Are You Ready to Start Your Own Law Firm?

If you’re looking to start a small business, then it’s vital to make sure that you’re ready for what that entails. The specifics can differ from profession to profession, and few of them require quite as much of you as the legal business. If you’re looking to start your own law firm, you need to ask yourself some questions first. Here, we’re going to look at a few of them.

Do you have the necessary experience? 

There’s no clear or mandatory expectation of how much experience you should have before you open your own firm. It is possible to open a firm immediately out of law school, but it’s not always advisable. In most circles, it’s recommended that you have at least three years experience of practicing law, on top of the necessary work experience in different parts of law firms, to get a good idea of how a firm should run.

Do you have a clear idea of what kind of law you want to practice?

There are many different types of law firms that you can start, of course. Within each of those types of law firms, there are different specialties that you can work within. There’s a good chance that this question may have been answered by your experience already, but you should also look at how much competition your particular kind of law firm might have in your area, as well.

Do you know how to grow your firm?

Knowing what you want to do and having the right experience is only one part of starting a law firm. Knowing how to make it a success is vital, as well. Client management, marketing, and having a strategy for growth are all essential. Successful cases alone don’t make a successful law firm. Take a look at this 5 minute quiz for law firm growth. If you can’t see a way to grow your own firm after, you might need to sit back and think about it from a perspective of a business owner, rather than a lawyer.

Are you ready to scale back your caseload?

As mentioned above, thinking like a business owner, not a lawyer, is going to become a much more prevalent part of your career. If you’re at the point where your caseload is the most important thing to you, then you might want to spend more time working as a lawyer under an employer as, when you take a step up to business owner, you start having to share that responsibility with others.

Can you manage stress?

No one gets excited at the prospect of having more stress to manage. However, the benefits that can come with it can be more than worth it. Running a legal firm comes with its work-life balance pitfalls and you have to be ready to manage them if you want to get into it.

Of course, there’s more that goes into running a legal business than what’s mentioned here. However, if you can’t answer positively to all of these questions, that’s a good indication you need more time or planning just yet.