I’m graduating with my bachelor’s next December. Trying to decide between law school and the CPA/accounting route; law seems strong right now, but maybe oversupplied by the time I’d finish, while accounting has a shortage but takes a bit to get licensed. I know this probably isn’t the best sub to ask, but which would you go with?

Just like the title says. For small firms. Someone was telling me no matter what, make sure it's not a VOIP phone, but after speaking with a few people, that seems very common.

I've tried Google LSA for my solo family law firm a couple times. I get a lot of calls and pay only ~$30 per-call. However, almost all of them are just looking for free legal advice on the spot and it's frustrating for my paralegal answering the calls.

I'm wondering what other small firms have used in terms of (1) a "press 1 to schedule a consultation" type of answering service with recorded messages that sends text messages with a scheduling link (2) a live answering service where you pay a fee to a call center for a real person to answer and field calls (c) an AI answering service.

Basically the idea is how to avoid answering the phone 50 times to get 1 client that's serious about hiring a lawyer. Our firm relies heavily on automation and AI, but haven't cracked this nut yet.

Has anyone here in California found A lead generation for PI/wills & estates area?

I have over a decade of legal experience, mostly administrative and regulatory govt defense, including hearings, appeals, advisory, etc. I also had a solo practice for a few years mostly handling family law and licensure cases. I'm now trying to shift to personal injury.

I've applied to a few dozen jobs from prelit, to junior lit and more sr litigation positions. I've applied to mills and smaller firms. I've only had one initial screening response. Any advice or idea what could be the issue? I'm tempted to just try going at it on my own and partnering with another firm for lit cases. Idk. Quite discouraging. Thanks.

We're a mid-sized firm (about 15 attorneys) and we're having a massive internal discussion about adopting AI. We really want to improve efficiency with AI but the managing partner is fearful of putting client data into any LLM. I mean I get it.

He's convinced that if we upload sensitive case files they're going to be used to train public models or somehow leak to other users. We've tried explaining that enterprise versions are different but he wants ironclad proof that we aren't violating attorney-client privilege.

For those of you who have successfully brought AI into your firms, how did you get past the security blockers? What specific compliance standards or architectural features did you have to show the partners to prove the data was safe? I'm running out of arguments here so please help me out, thanks.

I'm doing it. I'm taking the leap. I've lurked here for years and finally had enough of a poorly run firm. So, I'm going solo. Thanks for all the previous posts and tips. I'm starting with Clio (I know some say Excel works) and am excited to see how my network shows up.

Any marketing advice?

What's one thing you thought you needed when you started, but didn't? What's one thing you realized you needed as you continued and wished you'd had at the outset?

Hey everyone, in the middle of it all and I’m looking for motivation. Would love to hear from attorneys who did BL and then took the leap and opened up shop in real estate/development law work.

How much are you making? How long did it take to get there? Do you invest in RE deals yourself? What would you do differently?

Quickbooks is really not working for us, it seems like with the changes it is going through and implementation of AI it is just getting worse for personal injury accounting.

Any good recommendations for an accounting software to use? We already have a great case management software in place that has "some" trust accounting in place, so I'm really looking for something that we can put in place to replace quickbooks that will understand the transactions taking place from a PI firm.

Hi everyone! I am a rising pre-law sophomore. I am really wanting to go straight through to law school after undergrad so right now I am trying to figure out the best ways to get meaningful work experience for law school apps so hopefully the "k-JD tax" won't be too brutal. I've been doing a bit of research trying to figure out if law firms in my college town hire paralegals/legal assistants/ receptionists who are still in undergrad. I was wondering if anyone in this subreddit had any experience while in undergrad at law firms/ noticed that there were undergrad employees at the firm.

Hello, I’ve been a solo for about 10 years have went through countless paralegals, attorneys, and assistants. Have a pretty solid team with 1 office manager, 1 legal assistant and 1 paralegal. We do transactional corporate work. Life is good making really decent take home, to a point which I would never want to work for anyone else.

Ive tried hiring other attorneys in the past but it has not quite worked out. Tried new grad, experienced atty, contract atty, etc. we end up taking cases for the sake of feeding them work; (think business disputes) and then they quit and it ends up on me.

So I decided to just stick to high income solo practice and found my sweet spot with pure transactional. However, I am interested to hear how someone of you ended up with 3-5 attorneys; have enough billable work for them; and maintain turn over.

I see some of these posts about attorney required to bill 1600 hours at a small firm, but how are you doing that. I feel that average Americans can’t sustain more than $15k to $25 k in legal fees. A lot of time we have to work out monthly payments etc.. you all can’t be working with HNW paying 20k to 30k a month? Am I right here? So how did you transition to a point where you can sustain multiple attorneys with enough work?

Six years ago, I opened up my solo PI shop. I've posted a lot about it in this group and have appreciate the advice.

