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Apparently not.
It was Rodney King who said this after LA broke out in riots after the police officers that beat him, as seen on video, were acquitted in 1991.
Now, however, CNN is reporting that King was shot and slightly wounded while riding his bike. He was grazed on his face, arms, back and torso from what appeared to be a shotgun blast.
I have often thought King's advice in 1991 was a good question that all of us should be asking.
I have been meaning to mention Larry Bodine's post on this subject for a while because I think it is frightfully obvious that many lawyers, especially those with solo and home office practices, blame the practice or the concept for their poor performance. The truth is that they are generally engaging in the six mistakes that Larry speaks about that turns them into the invisible lawyer. These are:
As has been reported on CNNMoney as well as other places, housing prices are still in a free fall. On top of that foreclosures are at an all time high. But, what is one person's trash can be another person's treasure. Is not the time right for you to consider moving your practice home? And, to a new home at that? If you work at home, maybe it is time for you to improve your surroundings because deals abound. I recently did. I sold my big house and bought a much smaller house. I got a wonderful deal on the smaller house and I put most of the profit I made from the sale of my other house into upgrading my new house to a level that my wife and I wanted. At the same time I substantially lowered my overhead. It is not often that mortgage rates are still relatively low and the market is a buyer's market. I am not sure this would have been possible even 6 months ago when real estate prices, even in our area of Texas, were gaining so quick. Nobody wanted to negotiate before the fall. I would have paid more for the new house than what I could sell my old house then. Forget having a wad of money to fix the place up. If you are not already at home, then maybe it is time to consider cutting your expenses and at the same time upgrading to a place you can enjoy.
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.
CNNMoney reports that Verison Wireless will break with the rest of the U.S. cell phone industry and become the
first mobile operator to let customers use any phone on its network. By the end of 2008, Verizon's customers could use phones and other devices
that they've purchased anywhere, as long as they meet certain standards. Verizon previously only sold phones and service together as a package. U.S.
cell phone carriers dictate the type of phones customers
may use. Now if Verizon will just join with Motorola, Qualcomm, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile in the Open Handset Alliance promoting the use of Android, the open source software from Google all will be right in the World.
Work at home? Do not get out much? Need a great Christmas gift? Then you need to add a rock climbing wall to your home office, just like Bob Augustine designed for one of his clients.
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