7 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Started Practicing Law

Keep Track of Your Time

Bad habits start early and grow on you. That includes time-keeping habits too. If you’re a new lawyer, start tracking your time carefully from the very start. If you’re an older lawyer, well start fixing the problem right now. In my first decade I gave away more time than I ever billed - all because of a lack of tracking the time right in the first place. And I’ve been paid less for the billed time than I thought I was going to get too - because when your bill arrives later, there’s always some other bill that got there first. Besides, when people need help right now, they will pay for help right now - tomorrow they may not be so committed to it. And being paid leads me to the second thing I wish I knew when I first started.

Get Paid up Front

The simple fact is that the best time to get paid is when the client needs your service. Afterwards, your bill is just one of several sitting on a counter or in a folder waiting to come “due.” I can’t tell you how many times I was hard at work on a brief or memo or getting ready for a trial when a potential client with an emergency needed to interrupt me with their situation and to get their question answered. If you are working on a case for a client who is paying you, don’t let yourself be interrupted by someone who isn’t paying you for your time. Sending a bill later doesn’t pay for the interruption caused right now.

The Most Important Person in Your Law Practice Isn’t You and it Isn’t Your Client

At the beginning, I thought I was the most important person in my law firm. Wrong. Without clients, there is no law firm. So, I started thinking that clients were the most important person in my law firm. Wrong again. Law firms, like life itself, are about relationships. Unless you really like being alone in life, the most important person in your law practice is the person you go home to at the end of a day. They are the only one that you can honestly commiserate with over the tough days and who will patiently listen and sympathize with you. And they are the only one that you can truly celebrate with over the great days because they are the only one who truly know the depth of your hard days and the height of your best days. If you don’t share it all with someone, you don’t really live.

When Dealing with a New Opponent, Try to Settle Before You Try to Sue

Clients will come and go, but the merchants our clients deal with usually stick around. When a client complains about a merchant you haven’t dealt with in a case before, give them the benefit of the doubt at first and try to settle the dispute without filing a case against them. As time goes by, you’ll learn the people you can work with successfully and the ones that just don’t work that way. Settling a dispute fast is a great benefit for the client as well as for you, the attorney. Happy clients tell other people about you and while winning in court is great, it is even greater to have a happy client who avoided court and who goes around bragging about how you got them quick relief instead of a long lawsuit. Sometimes everyone really can win.

Give Them Something Extra Every Once in Awhile

At the start of a career, we often think that we do the job requested and get paid and go on to the next job and that’s true of most people I suspect, whether it’s a lawyer’s job or not that is being done. It’s a bit like showing up on time. It’s nice, but you just don’t stand out. After all, you are being paid to show up on time and do the work. If that’s all you do, then you could be anybody doing anything. What people remember are those times when someone did something extra or went out of their way just because that was what was needed to do something right. Every once in awhile, it’s nice to do something extra (without charging anyone for it). That’s true whether it’s a client, another lawyer, a Judge, or anyone at all. Giving something extra for the effort makes you stand out from the crowd. It also makes people appreciate you. And sooner or later, it comes back to you.

Be Nice to People - You’re Not a Big Shot

When most lawyers start practicing law, they reflect on the fact that they just spent 7 or so years of their life and went through a grueling multi-day examination and waited months to find out if they passed and they finally made it. It’s a difficult road to go down and a proud accomplishment when you successfully get to the end of it. But that end is just the start of a career. It’s important to remember that you are still just an ordinary person. Don’t let the “Esq” behind your name become a big ego in front of your name. Treat everyone with the courtesy and respect you want for yourself too. Being nice to people shows them that you are an approachable, understanding - but professional - attorney.
Go Home on Time

In the early years, it is very easy to tell yourself that you are building your practice and your reputation and need to work those extra hours in the evening and on the weekend. It seems true too - after all, you have something to prove to yourself and your clients. Well, don’t forget that every day in your life you also have something to prove to your family. And that is that you put them above everything else. I’ve heard too many lawyers talk about working their way through life until they reached the point where they realized that their kids grew up without them and their spouse grew apart from them in the process. Family matters. Sure, winning is important. Sure, having a great reputation is important. Sure, knowing the details of every dispute is critical. But don’t convince yourself that all that matters more than anything else. Your family and your home are what really matters. As tough as it is to turn out the lights and leave the office, and trust me on this, it’ll all still be there tomorrow.

Ron Burdge

http://www.thelawcoach.com/

Helping Lawyers Help Clients, Everyday.

What's Your QR Code, and Are You Using It?

We just finished 7 seminars presented over three different states, along with over 70 other presenters. Lots of new and old friends met up with us. Lots of exhibitors too. And 800+ pages of written materials from all the presenters. One thing stood out.

At the exhibition halls, most of the booths had posted on their written materials their QR codes. Out of all the presenters who lectured at the different seminars, only one had their QR code on their seminar material.

QR Code, you say, what's that? More importantly, do you know what your QR code is? And are you using it?

