Reader, Michael W., emailed me the below question about starting his own management side employment law practice in New York City. My answer follows his question.

I am interested in starting my own law practice in New York City, representing management in employment discrimination cases. I believe there is a real economic opportunity in this area for high-quality solo or small-firm lawyers, who can litigate these sorts of bread-and-butter cases as well as big firms but at a reasonable cost.

My background: I am a 1997 law school graduate, with federal clerkship, big firm, and now U.S. Attorney Office experience (I am a Civil AUSA).

I have seen your website, through various Google searches, and noticed that you have a similar practice to what I would like to build. My question to you is, do you have any suggestions for obtaining business from large and medium size companies? Everything else about setting up my own firm seems easy. It’s finding someone to pay me for my services that’s the hard part, of course!

Also, my intention is to offer a flat fee type arrangement. I am thinking of a total fee of between 75-100K to litigate a case from start through summary judgment, broken down in increments (initial investigation, answer/MTD, discovery, SJ). Additional flat fees would be charged for trials and appeals. How does this sound to you?

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Michael W.

My Response to Michael

Although you ask two pretty specific questions, I’ll broaden my response to encompass starting your own law practice.

Regarding obtaining business from large and medium sized companies, I generally don’t go after large companies (i.e., 2,000 or more employees).

Larger companies tend not to consider a solo practitioner in the labor and employment law field unless that attorney has some sort of “in” into the company such as being a friend or relative of the general counsel or a company officer. Also, larger companies tend to seek and use the larger “brand name” firms that mirror and embrace their own image (or the image that they have of themselves).

As a solo practitioner, clients and prospective clients will think of you differently than they do larger law firms. You’re perceived as a specialist and being very efficient and quick to respond to issues and concerns because you’re not bogged down by law firm bureaucracy and high overhead. Also, you’re seen as being more personable because you don’t have to conform to a relatively stricter corporate culture; you can be yourself.

Furthermore, in some respects, solo management side practitioners like us are the antithesis of larger U.S. corporations. We move quicker, we’re cheaper, more efficient and understand the needs of smaller hyper-competitive businesses that also have lower overhead, less bureaucracy and are more personable and easier to do business with (from both the customer and supplier perspectives). In short, I don’t really have any suggestions for getting a large company’s business.

My target market is small to medium sized companies, up to about 2,000 employees. These are companies that tend to look for someone who is very quick, thorough, discreet, cost conscious, responsive to them and anticipatory of their needs. I do have suggestions for obtaining the business of these companies. Maybe my ideas apply equally as well to larger companies.

Be where the presidents, owners, directors and officers of these companies congregate and network with them. Generally, the best places tend to be their boards of directors, advisory boards, clubs, chambers of commerce, trade and professional associations, business conventions and events related to these conventions (happy hours, receptions, speeches, breakout sessions, etc.) and networking groups. Also, serving on the boards of directors or advisory boards of public sector entities or nonprofits can help you make extremely valuable contacts.

Also, put yourself in a position where those who need your services can easily find you. This can be done via a website and web presence (i.e., search engines, networking sites, providing content to sites). Also, giving seminars and speeches are very important. Finally, a media presence is crucial.

Relative to a website, this doesn’t necessarily have to cost much. I use a blog as my website and except for the hosting, it’s entirely free (even having my own domain name with email is free via Google). If you learn CSS, HTML and Internet 2.0 applications and stay current on these technologies, you can do the same.

Regarding seminars and speeches, as a solo practitioner, organizing your own seminar by obtaining a venue on your own and doing your own promoting, is tantamount to standing in a “speaker’s corner” or town square on a soap box and evangelizing about whatever comes into your head. In other words, it’s likely that your target market won’t show up. Additionally, as a solo practitioner, I don’t have the time or energy to organize a seminar or conference. Therefore, I use other organizations that are interested in having a presentation given by me to set up the seminar or conference. All I need to do is keep my presentation materials current, show up and present.

Be wary of organizations, associations or companies that charge you to present for them under the auspices of you paying to have access to their members. Although I’ve never done business with such organizations, the idea of paying them to present doesn’t sit well with me. If they want to pay you that’s fine. You shouldn’t pay them to provide valuable content to their members.

