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Choosing a new practice area: Consider family law

Carolyn Elefant — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:45:38 +0000

The following is a guest post by Roy S. Ginsburg.

As an attorney coach, I often counsel lawyers who are considering a move to a new practice area – helping them balance the pros and cons of such career choices. One overlooked area I often recommend is family law.

Lawyers often object to the idea of family law. Most of you didn’t go to law school to be divorce lawyers. Most of you believe that the clients can be difficult. After all, divorce is an emotional business. Most of you believe that your skills as an attorney can be put to better use than deciding who gets the fine china.

As an experienced lawyer coach, let me ask you to challenge these beliefs and think again. Most people go to law school because they want to help people, get into court and work on sophisticated issues. All of these needs can be satisfied by a career in family law.

Make a difference

Many lawyers went to law school to help people and “make a difference.” No matter what the Supreme Court says, corporations are not the same as individuals. Helping corporations make more money will never be as personally fulfilling as helping individuals resolve problems in their daily lives. When a soon-to-be-ex wants to restrict visitation with the children, a lawyer’s work to ensure more frequent visits surely makes a real and significant difference to the party you represent.

Go to court

Family law is a litigation-based practice. Any family law practitioner will tell you that he or she spends far more time in court than any commercial litigator. Family law is replete with motions to draft and argue, and cases that do not settle require full-blown trials.

Work on sophisticated issues

Family law disputes are not limited to who gets the fine china. Successful family law attorneys with wealthy clients deal with complicated business as well as family law issues. The recent McCourt divorce case, for example, contained many fascinating legal issues. Was the post-nuptial agreement valid? How do you value the Los Angeles Dodgers? Who gets control of the team going forward? Issues like these are sophisticated enough to whet the appetite of any talented attorney.

Consider the prospects

When coaching attorneys in the selection of a new practice area, I ask them to carefully consider two things: short- and long-term prospects and competition.

Forty to 50 percent of marriages in theUnited Statesend in divorce – and I doubt that these numbers will change much in the foreseeable future. The long-term prospects in family law are excellent. Other factors leading to growth in this segment are the issues raised by the rapidly growing areas of assisted reproduction and same-sex marriage.

Assess the competition

If you take a cursory look, there certainly appear to be a lot of family law attorneys in virtually all markets – small, medium or large. But if you dig deeper and take a more careful look, the picture soon changes.

Many lawyers who say they are divorce attorneys are not specialists; many actually dislike this work and only accept it when not much else is walking in the door. As a result, they are not very good at this area of law. They are not at the top of their game. You can easily stand out from this crowd by handling divorces on a full-time basis.

Try this exercise. Create a short list of the truly talented family law attorneys who practice in your town or metropolitan area. It will probably be short. Now, create a short list of the talented commercial and business litigators. It will be much, much longer. If you want to rise to the top as “the best and the brightest” on one of these lists, there is much less competition in the area of family law.

Family law is not for everyone, but for some – especially those who want to help people, be in the courtroom and deal with sophisticated issues – it can be the path to a rewarding and lucrative career. Isn’t that why you went to law school in the first place?

Roy Ginsburg is an attorney coach in the areas of business development, practice management and career development/transitions. He helps his nationwide clients achieve individualized practice goals and career satisfaction. He is also a solo practitioner and practices in the area of legal marketing ethics. His clients include FindLaw and Super Lawyers magazine, Thomson Reuters businesses. www.royginsburg.com

Thinking about a new solo practice area?

Carolyn Elefant — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:49:02 +0000

The following is a guest post by Roy S. Ginsburg.

When selecting the practice area that will determine how you spend the rest of your career, you can “go deep” or “go shallow.” It is almost always better to “go deep.”

“Going deep” means that you select a practice focus that you enjoy, in a healthy market for legal services, and in which you can reasonably obtain the needed skills and experience. How do you proceed?

When it comes to selecting your work focus, Steven Jobs said: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

As a lawyer coach, two kinds of solo practitioners come to me for help in choosing a practice area. The first group consists of younger solos trying to decide where to start. The other group includes more experienced solo attorneys who are looking for a new practice area – either because they are bored with their current practice area or because of changes that have decreased the need for legal services in their current practice area. These chances include new competition, economic trends, or recent legislation (for example, tort reform) or court rulings (for example, limits to certain types of claims).

