Trial Magazine

Starting your own practice is a risky proposition, but the rewards and thrill of building a firm on your own can make taking the risk well worth it. Plan ahead, keep overhead low, and network as much as possible. These tips will help get your firm off the ground.

1   Get a Domain Name and Create an Online Presence

Studies say that 96% of people seeking legal advice turn to the internet.¹ A potential client’s first “look” at your firm is likely via a Google search that leads straight to your website. According to a 2023 U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey, 78% of consumers visit two to five different websites before contacting an attorney, which shows just how important a robust web presence is.² Needless to say, in today’s environment, your firm’s internet presence is extremely important.

Years before I started my own practice, I visited godaddy.com and purchased the domain name for what I would one day call my practice. I then built my own website and later enlisted a web design firm to improve the site as my practice grew.

Building your website is probably your most important marketing step, so create an attractive, easily navigable site, and keep the content up to date. Prospective clients will not be impressed to see that the site was last updated in 2015. Use separate pages to describe the practice areas you focus on and include detailed information on the cases you handle (and want to handle more). I wrote all the initial content for my website and eventually outsourced some content, although I still blog and publish the blogs to my website and various social media platforms.

Position a “Contact Us” link on your homepage in a place that is simple for your visitors to find and use. Include your photo and CV under a “Bio” tab and, as you grow, for each attorney who joins your firm. List their areas of specialty clearly with separate tabs that take visitors to a page on your website where you describe the practice area in more detail.

2   Branding

From day one, you want to promote your firm’s brand through a good firm logo that you can use everywhere: on your website, letterhead, envelopes, business cards, PowerPoint presentations, social media accounts, pens, and other swag that you use to promote your firm. Use easy-to-read font, a clear layout, and strong, visible colors.

Once you’ve chosen your logo and color patterns, stick with them and use them wherever and whenever you can. I use a watermarked version of my firm logo on my letterhead. I also incorporate my logo in PowerPoint presentations I give to community groups, law schools, bar and industry associations, advocacy groups, and nonprofits. My email signature includes my logo and color scheme, as do those of my staff, including paralegals, law clerks, and attorneys.

3   Social Media Presence

Social media is where the world communicates in the 21st century. I use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and X (formerly Twitter), and post frequently on each platform. I also post on YouTube videos of speeches, interviews, and talks I have given over the years, including television interviews here in the United States and in Europe. Grow your followers on YouTube and each social media platform that you maintain as quickly as you can. They are essentially free advertising, so be creative in what you post, and post as often as you can.

Create and curate content that speaks to your practice areas, and keep it clear, short, and impactful. Monitor your social media platforms and respond promptly to comments. Be on the lookout for trolls or any negativity. You may want to reach out to anyone posting a negative comment to address their concerns and persuade them to delete their disparaging comments. The platform itself may also provide a way to remove undesirable comments that violate its policies.

Include a link to bring viewers to your firm’s website. Reposting links to other sites isn’t likely to do you any good. Also include a tab on your website where you post links to your speeches, awards, newspaper and magazine articles, and television interviews.

4   Malpractice Insurance and Other Coverage

Obtain malpractice insurance before you do any legal work on your own. Select a good carrier and sufficiently high coverage amounts to be sure you are protected.

Failing to carry malpractice insurance has consequences beyond subjecting you to personal financial loss. In California, for example, attorneys must have malpractice coverage in order to participate in a state bar-certified lawyer referral service.³ In addition, California Rule 1.4.2 requires attorneys to inform clients if they do not have professional liability insurance, with some limited exceptions.⁴

Professional insurance is sold on a claims-made basis, meaning coverage kicks in only when you file a claim during the policy period, so annual renewal is essential. Be aware of what the coverage excludes, such as securities work.

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Purchase cyber-liability coverage for lost, stolen, or damaged data and loss of income, as well as for security or privacy breaches for which you may be liable.

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I also purchased cybersecurity insurance for less than $2,000 a year. Cyber-liability policies typically include first-party coverage for lost, stolen, or damaged data and loss of income, as well as third-party coverage for security or privacy breaches for which you may be liable. Virtually all cybersecurity policies are written on a claims-made basis.

5   Office Space

Fortunately, the days of needing expensive office space for small firms seem to be over, at least in large metropolitan areas. Post-COVID, you can work remotely from pretty much anywhere. You can work from home and use shared office spaces or public venues for meetings—or meet with clients in their homes. If you need space for meeting with prospective and active clients, explore shared spaces that give you the conference rooms and other amenities you need at a fraction of the cost of your own office space.

Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other remote platforms function very well for remote video conferences and depositions. Courts may offer remote appearances, as well, through their own system (as Los Angeles does) or through CourtCall, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Zoom, or other third-party services.

