The secret to the successful practice of law is no secret at all. It is elusive, however. Sometimes it is hard to see the forest for all of the trees, or it is difficult to see the solution for all of the duties of a law practice. But, do not get blindsided. The first thing you must be good at is rainmaking.
I was once in the middle of an argument between established lawyers as to who makes the most money -- transactional attorneys or litigation attorneys. The named partner in a Big Law firm piped up and said everybody was wrong. The attorney who makes the most money is the attorney that can bring profitable business through the front door.
And, this is true. It matters little if it is transactional work or litigation work. It matters little if it is a Big Law firm or a work at home firm. (Although Big Law seems to work harder at growing rainmakers). You will live or die based upon the amount of quality cases you can bring into the fold.
The real secret is that if you are good at rainmaking, then you can write your own ticket. You can work for yourself, you can work for a loose association of lawyers. You can work for Big Law. You can also work from home. There are always exceptional attorneys that will work with you on cases with good pathology and which pay well.
The other real secret is that most attorneys (the overwhelming number of even talented attorneys) are very, very bad at rainmaking. The reasons are numerous and various. They are not good people persons. They cannot make themselves ask for business. They do not recognize good cases. They get too caught up in the pathology of a case. Mainly, they just do not focus on it. The one I like and hear often is that "I am an attorney and counselor at law. I am not a salesman." Righty-o bucko! You keep on believing. As I have said time and time again, you can build a better mouse trap and I can guarantee you that nobody will beat a path to your door because nobody will know about.
I think what the latter fail to see is that you can be an exceptional attorney and counselor at law, but who are you going to counsel and represent if you cannot inspire others to send you business?
A niche practice helps because you cannot be everywhere and build relationships with everyone. A niche practice helps you narrow your focus to those who are important to find the cases you wish.
So, keep it a secret and whatever you do think of ways to build relationships with those who can refer you the cases that you want -- the cases that will make you money. If you do this, you will make it look easy.
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