Financially Legal is a podcast with accompanying articles on the financial aspects of the business of law. Host, Emery Wager, talks with law firm leaders, academics, business professionals and thought leaders to provide compelling and provocative insights at the intersection of finance, economics, and law.

Episode 43. How does your firm limit write downs and write offs? An interview with Kevin Krese from Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs

Posted by Dan Lear on August 17, 2022

Two episodes into our four-episode series with law firm CFOs one theme that's emerged is collections. Specifically, how much money lawyers and law firms leave on the table by failing to implement processes that ensure that the firm gets paid for the work it bills out.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 42. What’s your firm’s “collections calendar?” An interview with Scott Shaffer from Winterfeldt IP Group

Posted by Dan Lear on August 10, 2022

One thing every law firm needs is money. And I don’t think that I’m going out on a limb suggesting that money and financial health are common elements across most successful firms. In this episode, the first of our series of interviews with law firm CFOs, we speak with Scott Shaffer of Winterfeld IP Group. We dig in with Scott on law firm collection rates, collection strategies, whether firms should refer clients to collections agencies, the firm’s tech stack and how it helps facilitate the firm getting paid, Scott's “most important financial metric,” and a bunch more.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 41. Can offshore virtual staffing help you grow and scale your law firm? An interview with Brett Trembly from Get Staffed Up and Trembly Law Firm

Posted by Dan Lear on March 30, 2022

What’s a lawyer doing running an offshore virtual staffing firm? Starting in 2011 Brett Trembly built a successful business law firm, Trembly Law Firm, in Miami, Florida. They now employ 30+ people and nearly a dozen lawyers. 

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 40. What's a CRM? And what can a law firm do with it? Announcing the Confido Legal/Lawmatics Integration with Matt Spiegel, CEO of Lawmatics

Posted by Dan Lear on March 1, 2022

On this special episode of Financially Legal, we’re announcing the launch of our integration with Lawmatics. Lawmatics is a Legal Intake Solution, Marketing Automation, and Law Firm CRM software all in one. Today they are announcing the launch of their time and billing module with Lawmatics payments powered by Confido Legal.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 39. Why do lawyers struggle to get paid for the work that they do? Julie Steinbacher from Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak and The Million Dollar Solution

Posted by Dan Lear on February 16, 2022

Why do lawyers struggle to get paid for the work that they do? Whether it’s the low collection rates that we see in the Clio Trends Report to lawyers offering too steep a discount, to lawyers refusing to sue their clients, and on and on, “Show me the money” is definitely not the #1 mantra for many of our fellow lawyers.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 38. What are the roles of financial metrics and your physical workplace in the seven essential parts of a law firm? Interview #4 of 4 with RJon Robins

Posted by Dan Lear on December 8, 2021

In this, the fourth and final installment of our discussions with RJon Robins on the seven essential parts of a law firm, we move to the 5th and 6th essential parts of a law firm: physical plant and financial metrics and controls. The topic of physical plant naturally brings up the question of “whither physical law firms in the time of COVID?” We also discuss how intellectual property may be the most significant way that you can add value to your law firm. We wrap with a discussion of financial metrics and controls and the one metric that you as a law firm should be tracking. We also take a detour and talk briefly about Joe Walsh.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 37. What is the role of profit in your law firm? An interview with Brooke Lively from Cathedral Capital

Posted by Dan Lear on November 17, 2021

Have you ever considered the role of profit in a law firm? No, I mean, really thought about what it is, why it exists, whether it should be a part of your firm, and/or how to grow it. If so, then this episode is for you.

Brooke Lively is the founder and CEO of Cathedral Capital. Her mission is simple: make law firms more profitable. And she’s written a book for lawyers all about it: From Panic to Profit.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 36. What are the roles of people and production in the seven essential parts of a law firm? Interview #3 of 4 with RJon Robins

Posted by Dan Lear on November 10, 2021

In this, our third installment of our discussions with RJon Robins on the seven essential parts of a law firm, we explore the 3rd and 4th essential parts of a law firm: production and people. As a reminder, in episode #1 we discussed the seventh and final part of a successful law firm, the owner and in episode #2 we talked about sales and marketing.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 35. What is the role of marketing and sales in the seven essential parts of a law firm? Interview #2 of 4 with RJon Robins

Posted by Dan Lear on October 27, 2021

In this, the second installment of our discussions with RJon Robins on the seven essential parts of a law firm, we dig in on the first and second essential parts of a law firm: sales and marketing. As a reminder, in interview #1 we discussed the seventh and final part of a successful law firm, the owner.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 34. What is the role of the law firm owner as one of the seven essential parts of a law firm? Interview #1 of 4 with RJon Robins

Posted by Dan Lear on October 20, 2021

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. 