Be cost-conscious when it comes to remote work. For example, I created my own Zoom account and use my own platform for depositions rather than pay any surcharge that court reporting services typically charge for use of their Zoom platforms. When I do in-person depositions, I use my own video camera to record the sessions rather than pay for the video services court reporters offer at an additional (and hefty) cost.

6   Office Equipment

Servers. Picking dependable office equipment is a must, but be sure your choices are cost-effective to keep overhead down. When I started my firm, I purchased an HP server (1 TB) for $2,000. After a few years, I upgraded to a larger HP server for $5,000. Nowadays, you may elect a cloud service through Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, or Microsoft Azure, among others, rather than a physical server.

Printer and scanners. When I first started my practice, I used a small inkjet printer and an inexpensive, but dependable, desktop scanner. Within the first year, I realized I would need bigger and better equipment, so I bought a used commercial-grade all-in-one copier, printer, and scanner for $800 that lasted seven years and was one of the best investments I’ve ever made. Over the years, I have upgraded to a fast, industrial-size all-in-one, but I keep the old working equipment in our office copy room as a backup.

I have found that purchasing office equipment like scanners and copiers outright rather than leasing them is a good investment. In the long run, doing so typically will save you money—especially when leasing involves additional charges for the number of copies or scans you make and charges for toner use per page. Be sure to get equipment that allows you to key in client codes so you can keep track of scanning, copying, and printing by client. You’ll use an office or “general” code for nonbillable copy and print jobs.

7   Technology

I use Microsoft Office 365 Suite for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word. I purchased it upfront rather than paying for a monthly subscription. I also have the Adobe Pro application for all PDF functionalities and, again, I purchase that annually rather than paying monthly.

Timekeeping and billing. I use ebillity.com, from which my firm’s book-keeper—a good one is a must—prepares monthly invoices for work I do on an hourly basis (as opposed to the firm’s contingency work). Software providers offer other timekeeper programs, including Clio, CosmoLex, MyCase, and Smokeball.

Calendaring. This is perhaps the most critical function for good law firm management. I use Outlook for all calendaring, but Clio, CARET Legal, LawVu, MyCase, PracticePanther, and Smokeball all offer calendaring.

Whatever program you select, the most important thing is to use it for everything. There is no quicker path to a malpractice suit than to miss a deadline.

I created a calendaring memo for all my staff with strict rules about calendaring discovery deadlines, motion deadlines, answering deadlines, and so on in detail (with citations to the law) for all areas of my practice. I calendar deadlines a few days before the actual date to avoid any problems or delays in electronic filing systems and the like.

Artificial intelligence (AI). I am currently exploring the benefits of using ChatGPT in my practice. I use the software application Buffer to manage my social network accounts and posts. Buffer has an AI feature that I’ve found helpful for editing social media posts to ensure I communicate effectively.

Some other software marketing applications similar to Buffer include ClickUp, Hootsuite, Later, Loomly, Planable, and Sprout Social. They may also offer AI capability to help refine your social media posts to communicate most effectively with your targeted markets.

8   Intakes

Intakes are the pipeline for your firm’s business. Develop templates for whomever handles the intakes (that might be you, at first) to ensure you get the information you need to decide whether you want to handle a case. My firm derives intakes from calls to the firm, online inquiries through our website, and outsourced “chats” through a chat link on the website.

However they come in, the most important thing about intakes is to respond promptly. You don’t want negative reviews for failing to respond to potential clients. And, even more important, you don’t want to step into a statute-of-limitations problem because you were slow to respond.

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Resolve each day’s intakes one way or another by the end of the day they were received.

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Once you decide to decline a potential case, inform the would-be client in writing, and do it right away. I have a rule to resolve each day’s intakes one way or another by the end of the day they were received. I send either a declination letter, or I contact the potential client by phone and email and request more information or documents before I decide whether to take the case. Even when you ask for more information or documents, do not let the matter stay open for more than a day or two before you make a yes or no decision on taking the case. Letting matters remain open is just an invitation to a statute-of-limitations problem and a possible malpractice case.

9   Retainers

From the start of my practice, I created a set of retainer agreement templates for the various arrangements I anticipated I would need: contingency retainer agreements, retainer agreements for hourly work, litigation and pre-litigation retainer agreements, retainer agreements for qui tam cases, and hybrid agreements that were a blend of hourly and contingent payment arrangements.

The breakdown ran roughly like this:

Contingency. Spell out percentages payable at the various stages of the litigation. Make sure to cover liability for expenses such as filing fees, deposition and court reporter charges, process server fees, deposition officer/subpoena production charges, photocopy and scanner charges, postage/courier service charges, and the like.

Hourly. Reserve this for discreet projects or cases where the amount in dispute does not make a contingent arrangement feasible.

Litigation. Limit the scope of your services to pre-trial and trial work and exclude any appeals work.

