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I was a partner in a large law firm. I am now with my brother’s small firm as of Counsel. If you hire a associate you will have to mentor him or her. That might take you away from your practice. When I was at my former law firm, I mentor a number of lawyers who turn into excellent lawyers. You have to make a choice hire a associate and make into a excellent lawyer like yourself or practice by yourself .
Thank you. I agree with this. From a financial perspective, I don’t know if I can hire someone, mentor them closely (not micromanage, I hate that myself), pay a reasonable rate and turn enough profit on this extra work that it’s worthwhile.
I know some people like mentoring or do so to give back. That appeals to me too, but strictly financial, I’m not sure.
There’s a couple of ways of looking at this.
You get to choose which is best for you.
1- do you have documents/tasks that are repeatable that you haven’t created templates for yet?
The same emails. The same documents. The same motions. The same settlement offers. Etc.
You can start there and see how much time you save by having templates
2- If you are concerned about maximizing profitability then hiring a second person who can you can bill for will help. Yes you can bring on an associate of a virtual or part time paralegal to help with the legwork.
3- if you do bring on someone then you can have quality control over what goes out. Just know it’s a learning curve and a training process, usually longer than you think and more involved than you expect. But if you do it right in the beginning then you’re set for a little while.
My personal general rule of thumb is to have some money saved up, ie a runway, when you hire someone new (3-6 months of their salary) so you’re not worried “geez I brought someone on and now I have to find a new client to pay for them”
4- what’s your end goal for your practice? To sell to an associate? To keep at it forever?
5- also important to ask yourself - do you want to manage someone? Can you/do you want to delete gate?
Congrats on the successful practice and good luck.
Good feedback. I’m very far from retirement, so I haven’t thought about exit strategy but that is a good way of looking at it.
If you aren’t looking to continually expand your practice, then you can start to raise your rate to weed some of the cases out. That way, you are doing less work for more pay.
I have raised my rates before. I justify it by saying I am getting busier and can’t take all of the cases and still stay profitable, so the rate has to go up as my experience level goes up.
You may get some push back, but that’s what you want. You want those who will only pay less to drop off so you can focus on those who will pay more.
I practice on a flat fee basis for most of my cases. So, the flat fee increases over time. But, I am also bringing more value to my clients than I did when I was first starting out.
You have to try it and see how the market reacts. Also, keep in mind the well you are drawing from now may be less tolerant than wells elsewhere. So, you may need to market to a different audience as your rates increase.
Hire a 3-5th year associate from a regional midsized firm who is feeling squeezed out due to lack of partnership track and lack of direct client contact. Offer them a lower salary, chance at partner (down the line), and more client contact in exchange for their diligent work on yours and their own cases they bring in. Structure bonuses based on receivables and you’ll never lose.
I was a solo who hired two different associates. The first one was a horrible disaster. I fired her after four months, and that was not soon enough. The second has been with me for more than two years. She is loyal, intelligent and honest. She helps in many ways, but also it takes a lot of my energy to train her to perform at my high standards. I watch the numbers closely, and she just barely pays for herself and her expenses (insurance, etc.), but overall I’m glad to have her and there are definitely times when she is very helpful. It remains to be seen whether she is a good long-term investment, but even if she left now, I would say the experiment was a good one.