Small Law Firms

SmallLaw New Year’s Resolutions

Don’t be so excited about getting drunk and disappointed tonight that you forget to make your New Year’s resolutions. If you don’t have any yet and you’re in SmallLaw, columnist Gary J. Ross is here to help.

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Don’t be so excited about getting drunk and disappointed tonight that you forget to make your New Year’s resolutions. If you don’t have any yet and you’re in SmallLaw like me, I’m here to help. And with that brief intro, in the tradition of columnists worldwide at this time of year, I’m going to rattle off a few New Year’s resolutions and pretend I’ve written a column.

  1. Get your own house in order. In SmallLaw, we have to do everything ourselves, and it can be easy to devote our time and energy to our clients and their situations, and forget to take care of our own business. I mean making sure our LLC or PLLC is properly organized, that we have the various insurances and paperwork in place for our employees (including any posters, which seems ridiculous in a tiny business, but it’s the law nevertheless), we’re up-to-date on all our bills, etc. It’s going to look bad if your PLLC winds up getting dissolved because you didn’t comply with the publication requirement, especially if you routinely counsel others as to it. Or maybe you never bothered drafting an operating agreement, even though you’re always telling startups they should pay you to draft one. As they say on the airplanes, secure your own mask before helping others.
  2. See Star Wars ASAP. How much time do you seriously think you have before you’re going to inadvertently come across a devastating spoiler? I was doing research for work the other day and thought I’d read the comments to a piece that was kinda relevant, and some nitwit had posted a Star Wars spoiler that had absolutely nothing to do with series LLCs in Nevada (yes, I read exciting stuff). I decided then and there to never again depart from my usual practice of not reading comments.
  3. Make hard decisions on clients. Your slow payers. Your time-sucks. The disrespectful clients (who nine times out of ten are not your most lucrative clients). The ones that make your face fall when you see their name in your inbox. The easiest time to let these people go is at the start of the year. Maybe you could send them a message like, “I’ve never liked you,” or perhaps something a bit more tactful, such as, “I’ve decided to increase the size of my retainer, so please send me $5000 in the next 24 hours, or I’m going to have to drop you,” knowing they won’t do it. (Be forewarned that if you use the latter, some clients may surprise you and actually do it.)
  4. Pick five people to network with. Out of the blue. Just pick ’em and email ’em. They can be esteemed lawyers who can give you advice, folks who are major players in your primary practice area, politicians, potential clients, whatever. I’ve found that more often than not, I get at least some sort of response to my cold emails (as long as I’m not overly long or overly pushy), and sometimes when a person doesn’t respond but meets me later, they’ll remember my name. So track down that helpful CLE teacher’s email address. Figure out the email naming convention at Coca-Cola or Berkshire Hathaway, and introduce yourself to the GC. Email Mark Cuban: he’s been known to respond. Or your mayor. Someone!

    And if you’re telling yourself you’re too slammed with work to meet someone for coffee halfway across town, first, you should make a resolution to stop talking to yourself (weirdo), and then think about the possibility a current client or two could have resolved that in 2016 makes them want to lower their legal costs. You never know. Plan for the future.

  5. Thank your best clients. More than a Hanukkah Christmas Kwanzaa holiday card. You don’t have to pick up the phone. Even though a lot of advice-givers say you have to call, we’re still lawyers, so if we call someone unexpectedly they’ll probably go into a panic that something’s wrong. Just dash off a quick email. “Hey, I just want to say we really appreciate your being such a great client, and we hope in 2016 you continue getting in trouble and needing us to bail you out.” Something like that.
  6. Read more Above the Law. This one is important. You should be checking this site much more than once or twice a day. Those are rookie numbers. Get the number up to eight or nine times a day, more if you can. After all, I know you want to be the first to know when a summer associate gets drunk and drives a partner’s boat over somebody’s arm. (Why did I not see that story before??)

Happy 2016.

Gary J. Ross opened his own practice, Jackson Ross PLLC, in 2013 after several years in Biglaw and the federal government. Gary handles corporate and compliance matters for investment funds, small businesses, and non-profits, occasionally dabbling in litigation. You can reach Gary by email at Gary.Ross@JacksonRossLaw.com.

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