The Fashionable Legislation Library
Attempt property regulation for a apply with work-life steadiness, says ‘Life-style Lawyer Revolution’ creator
Picture courtesy of Laura Cowan.
Laura Cowan began her profession in finance, incomes a licensed public accountant license and dealing at Ernst & Younger and Goldman Sachs. When she determined to go to regulation college at age 35, she knew that she needed to launch a boutique regulation agency with a apply space that complemented that monetary background. Property regulation appeared match—however destiny threw her a curve ball simply as she launched her agency.
“I needed to flip my whole apply digital in a single day in 2020 in New York Metropolis due to COVID,” Cowan tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles on this episode of The Fashionable Legislation Library. “I moved to Rhode Island to shelter in place with my dad. Throughout that couple of months that I used to be sheltering in place, I nonetheless needed to get my regulation agency operating. I had a enterprise to run and payments to pay. So I made the whole lot digital, and I actually streamlined the whole lot. And what I discovered was that I may make fairly simply $10,000 a month, working simply a few hours a day.”
She has now leveraged the expertise of launching an all-virtual estate-planning apply into a training program, 2-Hour Lifestyle Lawyer, to assist different attorneys launch comparable practices. Her new ebook, Life-style Lawyer Revolution: Stay a Life You Love (With out Leaving the Legislation), is stuffed with suggestions and recommendation for constructing a personalised apply to supply work-life steadiness for attorneys.
“Now, what we discovered is that there’s a number of attorneys who’re completely satisfied working much more than that and are completely satisfied incomes much more, however the identify of the enterprise actually comes from simply this concept that you may nonetheless be a very nice legal professional with out working 10 hours a day, and you can also make a pleasant residing with out working 10 hours a day,” Cowan says.
A key a part of not working too many hours is to rent acceptable help, at the same time as a solo simply beginning out, Cowan says.
“What I see a number of is attorneys that spend an excessive amount of time within the weeds of executing and doing all these various things that an admin could possibly be doing and never spending sufficient time doing what the lawyer must be specializing in,” Cowan says. “So that they’re each working an excessive amount of and never making sufficient cash, which is the worst potential mixture.”
Cowan encourages property attorneys to host group workshops to assist folks perceive the significance of wills and trusts. She says it’s a wonderful option to set up connections that may result in additional enterprise.
“The true purpose that individuals rent us is due to the connection,” Cowan tells Rawles. “And I firmly consider this. Folks don’t rent you since you’re one of the best drafter on the earth. They rent you due to the way in which that you simply make them really feel. So use AI and expertise behind the scenes that will help you get your work executed and ship a very nice consumer expertise, however always remember that it’s going to be that that makes them rent you.”
On this episode, Cowan additionally discusses the advantages of value-based pricing versus the billable hour, attracting the consumer base you wish to goal, and the way to cope with your largest frenemy: expertise.
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In This Podcast:
Laura Cowan
Laura Cowan is a licensed public accountant and an award-winning property planning legal professional. She constructed her seven-figure property planning regulation apply in solely three years and pivoted right into a digital enterprise mannequin. The creator of 2-Hour Life-style Lawyer, Cowan additionally teaches entrepreneurial attorneys the way to construct their very own digital property planning apply. The creator of Life-style Lawyer Revolution, Cowan obtained her bachelor of science diploma in accounting from Iowa State College and her JD from the College of Minnesota Legislation Faculty.
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