The Dreams of a Solo

The Year in Review Before it Happens

The title of this post is an impossibility on its face, but considering the news and events in my little world during the first two months of 2008 I am comfortable characterizing the "new year" before it runs its course.  It also helps explain, at least to some degree, why I have not come close to reaching my posting frequency goals for this year so far.  You see 2008 came as if it were dressed as the month of March for Halloween.  In case that analogy is too cryptic I mean to say that the year came is as a Lion with news of imminent changes from all sides.  The first bit of news is in regards to the addition of my friend and fellow attorney to my firm.  The second bit of news is in regards to my wife's family, who currently live in the same city, Appleton, WI, as we do.  I say currently because the news in early 2008 is that my in-laws will be relocating to North Carolina this summer.  This is certainly not a unique development when viewed in a vacuum, but it is unique to me and my wife.  Especially considering that my wife is one of 11 children.  In fact she is the second oldest and five kids are still in high school or below.  That makes the move much more difficult for my wife and for me, since our decision to relocate to Appleton a couple of years ago was largely based on our desire to be closer and more involved in the younger children's lives. 

Putting all the emotional implications aside that brings me to the physical implications of moving.  The last month or so has seen many changes in preparation for the main task in the relocation process:  selling a house.  I was not blessed with a handyman upbringing and I will be the first to tell you that I am still not the most skilled craftsman around the house.  But, I owned and sold a house in Milwaukee and I currently own a house in Appleton.  I guess the joy of home ownership has allowed me to find time to explore various projects around each house over the last four years.   It also doesn't hurt that I truly enjoyed tinkering and working on these household projects.  So over the last four weeks I have painted three rooms, fixed some cedar siding, and patched a bit of drywall to help get the house in showing condition.  The good news is that the house is ready to show and it is listed for sale by owner as we speak.  I am not mentioning this to vent or to garner sympathy, because I do enjoy helping out, especially when it makes life easier for my family.  It has just been a busy start to 2008.

With all the non-business related developments taking up the lion's share (pun intended - see above) of this post, I would be remiss to not mention the law firm related developments that have also occupied a great deal of my time.  So far 2008 is shaping up to be right in line with if not exceeding expectations.  I had set a client and financial goal at the beginning of the year for the end of February in preparation for the addition of Nick to my firm.  I am happy to say that I have met both of those goals and we have started to transition him into the fold through a couple long-distance projects.  Being a numbers guys it helps me to maintain working budgets and financial models that I can routinely update and review.  That is also why I set goals relative to number and/or types of clients and finances. 

In the end I have no doubt that I will look back on 2008 just as the PGA Tour players look at Saturday during the Master's Tournament at Augusta National.  The players and the commentators call it "Moving Day."  I think it would be appropriate to rephrase it "Moving Year" in our case, but the meaning is still the same.  Life and my law firm have to keep moving forward even if it appears that chaos is everywhere.  I have found that the best compass during times where everything seems to be moving at a million miles and hour in different directions is a well-thought out business plan.  I have relied heavily on mine over the last three months and I anticipate that reliance continuing into the foreseeable future.  If nothing else it takes me back to a time when I could more easily separate the rational from the irrational.  Either way 2008 should be a great year.  And if my analogy is correct that would make next year Sunday at the Master's, which is where championships are ultimately won or lost.  It should be fun.

True Solo No More...Almost Anyway

At the time of this post my firm will be just over two weeks from adding another attorney, which will move me from the true solo category to the small firm category.  While that may be technically true I still find that many of the principles of solo practice are applicable to the two attorney firm.  In the end the business of law does not change all that much except for the additional oversight and things like payroll.  But the structure of my soon-to-be two attorney firm will be more like a combination of two solos than it will be a traditional law firm set-up.  However, we will fall under one firm umbrella and I will initially shoulder much of the responsibility.  I have chosen to do this for a couple of reasons, which I mentioned in a previous post titled Decision 2008:  Add Staff, Associate or Partner.  One reason I did not mention specifically was that I am looking forward to having a good friend and a good lawyer join my firm to provide stability and room for growth to the practice.  By stability I mean the ability to take on additional work and to ensure that someone is able to cover if something should happen to me.  By growth I am referring to the expansion of my firm's practice areas to include intellectual property and more business and commercial law services.  I am a niche practitioner since I really only handle matters related to estate planning, tax, probate, trust administration and elder law.  My colleague allows me to offer additional services without having to be a jack of all trades.

