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This page is about
the joys and trials of practicing law as a sole practitioner in a home office. Although practicing from a home office is not a realistic option
for every lawyer, or for every practice area, it is much easier to do than most
would expect. It can also be far more rewarding -- financially and otherwise --
than any traditional law firm-based practice I have ever seen.
October 28, 2007
Quality home lawyering is
getting noticed -- respectfully! -- by the Big Law media. Exhibit A: this
article at Law.com about A. Elizabeth Patrick, an Atlanta lawyer who
successfully transformed her big firm practice (concentrating in construction
and commercial contracts) into a home-based solo practice. Read the whole thing:
I couldn't agree more with everything Lizz says in the article.
August 16, 2007: Office Equipment on
Day One (and thereafter)
The good news is,
starting up a home office takes much less office equipment than you might
expect. Even better, you probably already have a lot of it at home. Plus, you
don't have to have all of it on Day One: a lot of it you can acquire as needed,
as you go along.
Long before Day One
-- i.e., before I ever thought of going solo or working at home full-time
-- I already had a little "office" in a spare bedroom. It was sufficient for
personal use (working nights and weekends, doing our taxes, storing our personal
papers, that sort of thing). My home office equipment consisted of: a decent
computer with a broadband connection, an old "personal" B&W laser printer, an
old desk with a typing return, a 2-line telephone, an old "personal" fax
machine, two small file drawers, some small bookshelves, my cell phone, my PDA,
a little TV, a radio, two chairs, a small sofa-bed, and two old kitchen tables.
That's all I had on Day One, but it was enough for me to hit the ground running
and start working productively at once, with no additional
expenditure on equipment. I dare say most people reading this already have a
home office at least that well-equipped.
It's now three and
a half years since Day One. In the interim, I've gradually upgraded my office
equipment. Here's how:
- When I left my old traditional law firm, I brought home
many boxes of papers and files. As I worked in my new home office, I
generated even more new paper. I had to have somewhere to keep it all. For
stuff I need frequent access to, I bought two credenzas with lateral file
drawers. Out went the little sofa-bed (to another room), and in came the two
credenzas.
- For stuff I do not need frequent access to, I bought some
cheap shelving and put it in my attic. Files and papers now get boxed and
stored on those shelves when I no longer need to have them right in my
office. When I outgrow my attic storage, I'll either rent some local storage
space or call one of the big commercial document storage outfits.
- One of my clients suggested I would find a scanner very
useful. I had never used one before (none of my old firms even had a
scanner), but boy, was she right! It's now essential to me. I predict a good
scanner would be essential to nearly anyone practicing from a home office. I
got
this one because it came bundled with my PaperPort software (which I
highly recommend and will discuss in a future post). I'm happy with it, but
there are lots of others out there. Also, because I have the scanner, I can
dispense with a photocopier: if I need hard copy of a document, I just scan
it and print the scanned version.
- My old "personal" B&W laser printer was not up to the
demands of a full-time law practice. When it died an ignominious death, I
replaced it with a larger, faster, more capable printer.
- Because I never used my old fax machine (I seldom send or
receive faxes, and can do so with my PC when necessary), I retired it from
active service. It's now gathering dust in a closet.
- I eventually bought a laptop, when a client "strongly
recommended" I bring one to an out-of-town meeting. Although I initially
resented what I considered a needless expense, I have to admit the laptop
has proved useful.
- To keep my new laptop in sync with my desktop, I bought a
"personal
server" put out by Seagate. It works great at syncing the two computers,
plus it's an on-site back-up for my critical files.
- To tie together the desktop, laptop, and server, I set up
a wireless network. (A collateral benefit of the wireless network is that I
can take the laptop and work anywhere in the house, or even out in my back
yard, if I feel like it.)
- Rather than carry both a cell phone and a PDA (two
devices), I bought a combination cell phone-cum-Pocket PC (one
device). I bought
this one,
but there are others out there. At the same time, I signed-up for Verizon
Wireless's unlimited data service, so I can send and receive e-mail (and
surf the Web) from anywhere in Verizon's service area. This means I am not
tied to my desk, but can stay in touch from just about anywhere I am likely
to go.
