Lawyers are people. Law firms are things. Lawyers own or are part of law firms. I own my law firm and, in all functional respects, am my law firm.
These elements, while superficially simplistic, are critical to the people I want to work with. I want people who to retain me because they want to work with me. Some people hire law firms, but they are unsure who they are actually working with. Law firms do not do work, the lawyers at the firm do the work. You, as the client, ought to be less concerned with the law firm you retain compared to the lawyer you retain.
I have a couple baseline concepts that guide my practice;
- I want to be a reason why businesses succeed, not a bill at the end of the month that keeps a business from succeeding.
- My litigation approach is commensurate with the value of the case. I don't put $25,000 worth of work into a $20,000 case.
- I need to like who hires me. Part of this is for own sanity and I have been able to be selective due to the good fortune of being quite busy already. (not just luck, I believe I earned that business!). The other part is that if you don't like who you're working with, it will not likely be a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
If you read this blog and think we may be a good fit, I am happy to meet and see how we might work together. Perhaps you will end up thinking I'm not a good fit; in that case, I would applaud you for not just hiring me because I was willing to talk with you or have coffee. Perhaps you will end up wanting to retain me even though I am in Hugo Minnesota and not St. Paul, Edina, or Roseville. If that is the case, I praise you for having an open mind that good lawyers are who you should seek out, not what you hear are good law firms.