The start date is all but written in stone as I write this post.  Right around the middle of March the quick transition from solo to two attorneys will happen seemingly in the middle of the night.  It is kind of similar to the way Robert Irsay moved the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis between 2:00 AM and 3:00AM in 1984, but without the negative connotation.   Let's hope we don't have to wait  23 years to win our Super Bowl.

Time: Friend or Foe?

Forgive me for waxing philosophic for a minute, but I spend a great deal of... you guessed it.... time contemplating the very issue of time.  Talk about the grandest kind of irony.  Time is one of my favorite things to ponder and I am not really sure why.  On occasion it feels as thought we have all the time in the world.  The next thing we know we don't have enough time in the day to get everything down.  It amazes me that some can be so infinite and yet so finite at the same time.  It reminds me of the drastic weather deviations we would see from time to time while I was growing up in North Dakota.  One day it would be 35 degrees Fahrenheit below zero and two days later it would be 40 degrees above zero.  I understand that isn't the perfect analogy but you really cannot appreciate the weather in "Little Canada" (North Dakota) unless you have experienced it firsthand.  In any event, I best get back to the topic or I run the risk of spiraling out of control.

Time as defined on Dictionary.com. Definition of Time.  As you'll see the definition of time is quite lengthy.  I am not going to dissect or nitpick the definition.  Instead, I am just going to briefly discuss the concept of time as it relates to starting and building a law practice.  One usage of time pops up when we first think about going solo.  We ask ourself if it is the right time to go solo.  If not when will it be the right time?  This is fertile ground for excuses and self-doubt.  Next we get to a point when we make the decision to go solo and then we lay out a business plan.  If we are employed or are a law student we may have time on our side.  If we are unemployed or we are days from graduation or the bar exam, then time is wearing the visiting uniform across the field.  Now our infantile business plan sets a start date six, nine or a twelve months out so we are left with time for planning and implementation.  Six months seems like an eternity when you are excited by the idea and let's be honest, impatient.  So in the first few weeks we spend all of our time drafting, fine-tuning, then re-drafting our business plan.  The energy is flowing freely so it is easy to knock out two or more blog posts a day and to brainstorm numerous ways to "brand" or set your law firm apart.  At some point the energy wains and the time remaining before the launch seems like more of a burden than a benefit.  The truth is the time passes at the same rate regardless of how fast or slow we may think.  The differences lie in how we use the time we have.  If we hit the wall in the first month or two of planning, we are in for a difficult fight.  If we keep plugging ahead, we are better able to manage our time to withstand the long-haul.  After all it is a marathon not a sprint. 

When you decide to start you own law firm you may find, as I have, that time is one of the most interesting things to ponder.  You either have too much time on your hands (i.e. idle hands are the devil's playground) or not enough time in the day.  Either way I would advise you to use your time wisely and by that I mean do not sprint out of the gate and do not become lazy.  Maintain control of not only your sanity but your time and probably most importantly your energy.  If you allow the mania to drive the solo train then you are also likely to let the depression serve as the brakeman.  I know of only one person who can both thrive off of the excitement (fist-pumping) and reign in his emotions (ice in his veins) at the same time and he is the best in the world at his craft because of it.  His name is Eldrick Tiger Woods.  I know enough to know that I am not Tiger's equal in either ability or emotional strength.  Because of that and through my own experience I am convinced that allowing your time and your emotions to flap in the wind is a grave mistake.  Do what you can to make time your friend as opposed to your enemy while you make your solo law firm dream a reality.