- Call me paranoid, but the idea of putting draft
work-product out with the trash made me nervous, so I got a shredder. My
advice is to get a commercial-grade cross-cut model, not one of those little
toy models that sits over your wastepaper basket. The commercial-grade
models last longer, work faster, shred more completely, and can chew up
staples, CDs, and old credit cards.
- Because I normally have a lot of projects in process at
the same time, I bought some "project boxes" from
Levenger. They're like wooden cases that sit on a desk (the bigger ones
sit right on the floor), with lots of built-in cubbies to organize and store
paperwork for different projects. They now seem to be gone from Levenger's
Web site, alas.
- I upgraded my old two-line phone with one that has both
wired and wireless handsets, like
this one. Sometimes I am on the phone for an hour or two straight, and
the wireless handset lets me move around instead of being tied to the desk.
- A few clients recently raved to me about how much they
like their dual-monitor set-ups. I already had a spare monitor, so I hooked
it up and now have two monitors on my desk. They were right: once you go
dual-monitor, you'll never want to go back.
Because I have a
home office with no employees, and because I go to my clients' offices for
meetings (rather than have them visit me), there's a lot of office equipment I
do not need. Here's a short list of stuff I have not had to buy,
and have no intention of buying:
- expensive office furniture, to impress colleagues and
clients;
- conference room furniture;
- library shelves, to hold books I will not use;
- reception area furniture, to impress visitors;
- secretarial furniture, for my non-existent secretary;
- a dedicated office telephone system;
- dictation equipment;
- a photocopier (because I have the scanner);
- a fax machine (because I can send and receive faxes on my
PC);
- coffeemaker, refrigerator, and other kitchen appliances
(I already have all that stuff in the kitchen);
- art work and other interior decorating touches (I already
have my own; I'm at home, remember?).
The morals are
these:
- Starting up a home office takes much less office
equipment than you might expect.
- You probably already have a lot of that equipment at
home.
- Whatever you don't have yet, you can acquire as
needed, as you go along, at manageable cost.
- Instead of focusing on just the costs of equipping
your home office, also consider how much equipment you won't
have to buy because you're at home.
- Your clients are rooting for you. They want you
to succeed. They have a lot to teach you, and can be valuable sources of
information and advice.
August 5, 2007: Pros & Cons of a Home Office
Like everything
else in real life, practicing from a home office has both costs and benefits, pros and cons.
First, let's review some important pros.
- Autonomy You're the boss. You do what you want to do. You don't have to do
what you don't want to do. You set your own hours. You set your own dress code.
You accept (or decline) your own clients and matters. You
pick and choose your own vendors, office equipment, supplies, and software, instead of being stuck with whatever someone else decides you should
use. If you have employees (unlikely in a home office, but not unheard of), you
decide when and whether to hire and fire them.
- No commute I used to spend an
average of three hours a day
commuting to and from Midtown Manhattan. My commute was not only time-consuming,
but also physically uncomfortable and demanding: driving in bad traffic to get
to and from the train station, standing on unsheltered train platforms in all
kinds of nasty weather, sweltering in overheated trains, packed in like a
sardine in a tin can, lugging a heavy briefcase, with people coughing and
sneezing on me and shouting into their cell phones, etc. I almost never got a seat, so I had to stand all the
way and could not work. It was expensive, too: my last year
of commuting, I spent roughly three thousand after-tax dollars in
commuting-related costs. (Driving to work would have been at least as bad,
albeit for different reasons.) Now, my normal commute is a five-second stroll
that costs nothing.
- Peace of mind No conflicts of interest with colleagues' clients. No office
politics. No dysfunctional employees. No dysfunctional partners. No working with
nasty, back-stabbing, demanding, neurotic, incompetent, or undependable people
in your own firm. 'Nuff said?
- Low fixed overhead No landlord. No employees. No partners. No costly
or unnecessary
frills, unless you decide that you want or need them and
they're worth their cost to you.
