Today I was summoned to jury duty at the local Federal Court here in Greenville, South Carolina. While we were going through the motions this morning the judge said something very interesting that I really had never thought about, "there are really only two times the government requires your participation - military draft during wartime and jury duty."
He was stressing the importance of our jury system and the protections that affords each of us the liberties we so cherish and our right to a trial by a fair and impartial jury of our peers. I was hoping to be selected to be on the jury, but without a doubt I was the first potential juror struck by one of the attorneys. I guess lawyers aren’t allowed to play.
Anyway, next time you are summoned to jury duty I would encourage you to look forward to it rather than dread it and consider the type of juror you would want sitting in the box if it were you or a loved one fighting a criminal charge or defending a civil case.
I have been reading the classic Dale Carnegie book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" recently and came across a line that really hit home to me. To paraphrase, it was the statement that you can make more friends in two months by being genuinely interested in people than you can in two years by trying to make people interested in you.
I have heard this said another way in the past: people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.
I believe that by showing your prospective clients that you are genuinely interested in them and helping them solve their problems you can build up your client base with great clients quicker than by tooting your own horn all the time. I find this is pretty standard for all professionals - not just attorneys. The feeling is that if I want someone to hire me, I need to tell them all of the great things about myself like how high I graduated in my undergraduate and law school classes, how many certifications or professional merits I have received, how many similar cases I’ve won, etc. While this information is relevant and helps me to sell myself, what really sells the client is that you care enough to know what their problem is and that you know how to get in all of those personal highlights in a manner that shows them how it helps solve their problems rather than building up your ego in front of them.
How can you go about showing people how much you care? Get involved in the community in similar areas that your law practice servcs. This gives you an opportunity to speak to people in a non-threatening environment, without all of the formality of law books, suits and big desks, and just talk.
This thought goes against some advice I received in law school which was: "never have coffee with your clients." I think the visiting attorney was trying to get through to us that we want our business relationships to remain business so we don’t internalize everything and take every set-back or loss personally. I think there’s a way to show clients that your are genuinely interested in them and their problems without becoming so personally intertwined that we cannot focus on serving our clients.
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Things are a’changin’ in the “Mother Land.” No longer will Brithish attorneys wear the classic wigs and wing collars during civil trials in England. The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Nicholas Phillips, has decided that judges and lawyers in civil cases will not wear the wigs any more. This ends a tradition in England that has lasted since the 17th Century.
Since I’m a young attorney, I was interested in the costs of beginning a practice in South Carolina. It can get very expensive when you consider some of the necessary “overhead” that is required. However, I’m thankful that I didn’t have to splurge for the “overhead” formal wig that runs about $1,000.00.
The argument for the wig is that it gives the barristers an heir of professionalism and dignity, as well as takes away from individuality. I think personality and individuality make should not be squelched, but rather should be emphasized by attorneys. You cannot be someone you aren’t and your reprsentation of your client will suffer when you try to put on a show that isn’t in line with your personality.
I just finished reading the new book by Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Work Week, where Mr. Ferriss talks about how he broke free from his job working crazy hours each day, sleeping under his cube at night, and never doing anything he wanted to the “job” of his dreams where he is able to manage a global business from anywhere in the world in less than four hours per week. Tim tells of how he was about to go crazy when he decided to drop all of his work and leave the country for a much needed break. He made a promise to himself that he would only check his e-mail once per week. The book is not a time management book, but rather it is designed to explain how you can reduce the amount of “work” that you do by having low cost help take as much away from you as possible and free you up for the important things. One of the ideas that really hit home with me was you don’t have to be at work from 8:30 to 5:30 each day if you don’t have the work to do. Do your work and get out of there. I have caught myself many times in the past thinking up crap to do just so I could stay at the office and get the full fourty hours in.
