Videos

Something that was a real blind spot for me that I was glad that I spotted before I left the AmLaw 200 law firm that I was employed at prior to starting this firm was that I needed to get a document management system in order for me to receive from my old firm files from their system that could be read in a way that was intelligible. The large firm that I worked at used iManage, which if you're a big firm lawyer, you're probably familiar with. It is a system where you can save a [...]

One of the very best things that I did when I set up this law firm, and I did it on day one, was make sure that I do not have a phone sitting here on my desk that has a phone number that is publicly available on my website, that rings with anybody on the internet can call with the expectation that I'm going to pick it up. There's a number of reasons why this is a good idea. I am typically deep in thought. I'm typically working hard at something, and I'm not really interested in [...]

One of the most incredible things about running a small law firm in this day and age is the opportunity to use the assistance of people all over the globe to help run your law firm in ways that would not have been possible 10 years ago. I have for four or five years now been working with two virtual assistants in the Philippines who have perfect English, who learned how to speak English, watching the same Scooby-Doo and Bugs Bunny cartoons that I watched when I was a kid, who have the same kind of computer [...]

In this day and age of digital marketing and digital relationships where the people that you know and their contact information, particularly their emails are currency, it's essential for all law firms to have a CRM or a customer relationship management database. I once heard some lawyers refer to the CRM as sort of like the before unit. It's like the software for the before unit. If the doing the law part of your job is done through practice management software, the CRM database is where you're going to track all of your leads, track all of [...]

One of the things that I got right out of the gate when I started my law firm in 2019 was to find the right practice management software for my practice. And back in the day, I was considering a half dozen different solutions. I picked out the one that I thought was best for me and it has really served me well over the last six years. I have absolutely no intention of changing that. And it is where I keep track of conflict of interest information. There is a matter for every client. Every client [...]

There aren't many things that I've experienced in running a law firm that are irreplaceable. Most of the systems that I've set up, I could have a workaround. Most of the people that I use to help me get stuff done. There are other options. But the one thing that I am so glad that I had in place from day one is a CPA firm. And this is not just for purposes of doing my taxes. There are so many ways that I lean on my CPA firm on a month-by-month basis. I mean, first of [...]

Another smart decision that I made when I set up my law firm that I absolutely encourage everyone else to do is to make sure that you've got somebody else preparing your books for you, doing the bookkeeping for you. This was not on my radar. When I was working at the big law firm, I didn't know anything other than expense reports and that sort of thing. But somebody is going to have to look at every transaction, every debit, every credit, all the money that moves in and out of your law firm and is [...]

Before I started my law firm, I didn't use any kind of a password keeping software. I was very nervous about the idea of having an app or something on my computer or something web-based where I would stick in all of my passwords, my banking passwords and the passwords that I use to make quarterly payments to the IRS and passwords to my email and my practice management software. But when you run your own law firm, you will have so many hundreds of passwords that it's impossible for you to keep track of them. Unless [...]

I have really enjoyed from the very get- go that my firm can accept not just paper checks and not just ACH and wire transfers, but also payment via credit card. This is something that because I work for businesses, they're generally large businesses, they've got accounts payable departments. You tend to think who would want to use a credit card or who would want to send a paper check? It's all ACH these days. But I will tell you that over six years and over having sent thousands of invoices, it has been my experience that [...]

Ever since I was in law school, I was trained on using Lexus and Westlaw, and obviously they are in many ways the gold standard. Certainly in this day of AI, when people are concerned about LLMs hallucinating cases, it's always good to be able to go back and check with Lexus and Westlaw. However, I will say that I have been with, for a time, Westlaw in my law firm, and I was very unhappy with the way that they interface with our clients. I was very unhappy with the way that they priced. I was [...]