August 2000

Biz-Law 101 Gets an A+: Florida Law School Teaches Hard Knocks of Managing a Small Practice

by William C. Smith

"You come here with a head full of mush," the stentorian Professor Kingsfield declares to his class of first-years in the movie The Paper Chase, "and you leave thinking like a lawyer."

But even if most students leave thinking like a lawyer, one thing they don’t accomplish is thinking like a business owner. They may learn to recite the Rule Against Perpetuities and analyze appellate decisions. Ask a third-year about a marketing plan, though, and he’s liable to wonder whether he skipped the lecture on corporations.

It’s possible to pick up a J.D. at most schools without picking up any practical tips on law firm financing, partnership agreements, office technology or professional liability, says Debra Moss Curtis of the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University. Nova, in Fort Lauderdale, is among a handful of U.S. schools to offer a course on basic survival skills. Since 1997, Curtis has taught the popular four-week seminar "Small Firm Practice and Management," tailored for the majority of Nova students who go on to solo or small-firm practice in South Florida. Curtis, director of Nova’s Public Interest Law Center, says she draws from her own experience as an associate at a very patient firm. She says she knew next to nothing about law office management when hired. "The first I’d heard of client trust accounts was when I was put in charge of them at the firm."

Her noncredit course covers trust accounts and other subjects that freshly minted lawyers must master in the pass/fail world of private practice. After canvassing startup issues like law firm names and letterheads, capitalization and lines of credit, Curtis’s students develop a business plan using their own personal and financial data. They select a practice type and office location, and then do homework on rents, equipment costs, liability insurance and staff salaries. "They are always surprised at the cost of things," says Curtis, "and how many things they will have to pay for." These figures have caused some students to reappraise their plans to hang out a shingle, she says.

Boca Raton solo James Pruden, a Nova alumnus, says the course "opened some eyes to what it costs to turn a key on a practice." For those who cannot make that financial commitment, he says, "the time to find that out is when you’re still in school, and not out here entering into leases and signing checks."

Practicality — A Lost Art

Few U.S. law schools bother to teach students these basic, practical skills, says Arthur G. Greene of Manchester, New Hampshire, who chairs the ABA Law Practice Management Section. Greene, who teaches a three-credit practice management course at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H., says newer, regional schools are more willing to teach practical skills than the historical top-caliber schools that tend to stick with traditional subjects. But, says Greene, understanding law office management helps all grads, even those likely to go to large firms, because they are more likely to understand what is expected of them as associates. Among his course topics are partnership agreements, compensation and technology.

Nova’s course also covers conflicts of interest, client grievances and fee issues. The seminar concludes with a panel on small-firm survival. One recent panelist was Rjon Robins, director of the Florida Bar’s Law Office Management Assistance Service and a course alumnus. "Law schools by and large do a poor job teaching lawyers how to manage a law office," he says. Most teach on the large-firm model and assume grads will get on-the-job training from large-firm employers. However, he notes that 65 percent of Florida lawyers practice in firms of five or fewer lawyers, or as solos. Of the state’s seven law schools, Robins says, only Nova and Stetson University offer law office management courses.

Robins has a firsthand view of the dire professional consequences of inadequately educated lawyers. His office works with attorneys who face disciplinary action because of inept office practices — abysmal filing systems, haphazard deadline tracking and poorly trained support staff. He says some of these people would not be in trouble as lawyers if they had received a little management training as law students. And cleared out the rest of the mush.

Reprinted with permission from the ABA Journal, January 2000.

While our state’s law schools do not currently offer law practice management courses, the Washington State Bar Association’s Law Office Management Assistance Program (LOMAP) offers information, resources, consultations and educational presentations to help solo and small-firm practitioners avoid problems before they occur. LOMAP will be on the road in Southeastern Washington during the last week of August presenting law office technology in five locations. For more information on these presentations, or for assistance with any law practice management issue, please call LOMAP at 206-733-5914. You may also access the LOMAP web page on the WSBA website at www.wsba.org/lawyers/services/lomap.htm.

The WSBA Lawyer Services Department offers these four programs:

The Lawyers’ Assistance Program (LAP) — 206-727-8268: Confidential assistance for lawyers with emotional, drug/alcohol or other personal problems.

The Law Office Management Assistance Program (LOMAP) — 206-727-8237:

Consultation and information to help solo and small-firm practitioners deliver legal services of the highest quality.

The Professional Responsibility/Ethics Program — 206-727-8284: Lawyers can call a WSBA lawyer for assistance in resolving ethical dilemmas.

The Alternative Dispute Resolution Program (ADR) — 206-733-5923: Offers two low-cost

methods of resolving disputes: voluntary fee arbitration and mediation.

Please call our department at the phone numbers listed above for additional information and/or assistance in these areas.

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