Practicing law is not a skill that you just learn. It is not a trade you can just apprentice in or learn from your co-workers or something you just read about in a couple of books. It is not even something you can achieve just because you made a life decision to attend law school.
No.
To practice law, you need to have done all that, and more. And you need to do it being certain that the journey that you started is a journey you will stay on, to build something, to create something. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains that to be an expert in your field, you need to have dedicated 10,000 hours to it. That’s a lot-- roughly, ten years of your life intensively practicing at a very specific discipline to master it.
And here you are. You made a life choice, you went through the grind at law school, paid your dues as a clerk, then junior attorney, and jumped through the hoops to partner. That is what you have done, and all to become an expert in your field and now manage your law firm.
But managing a law firm is not the practice of law. It is management, business management. And being good at it is not a reflection of you as a lawyer. It is a completely different skill and experience-based role that you have to perform in order to grow. It is a distraction from law, one that as a business owner you have to deal with. And it should not be on you to be a management expert from the start. That’s where business management consultants come in.
For the past 20 years, we have been helping law firms find their flow. And the emphasis goes into helping because the end goal is not to sacrifice your legal expertise in order to develop management expertise. Rather, the goal is to identify the aspects of running a law firm that brings you the greatest personal and professional rewards. We work with our clients to identify these activities and then strategically implement systems to ensure that business owners are able to devote their energy to rewarding tasks, while effectively delegating other demands. The peace of mind that comes from knowing that your law firm has sound systems in place to efficiently onboard new clients and attorneys, accurately forecast future revenue and expenses, and scale at the right time, allows managing attorneys to focus on client service.
So don’t fret over what you don’t know how to do, or what you haven’t done so far and now seems daunting. There are professionals who have done it before and know the road. Take the first step into your growth process by consulting with those who want to see your business grow and succeed, because helping you do it is what we do best.
Learn more about Francisco.
Comments