Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

Stop Saying Lawyers Need To Become Entrepreneurs

No matter what anyone tells you, lawyers have always been entrepreneurs.

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Over at the Legal Skills Prof Blog a couple of days ago, I saw a link to a new law review article entitled, Entrepreneurial Esquires in the New Economy: Why All Attorneys Should Learn about Entrepreneurship in Law School (PDF). From the abstract:

As the legal industry continues to recover from the shock of the recent recession, it finds itself in a fundamentally different place than it was ten years ago, with even more tumultuous change on the horizon. Economic pressure coupled with continued technological innovation has increased attorney unemployment levels, shifted law firm business models, and changed the expectations of legal clientele. Yet, despite this radically shifting market place, legal education has remained fundamentally unchanged. This article examines the current state of the legal industry through an entrepreneurial lens and juxtaposes it with the current state of legal education. In doing so, this article sets forth three key claims:

  1. the legal industry is not only ripe for entrepreneurial attorneys but will actually depend upon them for survival;
  2. as a whole, law schools are currently ill-suited to provide entrepreneurship training; and
  3. all attorneys, regardless of their chosen career path, would benefit from exposure to entrepreneurship education in law school.

I tend to agree with all of the above.

Most lawyers are going to be entrepreneurs whether they realize it or not. Take a look at the most recent demographic survey from the ABA:

75% of lawyers are in private practice. And of that 75%, 69% are in practices of 10 lawyers or less. If you’re going to be in a law firm of that size, entrepreneurial spirit and skills are a must have. You will be expected to learn in trial by fire, take charge of your own career, and find your own work and clients. You’ll need to help in business development, promotion of the firm, and be aware of the firm’s finances.

What Phillips’s article fails to take into account, and many law schools are acting as though is a startling new discovery, is that most lawyers have always been entrepreneurs. Look at the survey data for 1980 and compare it to 2005.

1980

2005

Solo

49%

49%

2-5 lawyers

22%

14%

6-10 lawyers

9%

6%

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That isn’t some radical difference. Lawyers have been going out and hanging their shingles for decades. In the past, the academy could ignore it and focus on their ivory tower accolades and placing a select few students into Big (and medium) Law.

But those going into larger firms have never been the majority of lawyers. Lawyers have been graduating from law schools for decades and going right out into the world to hang their shingle or join a small firm. Or they go to work for a large firm for a few years and then walk away to start their own practice.

The differences now are:

  • the overall legal industry is in a tumultuous period and even lawyers at larger firms are realizing that they do not have permanent positions;
  • legal technology companies are competing to offer a variety of legal services to consumers and companies;
  • hints of deregulation abound (see Washington’s Limited License Legal Technicians); and
  • the internet has leveled the playing field for news and coverage of the legal industry so now more people are aware of trends in the industry (ATL exists).

Given the above, combined with the lack of incoming applicants to law schools, it’s no wonder that there is a reactionary focus towards entrepreneurial skills in law schools. But of course, generally speaking, law schools are also probably the last place to look for entrepreneurial skill development.

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Where To Go Instead?

If you’re a lawyer or law student who wants to learn about entrepreneurial skills, you’d be far better off sticking your head into a few MBA classes. Or better yet, go out into your local community and find some successful solos. Ask if you can buy them lunch. Find out what they did to get started. Reach out to solos online who have successful practices. See if they’ll take a few minutes out of their day to talk to you on the phone. Build real relationships with people.

Listen to some podcasts:

Just go spend some time at SBA.gov! It’s a pretty good free resource if you don’t know of anywhere else to go. Your tax dollars paid for it, you might as well get some use out of it. And of course, you should look at fellow ATL columnist Carolyn Elefant’s long running solo site MyShingle.

So to the chorus of people saying that lawyers suddenly need to become entrepreneurs – stop it. Most lawyers have always been entrepreneurs. The fact that you’re just now noticing means you’ve been willfully ignorant for the past couple of decades.

Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at keith.lee@hamerlawgroup.com or on Twitter at @associatesmind.

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