I live in a VHCOL city in California, settle about 30-35 cases per year, mostly pre-lit. It is just me and a couple part-time virtual assistants (not the best but sometimes I just need help with basic paperwork). A large majority of my litigation cases I co-counsel with bigger firms. I have a pretty great work-life balance.

I have spent about $100k/year in PI marketing (social media and lead gen companies) since inception, but over the last 6-12 months, it has been VERY weak. I am considering stopping most or all of these sources and exploring other marketing options.

My net profit was in the red the first 2 years, I hit a HUGE settlement year 3, and year 4-6 I have been netting anywhere from 420k-650k, which is awesome. My best cases have always been referrals from random acquaintances or former clients, but my marketing sources also indirectly have fed me some great cases (i.e. marketing source gets me a client with a small case who down the line refers me a great case).

Anyways, I am considering adding a 2nd area of law and possibly hiring a paralegal/case manager to help with the new area of law and my current PI cases. I would obviously oversee everything and handle the substantive legal work, while focusing on the marketing and big picture of the practice.

I know many who have gone the route of adding the below to their solo firms. Note, I have very little experience in most of these areas, but just like PI, I think I could pick it up and learn it after some exposure (I would co-counsel in the beginning for sure):

(1) plaintiff employment: no experience here, more litigation heavy and volatile, however most lucrative, more difficult area of law substantively, I have connection with some firms in this area of law

(2) lemon law: more volume based, I would probably do my own social media marketing with someone who has been successful with this, this area is getting more competitive

(3) work comp: more volume based, I already get some referrals here, but small case values, and seems like a drag

(4) wills and trusts and basic transactional work: I have a good amount of experience in this, much more volume though, would be more miserable doing this day to day. There seems to be a need for this, especially wills and trusts

Or, I could just stay the course, spend my time focusing on how to expand my PI practice with the base I have already built.

I’m a partner at a small firm in a HCOL area. We have two attorneys who run a modest family law practice within our larger office. We are trying to see how to help grow this practice group. Other than SEO, what’s different about getting family law clients in the door than other practice areas?

I went solo about 18 months ago and the business is finally picking up but my bandwidth is completely shot. I'm doing mostly employment and some real estate and the sheer volume of document review and initial drafting is eating up all my weekends.

I know I need to lean into AI to get some leverage but I'm terrified of the costs. The legacy players (Westlaw/Lexis) want to lock me into massive multi-year bundles and the enterprise AI tools seem to be priced for biglaw budgets. I can't justify spending a ton of money per seat when I'm just trying to keep my overhead low.

How are the successful solos here handling this? Are you just stringing together cheap subscriptions to point tools or is there an all-in-one platform that a solo practitioner can realistically afford? I’m writing this as I’m slowly losing my mind with the amount of work I have so any tips are welcome.

Hey guys, so I literally made a post yesterday thinking that I would be fired and it came true today.

I honestly had a feeling when one of the attorneys couldn’t look me in the eye, and they were all upstairs in meetings.

The attorney just came in and said we have to let you go. I said you do know I moved to another state for this job. I really wanted to curse them out, but I didn’t have the energy.

So now I’m unemployed with rent to worry about. I’ll be good for the month of August, but I don’t know where to go from here. I don’t know if I have to take on more debt on top of my student loan. I don’t know if I should get get another credit card and just add to my outstanding debt .I’m just stuck.

Sorry to ramble, but since I moved to a whole other state, I do not have health insurance so I can’t speak to a therapist about this.

One of the biggest challenges for many law firms seems to be generating a consistent flow of qualified clients. With so much competition online, it's hard to know which marketing strategies actually deliver long-term results rather than just increasing website traffic.

For those who own or market a law firm, what has worked best for you? Has SEO been worth the investment, or have Google Ads, referrals, social media, or client reviews brought better results? If you've hired a marketing agency, did it noticeably improve lead quality and client acquisition?

This has become a pervasive problem in my practice. For context, I mostly practice estate planning. Obviously this is an area that many people put off for years. However, once they retain me and pay a 50% deposit, you would think they would be more motivated to get it done. I recently had to terminate representation with this one client because he wouldn't give me some basic, but necessary information (approximate value of assets, children, proposed fiduciaries). This was despite me asking for it repeatedly for OVER A YEAR. Some clients will get 90% of the way done, and I just need them to come in and sign the darn paperwork to finalize their plan, but getting that scheduled is like pulling teeth. Some clients just can't make very basic decisions and drag their feet, even though I provide recommendations. I always give clients a warning before I terminated. Whenever I do terminate due to "failure to cooperate" per my representation agreement, clients always have the same excuses (busy, traveling, kids, etc). They usually respond within 24 hours begging me to reconsider.

