Practice Management

Forget The @#$%%^& Desk!

By chucknewton

What is it about a desk or the image of a desk that distract young lawyers wanting to start their own law practice?  Before they do anything else they start focusing on the tangible.  What desk will they use?  What chair would go with it?  What about art work in the office?  Should their diploma be on the side wall or right behind the desk?  What about a phone system?  A copy machine?  Is there a need office space big enough for expansion?

I say forget all of this foolishness! It is a distraction.

First, as to your diplomas, mine are stored under my bed in my bedroom.  If you think that anyone but you cares that you graduated from the Any Ought School of Law, you are simply wrong.  Sure they care that you are a lawyer, but they will take that upon faith.  A ego wall is all about you, and not them.  Clients want someone that can solve their problems.  Diplomas do not solve their problem.  If you want something on the wall to remind you of your student loan obligations, then fine.

Second, I have got to admit to you that right out of law school that I too obsessed over what desk I would have, how it would be positioned it in my office, but in hindsight I have learned this is just so foolish.  Yet, throughout my practice of law, and in emails from aspiring Third Wavers, I get this continued question about where do I put my desk if I work at home?  And, I have to think, who cares?  Where will I visit with clients?  But, I have to think this is another desk question.

My point is that in the grand scheme of things these concerns just do not matter.  It is kind of like planning what your grave is going to look like when you die.

It is not that you should not eventually have a nice space, or an organized area in which to work, but as one of the attorneys that I work with likes to say, he could work in a gas station bathroom if he had to.  These things, like desks and space come with time.  In fact, your preferences for these things change with time.

Do not have a desk, use a table or a door on two file cabinets.  It does not matter.  Do not have a spare wall, chunk your diplomas in the nearest closet, the attic or the basement.  Do not worry about phone systems, just get Skype.  Do not worry space or staff or wall color, or fake plants, or even pencils.  You can pick up any of these things or make any of these arrangements on the fly with hardly any thought at all.  You are obsessing on these for the wrong reasons.  You are concerned that you cannot stand out on your own.  That you cannot hold your own.  But you do not need these visual aids in order to make it in the practice of law.  They are incidental to your success, but the distraction of it all could be prominent in your failure in the private practice of law.

If you have access to a chair in which to occasionally rest and a cheap computer in which to operate, and broadband, you can literally ignore all of these other issues and be the most successful lawyer in the World, provided you concentrate on answering the only true question in whether you will do well.

HOW DO YOU INTEND TO GET PAYING CLIENTS!!  All other issues on which you can concentrate are folly.

I have posted a lot on how to do this, and you can read my archives to find out my thoughts.  It is not impossible to get few paying clients (and that is all you need if you keep your overhead under tight control), but in my opinion you can throw away all of your spreadsheets, business plans, notes and objectives in the trash, and win if you focus like a laser on this issue.

Get the desk out of your mind.  In fact, visually throw it out of the window.  Find a card table and a folding chair for all I care.  Just pull out a piece of paper (or create a document on your computer) and ask yourself where are the places I need to go and who are the people and organizations I need to meet in order to get the few clients I need each month to do well?

Full post as published by Chuck Newton on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).