Whatever you make is yours. (Well...yours and the government's.)
- Comfort and convenience In
your home office, the temperature is set to what you want. The
lighting is the way you like it. The furniture is arranged to
suit your needs. You have the office equipment, books, and
software you want or need, but nothing else. You wear whatever
clothes you want. The location and surroundings are those
you chose to live in. When I go outside or look out the window of
my home office, I see greenery and wildlife; I hear birds and the wind in
the trees. I am not in a human anthill, surrounded by panhandlers, drunks,
itinerant psychopaths, and tourists. I do not hear (or see or smell) buses,
trucks, sirens, car horns, parking lots, and people yelling to make themselves heard. It's
not perfection, but it's a hell of a lot better than I ever had it at any
traditional law firm.
- Time shifting Because you
literally live at your office, you can work pretty much whenever you want
(consistent with deadlines, commitments, and client expectations). If you
wake up with the blahs and just can't concentrate, then go back to sleep or
out for a walk; you can do the work later in the day. If you simply
must see a new movie as soon as it opens on Friday afternoon,
then go to the movies and do the work later. If you wake up at 2:00 a.m. and
can't get back to sleep, do some work for a while. If you need to work on a
weekend, at night, or on a holiday, it's no big deal: you're already at the
office.
Most of the cons
of solo practice in a home office are just converses or corollaries of the pros:
- Solitude Being a sole
practitioner can involve a lot of solitude. I cherish my solitude, but a
lot of people wouldn't. I'm not talking about solitary confinement here: I can
always meet people for lunch or call people on the phone when I feel like
it. However, the personal interactions that happen all the time in a
traditional firm are almost completely absent in a home office. If
the thought of working by yourself, day after day, week after week, month after
month, makes you feel like slitting your wrists, then maybe you should stay in a
traditional law
firm.
- No back-up If you're a sole
practitioner with a home office, there's no other lawyer to help you with
your work. There's no one to answer the telephone or read your mail if
you're not there. You're it. Some personalities and practice areas are just
unsuitable for that kind of environment and there's nothing anyone can do
about it.
- No leverage As a sole
practitioner with a home office, I have no associates or paras whose
billings I can leverage to increase my own income. If your financial health requires that kind of
leverage (i.e., what you reasonably expect to bill and collect for
your own work would not be enough for you, even if you got to keep all of
it), then maybe you should stay in a traditional law firm.
- It's all your job If you're a sole practitioner, you're not just a lawyer. You're also your firm's
chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief technology officer,
marketing director, client ombudsman, hiring partner, HR director, pension
planner, risk manager, Web site designer, billing clerk, paralegal, secretary,
filing clerk, supply clerk, computer geek, custodian, cleaning service, etc. If something -- anything -- needs doing,
it's your job to get it done. You either have to do it yourself,
or pay someone to do it for you. If you can't imagine yourself doing all those
things successfully, then maybe you should stay in a traditional law firm.
- It's all your fault If you make all the decisions, that means you make
all the good decisions. However, it also means you make all the bad ones. If something goes
wrong, there's usually no one else to blame. That degree of personal responsibility
is worth being concerned about. However, there's a difference between being
reasonably concerned and being frightened. If that degree of personal
responsibility frightens you, maybe you should stay in a
traditional law firm.
(Actually, maybe you shouldn't be a lawyer at all.)
- Discipline, discipline, discipline
Working out of one's home presents many time-wasting temptations. There is
no one looking over your shoulder to make you work, so self-discipline is
more necessary than in a normal office environment. Your time in your home
office is for work, not play. Your home office therefore has to be set up as
a place for work, not play. If you have nothing to do, or don't feel like
doing anything, then go out to a movie or have lunch with a friend: don't
get in the habit of goofing off in your office. Anyone who lives with you
(spouse, kids, pets, etc.) has to understand your home office is
an office -- a place of business -- even though
it's in the house. If you can't imagine exercising that kind of
self-discipline, or creating that kind of environment at home, maybe you
should stay in a traditional law firm.
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