Solo Attorney With Benefits

When I say benefits I am not talking about health insurance, paid time off, or the less than family rated version found in the adage "friends with benefits."  Instead I am taking about the benefits that I have received from being my own boss and from building relationships with other solo and small firm attorneys, even those practicing in the same or similar practice area.  There are many things that I have come to discover in the nearly 8 months since I started my own law firm, but one of the most meaningful discoveries was that a good group of fellow attorneys who are willing and able to serve as sounding boards / mentors can provide an invaluable benefit to a solo attorney.  While it is true that these fellow attorneys and I are technically competitors in the marketplace, I can honestly say that this fact hasn't been a barrier or a hindrance up to this point.  I have been contacted on a number of occasions by other estate planning attorneys to problem-solve or brainstorm and I have contacted other attorneys a couple of times to do the same.  This is an important element of any solo practice since, as the name indicates, you are the only attorney in a solo practice and while it would be nice to know the answer every time we all know that this isn't always the cause.  So instead of walking down the hall to a partner or fellow associate we fire off an email or a telephone call to someone in our network of trusted colleagues. 

I don't think that I can stress the importance of building a competent and trustworthy group of attorneys enough for solo or small firm practitioners.  Not only will it provide a forum for the problem-solving and brainstorming that I mentioned above, but it will create a relationship that could produce referrals in situations where the other attorney has a conflict or simply has a need to get another attorney involved such as is the case from time to time in probate, trust administration or guardianship type work. 

I would say though that the best benefit of being a solo attorney is that you have an ownership interest in your time and in your future.  As attorneys we can say that we work for ourselves, but the truth is we work for a number of bosses, they just happen to be called clients.  I understand that this is not the same thing as having to report to the senior partners, but I will assume you get where I am going with that.  As a solo you have the power to concentrate in the areas of law that interest you and you can take on the kinds of matters that you want.  To be quite honest, some of my greatest satisfaction has come from the small and seemingly insignificant parts of running a law firm.  Things like filing methods, document presentation choices, billing approaches, letterhead and business card design, etc.  I guess when you are forced to lock up your creative juices while employed, it is no surprise that it feels so good to let them out when the word associate disappears from the beginning of your job title.  I still cannot wait to have my personalized T-shirts printed bearing the Dosch Law Firm, LLC name and logo.  I may very well wear one every single day.  I'll post a picture when I finally get that project taken off.

The Mind of a Solo Attorney

To be quite honest I wish that I could even partially deliver the pinnacle article in regards to the mind of a solo attorney, but I am no expert on the mind of all solos.  However, I like to think of myself of an expert of sorts in regards to my own mind.  Some may dispute that rather bold statement, but the reality is I have the stage and if you are reading this you have chosen to listen so I feel at liberty to speak my piece.

The most evident characteristic of this solo's mind is the unending desire to be at the helm.  The main reason that I start my own law firm was that I wanted to control my own destiny.  To put it another way I wanted to have the ball in my hands as time ticked off the clock.  Maybe I tolerate risk better than most or maybe I am confident enough to transcend the doubt.  Whatever the reason may be I refuse to accept that anyone must accept employment when they can create their own opportunities.  Let us think about this for a second.  We have to admit that there comes a time when an employer's and an employee's interest somewhat part ways.  Truthfully, that may happen sooner as opposed to later.  If we view the development of the skills necessary to actually build a successful law practice, meaning the acquisition of and delivery of legal services to quality clients, as the promised land for up-and-coming attorneys, then we can more easily see why the employer's and the employee's interest disband.  Once the attorney learns that he or she can find paying clients and deliver results, the attorney no longer needs the "security" of the law firm job.  So why would the law firm properly train the attorney to reach the promised land if it meant that the attorney may wake up one day to realize all of this?  That's easy...they wouldn't.  So I decided to do it myself.

