How to Start a Law Firm: Essential Strategy and Technology

Jason Marsh (00:00)
On today's show, Adriana Linares, renowned legal technology consultant, trainer, and host of the new Solo podcast, will be talking about what it really takes to launch a successful Solo or small law firm from business strategy to essential technology.

Adriana Linares (00:18)
the long-term succeeding happens if you form good habits early. So what happens when a lawyer is starting a law practice at first, is they have a little bit more time on their hands. So this is the time where they should be creating systems, procedures, documenting how they like things done.

Jason Marsh (00:41)
Welcome to the Alpha Lawyer podcast, a show dedicated to exploring what makes law firms thrive. I'm your host, Jason Marsh. Join me as I interview some of the smartest thought leaders and accomplished law firm owners in our space. Together, we'll dive deep into law firm operations, marketing, technology, finance, and everything else you need to build an incredible firm that allows you to live your best life.

Jason Marsh (01:08)
Hello, welcome back to the Alpha Lawyer podcast. I'm Jason Marsh. I'm excited because today I'm here with Adriana Linares and I know this is going to be a fun conversation. Specifically, we're going to be talking about how to launch a law practice. Now, who's Adriana? Well, renowned legal technology consultant and trainer with over two decades of experience in the legal industry. She founded her firm LawTech Partners in 2004, which specializes in legal.

Adriana Linares (01:25)
Cool.

Jason Marsh (01:36)
Technology consulting and law office software training think new firm launch consultations document cleanup like word Microsoft word makeovers Adriana is a frequent speaker at national technology conferences a regular contributor to all sorts of legal publications and amaze I'm not done yet. She's been hosting the new solo podcast on the legal talk network since 2014

She's been named a Fast Case 50 honoree, recognizing as one of the smartest innovators and visionaries in law firm technology. And finally, she's been profiled as a legal rebel trailblazer by the ABA Journal. And if you know, you know. Welcome, Adriana.

Adriana Linares (02:18)
Hi Jason, thanks for having me.

Jason Marsh (02:20)
Yeah, I'm glad to have you here. So a lot of lawyers, think about going out on their own. And as we know, launching any type of business, certainly a law firm and a successful practice, it takes a lot more than just your legal skills, right? It's a lot of, in fact, like you just don't know what you don't know. And so there's business acumen, there's technology, know, how growth strategy, all these things. So today I want to break down what it really takes to start and run.

a thriving solo or small firm. But before we get in all the specifics, the must have technology, marketing strategies, I just want to step back for a second. You've been helping lawyers build more efficient, more tech savvy practices, but what are some of the like the craziest things you've seen? I know you have some funny stories.

Adriana Linares (03:04)
I do. And thank you for reminding me how long I've been doing this, which is when I did that quick math, which of course you don't tend to do the math when you're in it all the time. It has been a really long time. And I do want to add one thing to what you said, which is I want to remind people that I am not a lawyer. And I've never been a lawyer, I've never wanted to be a lawyer, but I have enjoyed my entire career of specifically helping lawyers and only with their technology. Because as I always say,

You know how to practice law. I know how to practice technology. Let's form a heart together. So I have over my years truly seen some remarkable things in law firms. Still things like WordPerfect being used in law firms, which I'm sure many of your listeners are going to be of a younger generation. They're not even going to know what that is, but your older attorneys...

are certainly going to know what WordPerfect is. And while there is nothing wrong with WordPerfect, and it is a word processing system that used to rival Word, and many will argue that it still does, it's been updated and it's even modern and very good. But the crazy part that I see is lawyers still using the older outdated versions because why upgrade something that's not broken? So we're going to keep using this tool like a digital typewriter, which is what they do.

and not modernize and learn how to use Microsoft Word because granted it can be hard without training. I walked into a law firm not that long ago and saw a typewriter and this, I mean, I I don't make these things up. Saw a typewriter behind the receptionist desk. I was like, what do you use that for? She's like, you don't even want to know. And I said, you know what? I, this was, right before the pandemic actually. So it wasn't even that long.

