Episode 61 Case Study – Starting A Legal Writing Practice

The podcast was contacted with two inquiries – one from a law student who was curious about how to start a practice right out of law school and one from an attorney who wanted to form her own practice as a legal writing specialist. The admitted attorney has a non-legal job that pays the bills but wants to be able to make ends meet (and more) by doing what she sees as her strength – writing for other lawyers. The hosts advise that in some ways, it is very different than most other re-boots. She can only market to other lawyers. So she has to decide how to market herself – How will she describe herself on LinkedIn? On her website? The main thing is to come up with an interesting way to explain her value to her target audience – lawyers who don’t want to write. She will also have to assess her competition – lots of outsourcing companies, including many of them overseas – do what she does and at a much lower rate. So she has to have an answer ready for that question when it comes. Maybe the answer will come from folks that have already hired her – she should survey them to assess why they hired her and what they liked and disliked about her. She needs to develop a full business plan as well to think about her marketing and her approach to getting new business. The main thing she needs to recall is that starting a sustainable solo practice is not a one-step or simple process. Some necessary steps:

- Examine the marketplace and your competition

- Talk to people who have used you or similar services to tinker your message

- Make sure your online presence is adapted to the information you discover in the first two steps

- Once that’s done, start reaching out to your target audience at different networking events and opportunities

- Be patient and consistent. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same goes for a law practice