After reading that you may think that I am overconfident, naive, or just a rebellious youth.  Some of that may be true, but I only take offense to the naive characteristic because I do whatever I can to be informed and cognizant of the business of law.  I know enough to know that I don't know much.  That is why I spend as much time as I can improving, researching, and evolving.  Nothing makes me happier than to hear positive feedback from satisfied clients, but a close second would be when a client or a contact tells me that they are my clients because they trust me and because I routinely breakdown the stereotypes associated with attorneys.  I am just a guy that happens to get paid to provide legal services.  I don't refer or introduce myself as Attorney Nathan Dosch and I don't display my degrees and credentials on the wall.  As I've said before, I would put my work-product up against anyone, so this isn't meant to say that I take the provision of legal services lightly.  In fact, I take the legal profession very seriously and it is a privilege to practice every day.  I wish more attorneys looked at it this way.  If that was the case maybe we wouldn't be the butt of so many jokes.

If I could provide a window into my mind I most certainly would.  Better yet if I could boil the mind of a solo down to one post that would be something.  What I will say is that having my own firm is the best way for me to practice law.  I would also say that going solo is not a feasible option for all attorneys.  Some will not be able to stomach the risk.  Others will not be able to self-regulate their time.  Still others do not understand or enjoy building a practice as opposed to just doing the work.  In part it goes back to the idea that practicing law and the business of law are somehow mutually exclusive.  From my perspective, as the owner of a small business that provides legal services, I have a difficult time believing that they are anything but one and the same.

Congress, Roger Clemens and Steroids

I hadn't intended on talking about baseball, steroids or Roger Clemens, but I thought I would mark my reemergence on the blogging scene by linking to some current events.  It is also a good time for a public service announcement so here you go.  Cue the NBC public service intro "The More you Know", "Kids, young and old, steroids are bad.  Not only will they cause you great physical harm in the end (i.e. shortened life expectancy, shrinkage, excess acne, ect.), but they will also apparently greatly reduce your mental capacities.  So much so that you may find yourself in a situation where you think it would be a good idea to "allegedly" lie to a federal grand jury (Baroid Bonds) or "allegedly" lie to Congress (Roidger Clemens).  It is never a good idea to lie, but it is especially not a good idea to lie when that perjury could send you to the Big House.  And no when I say Big House I am not referring to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  Last but not least, steroids are bad because they have removed the cloak of innocence that so many sports fans desperately need to maintain sanity and purpose.  The naivety that we all have shown and the betrayal of trust may leave many of us jaded and scorned for life.  But at least we still have the hope that the "bad" guys will get what's coming and baseball will make it through this Asterisk Era.  In the end we can all agree that steroids and HGH are bad, so don't do it."

In all seriousness folks, I am almost unable to put my reaction to all of this into words.  I am a huge sports fan and all of my life I have been one of those guys that loved the statistics and history of baseball.  I watch anywhere from 10 to 20 live MLB games a year and another 100 or so on TV.  It is just sad really.  All around sad.  Two of this generations best players are set to go down amid this steroid mess.  I find myself disappointed and angry at the players, the union, the owners, and MLB.  On the other side I find myself disappointed and angry that our elected officials are spending time holding hearings on this stuff as if there is nothing more pressing for them to attend to.  Off the top of my head I can think of one thing for them to do that would certainly help my law practice and the peace of mind of a fair number of people.  That would be figuring out what to do with the tax laws that are set to expire at the end of next year.