Other than your time and other minor expenses, a media presence doesn’t have to cost anything either. I do all of my own public relations (PR). One of the keys is technology. Having a large and relevant email contact list is key. Not inundating your contacts with email is also important. Having a web presence so members of the media can find you is also crucial. All of my media (TV, radio and print interviews) was obtained by either being in the “right place at the right time” (being lucky), talking to people at networking events, or being contacted by members of the media. Contacting members of the media to get them to interview or quote you is also effective.

Take risks. Committing yourself fully to starting your own practice/business is a risk. Making it run successfully requires more risks. Get out of your comfort zone. Attend events that don’t appear congruous to your perspective on business development, talk to anyone and everyone (if possible), don’t be too exclusive. You never know whom you might meet who knows someone who can get you a new client, a media interview or ask you to present at a seminar or conference. A lunchtime networking event I attended in August of last year led to my 1st TV interview in early September of 2006.

Be patient. Once, I met a company president at a networking lunch event. I never spoke to him about his business’ issues, but he had my card and I’m assuming he received my sporadic PR emails. About 7 months after meeting him, his company became a client. I’ve had other instances where the same has occurred. Sometimes the sales cycle can be slow.

Be respectful and responsive to people. Don’t blow people off and don’t burn bridges. As an attorney, and as an advocate for your client, being a jerk or the bad cop could have its time and place, but being a jerk all of the time probably isn’t good for your bottom line. The “golden rule” is something to keep in mind. Also, keep in mind that you’re in competition with other attorneys. So, don’t be a wimp either. Exercise good judgment and be deliberate. In part, this is what your clients are paying you for.

Concerning competition, keep in mind that you’ll never “turn the corner.” Whether it’s true or not, I’ve adopted the perspective that there’s always someone out there who’s faster, smarter, better and more capable. After all you’re in business. And, in a relatively free market based economy, you have to stay competitive.

Everything I’ve stated and all of the advice you can possibly receive from anyone on starting and running your own practice isn’t worth anything if it doesn’t jive with your personality. If you don’t have experience with running a business, and therefore don’t know what will work best for you, then pick and choose based on what you know about yourself and trial and error. Be flexible and creative. Experiment. Also, because everything I’ve stated is personality specific, there’s no one thing that’s more important than another.

You might notice that I haven’t said anything about having a business plan. I’ve never used one. Frankly, a business plan doesn’t mean that you’ll be successful at running a business. Our business is to get paying clients and win for them (or at least make losing look really really good). A company won’t use you because you have a great business plan, they’ll use you because you’ll win and save or make them money.

Regarding your flat fee per case idea, I’ve never advertised or offered this kind if service. Whether it will be effective or not, I don’t know. It seems like an interesting idea and worth trying. I suppose that the best way to determine your fee is to come up with the number of hours estimated to take a case through the summary judgment phase. You might need to adjust your rate based on federal versus state court. Also, would you apply the same rate or a similar rate structure to a regulatory agency such as the EEOC or some other quasi judicial civil rights agency? In my own practice, I generally stick to charging an hourly fee. Sometimes I’ll charge a project fee depending on the duration of the engagement, the amount of research and analysis needed and other factors. But this is on a case-by-case basis (no pun intended). Remember, your fee shouldn’t just reflect your level of expertise and the market. Your fee should also take into account your expenses/overhead.

Also, I meet a lot of “white collar” professionals who go on their own as a means to bridge a gap between full time jobs working for others. I don’t think that you can successfully run your own business if you’re not completely committed to making it successful. If you’re running your own practice while looking for a job, it’s very likely that clients and prospective clients will learn of this and not want to use you because if you’re not committed to your own business then you won’t be committed to their business. Stick to one or the other.

Always remember that you’re also just as much of a business person as you are an attorney. After all, you’re running your own business. I find that running a business is a greater challenge than practicing law (FYI: I’ve been practicing law for 14 years and have been running my own practice for 7 years).

Finally, always carry your business cards with you.

I hope that this helps you and feel free to respond with any feedback, criticisms, concerns, whatever.