensation) Secretary of State
Corporate Division Registry of Deeds
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Your law practice advisor.
CONTACT INFORMATIONRodney S. Dowell, Director31 Milk Street, Suite 810Boston, MA 02109857-383-3250 (local line)888-545-6627 (toll free)[email protected]
www.masslomap.org
http://masslomap.blogspot.com/
Follow me on twitter.com/rodneydowell
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