In any event, this is the world in which we live.  We get information 24/7 for 366 days this year.  The overwhelming majority of that information is a complete waste of time and space in my brain.  I have been interested in the political races this year, but I don't need a constant flow of it to satisfy my appetite.  I don't much care about Heath Ledger, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, or whatever the latest flavor of the day is.  Come to think of it I don't much care about Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens or even the grand deity here in Wisconsin, Brett Favre.  Our society deifies celebrities and athletes and the truth is those men and women do not matter much in the end.  Their celebrity and fame is built upon the fans.  If there are no fans, then there are no superstars.  My point is all Americans should have cared much more about the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist than they do about the death of actors and actresses, but there is no sparkle in that even though a Supreme Court Justice or an elected representative may have a direct impact on all of our lives.

That will do it for my late afternoon rant.  It's good to be back in the blogosphere.  Now I better get back to work.

Needs vs. Wants in a Small Law Firm Setting

During the process of planning for the start of any law practice there will be a time when you are making difficult decisions regarding things like equipment, technology and software, research resources/subscriptions, furniture, marketing material, advertising expenses, office space and staff.  I consider this the Needs vs. Wants dilemma.   It is not unlike what we face in our everyday personal lives when we are deciding between things like the new iPhone or our existing Razr, a new big screen HD television or our existing picture tube style TV, or a new luxury sedan or a Camry.  The same kinds of decisions will befall a soon-to-be solo practitioner.  Do you start your practicing out of a home office or do you sign a lease for your own commercial office space?  Do you use your existing laptop or do you purchase a new MacBook Pro or an iMac?  How about that old desk and chair in your extra room or collecting dust in your basement? 

The decisions your make will go along way towards determining the size of the hole you find yourself standing in when you finally open the doors of your new law practice.  If you can arm yourself with only one attribute when you start your business I suggest that this attribute be savvy financial decision making.  Trust me you will be happy you waited until you could cash flow the upgrade purchases as opposed to strapping yourself in debt.

I hope to construct a more thorough list of the needs versus wants for a solo or small law firm start-up in another post in the near future.  What I can say now is that the needs list is similar to what I have mentioned a number of times before including a law license, a computer, a printer, a desk or work areas, and a clue.  The wants are some combination of everything else that you have seen or heard about in an office setting.  The bottom line is that you will have to pick and choose your spots to spend more and to also spend less.  My opinion is that the technology area is not the place to be cheap, but it also an area that can get away from you quickly if you are not careful.  I also came to find out that a solid, workhorse multifunction machine can be lifesaver.  More importantly an efficient multifunction machine is a cost saver when you calculate ink or toner costs with the initial cost over the long-term.  Office space is a whole other animal and quite frankly there are hundreds of post discussing that decision in much more detail.  All I would add is to once again reinforce the importance of being financially smart and realistic when deciding between a home office, an office share, or your own commercial office space.  I can make arguments for all three approaches.  It really depends on your practice and your target clientele. 

Again this is just a start to the discussion of Needs vs. Wants.  I will make it a point to revisit this topic over the next few months with more attention paid to each particular area.  You never know it might help move you off the fence on a couple of those decisions holding up the completion of your business plan.   

Goals for The Dreams of Solo in 2008

Here it is the ides of January and I am just getting around to posting my goals for the Dreams of a Solo for 2008.  That can't be a good thing to give away 15 days before making strides towards goals for the new year.  Well unless you have a way-back machine or have otherwise mastered the time-space continuum, I guess I am just going to have to start from here.  So without further ado I'm happy to present my 12 goals for 2008.  I picked 12 because my favorite Chicago Cub of all time, Shawon Dunston, once donned the number.