Jason Marsh (04:41)
typewriter. What year was this?

When was the last time anybody seen a typewriter? Literally seen one.

Adriana Linares (04:49)
I know I

am telling you, I can't make these things up. I have seen attorneys that and still today, let's say a law firm calls me up because they want to update their, they want to modernize. call it modernizing and I'll say, well, you know, what about the partner? Cause it's typically a younger attorney that'll call and they'll say, well, he doesn't even use a computer. It's like, okay. So how does it respond to email? Yeah.

Jason Marsh (05:13)
I remember you told me a story

of an attorney that his assistant would print his emails out on a piece of paper, bring them to his office. He'd handwrite, I guess, the response, and then she would go back and type it into the email, maybe on the typewriter.

Adriana Linares (05:20)
That's right.

yeah, no, Jason guaranteed

that still happens today. I had a guy not that long ago who wanted to know how to sort an Excel spreadsheet. Like he, he was actually evaluating some trades. So it was a litigation case and there was a trader who was being sort of investigated for some of their work. So he had a literal spreadsheet, super easy, of the guy's trades in a day. And he wanted to sort the highest opening.

Jason Marsh (05:37)
Mmm.

Adriana Linares (05:54)
number, right? Like what did this, what was on the spreadsheet, the highest number when the stock market opened that day and he wanted to sort from highest to lowest. And I said, okay, well, you're going to click here and you're just going to click on that. And he audibly gasped. Couldn't believe it sorted it so quickly. And then this is the kicker. He goes, let's see if it's right. And then he spread some paper apart on his desk, finds the spreadsheet where he had printed it, Jason.

spreadsheet which is hard to do in a format that's readable anyway and had highlighted highlighted the highest numbers and he was like it got it

Jason Marsh (06:23)
Yeah.

It got it. Holy

cow, how does it do it? Unbelievable.

Adriana Linares (06:36)
Yep. Yep.

Now there was a guy once that wanted to get to the top. Let me just tell you this last one, cause it's so hilarious. There's a guy who won his inbox. And by the way, there are female attorneys like this too. It just seems that men dominate the profession in many ways. He wanted to, he was scrolling through his inbox to find something. Yep. And he wanted to get back to the top of his inbox to what was the newest thing.

Jason Marsh (06:39)
So.

Yeah, Love to hear it.

We're also smart.

Adriana Linares (07:00)
And so I stood there for a minute because I charged by the hour. So you can take as long as you want, but I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to move on. And I said, if you hit the home button on your keyboard, it's going to pop it to the top of your inbox. And he looks at me, he's like, what? I said, that home key right there on your keyboard, if you tap it right now, it's going to move you to the top of your inbox. And he's like, no, I go, He tapped it, audible gasp. He looks at me, he goes,

How long has that been there? And I said, we just installed it yesterday. It's brand new feature. Don't worry, you haven't missed out on much.

Jason Marsh (07:36)
Yeah, you know,

I'd like to admit I don't even know that one, but it's funny when you learn just any little trick and you have tons of them, but I love the fact you get the audible gasp like, yeah, like they just saw like the creation of fire or something. But anyway.

Adriana Linares (07:50)
audible gas are my favorite. They're like tips for me. Yeah. I call them tips.

Like I'm a bartender and they just gave me a tip. Those are my tips. ⁓ now those are funny and, and hilarious and simple, but I do actually do some advanced legal technology consulting and training sometimes too. So let's do it.

Jason Marsh (08:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, so all right, so let's get serious. would honestly, I'd love to

do a whole podcast here about all the funny things that you've seen because they are funny. I've heard a lot of these stories, but let's in terms of like from your experience, what's some of the things that separate, those who succeed from those who really struggle when they're starting their own firm.

