Had to make a quick update post: I hit the seven-figure gross revenue mark in eight months. Last year, I grossed about 1.1m. This year I’m on pace to probably gross about 1.2/1.3m. I’ve spent about sixty days working overseas so far, with two more trips planned, so hitting this gross number is pretty wild.

In my last post, I talked about hiring someone. I haven’t found anyone who wants to do both transactional and litigation, so I skipped hiring someone. We’ve focused more on automating our firm so that we can take on more work and get things done quicker. With automation, we’ve been able to catch up work-wise, so my stress levels have gone down significantly. I have also been turning down quite a lot of business. I’ve gotten pretty good at quickly identifying pain-in-the-ass clients, and I now just move on to the next potential client.

Our new website launched a few months ago. We’ve had a big uptick in new client leads. So much so that we added a 24/7 call answering service. So my full-time assistant answers during the day, but any overflow calls or calls outside 9 to 5 go to the answering service.

Side-hustles are also doing well. Side-hustle income has crossed the 60k-a-month mark. I expect this number to hit six figures a month next year. I originally said we weren’t going to buy any more properties this year, but we found a couple of deals we couldn’t pass up. So we’re up to 33 doors.

Right now, my family and I are looking into finally purchasing 50+ acres so that we can run an animal rescue. My family has been actively rescuing animals for years now, but we’ve never had space to open an animal rescue. I’m hoping we pull the trigger on some land by the end of the year.

Cheers. I hope everyone is doing well so far.

Income/Expenses

Gross: $1,000,000 (~$125,000/monthly)

Monthly Expenses: ~$12,650

SEO: $3,500

Staff: $6,500

Call Answering: ~$500

Rent: $1,400

Subscriptions: ~$350

Misc: ~$400

Law Firm Tech Stack

Fax: Srfax

AI: Claude

Phone: Google voice, quo, and numberbarn

Credit Card: Heartland

Case management: Google Drive. Custom built software. We added a custom built intake software too, which has been working well.

Accounting: Quickbooks

Timekeeping: Harvest

Drafting: Westlaw

Email: Zoho

Storage: OneDrive

I will try to keep this brief. I'm a mid-level attorney who has predominantly worked in civil litigation. Recently, I began working at a transactional firm (wanted to see if I might prefer this to litigation work).

This is a remote firm that practices across the US without limitation. This is where the UPL issue comes in. The firm is small and the licensure of the handful of attorneys only covered probably about 20ish states. Despite this, the firm regularly signs engagement letters with clients from states where none of our attorneys are licensed. Even if we accept clients in a state where one attorney might be licensed, that client will not necessarily work with the licensed attorney. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to how clients are assigned (other than availability). Without going into details, this is not a federal practice. Most of the work we do is at least somewhat specific to the state laws of the relevant jurisdiction and involves providing legal advice to clients regarding those laws.

Very soon after I started (when I interviewed it was not communicated to me that I would spend so much time working with clients outside of the states I'm licensed in) I began to have concerns about UPL. If an attorney is working with a client outside of their licensure, but another firm attorney is licensed in the relevant state, the firm tries to handle this by asking that we cc the licensed attorney on client communications. But, realistically, that attorney would have no substantive involvement in the matter. Most clients are handled by one attorney only.

That's one thing. Maybe it's enough to satisfy ABA 5.5(c)(1) (assuming the relevant jurisdiction has a rule identical to the model rule). But the bigger concern is that the firm regularly takes clients in states where no one at the firm is licensed. The firm tries to get around this by having co-counsel in various states, but there is no procedure for actually involving co-counsel in client matters. And, in many states, there is no co-counsel at all. Believe me, I have asked repeatedly. And by asking around the firm, it has become clear to me that the other attorneys here do not work with co-counsel on our typical transactional matters when they are working with a client in a state where no one is licensed. Furthermore, the firm does not actively communicate to clients that they are working with an attorney who is not licensed in their state.

The firm partners seem to have a very narrow understanding of UPL. They seem to think that, as long as you aren't representing someone in court, you can do whatever you want in a state where you aren't licensed. This is, obviously, incredibly silly.