A QR code is a "quick response" code that your smartphone can scan and read. When it reads the two dimensional black and white image with your smartphone's camera and the phone's app, your smartphone automatically uses its browser to open up the website for your code. See that square black and white image in the upper right corner of this web page? That's it. And it's cool.

And that's not all. You can make a QR code, using any of the many online code generators, to create an instant phone number so people can hold up their phone, scan the code, and the phone will dial up the number without having to remember or actually dial the number at all. And there are lots of other possibilities.

Ron Burdge's Online CV

The image is capable of holding all sorts of data that can be easily read and interpreted with any of the several code reader apps for smartphones that are free and readily available. And when your phone scans the image, it doesn't matter if the image is upside down or sideways or what. The app can figure it out.

You can put the code on your seminar materials (so attendees can jump to your web site or blog or a special page of material to supplement the seminar with materials that didn't get published in the seminar book in time. Or maybe your full bio or CV online.

The code can go on your business card, your office brochures, your letterhead, your advertising, tee shirts, and anything and anywhere else. More and more attorney business cards are sporting the image.

And, of course, since the smartphone is the device that scans and reads the image, and can jump direct to a website from the image, then the image can take that prospective client direct to a mobile web page or site for your law firm.

So, what's your QR code? Oh, and that one sole person among all those dozens of speakers at those different seminars in three different states, the one who actually had his QR code on his seminar materials? Well, who do you think it was?

Ron Burdge

www.TheLawCoach.com

Helping lawyers, helping clients, everyday.

Say Thanks to Someone Who Served

Sometimes there are moments when someone turns their head for a moment, completely off-topic, and starts to talk and it is in that kind of moment that you can learn a lot about a person.

A few years ago, a local farmer came in to see me for some help. Bills and crop prices and debt had him over a barrel and we talked about bankruptcy and what it could and couldn’t do to help relieve his situation. He was a big strong man, the way some farmers just naturally are, both in his heart and his size. We were about the same age but he looked so much older.

His situation took about 5 months to get resolved but I will never forget the day that I learned that he was a chopper pilot in Vietnam about the same time as my older brother, Larry, was there. I had no clue and never would have guessed.

We both stopped what we were talking about, his own current problem, while he looked out the window and quietly talked about what it was like then, back in Vietnam. It was hard for me to look at this older and much heavier man and try to imagine what he must have looked like back in the days of 1966-'68. Now, he was mostly bald and probably weighed a lot more than he did back then, but like me he had been young once too. Now, he didn't move as quick as he undoubtedly did in 'nam either.

But you could tell from the distance in his eyes as he spoke that he had never really left it all behind him.

He talked about what it was like to fly a chopper in and out of valleys and hills and fire, dropping down as quickly as he could and picking up a wounded soldier or two and getting back out of there, wherever "there" was, as fast as he could. Nothing but plexiglass between him and the bullets.

He said he loved flying helicopters then, but that he was never in his life as scared as he was in those few minutes between the time just before he would land and when he was back out of the worst of the fire. He said they were the longest minutes of his life. He called it "dodging a lifetime of bullets," scared to death that one of them had his name on it.

He had a dusty old baseball cap in his hand as we talked. It hung loosely in his hand as he gazed aimlessly out the window. It was from some team that didn't really matter, I'm sure. His eyes were never in the room with us as he calmly and matter-of-factly talked of how men died around him and also of those who came back like him.

You could tell he had memories he wished he didn't have. He said the worst feeling he had from the whole war was that every time he'd lift off the ground he knew that while he was getting out of there, he was leaving other boys behind. He'd fly away, his heart pounding loud in his chest, while the fighting went on below him.

After a long while, he stopped talking and we just sat there, not talking at all. I could see that things were going on inside his mind and I just didn't know what to say. I was dumbstruck by this seemingly now-gentle giant of a man who had been through hell. Truth be told, I didn't think I had a right to say anything at all. After what seemed like the longest time, both of us returned to the present moment. He never spoke about it again.

It's been years now. I don't even remember his name. Probably most of the guys he saved didn't remember it either. I haven't thought of him since then until my older brother sent me a recording he found on the internet, called God's Own Lunatics (click below) that explained what it was like to be one of those foot soldiers on the ground. I clicked on it, listened, and the memory all came back to me.

I recall that he was the son of a local farmer who had gone off to war and came back all grown up - to be his father's son, a farmer again. Something about beating your swords into plows seems appropriate for me to end this note but it also seems so trivial a thing to say. I can still recall his face.
We all owe veterans a whole lot more than any of us will ever be able to repay. If you know someone who served, shake their hand and thank them. You don't need to say why. They'll know.

Non economic damages in UDAP Litigation

Last week, while presenting several presentations on the use of expert witnesses at the National Consumer Law Center's 20th Consumer Rights Litigation Conference in Chicago, several audience members asked about recovering damages for the different types of non-economic injuries that a consumer experiences when victimized by a merchant's unfair and deceptive acts and practices.

Under one or more claims in a civil case, an injured consumer may have the right to be compensated for "non economic" damages. These are often thought of by lawyers and consumers alike as emotional or aggravation damages but can actually be based on a variety of physical or emotional symptoms and/or circumstances.