Adriana Linares (08:13)
⁓ easily could.

let me think, because that's a good question. So I think the long-term succeeding happens if you form good habits early. So what happens when a lawyer is starting a law practice at first, is they have a little bit more time on their hands. So this is the time where they should be creating systems, procedures, documenting how they like things done.

picking the right systems and then making sure that they know how those systems processes procedures are done so that when they do hire somebody new, they have it documented and they're ready to go. They're not scrambling like after the fact to put it together, they should be doing it at that time. So what will happen though is they will get either stubborn or lazy because they're not quite busy yet. So I'm not going to say they're busy enough.

So they'll take a lot of shortcuts or they'll bring an old habit from their previous firm and not want to break it or not take the time to figure out a way to do something faster. So they either develop or continue these old habits that just snowball as they grow their law practice. And by the time they've hired their third or their fourth person, they're so inefficient and they never created that system at the time. And so now they're trying to do it with three or four people, but now they're actually so busy.

Jason Marsh (09:50)
They're too busy.

Adriana Linares (09:52)
Right. And by the way, I have never ever in my 20 something years had a lawyer who started by saying, where's the business going to come from? I can't imagine ever being busy and me saying to them, believe me, you're going to be busy. And that not happening. There is so much work. There's so much potential. There are so many people that need legal help that

That never happens, but they don't believe me. So they think they're going to have time later to fix whatever it is they're breaking now and they just don't. So I would say to answer your question, long story longer, sorry, it would be not forming efficient technology driven habits from the start.

Jason Marsh (10:34)
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, I think that's great advice. And you just think about habits in general, whether good or bad, how they can really affect anything you do in life, whether, you have good eating habits or bad eating habits, but once you have them in place, it's really gonna, it's really gonna make all the difference. And I think what you said is very encouraging, especially for someone that's thinking about that, that really is, there's enough business out there, but the message is really start to come up with some sort of plan on how you're going to manage everything because

Yeah, of course, it's gonna be impossible once you're busy and once you have multiple people that you have to now retrain. So why not train them right to begin with? So, well, let's, so, yeah.

Adriana Linares (11:10)
And I'll say, let

me add just one more thing to that as a tip. You think you're going to hire somebody that can help with those. You'll say, someday I'll hire a legal assistant or a paralegal who's going to be really tech savvy and know how these things work. I'm here to tell you that is not true. Absolutely not true. You will not find truly experienced legal plus process procedure and technology help. They don't exist. You get one.

You get the other, you don't get both. So it's your job as the attorney and the owner of that firm to make sure that technology and those systems, those procedures and that training are available upfront when you hire the person with the legal expertise that you seek.

Jason Marsh (11:49)
Yeah, that's great advice. So, all right, so let's talk about some of the technology and the tools, right? That's going to be a big part of creating the efficiency, saving time, allowing you, the attorney, not just to do your job better, but to create a better client experience. So in your view, how important is technology specifically today in the success of a new firm?

Adriana Linares (11:56)
Sure. Yep.

It's literally everything. It's just everything. You don't do anything without technology. I'm not going to talk about AI because everyone's a little tired of it right now and we're still not really sure, but I will tell you AI is an important part of the future. Actually, I hate the word future. It's an important part of running your practice right now, but the technology infrastructure that you need has been tried and true. You will not be launching a brand new ship. You're not, you know,

creating a rocket ship here. This has been done time and time again. The basic infrastructure is already laid out for you. I can explain to you exactly what someone needs and they don't need to do a lot of research of what, but who, who's the product that I'm gonna use? Who's the person that's gonna help me? But the basics I can explain.

Jason Marsh (12:58)
Yeah, and so can you recommend, given that, you recommend to start out with what are some of the most essential software products or tools that are going to help you get started and really dial in some of that efficiency from the get-go?

Adriana Linares (13:12)
Yep.

Okay, top four five things and in the order that you need them. You must have a Microsoft 365 for business, not a home and not a personal, but you've got to have Microsoft 365 for business, whether you're a Mac or a PC. And by the way, it doesn't matter if you're a Mac or a PC, just pick one platform and get good at it.

