Is law a business or is it a profession? Are law firms like other businesses? Are they different? How different?
RJon Robins is the CEO and Founder of How To Manage a Small Law Firm, the largest provider of fractional executive (CEO, CFO, COO) services for small law firms in the country. I’ve known about How To Manage a Small Law Firm for a number of years. I first attended and spoke at one of their quarterly meetings a few years back, when I was working for Avvo. I’ve since attended a couple of other meetings and spent more time with RJon.
The first thing I’ll say is that in my experience (and I’ve seen a fair number of small law firms) law firm owners that care enough to invest in themselves in any fashion - How To Manage is just one example of a number of coaching groups like this - are almost universally more innovative, entrepreneurial, and successful than those that do not. Additionally, those that are associated with How To Manage a Small Law Firm, in particular, seem to be the cream of the crop. As an example, a year or so ago I got connected to a financial advisor. We got to talking about what I do and I mentioned that I sell technology to lawyers. Completely unsolicited, he asked “Have you heard of ‘How to manage a small law firm?’” I told him that I did know the group and he continued: “I have a lawyer-client who is affiliated with that group. I can tell you that his involvement in the group - both by his account and from my perspective, managing his net worth - has had a huge positive impact on his economic health.”
This gave me a pretty big clue that there would be value in really digging in on what How To Manage teaches and how they grow law firms.
This episode is the first of a four-part series with RJon on the seven essential parts of a law firm. These seven parts are sales, marketing, production, people, physical plant, financial metrics and controls and, finally, the owner.
Each episode covers two of the seven essential aspects of a law firm and moves through these in sequence EXCEPT for this first episode. In this first episode, we start with and talk only about number seven, the owner. This episode begins with a throw ALL THE WAY BACK to Thomas Aquinas and proceeds through to a discussion of why many lawyers fail to achieve their potential and the first step lawyers can take to start building something amazing.
If you would like to learn more about How To Manage A Small Law Firm and how RJon Robins can help you turn your law firm into a more profitable law firm that is FUN to run, click here if you'd like to learn more.
