Starting Your Own Law Firm in 2024

Watch the YouTube version of this episode HERE

Are you a new lawyer who is in the early stages of starting their own law firm? In this episode of the Maximum Lawyer Podcast, Tyson provides advice for those considering starting their own law firm in 2024. 

Owning a law firm means that a lawyer becomes more than just a legal expert, but becomes a business owner and entrepreneur who is responsible for more than just arguing cases. A new firm owner becomes a leader and employer who will be wearing many hats. Tyson emphasizes the need to niche down when opening a firm. It is important to specialize in one form of law. Is it personal injury, tax, entertainment or criminal? It is key to know what kind of law you will practice that way clients looking for that one thing will come to you.

Tyson delves into the topic of having an online presence as a lawyer and firm owner. These days, people are going straight to Google to find the closest lawyer to them that specializes in what they need. If you do not have an online presence, you will not make money. Start with a website and add all the important information there. Then create an Instagram or Facebook page to get your name out there to those that use the platform. It is all about having the most reach so multiple people (and potential clients) will be able to find you. 

Starting a new law firm means you need to make connections so other lawyers get to know you and will refer clients to you. It is important to reach out to those in your space and schedule weekly or monthly chats with them so you don't lose that connection and you are always top of mind. It can pay off in the end and guarantee you more money if other lawyers know your name and the work you do.

Listen in to learn more!

Episode Highlights:

• 1:08 Start a unique routine before the new year
• 2:05 Pick up something completely unrelated to your law practice
• 3:51 Dedicate a day to performing random acts of kindness

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer YouTube Channel
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join the Facebook Group
• Follow the Facebook Page
• Follow us on LinkedIn

Transcripts: Starting Your Own Law Firm in 2024

Tyson (00:04.606)
Hey, it's Tyson and welcome back to another Saturday episode. And today we're going to talk about as we end the near of 20… Jeez, sorry. I got off my script and then I screwed up. Hey, it's Tyson and we're back with another Bite Size Saturday episode aimed at elevating your law practice. As we near the end of 2023, I have a message.

this week for any of you thinking about starting your own firm in 2024. Before I get to that though, this is a really good time if you're just starting out your practice to get stage one of maximum lawyer and minimum time absolutely free. This is something we give to guild members, the whole, all of maximum lawyer and minimum time, but we'll give you stage one absolutely free. Just text stage one to 314-501-9260. That's 314-501.

9-2-6-0, and we will send that to you for free. But let's get into it. If you're thinking about starting your own law firm in 2024, let me start off by saying congratulations and welcome to a very pivotal moment in your legal career. Taking this step, it means you're going to need to become more than just a legal expert. You're going to need to become an entrepreneur. You need to be a leader.

You're going to be an employer, obviously, but you need to learn to lead people. You need to learn to manage. There is a lot that comes in under the umbrella of the title entrepreneur.

So oops, sorry I lost my spot.

Tyson (01:48.354)
So taking on these roles, they are as challenging as they are rewarding. Just trust me on that. There's a lot of rewards, but it's also really challenging. This is not going to be easy. Don't think this is going to be easy. Don't watch people on Instagram, on YouTube and think, oh, this is going to be so, so easy. This is not easy. This is tough. And it gets more challenging as you go. But as the challenges increase, the rewards increase. So keep that in mind.

There's a lot of opportunities for you ahead, but I do want to give you some of my advice for anyone that is thinking about starting their practice in 2024. So let's jump into it. The first is, this is going to seem very simple to many of you, but not for everyone. Because many of you are thinking, I'll just open my shingle and I'll kind of take on whatever's coming through the door. I think that is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. And you think, oh, I just need to get money through the door.

And what happens is that no one knows how to refer cases to you. You're just known as an attorney. Okay. They don't know if you're a personal injury attorney, a criminal defense attorney, a trademark attorney. They don't know. But if you, for example, Joey Vitali, when I think of trademarks, I think of Joey Vitali, okay, Joey Vitali has done max law as trademarks. I think of a specific person, right? Whenever people hear personal injury attorney, hopefully people think of me. I want them to think about me.