If you represent the consumer, your client may have the right to be compensated for emotional damages but you will have to tell the jury about it and the consumer must provide sufficient convincing evidence of the injury and/or damage - or they generally can not be compensated for it.

A few years back we heard from Virginia attorney Tom Domonoske on his thoughts on what kinds of injuries might be the subject of a non economic damages claim. Since then, the list has been broadened and made more complete, but there's no question Tom's input started it all. Here are just some of the examples of different types of circumstances that a consumer may experience and which may be compensable.

• Aggravated existing illness
• Anxiety attacks
• Appetite loss
• Bedridden circumstances
• Chest pain
• Concentration loss
• Crying
• Dizziness
• Fear
• Headaches
• Humiliation or embarrassment
• Hypertension
• Hysteria
• Illness
• Irritability
• Job performance affected
• Job loss
• Medical expenses
• Muscle spasms
• Nausea
• Nightmares
• Privacy loss
• Relationships affected
• Reputation affected
• Loss of sexual desire
• Shortness of breath
• Sleep loss
• Stomach pain
• Weight gain
• Weight loss

A consumer normally can not be compensated for these traumatic experiences unless there is some evidence of the injury, such as them talking about it and explaining it to the jury, or other persons tellilng what changes they have seen in conduct and demeanor, etc. In some state, actual medical evidence may be needed to prove causation for one or more symptoms and its relationship to a defendant's conduct.

Basically, the consumer should be able to finish this sentence: "because of what they did to me, I experienced ..." and then talk about the applicable symptoms listed above.

These experiences must also be caused by what happened in the case too. In other words, the consumer must genuinely believe (and be able to explain) that their emotional or physical symptoms are the direct result of what happened to them in relation to their troubles over their consumer product or service and their dealings with the merchant involved.

Friends, family, co-workers, and other persons may have witnessed the consumer going through some of the symptoms described above. If so, they may be able to help explain the evidence that supports the non economic injury and help a jury to understand how serious and real all of it has been for the consumer.

The question becomes, how did the consumer's reactions manifest themselves in the consumer's daily life? If the consumer was not bothered by what happened in their case, then they do not have the right to receive any compensation for emotional non-economic damages. If it did, then the consumer does have the right to compensation.

But a jury has to know that it is real and, as a practical matter, that means they have to hear about it from the consumer and their witnesses.

The consumer's explanation must be real, genuine and from the heart. If these symptoms do not apply to the consumer, then they should not talk abotu them and the attorney should not ask the jury to give any money because of them. Even if the jury does allow the consume rsome "aggravation" money for non economic injuries, the law is some states may limit the recover (such as in Ohio where it is capped at $5,000).

Can non economic injuries enhance a consumer's recovery in a UDAP case? Maybe, but that will always depend on the consumer and their ability to testify adequately, the attorney and his/her ability to demonstrate why it is appropriate, the defendant and their culpable conduct, the judge and the instructions being given and, of course, how the jury sees it all come together.

Ron Burdge

http://www.thelawcoach.com/

Helping attorneys, helping clients

Setting up systems that work with InShort, an iPhone App

Last weekend at the NACBA annual fall workshop in Colorado Springs, we talked about the importance of The E-Myth Attorney concept of creating and using systems and processes in your law practice. Lots of great questions from an audience that craved systems analysis and the profit, both personal and professional, that can be had from it.

Naturally, people wondered what we used to create the systems we use in our own law practice.

For the litigation side of our practice, we commonly use Amicus Attorney - partly because our firm grew up with it from version 1.0 and everyone knows how it works and it fits us perfectly. But for the bankruptcy side of the practice, Amicus doesn't seem to fit very well for designing systems and processes there.

Instead, we're getting used to an iPhone app called InShort which we use on our iPad - not the iPhone version, for reasons we'll get to.

Both simple to learn and able to get complex, InShort has a lot of promise. The User Manual for instance, which is built into the app itself as its opening screen on your first use, actually walks you through a sample process, showing you step by step what each aspect of the program means and how it works and how to create your own. Smart move.

For creating a system or process for your practice, this looks like a great approach to the problem so far. In some ways, it's a bit like mind-mapping a system out except that this app lets you then apply that system and check off your progress after you design it and start to implement it in your practice.

The InShort app is $6.99 in the iTunes Store (used to be under $5), which is just slightly higher than most productivity apps, but it is slick and highly polished and worth it. The InShort app lets you diagram out the process you are trying to create in a sensible and methodically manner. You can actually start with nothing but an idea and create your process inside the app if you want - getting rid of the usual pen and paper first step. So far, it looks awfully good on an iPad - but kind of tight on an iPhone.

You can check out a good review of it here (click) at the iPhone App Review site. But like everything else when it comes to finding or creating a system or process that works best in your own law practice, it's all up to you. You have to check out lots of alternatives and settle on the one that works best for you because, at the end of the day, the best system in the world (or the program that creates it) isn't worth anything at all if it doesn't work good for you.

Ron Burdge

http://www.thelawcoach.com/

Helping lawyers helping clients