If you have answered the first three questions, this one should answer itself. If you have decided that you want to create a niche firm specialising in a particular area of law, acting for a relatively small market segment, and those clients will instruct you because of that expertise, you probably do not need to create a huge firm. However, if you want to create a firm acting for a wide range of commercial clients, across a wide range of market sectors, then you need the scale your business to allow you to do so.

The point is – let your market decide the scale of your business, not the other way round. There is no point in creating a large business, with all the costs that involves, if there is no need. Alternatively, a small business may find it hard to service the clients you intent to work for, or the work you intend to do.

The size of your business will also determine the capital required to launch it. All things being equal its easier to launch a small business than a large one. However, it’s easier to launch a larger business now than it was.

If you have compelling answers to the first 3 questions (What sort of law firm do I want to own, who are my prospective clients, and why should these clients instruct me?), then it will soon be possible to attract external investment to law firms. This should allow legal entrepreneurs to create firms with greater scale, more quickly than was possible in the past.

For a topical example, Google  Brilliant Law.

David

This is the first article in the “Creating a Law Firm From a Blank Sheet of Paper” series, and it’s perhaps the most fundamental. Before you start ordering computers and letter head, think hard about what sort of law firm you want to create.

How many lawyers take time to think about exactly what kind of law firm they want to work in, and then set out to create that firm? Very few I suspect.

It’s a very personal question. It touches on the fundamental reason of why you became a lawyer in the first place. I dare say it’s different for each of us. But it is the key question to ask when creating your law firm.

If you became a lawyer because of the legal profession’s role in fighting for individual rights, then you probably don’t want to create a large commercial law firm acting primarily for large corporations. If you became a lawyer because you are interested in the process of starting and growing business, which create wealth, opportunity and employment, you might not want to create a niche criminal defence practice.

Trivial examples I know, but they illustrate the importance of the question.

But it goes beyond these trivial examples, to encompass all aspects of your  firm. Do you want to have partner’s meetings in a lecture theatre, or do you want all your partners to fit round a board room table? Do you want to practice in a very specialised area of the law, perhaps in a specific sector, or do you want to act for a wide variety of people, helping them with more general legal problems?

The point is – spend time thinking about what sort of lawyer you want to be, and what sort of firm you want to create. These decisions will (and should) have a significant impact on how you create your firm.

The next question is  – “who do I want to act for”.

David