So if I hear attorney, it could be a bunch of different people, but niche down. You might be thinking, oh my gosh, well, I'm going to miss out on all this other money. Now, the reality is, is you're going to make a lot more money if you focus on niching down and becoming as specific as possible. Now, don't create a niche that is not profitable. You're going to want to pick a niche that is actually going to make you money, but pick a niche. Really, really…

Pick a niche. All right, the next one is that you're going to, you're going to want to make sure you're thinking about not just your reputation when it comes to dealing with other attorneys, other people in your community, but really having that online reputation. That's a really big part of it because like it or not, everyone is a content creator now. As we're sort of in this new world where you're a content creator.

Tyson (04:13.738)
You can, you can sure you can do things sort of the old way and network and get business and all that. But the most effective way is being a leading the way when it comes to being a content creator. So build that strong online presence. Focus on preferably one social channel to start with and then expand from there. But focus on where your people are online. So where are your people online?

build your reputation in that area. So if the majority of your people are on Facebook, let's say that you're focusing on a target group. Let's say you wanna do nursing home negligence. If I did nursing home negligence, like my buddy David Terry, I would probably focus primarily on Facebook because many of the people that are on Facebook have parents that are in nursing homes. And so you're gonna be in that area. You're not gonna see a lot of…

people that have parents that are in nursing homes, you're not gonna really see them on Twitter as much. You're not gonna see them on Snapchat. You're gonna see them primarily on Facebook. So you're gonna be thinking about where your potential clients are. I also wanna say, don't skip out. So the next part of this I want you to think about is, don't skip out, however, even though I am emphasizing that building that strong online presence.

I'm not saying skip on the other part, because the other part of this too is make sure that you are, you're doing a lot of networking you build into, especially early on. Build into your strategy networking and community involvement. You need to get out there, let people know what you're doing in your community. Do schedule in regular lunches with people, schedule in regular coffees with people.

Schedule in text messages, even if it's as simple as texting your top 10 people that you want to get referrals from, so that you have your referral list. So create like a top 10 referral list, stay in touch with that top 10 referral list, have coffees with them, send text messages to them, have phone calls with them, but focus on that networking and that community involvement as well. It's a really easy way of jumpstarting. And I talk about this all the time where like…

Tyson (06:36.338)
If I wanted to get into a new network, what I would do is I would go and I'd spend a week there and I would just have as many coffees and lunches and drinks as possible in that area, in that city with as many potential referral partners as possible. That's a really easy way of jumpstarting your firm and you should be doing the exact same thing. All right. And then the last thing I really want to talk about is build your firm around your clients. I think something that we do and I don't think we mean to.

But I think something we do as law firm owners is we don't remember that the client's number one, that we should be creating systems and processes and whether it's phone scripts or how we handle the case around our client and what our client needs. And something I learned whenever I was in undergrad, because I've got a marketing degree, is the customer, like everything should be designed around the customer. And we forget that, I think, a little bit. So when you're designing things, how would…

think about it from the client's perspective. So think about if you were the client, how would you want this to function? How would you want the law firm to function if you got into a car crash and you needed a personal injury attorney? How would you want it to work? So think about it from their perspective. And I think just starting with that in mind, it's gonna allow you to maintain that high quality client service and that communication that you'd really want.

And those clients, when you treat them really, really well early on, guess what they do? They talk about you and they give you a review. So your online reputation has increased. They refer cases to you. They talk about you to family members. That is, there's a lot of power in taking care of those, especially those early clients, but make sure you take care of them and you make them the focus and it will pay massive dividends later on. All right. I'm going to wrap things up.

As a reminder, if you have something you want me to cover on the Saturday show, shoot me a text, just let me know what you want me to cover, and I'll try to get to it. 314-501-9262, and I'll do what I can to get that topic on the show. We've had a lot of great episodes or a lot of great suggestions, and I'm trying to get to all of them as quickly as possible, but I can only do one a week, but I will get to all of them as quickly as I can. Until next week, I want you to remember that consistent action is the blueprint that turns your goals.

Tyson (09:00.934)
into reality. So if you're just starting your firm, take action, get it done, knock it out of the park. You're going to do great. Good luck. Take care.