Starting A Solo Practice In New York 2021 Part 1: Business, Marketing, Personal And Ethical Considerations

Are you considering opening your own firm? Are you a recent law school graduate just starting out? Are you considering leaving your place of employment and starting your own practice?  Starting up a solo or small firm has its own unique financial, technical and practical concerns, but beginning a practice also has its own set of rewards, fulfillment, and accomplishments. To maximize your chances of success, you must have a plan. 

Part one of this two part series is an overview of business, marketing, personal and ethical considerations when starting your solo practice, including: 

Creating Your “Launch Plan” 

• Your Business Plan (Yes, You Need One) 

• What Type of Law Will You Practice?

• Home Office or Rented Space?

• Should You Form a Professional Corporation or LLC?

• What Equipment and Technology Do You Need?

• What are the Five Things Every Solo Law Practice Must Have to Be Successful?

Ethical Client Generation:  The Do’s and (Especially) Don’ts of  Marketing Your Solo Practice

• The five pillars of a solo practice marketing plan

• Identifying the “right” clients for your practice

• Your firm name, business cards and marketing materials

• Networking, (virtual) public speaking and social media (esp. YouTube®)

•  Participating in online legal referral networks

Maintaining Your Professional Image When Working from a Home Office

• Can you really work in your bathrobe?

• What kind of networking works best for a home lawyer?

• Should you say you work from home on your social media profiles?

• Should you use Facetime or one of the other face-to-face apps for client

  or prospect meetings?

• Your “duty of competence” when working from home

• Maintaining your clients’ privacy

•  Keeping your clients’ information confidential

Ethical Challenges of Solo Practice Business Models  

• Generating new clients – key ethics considerations for advertising and referrals 

• Get the help you need – Review key ethics rules when outsourcing and building a “virtual” law firm

• Smart strategies to grow and scale your firm 

• Modern law firm business models that make sense as well as cents

• Stay compliant with duty of technology competence via top tech tools for solos

Time Management for the Solo Lawyer Who Has No Time to Manage His/Her Time

• How to prioritize your daily workload

• How to separate the “urgent” from the “important”

• How to manage client expectations without losing business

• How to tame your e-mail Inbox and cellphone

• How to develop and use “interruption protocols”

• How most common “time vampires,” and how to deal with them

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