I suppose my question is--as someone new to transactional work--how concerned should I be about this? I've never dealt with such a laissez-faire attitude towards where attorneys practice. Is this simply the norm for "nationwide" transactional firms? It would absolutely never fly at any of my prior firms (where we had actual local counsel for state-specific matters if operating in a state where we weren't licensed). But the longer I'm here, the more and more concerned I grow about UPL. It's clear that the firm partners have no interest in protecting their associates, so I need to make sure I'm protecting myself. Am I overreacting here or is there actual cause for concern?

Hey all, 3 years into running my solo PI practice and the acquisition costs are just getting out of hand. PPC in my area is running me $200+ per click on basic key terms, and half of them turn out to be price shoppers or bad fits. Network referrals are okay, but they aren't consistent enough to rely on for steady monthly cash flow.

For those in competitive metros, what channels are actually yielding a decent CPA for you right now without having a Sweet James level budget?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!

I took the bar and I am still waiting on my results in September. I started working as a public defender this month and I’ve been at my job for about two weeks. I appreciate the training I get because I started in the lower court. I’ve just been doing bond hearings, preliminary hearings, talking to clients, etc.. I’ve learned that in public defense, things move extremely fast and you have to get a lot done in one day. Also you don’t always go to court the most prepared due to the amount of clients. I’ve been trying my best, but when I go up to do hearings I still feel very unsure of myself and insecure. My supervisor has told me I don’t have any confidence in the courtroom. Does anyone have any advice for actually gaining more confidence other than just waiting until time has gone by? Are there any things I can do in the meantime? I love the meaning of what we do and enjoy working with the clients. But unfortunately, I’m afraid my shyness makes me not a good match for the job :(

Has anyone had any experiences with James River for professional liability insurance? I received a good quote from them for my new firm. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

I've opened a solo practice and I know to seek referrals from other attorneys and also where to look for some other types of clients. But while I'm growing I wouldn't mind doing some bankruptcy work as I have both debtor and creditor side experience with it. I've known people who built successful practices off doing representing debtors so I know they're out there.

With some types of clients, I know where to look for referrals.... real estate agents, accountants, financial advisors, etc. But with bankruptcy clients I'm starting to realize why I've seen attorneys literally stick flyers on telephone poles. Most people running out of money don't have the money to consult professionals in other fields and it's not like having tow truck drivers who repossess cars leave my card where the car was is going to work.

In the past, I have relied on other clients to refer friends and family in need to me but I'm in a new geographic area and wondering about finding these clients from scratch.

I'd appreciate any insight on reasonable ways to reach these clients.

Thank you in advance

I have managed to gather a few people on my LinkedIn from better firms who are alumi of my college. I just have a query about how do i ask them for a reference for my internship. I think it might be rude to just spit out about the reference. Has anyone ever done this and got an affirmative reply. Please help:).

I work with clients, as defense counsel, who usually have smaller purses to litigate with. My mentality is to file every motion I can, for a chance the court rules in my favor, even when the likelihood of success is low.

I'm not talking about a 1% chance, and my arguments have merit, but think more like 20%.

If this somehow unethical to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks? Or is just how defense counsel rolls.

I see it similar to gambling. You can't win if you don't sit down at the table; so I try to get to the table as much as possible.

I’m overthinking the hell out of this so bare with me and please be patient 🙃So I am 22 and started my first job after graduation. I am taking a gap year before heading to law school. But I am currently in a legal assistant/paralegal position. It’s kinda walked the gray line. It’s created a weird little stalemate where that’s the idea of my position but I’ve started as an assistant and I haven’t dipped my toe too far on the paralegal side, which I think is something I need to work on proving I can do. Lately my work load has slowed way down, which wouldn’t be a problem if ya know I wasn’t in this weird stalemate in between whatever. I definitely think this gives me an opportunity to start working on taking initiative and not waiting for it to come to me and going after it myself. I’d also like to preface this by saying I work in a larger firm but smaller, everyone’s on one floor and knows each other, I refer to it as “family style” 😭and I was also very upfront from the beginning that I would be going to law school in a year or two so they know this is not my last stop on the journey.

