Growing and scaling a law practice requires learning new skillsets. It requires owners to build a service business and move away from a solo practice. The problem is the only skillsets lawyers are taught in law school or by their firms and
mentors in practice relate to the file work they are focused on.
How to scale my law practice
When moving from “Owner Operator” to “Owner Manager” most law firm owners will face new challenges in seven distinct areas. Each area requires new learning and new growth to scale and grow revenue.
It’s important to see growth from a business perspective. Each scaling lawpractice will have to grow these seven parts effectively:
- Marketing — which generates leads
- Sales — which converts leads
- Assets — which are used to support production of services
- Production — which is the effective delivery of services
- People — who are the team, the culture, the heart of the firm
- Financial controls — your accounting, administration and truth centre
- Owner — the leadership
The vast majority of lawyers struggle the most with marketing and sales, and then later with hiring, managing and mentoring people. The skills are simply not taught in law school.
When should a law firm scale?
Ultimately the decision is the owner’s, but if a decision to scale has been made it seems to make most sense to do it once the firm has reached $250,000 in revenue — total billings. At that point the solo lawyer is usually tapped out from a time and energy perspective, can use some help, and has an
inflow of clients that could help sustain a scale-up.
The first $250,000 requires an “all-in” approach to hustle, market and sell your services to friends, family, your community and others generally.
What’s the best strategy to scale a law firm?
Assess your skillsets. Create a business skillset assessment tool (BSAT)™ using the seven parts above and give yourself a score between one and 10 (10 being excellent). Compare yourself to the ideal you have in your head or perhaps to a firm you are competing with that is just a bit better than you or represents who you want to be when you grow up.
Once you have scored all seven parts, the lowest numbers will tell you where to start. If it’s marketing, go get some help with marketing, find a continuing professional development course or
buy a book and start reading (or use Audible and start listening).
Take some action in that area first, and stay disciplined, and trust it will work out. Give yourself a four-month window and remember nothing will change if you change nothing. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results, so make it a priority to change and push through the uncomfortable for that four-month period.
Take some action, focus on the learning and have some fun with the challenge.
Joseph Chiummiento is a securities lawyer, coach and mentor to solo and small law firm owners, and a former bencher of the Law Society of Ontario. He can be reached by email at
joseph@chiummiento.com.
This article was first published on
Law360.ca
