The Story of Jim’s Battle Again
THE STRESS, FEAR, AND ADRENALINE OF OWNING MY OWN FIRM What Keeps You Up at Night?
For me, and I guess like many law firm owners, it’s “How can I be confident in a reliable, sustainable caseload this year? Next Year? What actions can I take now and build upon to ease the nagging fear?”
But with a “natural” organic network in place, it always worked out. Cases appeared.
Hurricane Katrina Changed Everything On the personal side of life, in 1992, while still practicing with the insurance defense firm, Susan agreed to marry me after I proposed during a trout and red-fishing trip, which is how we did lots of our dating. We had met two years earlier in line at a Wendy’s in Metairie. Susan was from Baton Rouge and going to school in New Orleans. Fast forward to 2005, we had a daughter and two sons, 9, 8, and 4 years old. We were halfway through building what we thought would be our final home in Metairie after making what seemed then like a huge decision — whether to move to Baton Rouge or continue living in Metairie. Susan gracefully agreed to Metairie for the sake of my law practice. God had other plans. For Hurricane Katrina, we thought we were doing our normal hurricane routine — we went to visit Susan‘s parents in Baton Rouge. We would let the storm pass, then go back home to Metairie once we knew we would have power. But it didn’t turn out that way. The house we were living in flooded, along with all furniture, clothing, and two cars. The roof of my office collapsed, soaking all files and destroying furniture and computers. They were all paper files back then. As we watched the flooding and chaos on TV, we got the kids enrolled in a new school and decided we would move to Baton Rouge. ‘The Competition Is Tough Out There! Where Will I Get Cases?’ I was now far-removed from my natural network. And scared. Not of going broke, but of having to work in someone else’s firm if my client base dried up after being answerable to nobody but myself for so long. That motivated me. While Googling for books on marketing for attorneys and law firms, I came upon a website called Great Legal Marketing, and that led to a journey of learning and implementing that continues to fascinate me today. Stay tuned! In the next issue, I’ll share some valuable takeaways for attorneys who want to improve marketing and profitability without trying to go head-to-head with the 5,000-pound gorilla firms that seem to have “all the business.” It’s really simple but still takes a lot of hard work.
Hurricane Katrina forced me to take action.
The First 10 Years of Law Court schedules and deadlines are stressful enough, no doubt, and just come with the territory. And that’s true whether you work as an associate attorney for a salary or run your own show. Since passing the bar in 1990, I’ve done both but finally traded the security of a salary at a large insurance defense firm for the more fulfilling idea (for me anyway) of representing people instead of insurance companies. It wasn’t just the legal work and clients I enjoyed representing more that made it exciting. It was largely the adrenaline rush of going “out on my own.” I’ve heard it called the “entrepreneurial seizure.” And the money can be better going it on your own too if all goes well. But the adrenaline rush also comes with the feeling that you’ve jumped off a cliff hoping you can master the hang glider you’ve just strapped on for the first time on your way down. For the first 10 years after my entrepreneurial seizure, I had a plaintiff PI and ERISA long-term disability practice. I lived in Metairie where I grew up, so I knew lots of people and got referrals from friends, insurance defense lawyers I had worked with in the past, and criminal defense lawyers I had met during a two-year stint as an assistant district attorney for Jefferson Parish where a side civil practice was allowed. Enough clients came with no active effort on my part. Those 10 years came with the usual stresses of handling cases and running the office while trying to strike the right work-life balance. These were under my direct control. But two overriding notions I thought were beyond my control are what kept me up at night. 1. Uncertainty about whether I would always have enough business to sustain my family; and 2. Work-life balance and the struggle to not let the practice consume me to the detriment of my family.
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