Now when I think about that and compare it to my law practice, I see many similarities to Tim’s old job. I have to work a lot of hours to make sure I get the work done, but also to stay informed, to stay on top of the law, and then to take care of the administrative office stuff. I sure spend a lot more time at the office than I do at home. When I think about how possible it would be to run a law firm working four hours per week, I have to admit that would be a daunting challenge - and nearly impossible. While it may not be totally impossible, because, hopefully, you’re spending at least four hours each week meeting with prospective clients, but there are ways to increase your productivity, decrease amount of time spent on “junk” and get paid for providing your professional service and not based on how many hours you work to complete it.
I recently read a blog post about “The 4-Hour Work Week” and another interesting series of posts about the perfect law practice over at the Lawyer Profit Systems blog. It’s my goal moving forward in my practice to define my ideal practice and develop a way to make that fit my ideal lifestyle that I want rather than let it control me. More on that to come.
I recently read an article in Consumer Report’s Money Adviser magazine and it answered a question about whether someone should purchase will making software from the office supply store and create their own willl or should they spend the couple hundred bucks to have an attorney draft their will.
Basically the article hit the high and low points of creating your own will versus having an attorney draft your will and other estate planning documents. The bottom line was that if you have an uncomplicated life and modest assets the potential mistakes from creating your own will would not be enough to offset the attorney fee you paid. However, if you are anything other and uncomplicated and modest, you should definitely consult an attorney to assist with your estate plan.
Discuss what I think. Of course, you know I believe everyone should have an attorney prepare their will for them. What’s the point of preparing a will if you cannot be sure that it is prepared or executed properly? Well, you’ll be dead so you won’t be able to complain about it then, however your devisees may be a little disappointed if the will that left them your entire estate is found to be invalid and they don’t inherit anything (or much less). Many states have vastly different laws regarding the validity of wills or execution requirements making it necessary to have your will examined by a local attorney if you move to another state. In South Carolina, a devisee under the will may not be a witness to the will. How bad would it be if you didn’t know that and let your only surviving relative who you plan to leave everything to witness your will?
I know this is mainly a tax/irs law blog, so I need to make this relate somehow to that topic. If you owe the government a lot of money for back taxes, you should consider hiring an attorney to assist you in determining all of your options and then preparing the proper paperword, making the correct arguments, and represent you well. You may think that you are saving yourself a lot of money, but in the big picture you may actually be costing yourself thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars. If you are planning on submitting an offer in compromise or installment agreement request and you haven’t been able to get the IRS to work with you, contact an attorney (like me) to assist you in your work with the IRS.
And while I’m on the topic, if you have recently moved to South Carolina, or if you do not have a will at all, please give me a call and set up an appointment to discuss your estate plan. It is not as expensive as you think and it is extremely important to have a will, power of attorney, and a living will (at a minimum) no matter what size estate you are leaving.
   How is lawyer marketing and salesmanship similar to eBay? It is the “come and get ‘it’” attitude that most lawyers have regarding their services. But why not? We went to school for at least seven years (three long years of law school) to be able to bill by the hour and make a great income. Some went on to receive an LLM particularly specializing in an area of law. Do we look down our noses at the world because we are so educated? Why don’t people just throw themselves into our offices to have us do the work for them?
The truth is, people generally don’t want to have to deal with an attorney. There are some great services attorneys provide like closing real estate loans and drafting wills, powers of attorney and other estate plans so people can rest easy that their stuff will be taken care of after they are dead and gone. But there are many other services that people don’t want to be associated with. Who wants to hire the services of a criminal defense attorney or a personal injury attorney? I know, Iknow - a criminal or an injured person. But who wants to be a criminal or hurt?
Maybe lawyer marketing needs to be more than “come and get ‘it’.” Ebay’s new commercials that state you can get “it” on eBay show that everything is available - just come to eBay and you can find what you want. Lawyers, a lot of times, tend to treat clients like eBay customers. “You know you want it, come and get it.” What is the “it”? Lawyer marketing should be more than just saying this is what I do, come and get it. I think you have do be more proactive and get involved. Give more than what you promise. Maybe you have to get involved in community activies and show how much you know. Build up the confidence of your potential clients and current clients alike. Maybe this will help change the general perception of attorneys and well as bring in more qualified, top shelf clients.