Pre-litigation. A client may hire you to draft documents such as a demand letter, a cease-and-desist letter, or some other specific, pre-litigation task. Limit the scope of services to what you’re hired to do.

Hybrid retainers. Use this for tasks that require hourly billing and others that work best with a contingency plan. It may be best to execute separate agreements for each.

When preparing your retainer agreement templates, be sure to consult any exemplars from your state bar. The California State Bar, for example, offers sample hourly, contingent, and hybrid retainer agreements.

10   Legal Work

Start building a set of templates for the most frequent documents you will draft in your practice. I created, and still use, templates for all forms of discovery; various subpoena records requests (banks, credit card issuers, hospitals, insurance companies); notices to depose; tolling agreements; and legal instruments, such as litigation powers of attorney, financial powers of attorney, deeds, advanced health care directives, and the like.

I also create Word templates for recurring documents required for each client’s work. For example, I create a template for the caption of each new case and a template for proof of service that I edit as parties or counsel are added or changed. I am looking into how I might use AI to generate the documents my practice uses, keeping in mind that there is no shortcut for cite checking anything AI-generated.

For legal research, I currently use Westlaw but have used Casetext and LexisNexis over the years. With these services, like everything else, I avoid monthly subscription prices, which are too expensive.

11   Networking

We know that legal work is demanding, and running your own legal practice—on top of doing the substantive work—is even more so. You cannot do it alone. Networking has been one of the most helpful and personally rewarding aspects of my legal career.

I go to other lawyers and legal groups for guidance, help, and ideas all the time. The flow is reciprocal: I make it a point to answer other lawyers’ pleas for help whenever I can. Very often, this involves sharing templates for motions or briefing with other counsel (with safeguarding of the attorney-client privilege each time).

Become active in whatever legal groups fit your practice. Most valuable for me have been my memberships in local lawyer associations and AAJ, especially for building relationships in national cases. Local groups most likely offer server platforms for member postings about courtroom experiences before particular judges, discovery pointers, experts, sample motions, and briefings on subjects you encounter in your practice.

I might post a request for a sample of a particular kind of motion I have never filed before. Members respond quickly, and their samples allow me to work more efficiently than I would if I were to create something out of whole cloth that I had never encountered before. The same is true for AAJ and its Sections and Litigation Groups, list servers, and secure document libraries. It’s a valuable resource.⁵

12   Referrals

Networking is also invaluable for client referrals. Although a lot of business comes through online searches, a lot still comes through the more old-fashioned channel of referrals. Over the years, I have built relationships with lawyers across the country to whom I refer potential clients and from whom I get referrals. A good referral network is so important for a small firm.

I keep close track of potential clients I refer out on a spreadsheet and have separate electronic subfolders in a “Referrals” folder on the firm’s drive for the firms and lawyers that I send and receive referrals from.

I follow up with each referral I make. Growing and maintaining strong referral relationships is one of the bedrocks of the success of my firm, and I truly believe it is essential to the success of any small firm.

Building my own firm has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my life. The key to getting your firm (and dream) off the ground is to keep expenses low, build gradually, and rely on networking for advice, guidance, and referrals. The ideas I’ve shared above grew out of my own ups and downs, and I hope they provide some useful road signs for anyone looking to start their own practice.

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Ingrid M. Evans is the founder of Evans Law Firm in San Francisco and can be reached at ingrid@evanslaw.com. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by Trial^® or AAJ^®.

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Notes

1. See Stephen Fairley, Legal Marketing Stats Lawyers Need to Know, Nat’l L. Rev., Oct. 1, 2015, www.natlawreview.com/article/legal-marketing-stats-lawyers-need-to-know.
2. Key Takeaways From the 2023 US Consumer Legal Needs Survey, FindLaw, Apr. 26, 2023, www.findlaw.com/lawyer-marketing/blog/key-takeaways-from-the-2023-us-consumer-legal-needs-survey/.
3. See Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §6155(f)(6).
4. “A lawyer who knows or reasonably should know that the lawyer does not have professional liability insurance shall inform a client in writing, at the time of the client’s engagement of the lawyer, that the lawyer does not have professional liability insurance.” Cal. R. of Prof’l Conduct 1.4.2(a). Similarly, the American Bar Association and other state jurisdictions have rules regarding insurance disclosure. See, e.g., Standing Comm. on Client Prot., Model Court Rule on Insurance Disclosure, Am. Bar Ass’n (2004), www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/clientpro_migrated/Model_Rule_Insurance Disclosure.pdf; Ohio R. Prof’l Conduct R. 1.4; S.D. Codified Laws §16-18-A, R. 1.4(c).
5. AAJ’s Litigation Groups are an excellent resource for seeking and sharing information with and learning from other plaintiff attorneys in a secure environment via list servers, business meetings, and CLE programs. Go to www.justice.org/sections and www.justice.org/litigationgroups.