The first step is to select a practice area you can enjoy. Before jumping into any new practice area, take a “time out” and do a bit of self-reflection. As Confucius once said, “Pursue a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Ask yourself and answer these questions:

Why did you become a lawyer in the first place?
What is your passion in law and in life?
What do you enjoy doing?

Try to find the place where these answers intersect with legal practice areas.

Of course, there is more to goal-setting than lofty aspirations. You must also determine that there is a healthy market for what you would like to do. To assess trends, spend some time online or attending CLE presentations. Get out and talk to people – especially people who already practice in an area in which you are interested. Have coffee or lunch, and ask questions like:

What do you like and dislike about your practice?
How do you market your practice?
How fast were you able to grow your practice?
What are the short- and long-term prospects for a practice in this area?

If you discover that your potential practice area is economically realistic as well as interesting, then you have a third question to ask yourself. Do you possess the skills and abilities to make a name for yourself in this area? If not, what steps do you need to take in order to acquire these skills and abilities?

There is only so much you can learn in a physical or online classroom. You need some actual experience. When coaching attorney clients, I suggest that they find a colleague who practices in the potential practice area and ask to work with them on a case or two (for pay or even for free), just to see what the work entails.

Another way to gain experience is to take a pro bono case in the relevant area. If you want to see what it’s like to practice family law, for example, most counties or cities have organizations that coordinate the placement of pro bono cases with interested and willing attorneys. Many of these organizations provide training and mentoring.

Now may be the perfect time for solo attorneys – new and existing — to consider a new practice area focus. If you don’t explore your options, you might find yourself stuck for many years in a practice area that is neither satisfying nor lucrative.

As Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Lessons from Crowdsourced Advice for a Struggling Solo

Carolyn Elefant — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:02:11 +0000

Ten days ago, in an effort to reply quickly to a struggling solo who’d contacted me for advice, I reached out to readers to crowdsource a response. The post touched off 40 comments, some offering sound advice to a solo in these circumstances, others not so much. The comments also spawned several sub-discussions on what’s ethical in marketing a law practice and the credibility- gap created by anonymous comments. This follow up post addresses all of these points.

First and most importantly, as you consider any of the crowdsourced advice, bear in mind that it is not well suited for an attorney looking for long-term sustainability. In the long run, stable law practices are grounded on exceptional work, an established reputation and high ethical standards – which is why most experienced solos don’t have a need to advertise at all, but instead generate their business largely from referrals, word of mouth and strength of reputation. However, in this case, the solo who contacted me hadn’t reached this point. Instead, the solo was struggling (and many are, despite the happy talk you see on all the blogs) and desperate for ways to jump-start a practice; to bring money in the door as quickly as possible to survive in the short-term. Though lawyers should consider the big picture as they build a practice, short-term concerns are important as well. In situations where cash-flow is tight, solos are most vulnerable to “borrowing” (well, stealing) money from client trust accounts, accepting cases from unsavory clients at low rates or pressure to sign up for exorbitantly-priced coaching, SEO or online-marketing services that will drive a solo further into debt.

For the short-term, nothing is better or faster than simply getting out to meet people as several commenters recommended. Though facetime with others is difficult when you feel desperate, you get the benefit of immediate gratification (the person will tell you whether there’s work or not). Plus, in some cases, you may be lucky enough to connect with someone who has a matter sitting on their desk.

In the short term, I personally like the wacky or stand out suggestions. OK, maybe not a National Punch Day if you think that’s cheesy (I’m not a fan of the “free divorces” that some family law attorneys offer on Valentine’s Day) – but you could sponsor a charitable or educational event like a free business seminar on incorporating a business for senior citizens or veterans or some other specific unique demographic. Or you could ask your local coffee shop if you could host an “ask the lawyer” hour where you buy coffee and entertain questions.