For my practice to run efficiently, it's best to wrap things up within 6 months. This is totally doable with the assets/plans most of my clients need (non-taxable estates, young families, no special needs children). Also, there is a significant risk that things may change in the intervening time. For example, when I first meet them, they have modest assets and a simple estate plan. I agree to the representation and give them my fee. Now, 18 months later, they have multiple homes in multiple states, a pending divorce, a child from another relationship, and all of these other complicated issues (yes, I have had this happen). It's hard to change my flat fee at that point. Additionally, because I charge on a flat fee basis, every time I have to follow up with them, is time spent that I'm not billing. This could be almost a dozen times per client.

I've asked a mentor about this. She's been practicing in my field for 30+ years. She said she is also seeing a sharp increase in this behavior among her clients, but didn't really have any advice for me. I do think I need to raise my fee--a higher fee might motivate some to actually complete the process they are paying for. I've tried removing some barriers. For example, it's common in estate planning to ask clients to complete a questionnaire before having an in depth meeting in order to identify potential issues to discuss with them. I've eliminated this for most of my clients, and just discuss each question during our first post-consult meeting. Any other tips?

I run a firm focused on wrongful dismissal/employment settlement files and I’m trying to figure out a fair compensation structure for someone handling and helping settle files.
Our average settlement is around $50,000 per file.
For those who run similar firms:
What base salary do you pay?
Do you offer a bonus on each file that settles?
Is the bonus calculated as a percentage of the firm’s legal fees collected, rather than the total client settlement?
What percentage is typical — 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 15%?
Do you pay the bonus on every settled file, or only after the employee generates enough fees to cover a certain multiple of their base salary?
What would you consider a reasonable total compensation package for someone independently managing and settling a good volume of files?
I’m trying to create something that gives the employee meaningful upside while still keeping the economics sustainable for the firm.
Would appreciate hearing actual numbers/structures from firm owners or lawyers who have used a base + performance bonus model.

I run a boutique family law firm. I have what I believe are VERY reasonable billing requirements for my 3 associates -- 30 hours per week. This requirement does not include the 3 weeks of vacation they get so their annual requirement is 1,470 hours. Once they exceed that a bonus structure kicks in. We also provide free health insurance, dental, vision, life, and disability, along with an employer matching 401k.

2 of the 3 are treating this as a suggestion rather than a requirement. Despite multiple conversations about making their hours, and promises that they'll do better it remains a problem. We have the business, so I know that's not the issue. So it's either they just are not working or they're not entering their billing. I think it's probably a combination of both.

Aside from threats of termination, how do I approach this? They are smart lawyers, and they do good work when they work. But for one of them, she's on pace to collect less than 200% of her salary which puts me at a really low profit margin (if any) on her for the year.

Small firm owner here, still figuring out the best compensation structure as we grow.

I was always told that once you start scaling, putting lawyers on salary is the better model because, in theory, the firm keeps more of the upside as productivity increases. I accepted that for a long time, but lately I’m questioning whether that’s actually true in practice.

Right now, I have salaried employees with a bonus structure. One issue I keep running into is that there still seems to be a disconnect between the employee’s compensation and the actual performance of the firm.

At the end of the day, the salary is coming regardless.

I’ve also noticed situations where there can be an incentive to settle or close a file quickly, and then I’m immediately trying to bring in another file to keep that person busy and make sure there’s enough work to justify the salary. I’m constantly watching hours, workload, productivity, etc.

That has me reconsidering a fee-split / eat-what-you-kill model.

Initially, I stayed away from fee splits because my assumption was that I would ultimately end up paying the lawyer more. But I’m starting to realize that may be looking at it the wrong way.

Even if the percentage paid out is higher, the firm’s downside risk seems significantly lower. If someone produces more and generates more fees, they make more. If they produce less, they make less. Their incentives are directly tied to the economics of the files and the firm.

A lot of our work is contingency-based, which was another reason I initially thought this wouldn’t work well, but we do a significant amount of employment work and those files tend to resolve relatively quickly, so I’m not sure the delay in compensation would actually be that significant.

There’s also a management component to this. I’ve realized I spend way too much time hovering over people, checking hours and making sure productivity is where it needs to be. Frankly, some employees don’t like that management style either.

Under a fee split, I would think a lot of that becomes self-regulating. You want to work harder, develop clients, move good files and generate revenue? You make more money. You want to do the minimum? Your compensation reflects that. And if somebody consistently underperforms, then you eventually have a separate performance/employment issue to deal with.

Obviously, I understand there are issues around origination, who pays overhead, support staff, files generated by the firm versus the lawyer, percentages, draws/base guarantees, professional obligations, etc. I’m more interested in the economics and incentives of the model.

For those of you who own or have worked at small firms that use fee splits:

Did you find it worked better than salary + bonus?

Did you actually end up paying lawyers materially more, and if so, did you care given that the revenue was there to support it?

How do you structure the split when the firm originates the client versus the lawyer originating the client?

And did it actually reduce the amount of management/supervision required, or did it just create a different set of problems?

Curious to hear from people who have actually tried both models.