 

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 33. How can you test and deploy new technology inexpensively and securely at your small law firm? An interview with Christian Lang from Reynen Court

Posted by Dan Lear on October 13, 2021

Small law firm owners may not be familiar with the terms "docker," "container," or "Kubernetes." They may even be a bit fuzzy on the definition of “the cloud.” But most firms know that, along with significant opportunities, new technologies often present security risks, interoperability challenges (will this system work with my other systems? And/or will my staff be open to using/willing to use this tech?) and, most relevant for the Financially Legal audience, significant costs in terms of time and money to vet, test, and deploy.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 32. How can you get started with financial management at your law firm? An interview with Chelsea Williams from Core Solutions Group, Inc

Posted by Dan Lear on September 22, 2021

We all know the cliches and the tropes: Lawyers are terrible business people, lawyers went to law school to avoid math, law firms aren’t businesses, etc . . . . 

Many of these statements are true in some pretty fundamental ways. But they’re also really damaging. Even if we take the most mission-driven do-goodery lawyer in private practice the simple facts remain that (a) they can’t help others if they, themselves, can’t survive financially, (b) they can’t help others very well if they’re constantly scrimping, saving, cutting corners, working late, and losing sleep due to financial issues, and (c) they’ll help more people with a larger law firm.

Superaccountant-to-law-firms extraordinaire, Chelsea Williams, has the remedy. Combining her dozen-plus years of accounting experience with the eye that she’s trained on legal in the form of her company, Core Solutions Group, Inc, which provides tax, accounting and cash management services exclusively for lawyers and law firms, Chelsea’s developed a course called “Law Firm Money Mastery” that’s designed to help all small firm lawyers - but particularly those just getting started up to those with $1M in annual revenue - to not only get their financial houses in order but to help them figure out how to make the money in their law firms work for them.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 31. BONUS EPISODE: Does sales make you uncomfortable? A 'friendscast' episode with Jaimee Hall

Posted by Dan Lear on June 9, 2021

One of my lawyer mentors once told me “if you don’t like to sell, don’t be a CEO.” Many solo lawyers set out to make a difference or have an impact - not to be a CEO. But whether you want to call them CEOs or managing partners, or partners, or business owners - the fact remains that they are heads of their respective businesses - effectively, they are “CEOs.” And if you want to be a CEO, you need to get comfortable with selling.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 30: What can a law professor and his student teach you about law practice? Tyson Mutrux and Jim Hacking - Lawyer Community Miniseries - Episode #4

Posted by Dan Lear on May 25, 2021

What started as conversations between two friends - actually a law professor and his student - evolved into a movement. Maximum Lawyer boasts a 5000 member Facebook group, over 200 hours of podcast content, two sold-out conferences, a paid community, and a course to help lawyers and firms grow. Oh, and did I mention that the prof and his former student both have successful law firms in their own right? Jim Hacking, the law professor, and Tyson Mutrux, the former student, are the leaders of Maximum Lawyer. Listen on to hear how they're helping lawyers to build strong, resilient practices.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture, Lawyer Communities


Episode 29: Are lawyers entrepreneurs? An interview with Stephanie Everett from Lawyerist - Lawyer Community Miniseries - Episode #3

Posted by Dan Lear on May 19, 2021

The founder of the Lawyerist website, Sam Glover, once told me that he started Lawyerist because he was mad at a practice management company and wanted a place to complain. He gave birth to a technology blog that’s morphed into a large and well-known online legal destination. But Lawyerist is way more than a website. Through freely available web content, its free-to-join Insider program, and the paid Lawyerist community, Lawyerist Lab, Lawyerist provides ongoing strategic and tactical advice to budding lawyer-entrepreneurs.

In this installment in our Lawyer Communities series (see a summary of the series and our broad takeaways here) we dig in to understand how all the pieces of the Lawyerist puzzle fit together and whether it’s a community you might want to be a part of.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture, Lawyer Communities


Episode 28: Has this community of lawyers solved what's wrong with social media? An interview with Keith Lee and Jeremy Richter from LawyerSmack - Lawyer Community Miniseries - Episode #2

Posted by Dan Lear on May 12, 2021

If you’ve been even mildly paying attention over the last, well, year but even the last few years, you’ve watched as social media has become a challenging environment to navigate. And this comes from someone who is very bullish on technology in general and even social media in specific.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture, Lawyer Communities


Episode 27: Is the key to unlocking law firm economic success between your ears? An interview with Allison Williams from Law Firm Mentor - Lawyer Community Miniseries - Episode #1

Posted by Dan Lear on May 5, 2021

Here on Financially Legal we often focus on the nuts and bolts of finance and economics but, often, the biggest obstacles to economic and business success are not financial or even business-related but mental.

In this episode, we dive in on mindset - and we’re doing it with someone who thinks about this deeply - Allison Williams is a Business Coach for Solo Law Firm Owners at Law Firm Mentor. She’s also the CEO and Founder of a multimillion-dollar law firm, the Williams Law Group.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture, Lawyer Communities


Episode 26: Should you shift credit card fees to your clients?

Posted by Dan Lear on April 23, 2021

What if I told you there was a tool that could automatically increase your firm revenue by 1%? What about 2%? What about 3%? What about even half a percent? (if you’re not great at doing math on the fly, for a firm that grosses $1,000,000/year, one half a percent is $5000).