Given that this struggling solo had trouble closing the deal, she might take up one of the suggestions about learning how to talk about money so as to be able to quote a firm fee without waivering. Likewise, because this solo wanted to step up referrals, she might take the advice of another commenter and read up on how to improve networking skills, and also follow up rigorously with thank you. Identifying sources of steady revenue like court appointed or collections works fine provided that you can have the proper training and can handle the number of cases that come your way (and if you can’t, you decline them). Also, low-paying, steady revenue, while acceptable for starting out and making it through a lean period, is not appropriate for the long term.

Of course, even in the short term, it’s impossible to implement these suggestions across the board to all four areas in which the struggling solo practices: real estate, divorce, litigation and bankruptcy. Here, I’d suggest focusing on the two strongest practice areas at least for the short term, and putting lower-performers on the back burner. The struggling solo could also refer out those cases where she’s not generating a lot of work, because she’s likely to find that those to whom she refers cases will return the favor. Focusing on a more limited number of practice areas allows a solo to really master those skills and be regarded as more of an expert – which will increase referrals as well.

As for the other advice that caused controversy – such as a suggestion of adding on a popular practice area (like foreclosure) by copying from forms, or accepting unfavorable plea offers in criminal matters or hiring coaches or professional SEO services – I don’t like these ideas. At all. Taking cases that you’re not competent to handle isn’t ethical, and hurts clients. Accepting those cases in high volumes will simply compound the problems even further.

As for paid-SEO, it’s a much more complex issue because it’s not unethical. However, there are practical considerations. There are lawyers, such Damon Chetson, whom I wrote about here who have built a reasonable practice in part, by leveraging SEO (though Damon’s was mostly DIY). I feel that the SEO option deserves mention because it has helped some solos, however, I hesitate to mention it because SEO IS NOT a panacea for lack of skills, a poor, content-less website or a volume-based business model mentality.

What’s the problem with SEO? First, if you outsource SEO, it will come back to bite you. Outsourcing marketing = outsourcing ethics, to quote Eric Turkewitz. Repeat this mantra to yourself each day. SEO “professionals” will comment on your behalf at other blogs or pay for links and potentially penalize you in Google’s site. Second, you may also spend thousands of dollars on SEO without any results. First, if you practice in a saturated market, you’re still competing with dozens of other sites. Second, even if you bring traffic to your site, you may not convert any of the visitors into clients if you don’t have any content to offer. Third, many prospective clients who turn to the Internet to look for clients have been turned down by other lawyers because they couldn’t pay or had unreasonable expectations. SEO may attract more clients to your site, but it may also attract clients you don’t want – so you’ll spend additional resources screening out the duds or dispensing free advice. Fourth, SEO, like online directories or advertising is passive. You sit back and wait for the phone to ring and take whatever comes your way. A successful law practice, however, requires that a lawyer be proactive.

Still, there are prospective clients with legitimate claims who search the internet for helpful information. If you provide good substance through blogs or other online publications, that can help attract a more educated breed of clients. But you need to provide this substance yourself, in your voice free of ghostwriters and copy editors. Plus, if you post about topics like what makes a strong case, you may weed out those clients who don’t match the criteria.

Finally, regarding the anonymous comments, frankly, it’s an issue that I’ve never confronted because I don’t receive all that many comments, least of all anonymous ones. So while I agree that it’s cowardly to post anonymously (I’d never do it myself) I’ve never thought to ban anonymous comments from my site since I’ve always assumed that like me, readers will generally give less credence to anonymous posters. (See Mark Bennett‘s analysis of why anonymous comments carry less weight under Aristotle’s conception of persuasion). That the most controversial commenter failed to attach a name to his/her comments suggests that s/he was ashamed to admit using the techniques espoused — and to me, that alone is reason enough to reject them.