Starting your law practice is not the time for you to decide to become a Mac user when you've been using Windows for 20 years at the law firm you were at.

Jason Marsh (13:42)
Yeah, I can imagine, right? Yeah, mean, stick with

what you know, because I think the thing about any software, any tool, particularly an entirely new computer and operating system, there's going to be a learning curve, right? So the more you can minimize that, I would imagine the better.

Adriana Linares (13:55)
100%.

cannot tell you how many times an attorney has said, well, I got a Mac because my kids said it would be easier. Well, great. And then I'll say, okay, well, go ahead and right click. Well, Macs don't do that.

Jason Marsh (14:10)
Yeah, or you can have your kid run the law practice, right?

Adriana Linares (14:12)
Right, so the answer is

don't switch platforms at this critical time unless you're going to take the time to take the classes at the Genius Bar or whatever and learn how to use a Mac efficiently because chances are you don't know how to use Windows efficiently.

Jason Marsh (14:26)
Yeah, no doubt. mean,

so, I was just thinking it's like, even recently I was really lamenting about just learning, that you have all, every day there's all sorts of great tools out there with, and it's a huge promise of what it can do for you, but there's always this learning curve. And I really hate sometimes having to figure things out to reach that tool's potential, but

Adriana Linares (14:39)
Yeah.

No doubt.

Jason Marsh (14:48)
Maybe that's why working with an experienced consultant makes sense, particularly if you're launching a new firm and you can get off to the races much more quickly.

Adriana Linares (14:56)
Yep. So you're going to get Microsoft 365 for business. That's going to give you all the tools you need for your most basic infrastructure. But the reason it's important is Microsoft 365 becomes the hub for the other tools that I'm going to mention in a minute that you will build and purchase, keeping integrations in mind. The services that you get, you're going to end up with a phone system, a case management system.

Need to all integrate and that's something I'd like to stress integration integration integration.

Jason Marsh (15:29)
Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about how technology can help with client management. So tell me more about what tools, what efforts you can do in terms of building and managing those client relationships.

Adriana Linares (15:44)
Okay, I love this question because the easiest example I can give attorneys to compare it to is banking. Banks have figured out the technology relationship really well and they figured out a long time ago. We are so good at this point at logging in, checking for our deposits, checking our accounts, sending payments, Zelle, even in it, like everything's easy, right? So for us to think about changing banks is like, hell no, am I gonna go through all that? I've got all my paid people, like everything's okay.

Lawyers need to look at technology just like that. So how can you leverage technology to create a long lasting and easy relationship with clients? So number one, I'm a huge portal pusher and I get attorneys all the time that say, no, I practice a state law and my clients are old and they're not going to use a portal. Let me tell you, Jason, who the best portal users in our society are today. Elderly people. Why? Why? Who do you think are...

How do you think they're getting their blood work back? How do you think they're communicating with their doctors, with their financial advisors, refinancing their homes? I mean, come on. Elderly people are some of the best users at portals because that is truly the only way that they can get with their other professional service providers. So all of today's modern case management systems have portals that are included with their pricing. The portals are easy to use. They don't...

create a user burden like a lot of attorneys think it will. And it just not only reduces phone calls, texts and emails between you and a client, it really makes it a self-serving point to where as far as you want it to be self-serving for them, you only put into the portal what you want them to see or have access to. So I would say that again, especially if you're launching from scratch or you're looking to modernize your firm a little bit, client portals are a very secure.

an easy way to create a good experience for your clients.

Jason Marsh (17:41)
Yeah, you make a really interesting connection there. I wouldn't have thought of it in that way, but sure, like all of us, but certainly older people with their doctors, they're going into portals, they're managing their appointments, they're managing like their test results, all of these different things. And so as a lawyer, you can see how that would make life a lot more convenient, not just for your client, but I imagine like all those doctors, same thing for you. Like they don't have to be calling you and saying, Hey, what was that test result? I imagine you can put a document in there.

and then they'll get some sort of notification that there's been an update or a new document in there. And maybe, there messaging involved in there as well where you can kind of keep all of the communication consolidated?

