Chuck Newton

Are You A Nillionaire?

According to the Urban Dictionary, a nillionaire is someone without any money of their own.  His or her bank account is nill and hence the word.  He or she portrays signs of money, but it is just a fiction.

Over the years I have learned that is the problem with judging some Second Wave lawyers.  The image does not meet the reality of the situation.  They have the big office, but it is leased.  They have the Mercedes, but it is all debt.  They bought the Mac mansion, but it was with 100% plus financing.  The wear thousand dollar suits, but they have substantial credit card debt.  The country club membership was financed with their home.  The pool is the result of a home equity line of credit.  These attorneys are not as they appear.  They are nillionaires.

Robert Reich - Is Capitalism Always Good for Democracy?

When you think of it, our legal system is primarily based on capitalism and its ends.  Big Law, too often, represents the arms race between big business in the capitalism wars.  Consumers often get lost in the fight.  So, I got something out of this point by Robert Reich.

William Neukom - What's So Bad About Lawyers?

Time, Toil, and Talent

Here is where the courts have it right, or at least the federal courts.  They must award fees based upon the time, toil and talent an attorney brings to the case.  The first is the time you reasonably put into the case.  The later helps determine your hourly rate by which the court multiples the hours.  The middle, toil, is really the modifier for both on either side of the equation.  The court does so because it is the most fair and equitable means of awarding consistent fees and, at the same time, allow some objectivity.

From your perspective, as the attorney, this is what you want to sell.  You want to sell your time, toil and talent to your potential clients.  You want to do so because this is selling you.  It is also the thing that most separates you and makes you more appealing in comparison to your colleagues.

Do Not Reinvent The Wheel

. . . With the exception that you should take your wheel home and place it on the Web.

Here is the problem for many attorneys and most recent law school graduates.  They see how antiquated most lawyers and law firms are in comparison as to how they were raised.  They want to find a way to reinvent the practice of law.  The problem is that reinventing the wheel is a slow, arduous process.  You do not know where to begin, you do not have the time to waste, and you need to hit the ground running in terms of making a living.  By this standard, reinventing the wheel is a waste of time in starting a new law practice.

So, in the practice area or niche upon which you have decided, you need to find out what has already worked and what is already working and use this as the model of success for your business.  Now is the time to be a poser.  It is alright. 

Then, as time moves on a little, you get the hang of running a law practice based on what other know, and you can start to raise the training wheels a little.  You can slowly start to modify the practice area and procedures to fit your own unique slant or gift.  This allows you to experiment and test incrementally as to what can  improve the process and the practice.

So, what you want to do is find a proven model of success, copy the system as best you can, and then modify it to meet your needs as you move forward.

The exception, in my mind, is that, whatever the system, it can be moved online and home in ways that are efficient and will not cost you a lot in overhead.  This will spur the modifications in the future.

The problem with doing it otherwise is that you typically do not see the big picture or the forest when you are starting out because you are focusing on all of the trees.  Copying a proven system or practice model, with the Internet and work at home exception, allows you to successfully navigate the practice area until you can see and understand the big picture or forest yourself.

Stop Or My Son Will Sue You!!

In the past, my Dad has worn the fact that I am a lawyer, that my wife is a lawyer, and my sister is a lawyer like a sixgun on his hip.  If someone messes with him in a way that he feels is inappropriate he politely tells them this fact and threatens to sue them.  If he is threatened with a lawsuit he also informs them of this fact and almost invites them to take him on.  Oy veh!  It is what we children get for the privilege of him working to put us through law school.  He treats it as, and to a great extent it is, a pre-paid legal care policy.

Confession Is Back In Vogue

Confession Makes A Comeback screams The Wall Street Journal.  As it states, "Sin never goes out of style, but confession is undergoing a revival".

Not only is there a push on by the Catholic Church in this regard, but Protestant churches are following suit. Some Protestant churches are asking believers to at least write their sins down and then shred them, or write them on rocks and cast them into the desert.

Catholic priests are holding confessions in a mall in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  During reconciliation weekend in Orlando 5,000 showed up to confession.  In Chicago 2,500.

Confession seems to be reinventing itself as a form of self-improvement as opposed to a punitive rite.

The point is well taken, I think.  Whether religious or merely moral, it would do us all good to confess our sins, at least to ourselves, so that we can begin to deal with them effectively.  After all, they have an effect on our lives, on our law practices and how we conduct ourselves with others.

Socially Responsible Law

I have been reading a lot of late about M.B.A programs adding courses, programs and clinics on socially responsible business.  For example, The Wall Street Journal reports that the Haas School of Business at the University of California / Berkeley is melding the two trends in what may be the first student-managed investment fund to focus on social and environmental responsibility.  This business school and others want to teach business students to view investing and business transactions through a "social-responsibility screen".  As stated by Dr. Kellie McElhaney, the executive director of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School, "Right now, about 60% of Haas M.B.A. students don't take our elective courses on social responsibility. If we can teach some of them about corporate social responsibility through practical investment experience, that will be great".

Create A Home Law Office In A Closet

Still do not know where you can put a law office in your home?  Try a closet.  I am not suggesting you need to convert a walk-in closet.  It does not have to be a big closet.  It can be a niche of sorts.  Almost all of us have a small closet you cannot fit much in.  Most of what is there can be placed somewhere else.  Just empty the closet out.  Put in some shelving.  Have electrical and broadband run to the closet.  Place your computer, printer, scanner, printer, etc. around and above your work area.  Then when you are ready for work just open the closet door, scoot up a chair, and begin work.  When you are finished for the day, pull your chair back and close the closet doors.

Leave OJ Alone!!!