5 Ways Law Firms Can Be Successful Businesses LawCrossing

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5 Ways Law Firms Can Be Successful Businesses
Summary The sooner law firms realize they are in
fact businesses, the longer they will survive.
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Do you want to make certain your law firm grows
and survives as a business? Then you better think
beyond the simple representation of clients. And
instead focus on bringing in and developing
business that goes far beyond court cases and
depositions.  The practice of law is not usually
thought of as a business, but it is. Heads of law
firms or solo practitioners must attract and keep
clients, monitor cash flow, and apply good
business practices. While aspiring attorneys
enter the field for various reasons, some of them
may not have thought of themselves as businessmen
or businesswomen, but as they progress in their
careers, business skills determine whether or not
they stay working.The practice of law is
considered by most lawyers first and foremost to
be a profession. That is to say, most believe it
to be an aspirational vocation primarily focused
on an attorney helping those in need navigate
difficult legal processes and achieve something
that improves their life or reduces conflict. But
even Illinois favorite son, Abraham Lincoln,
knew it to be a business as well as a profession,
and spoke often about the practicalities of
running his law firm, Mitchell Sexner, founding
partner of Sexner Associates, LLC told
LawCrossing.

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1. Determine a management structure that works
best. Law firms or sole practitioners have
multiple options on how to structure themselves,
but there are some choices that are more popular
than others in the legal world.For instance,
most law firms are partnerships, where partners
have individual practices that are like their own
businesses and they coexist in one firm that
shares resources. Associates work underneath
these partners, and they are supported by staff.
Partners bring in business, and that money is
used to pay salaries and expenses. Any profit
left over is divided amongst the partners.Law
firm partners tend to appoint one managing
partner to lead the group. In the past, this was
more of a benevolent dictator situation, where
the MP did little but exists in name, but
nowadays, MPs tend to act like CEOs who devote
more of their time to leadership than practicing
the law. Some law firms also have an executive
committee that the MP either reports to or is a
part of, and occasionally, law firms also have
other internal leadership underneath the MP such
as a Chief Operating Officer. This article first
appeared 5 Ways Law Firms Can Be Successful
Businesses on LawCrossing, also on
Slideboom. LawCrossing is the world leader in
"pure" monitoring and reporting of legal jobs,
through its active and growing research into all
legal employers throughout the world.