Starting from Zero: A Journey to Building a Successful Law Practice

The following is a guest post by Christopher Earley

Christopher Earley is the founder and CEO of Earley Law Group Injury Lawyers, a personal injury law firm located in downtown Boston. He is a thought leader in the legal field and writes monthly for the American Bar Association. He also hosts The Earley Show Podcast where he interviews some of the very best attorney-entrepreneurs in the legal industry. His upcoming memoir, Scaling the Wall, details how he overcame childhood adversity and trauma, to find a life of success and purpose. Learn more about Chris at http://www.ChrisEarley.com.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi 

Nearly 20 years ago when I graduated law school I was struggling because I had no money, no connections, no cases, and lots and lots of school debt. I struggled to find a job. I did however have an appetite for risk.

Since I didn’t know any better, I soon decided to start my own law practice from scratch. I did this even though I never in my life planned for this. I never in law school even thought about hanging a shingle. But after law school because I had lots of trouble finding a job, I was effectively forced to start my own practice out of total necessity. Looking back, starting my own practice was definitely one of the craziest and riskiest decisions I ever made. It was also one of the best decisions. And it was a true baptism by fire experience because I was learning both how to practice law, as well as how to run a law business, at the same time. I took a chance on my ability to figure it all out and I am glad I did.

I began to advertise everywhere I could. My first cases came from Craigslist.com, the yellow pages, as well as from other lawyers that gave me their bad cases they turned down. I soon decided to handle only personal injury cases because I did not want to work 70-80 billable hours a week. I wanted my weekends off, and I found that through personal injury law. With time, the business started to grow, and after a few years I felt secure knowing I would likely not go out of business.

A few years before the pandemic I had my first 7-figure year. I was doing good, and I kept my overhead low. I only had one team member so I was able to realize a nice profit margin. But when the pandemic began, I started rethinking my practice more and more. I started reading business and mindset books. My thinking got bigger and I began scaling my practice into an actual business.

I started taking big bets because I saw other firms cutting back their staff and marketing budgets. I saw an opportunity there and decided to leverage that environment of worry and panic by significantly increasing my marketing spend, as well as my payroll by bringing on more team members in anticipation of handling the influx of cases the marketing was likely to bring in. I was learning during that time how to scale the business so that I could be the CEO, instead of the one handling all the cases. It was the biggest bet of my career.

I am blessed to say those moves I made during the pandemic paid off and allowed me to reach levels of growth I never would have reached had I decided to play safe and keep the status quo. Now we have nearly 20 team members, and the business is growing rapidly.

If you have an itch to start a practice or expand an existing one, what are you waiting for? It’s ok and normal to be scared. But it’s also ok to be a little crazy too, so take that bet on you.