OTLA Trial Lawyer Winter 2021

23 Trial Lawyer • Winter 2021 By Paul Vames OTLA Guardian I recall the very first day of law school when a professor inquired of the class, student by student, why each of us had come to law school. I was very surprised to learn how many of my classmates in- tended to become partners at large law firms and practice international-environ- mental-IP-entertainment law or some such. I sometimes wonder if they made it. I somehow knew, even then, that I’d never be one to move in those celestial legal circles. I came to law school from the world of business. I majored in business finance in college and spent almost eight years working in sales prior to starting law school. My customers during that time were small businesses of every stripe (even a few law offices). Back then, I thought of the world in mercantile terms. I was Paul Vames THE SMALL LAW FIRM AS A SMALL BUSINESS fascinated and wanted to learn how all these enterprises operated and turned a profit. I was probably not yet thinking of legal services as a product or of law as a business. When I began law school, I had very little clue what the business of practicing law would end up looking like for me. I did know that my best shot was to be a lawyer who could sit across a desk from a client, figure out the client’s legal prob- lem and deliver a solution. Provide a service to someone in need of that ser- vice. Deliver value. Ensure customer satisfaction. I’ve learned, mostly by watching oth- ers and by trial and error, that many of the same general principles which guide other small businesses also guide the small law businesses many of us run. We call them law firms, but they can just as easily be thought of as law businesses. For most of us in OTLA, our small law businesses share many characteristics with businesses that sell products and services in the more conventional sense. Our “product” is that intangible amalga- mation of time, judgment, experience, licensing, education and energy that we as lawyers employ to advise and advocate. And the delivery of our product to our clients is just as much a business under- taking as the operation of any mom-and- pop retail store. A law business is just that, a business. Some lawyers will never run a small law business. They’ll spend their careers at large firms or government agencies or work in-house for corporations or nonprofits. That’s fine for them. How- ever, lawyers who want to run their own small shop and be in business as a lawyer delivering legal services, need to think about a few business concepts when starting and running their business. My approach is thinking about how to run a law practice using some of the same principles that apply to other small busi- nesses. Customer service Something common to most of our clients is that they place their trust in us and want access to us, often on their schedule, not ours. For plaintiff lawyers representing real people, probably the most important aspect of customer ser- vice is to simply be available to our cli- ents. Answering their calls and returning their emails increases the likelihood that our clients will be pleased with their outcome, and they will tell their families and friends they were treated well (by the way, that is how we stay in business). Another aspect of customer service is our responsiveness to each client’s indi- vidual needs. In our firm, we’ve put many processes in place to streamline and au- tomate repetitive processes. We strive never to forget that each client has a unique personality and unique legal goals. This idea affects every aspect of serving the client. It is convenient to try and classify clients by the type of case they have, but, without knowing the client’s thoughts, we may not serve the client in the best way possible. Therefore, See A Smalll Business p 24