1. Post meaningful content 5 days a week or 5 new posts a week;
2. Retrace my steps from the beginning of 2007 until now to provide a more in-depth observation of my process to solo practice;
3. Research and write two free E-Books outlining the enlightened path to solo practice;
4. Add one additional author to the blog;
5. Have three or four of my fellow solo law bloggers author guest posts;
6. Reach 200 feed subscribers;
7. Be invited to guest post on two other blogs;
8. Get quoted in a print or web-based publication or periodical other than a blog;
9. Figure out how the Dreams of a Solo title can be applied to a practice that may soon be a partnership (I say that in jest and I hope you get that sense);
10. Deserve mention in the same paragraph as Carolyn Elefant's, My Shingle, Susan Cartier Liebel's, Build a Solo Practice, LLC, Grant Griffiths', Home Office Lawyer, Chuck Newton's, Third Wave,  The Greatest American Laywer, and Sheryl Sisk Schelin's, The Inspired Solo.
11. Fend off the blog crash and stay the course;
12. Help one attorney realize that solo practice is not only feasible, but practical once the years of law school and big law programming is rewired.

I chose one attorney for the latter because I need to believe that I can accomplish this goal.  It is one of the main reasons that I have continued this blog after I fulfilled my dream to be a solo practitioner.  If I can reach one solo dreamer than I can reach 10.  If I can reach 10 then I can reach 100.  You get the idea.  I have to start at the base at grow from there.  I hope you join us on the ride.  Your participation and feedback is a valuable part of this process.  As always, thanks for reading.  If you haven't subscribed already please help me accomplish my 6th goal by subscribing to this blog's feed on the upper right hand side of your screen.

Home Office or Office Home

I either have a crazy idea or it is something that just might have some teeth to it.  As I have mentioned in the last couple of days, I have a good friend who will be joining my law practice in the next two months.  That creates a number of new concerns that I need to plan for and address before he makes the move to Appleton.  The foremost concern is ramping up business development even more to provide immediate work for two attorneys.  That will prove to be a decent challenge that I will not take lightly.  The second concern is that I do not have enough space to accommodate another attorney.  Then out of the blue I found a solution that will allow my creative mind to flourish or at least to dwell for the foreseeable future.  I hear and often read about the benefits of the Third Wave of home office approach.  I have been sold for about a year and still I am too timid to take the plunge. 

So what is the solution that I discovered tonight?  It is rather simple actually.  What if you change the home office into the office home?  I'm not saying that I will live in my office, at least not if I seriously want to put an abrupt end to my marriage at the same time.  I'm saying what if I found a great commercial property that had apartments above it?  I'm not a big fan of snow removal, lawn/gardening/landscaping duties, or the need for a yard in general.  We don't have kids right now, although they may be joining our little family in the next couple of years.  Even then people raise children in condos or apartments every day so that isn't a barrier.  I know that people have done this and I have to assume that it is feasible.  I also can identify a few reasons, both tax related and personal, that a person would not want to do this.

It is an infant thought right now, but it is one that I fully intend on developing.  You can be assured that you will be the second to know how the plans are coming.  I only say second because I should probably talk it over with my banker before I do anything.  Wait, I feel like I might be leaving someone out of the loop.  I guess my wife should probably know about it as well.  That is probably not nearly as funny in print as it is in my head, but I'm going with it anyway.  If you know anything about me or if you have read any number of posts on this blog you know that my wife drives the car and I'm sitting in the booster seat in the back just enjoying the ride. 

Link: Blawg Review #142

Link:  Susan Cartier Liebel has posted Blawg Review #142 on her Build a Solo Practice, LLC blog.   Susan has written this installment of the Blawg Review as a letter to a new lawyer.  The text of the letter is insightful and useful, but that is not the thing that impresses me the most.  As you will see, Susan has linked to many popular and some recently discovered blog's by incorporating the titles of the blogs into the text of her post.  For example, Susan linked to The Dreams of a Solo blog in the following manner:

You may have the Dreams of a Solo and hope to one day say to your child, 'that's My Shingle.' You  realize you will need a Startup Toolbox and have learned you will have to be your own Chief Happiness Officer. Quite often that is when you will face the most resistance from others, and the secret envy of many.

That is just masterful.  Readers have to click through to find out what the blog post and blog is about.  If you haven't already done so, please stop by Build a Solo Practice, LLC and take some time to look at the posts that Susan has mentioned.