Crowdsourcing Advice for a Struggling Solo

Carolyn Elefant — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:19:38 +0000

[Update 9/23--Readers - thank you for your response. We've collected an enormous amount of information, some very helpful, some of it obvious and some of it (diving in full force to cases by copying pleadings stood out to me as inadvisable and potential career killer but there are others). I've got to read through everything myself and post my thoughts sometime next week]

To read the blogs on solo practice or to see the joyful utterances emanating on Twitter (just signed up five clients!!! Best. day. ever!) you’d think that every solo in the world was running a bustling and lucrative practice. But as we all know, that’s not the case — it’s just that no one ever wants to admit that keeping a law firm operational, after the heady excitement of the early days is really hard. So even though there are more resources than ever for solos seeking help — listservs, blogs and educational communities, at the same time, it’s also harder to ask for help because the constant stream of online success stories can make even the hardiest among us — myself included — feel like an utter failure.

Thus, I was gratified when one MyShingle reader reached out to me seeking advice. But this time, instead of just offering my own response, I’d like to give my reader the benefit of your advice. So take a look at the letter below, and share your thoughts in the comments section, or write your own blog post and I’ll link to that as well.

Here’s the email which has been sanitized to remove identifying details:

I am a solo with a practice in a large East Coast city. I handle real estate transactions, bankruptcy, divorce and general litigation. I started my solo practice three years ago, following several years of employment at a smaller firm. Initially, I was able to sustain a practice through referrals – although even then it was a struggle. But lately, I find that people don’t want to pay for legal services. I do an initial consult, but then the potential client will haggle over the price. In addition, the referrals come in spurts and I would like to find a way to produce a steady revenue stream.

I am updating the firm resume, adding a Facebook page, joining Linked In and I have started sending email updates to colleagues. But I would like ideas to jump start my practice – to start bringing in work right away while developing a reliable stream of revenue for the future.

So readers, the floor is yours. What’s your advice for jump starting a solo practice? I know that there’s not a lot of detail here, but work with what you have. What should – and shouldn’t this struggling solo do to succeed in both the short and long term.

Update 9/23] Readers – thank you for your response. We’ve collected an enormous amount of information, some very helpful, some of it obvious and some of it (diving in full force to cases by copying pleadings stood out to me as inadvisable and potential career killer but there are others). I’ve got to read through everything myself and post my thoughts sometime next week]

Go Rural, Young – and Old – Solos

Carolyn Elefant — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:13:07 +0000

Last week, the WSJ Law Blog highlighted this story reporting on South Dakota’s push to bring more lawyers to rural parts of the state. As you’d expect, the shortage arises as a result of the older lawyers in rural communities nearing retirement in combination with the departure of younger lawyers for opportunities in larger towns and cities. Interestingly, it’s not just consumers in demand of legal services in rural communities either. Many municipalities have difficulty finding town counsel – often forced to pay hefty travel expenses just to bring lawyers to monthly meetings.

But is it worth it for today’s lawyers to leave the big cities for small towns. A number of cynical commenters on the WSJ Law Blog said no way. Some commenters argued that it’s simply not viable for new grads, $150,000 in debt to subsist on a small town solo’s income. Another contended that the South Dakota Bar wanted to lure newbies to the wilds of the state to avoid additional competition.

Yet, those who are practicing in rural areas dispute these preconceived notions. Back in July – before this piece ever appeared – Rural Lawyer Bruce Cameron busted the myths of rural practice. On the financial side of the equation, Cameron points out rural lawyers are diminishing in number – and further, that locals prefer to spend money locally. Moreover, while small town lawyers charge lower rates, a dollar goes much farther in a state like Montana than in California.

More recently, one of Cameron’s readers bolstered this argument with demographic statistics from Texas. These numbers corroborate the trends in South Dakota in that they too show that many rural areas have an older population close to retirement.

However, though rural practice offers opportunities for lawyers starting out, the benefits aren’t limited only to young lawyers. Here’s an article about an experienced law firm partner, Dan LaPlaca whose mid-sized, suburban Maryland firm decided to shut its doors after a half century of practice. So LaPlaca took his practice to Owings in Calvert County, a smaller community with more of a small town feel. Best of all, LaPlaca can once again practice with his dad. In short, even for big town lawyers can go home again.

Where do you practice – and does a rural law lifestyle tempt you?

Solos Take on the World!