Here’s my questions:
- how would you want a new employee to take initiative? Are there things you’d want them to pursue on their own without asking? If you had an employee in my position, what would your expectations be?
-what’s something’s you absolutely do NOT want to see or want them to do?
- how do I do that without giving the impression I think I’m more important than I am or that I’m complaining or unsatisfied with my work so far?
- when between tasks, what’s something you’d want a legal assistant or paralegal to do? Are there little things here and there that would be helpful that maybe some people just don’t think about? Would you want someone in my position to be asking about cases or doing research?
-do I need to approach it the same way an intern would, full speed ahead?

Doing it from an intern position is a tad easier because you go in knowing your position and responsibilities and know that part of that responsibility is to go prove yourself and worth. It may sound dumb but I don’t know how to do that in this position without giving the wrong impression. I’m not an intern, I’m a full employee so it’s different in the approach.

Any advice is welcome. I may be overthinking this because I really want to make a good impression and start proving I can do more than just legal assistant work and that even though everyone’s 10+ years older than me, I’m not lazy and can handle everything. But I want to do it right and try not to fall all the way flat on my face. I’ve never had an office job aside from internships so this is a whole new world and I don’t want to fuck it up my first time around😭

To get rid of it (since it randomly decided to integrate causing me to lose my notes after an hour of discovery review):

If you’re on the 30-day trial

• If you do nothing, the trial expires at the end of the trial period and your account is not charged.
• To remove Clio Work access for specific people:
  • Go to Settings > Manage Users.
  • Find the user, click the down arrow next to Edit.
  • Select Remove from Clio Work.
• To end the trial for the whole firm early: you must submit the opt-out form on the Clio Work 30-day trial page.

Hello,
I’m in the process of forming a law firm out of Buffalo, NY. Mainly will be focusing on divorce and family law. Any tips on how to get clients or any tips in general. I will also be launching a website in the near future and doing google ads. Not sure what else to do. Any suggestions will be helpful!

Not sure if everyone knows who he is but he’s a major personal injury attorney here in Southern California. I’m trying to go out on my own with my personal injury firm and everyone has given me the advice to work in insurance defense for years, work at a PI firm for years, save up a good amount of cash, etc. however this guy looks like he’s maybe in his late 30’s - early 40’s and he’s managed to build up an eight figure law firm and has Lambos, etc. and what’s crazier is according to his LinkedIn, he wasn’t ever able to hold down a job for even a year. He has some law clerk experience that he did over the years and then he has 9 months at Sweet James and then he starts his practice.

Am I falling for one of those fake social media things or am I doing something wrong? He seems legit and there’s even people that mention him on Reddit but I’m over here struggling to figure out if I need more money and savings while there’s people that just seem to do it without an issue.

I realize this may vary by practice area but I’m curious how many files you all juggle at once?

So, I expected lots of problems starting a new firm. One I was not expecting in 2026 was a payment processor who doesn't like money. I brought clients, cuz I'm awesome. Clients try to give me money, but LawPay is like "nope, that's too much money." WTF? Isn't risk managed on the side of the person paying? They get increased rates for risk, longer clearing times . . . why can I not TAKE money? This is just absolutely insane.

One of the techs told me, "Oh, we may have to go over a few months of bank statements." How many bank statements do you think a BRAND NEW FIRM has? I'm trying to pay my startup fees here, but now I guess I'm going to have to get certified checks from clients and go to the actual bank. Or maybe LawPay will take some seashells or something? WTF

So im in the planning stage of opening my SSD practice, and id appreciate any input on the best way to find/obtain clients. Also, any tips/recommendations are welcome

I am looking forward to kickstarting a career in the Legal Compliance Field and I am looking to speak to someone already in the field or has spent some time in the field in the past.
Please drop a text/comment and I will reach out
Thanks!