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 25: Is delegation just a fancy word for "giving permission?" An interview with Lindsey Corbin from delegate.legal

Posted by Dan Lear on March 31, 2021

There’s probably no principle more important to growing and scaling a law firm than delegation. Whether it’s identifying the tasks that need to be done, teaching and coaching others to do them, or simply letting go, you’ll be hard-pressed to grow your legal business if you can’t delegate. If you’ve ever wondered how delegation might work in your firm and how to get started, this episode is for you.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 24: What is Zapier and what can you do with it? Host Dan Lear discusses how Zapier can extend the power of the web

Posted by Dan Lear on March 19, 2021

If you’ve ever wondered how to tie together different systems in your law practice, you need to know about Zapier.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 23: Can you build a law practice representing criminal defendants and abuse survivors? An interview with Judie Saunders

Posted by Dan Lear on March 3, 2021
 

Judie Saunders doesn't take the easy way.  

 

Whether you're talking about her efforts to go to law school as the child of immigrants, her chosen practice area that combines criminal defense and representation of abuse survivors, or the lengths to which she's gone to build a consumer friendly law firm using technology, Judie's all in.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 22: Should you build your own law practice management system? Host Dan Lear explores the frontier of law firms building custom tech

Posted by Dan Lear on February 17, 2021
 

It seems like every time you turn around some company is offering a new practice management solution. We tried to count them recently and got tired after about a dozen.

 

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 21: SPECIAL EPISODE: What's the legal liability in this GameStop situation? And who, if anyone, is to blame? An interview with Jake Walker from Block and Leviton

Posted by Dan Lear on February 1, 2021
 

This episode of Financially Legal is a departure from our usual. Normally we talk about law, economics, and even finance as applied to the practice of law. Today, we’re talking about one specific legal issue that has some financial underpinnings. Specifically, the GameStop short squeeze.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Litigation from the Client's Perspective - An Interview with Dan Price

Posted by Emery Wager on October 16, 2020

Recently, our team invited seasoned litigator Diana Siri Breaux, a partner at Summit Law Group in Seattle, to interview Confido’s founder and CEO Dan Price about this very topic. As a longtime business owner, Dan has his fair share of experience with the legal system. In 2016, that experience reached new levels when Dan’s brother and co-founder, Lucas Price, took him to court after alleging that Dan’s decisions as CEO--including the decision to raise Confido’s minimum wage to $70,000 a year--had cost him money as a minority shareholder. At stake was not just millions of dollars but the very existence of the company--and the jobs of its 120+ employees.

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Topics: Firm Financials, Business and Culture, Business of Law


Litigation from the Client's Perspective - Event with Dan Price

Posted by Emery Wager on October 3, 2020

Have you ever been caught in the middle of a case with no idea what your client is thinking? Take this opportunity to get inside the mind of a CEO who's been there.

In this virtual event, Diana Siri Breaux, partner at Summit Law Group in Seattle, interviews CEO Dan Price of Gravity Payments to uncover the answers to these and many other questions:

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Topics: Business and Culture, Confido Legal News


Webinar: What's your law practice worth?

Posted by Dan Lear on September 17, 2020

A couple of weeks back we worked with Tom Lenfestey from the Law Practice Exchange to develop a simple calculator to help legal professionals to estimate the value of their legal practice.  We launched the calculator in conjunction with an episode of our Financially Legal podcast in which I interviewed Tom and discussed the whys and hows of law practice valuation as well as buying and selling practices. 

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Topics: Business and Culture, Business of Law


What's your law practice worth?

Posted by Dan Lear on September 2, 2020


TLDR: Just skip the nonsense and give me a link to the law practice valuation calculator.


A few years ago I was trying to figure out what to do with my legal career.  I met with a friend and mentor for whose firm I'd worked during law school. Perhaps sensing my trepidation about the future this close-to-retirement lawyer said "I'll give you my practice." 

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Topics: Business and Culture, Business of Law


Episode 13.5: How do clients wish you talked about money? A mini-podcast with Confido Legal’s own Emery Wager

Posted by Dan Lear on August 28, 2020

Our recent podcast on how lawyers talk to clients about money inspired Confido Legal’s own Emery Wager to think about how lawyers had talked to him about money. A client of many lawyers at Gravity Payments (our parent company), Emery came up with a list of five things he wishes lawyers would do when they talk to clients about money. We dig in on this mini-episode of Financially Legal.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


Episode 13: Is there an ideal size for a law firm? And what, if anything, does that have to do with the online legal gig economy? An interview with Greg Garman from LAWCLERK

Posted by Dan Lear on August 19, 2020

Greg Garman is a busy man. One of the founders of a 20 person law firm in Las Vegas, Greg is also the co-founder and CEO of LAWCLERK, an online marketplace for freelance legal help. In this episode, Greg shared some great insights on how and why he thinks right around 20 lawyers is the sweet spot for a small law firm.

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Topics: Financially Legal Episodes, Business and Culture


From the Client's Perspective: How I Wish My Lawyer Would Talk about Money

Posted by Emery Wager on August 7, 2020

I’ve put it off all week, but the time has come. I need to pay our law firm. They do great work and have helped protect our company during difficult times. But paying their bill is not a pleasurable experience.

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Topics: Firm Financials, Business and Culture, Business of Law


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