Carolyn Elefant — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:47:48 +0000

If you think that global practice is the exclusive domain of behemoth law firms, think again. These days, there’s more opportunities for solos to go global than ever before, as I write in my piece, at The Xemplar, entitledA Whole New World for Solos that begins like this:

While many large, national U.S. firms are struggling in the international arena – due to competition with global firms with substantial overseas presence or loss of once-lucrative document review projects to off-shoring, nimble solos – like this month’s Xemplar, Susan Burke – are well positioned to capitalize on the wide array of option’s that today’s brave new world has to offer. In this piece, I’ll identify some of the global opportunities on the horizon for solo and small firm lawyers, and more importantly, what you need to do to take advantage of them.
I. International Trends

Several reasons explain why the iron is hot for solos to crack international markets. First, as a result of international crises and a downward economy, more United States citizens are spending time out of the country than ever before. Peacetime military deployment overseas is at one of its all time highs, while the idea of retiring outside of the country, to stretch retirement savings farther is gaining popularity. Likewise, in the face of rising healthcare costs, many U.S. residents are traveling overseas for affordable procedures ranging from cancer treatment to IVF. Cultural attitudes are changing as well. No longer aspiring to a 30 year career in a corporation, today’s younger generations are far more transient and more likely to sample working abroad…. read more

Of course, if my piece isn’t enough to convince you of global opportunities, then check out my colleague, Niki Black’s profile of the inspirational Susan Burke, a small firm lawyer who’s representing Iraqi victims in the Abu Ghraib torture cases among other major matters.

Do you have a global practice – either representing foreign nationals here in the US, or representing clients overseas? Share your story in the comments below.

No Need to Niche Alone: Collaborative Niche, the Firm of the Future

Carolyn Elefant — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:58:07 +0000

Regular readers know that I’m a big fan niche practice. Indeed, niche practice is fast becoming a niche of its own on other solo blogs, particularly Chuck Newton’s Third Wave.

But niche practices aren’t just for solos and small firms. Today, I came across this Press Release for the Redgrave LLP, a law firm serving clients in the areas collectively known as “information law” which encompasses matters like electronic discovery, privacy and data protection. Hailing from various biglaw firms and in-house, Redgrave LLP’s seven attorneys are located in Minnesota, California and Washington D.C. thus enabling them to leverage their contacts and serve clients nationally.

Some niches, for example, representing Vietnamese businesses in Houston, Texas or home based business owners in Boulder, Colorado, are naturally limiting and adapt well to true solo practices. But others – like social media and employment law, information law or outsourcing – potentially offer access to enormous national markets where a collaborative model that allows for sharing of resources may be the better approach, and indeed, will be one that we’ll see more frequently in the future.

More on Niche Practices

Carolyn Elefant — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:39:54 +0000

I’ve written extensively on niche practices all over this blog – but I’d never presented on the topic until a few weeks ago, at the Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference. It’s a popular topic these days- as I noted in this post – and I also see that Peter Olson at Solo in Chicago is discussing niches as well. Anyway, here’s my slide deck from the presentation – let me know if this explains the niche concept for you – or if you’d handle this topic another way. And do you have a niche? If so, how’s it working for you?

Be That Lawyer: Niche Practice for Lawyers

View more presentations from carolynelefant.

What a Niche Law Practice Is (Pot Law)…And What It Is Not

Carolyn Elefant — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:43:59 +0000

One of my solo-centric colleagues, Susan Cartier-Liebel of Solo Practice University is running a two-part series on niche practice over at her Build a Solo Practice blog, so I didn’t want to send you into niche-overload. But I after seeing this article from the National Law Journal on “pot law practices,” I couldn’t resist. Though folks charged with dealing or using marijuana have always needed a good criminal defense lawyer to represent them, what makes pot law such an addictive practice area now is the thicket of conflicting federal and state law policies on medical usage (yes, both puns intended!). State law changes on medical usage are also opening the doors for marijuana dispensaries, which have recently been subject to crackdowns (or potdowns?) The article also mentions Allison Margolin, LA’s Dopest attorney, who was the subject of a post here four years ago on effective use of video.

Pot law makes a great niche for a variety of reasons. First, the laws applicable to regulation of pot are in flux, and questions involving preemption are highly specialized and extremely complex. These aren’t the kinds of cases where you would necessarily want a run-of-the-mill criminal defense lawyer to take a fee, extract a plea and go home. Instead, seems that you’d need someone who follows the changes in these laws to raise ex post facto types of defenses and further, has the intellectual ability to press the preemption issue. Because the field of pot law is specialized, a lawyer can command higher rates, which is another benefit of a niche.

Second, pot law is a conversation starter – a practice area capable of making you that [pot] lawyer. The whole point of a niche practice is to make you memorable, and representing defendants charged with violations of marijuana laws will do just that.

For those who’ve never understood the concept of a “niche” practice area is, pot law practice is a great illustration. But if you’re still confused, take a look at this screen shot from one of my recent presentations which highlights what a niche is not:

Interested in Foreclosure Law? The Bar Is Interested in You!

Carolyn Elefant — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:15:22 +0000

With the economy still floundering, foreclosure lawyers remain in demand. In fact, according to Time Magazine, eighty six percent of foreclosure defendants go unrepresented. Yet as far as I can tell, few solo and small firm lawyers are fully exploring this promising practice area.

Below the jump, I discuss some of the barriers to entry in a foreclosure practice. But more importantly, I’ll highlight some of the neat programs that bar associations and legal aid groups are offering – from paid fellowships to training on how to start a for-fee foreclosure practice – that can help new solo and small firm lawyers gain entree into this important practice area.

So why aren’t more solo and small firms doing foreclosure work? My colleague Susan Cartier Liebel offers part of the answer at Build a Solo Practice. She argues that many prospective solo and small firm lawyers aren’t staying abreast of economic trends that will impact their practices and thus, don’t fully consider practice areas like bankruptcy or foreclosures which thrive during hard times.

At the same time, many solo and small firm lawyers are deterred from foreclosure work for several additional reasons. For starters, many believe, somewhat accurately, that foreclosure law is a complex area that requires extensive training. In addition, many solos fear that they’ll be forced to compete with lawyers willing to handle a foreclosure matter for $125 a case or that they won’t be able to collect money up front for foreclosure related work. (That’s potentially the case in California, though the bar is still due to rule on whether lawyers can accept payments up front and hold the money in their trust accounts).

The good news is that pro bono organizations, law schools and bar associations are taking steps to recruit private lawyers to represent foreclosure clients by providing training and grants. This week’s issue of Time Magazine discusses a program by the University of Miami School of Law, which offers several $10,000 "foreclosure defense fellowships" to recent grads to enable them to help local residents obtain foreclosure relief.

Time also notes that many bar associations are holding foreclosure defense clinics for local lawyers. In my home state of Maryland, Pro Bono Maryland has been offering these clinics for a year, but now, they’re actually gearing those clinics towards helping new lawyers develop a foreclosure based law practice with paying clients. The next training session includes this segment:

“Finding Clients in a Tough Economy – Doing Well While Doing Good”

Instructor – Phillip Robinson

Attorneys participating on the “Of Counsel” panels will have access to a pipeline of hundreds of real estate transactions involving potential fee-generating cases (i.e. Maryland Finder’s Fee, Consumer Protection and Mortgage Fraud statutes, RESPA, etc.) as you review counselor’s client files as part of your limited “Of Counsel” advice to the counselor trying to find sustainable solutions for their clients. If your practice includes work on behalf of homeowners with predatory mortgages and abusive loan servicing practices, or you are interested in expanding your practice to these consumer areas, this training will help you issue spot and litigate these cases from the loan documents themselves…in other words, know in five minutes if the client looks like a good Finder’s Fee case, Consumer Protection Act, Maryland Mortgage Fraud Act, or other claim worth investigating into a damage award to your client and fee paying case for you.

The next training is FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 – Prince George’s County, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the office of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A, 6404 Ivy Lane, Suite 400
Greenbelt, MD 20770. Email ahagepanos@probonomd.org for additional information.

I’ve handled two cases on a pro bono basis through Maryland’s foreclosure prevention programs and I can’t say enough about the support that the program provides to volunteers. And besides, what better way to get your law firm off the ground than by doing well by doing good?