Adriana Linares (18:17)
⁓ yeah, definitely.

Yep, and that's what you want. You want to think about creating what we refer to as a matter-centric environment. Everything related to a matter, phone calls, text messages, documents, signed documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDF files, should be in one central location so that anyone in your firm can find everything they need to work on the case and importantly,

When the matter is closed, you have one place to go and close the matter so that it's archived and no more work can be done on it until you reopen it if you need to.

Jason Marsh (18:55)
Yeah, yeah, mean, it sounds like now you're cutting out as you were talking about the last segment of technology, but I imagine there's some tools there. Are there any tools you'd like to share? I people would like to know, hey, what do you recommend that's a good portal tool?

Adriana Linares (19:09)
Yep, so the portals are going to come with your case management system and just going back to basic tech infrastructure. Number one, you've got to have a Microsoft 365 for business subscription. And then of course you're going to get your email and your website that connects to the domain that you're using with Microsoft 365. Then you're going to need a professional PDF manipulation tool. Please don't try to use a free Adobe Reader or something else. You really need to know how to use all of the advanced tools in our PDF tool.

And then the third thing you need is that modern case management system like a Clio, which is my favorite or a my case. And between there's like, I don't know, six or seven good case management systems that are available today. And those all come with the client portals built into them. Those case management systems on top of having the portal.

Also are going to be the connection that remember I said earlier that Microsoft 365 is like the hub for all of your integrated services. So your calendar and your case management system is going to talk to Outlook. Your phone system should be integrated with your case management system so you can easily log phone calls. All of today's case management systems seem to have text messaging capabilities built into it just like you text message with your doctor about appointments and stuff. So all of that comes with your case management system.

Jason Marsh (20:27)
Yeah, and it sounds amazing. really, sounds like there's really a one-stop shop there that can do a lot of different things. And I didn't even realize that within some of these tools, you have all your communication, like your phone calls, your texts, but the nice thing is it's all there. It's all documented when you spoke, what you spoke about. Maybe there's even transcripts in there at this point for some of the stuff. So, I think that that sounds like just at its most fundamental is from the day one.

Adriana Linares (20:38)
Yeah.

Jason Marsh (20:52)
is implementing one of these tools. Now, I guess the question I have, right, they sound like very full featured, can do lots of things. How hard is it to implement this and to actually use it in a way that you're getting the full benefit of the tool, right? I mean, there is a learning curve there, right?

Adriana Linares (21:07)
Yeah.

So while I'm not a lawyer, let me take a moment to sound like one. It depends. If you're starting from scratch and you're not bringing in a lot of data, a lot of documents, if you're not doing a data migration, it's actually really easy. These systems are so easy to use. All of our modern case management programs have wonderful training videos, training opportunities. They're not long. Honestly, most of them in one hour.

you become an expert in two hours, you're a literal pro at how to use everything inside these systems. I'll say that most of them are not very customizable. So you're not, it's not like there's all these hidden features. Pretty much everything you're gonna need is findable within a click. So I would say the learning curve for case management systems is quite easy today.

Jason Marsh (21:53)
That's good to hear. it sounds like it works pretty well right out of the box. And I think it goes back to what you were saying is starting off with good habits, implementing this stuff day one, because before you have a bunch of stuff to put in it, you could just start to slowly get used to using it, building out whatever matters. Yeah. Versus you have 25 clients and different matters going in teams, and now you're trying to put all that together. That sounds like it could be a nightmare.

Adriana Linares (22:08)
Right. You start with one matter. Yep. Start with one matter. Yeah.

Yeah, and it can be, but I don't want that to discourage someone who's thinking about modernizing or implementing a new system to do it because with the right software and the right team or the right consultants behind that software, it's actually a lot easier than you think.

Jason Marsh (22:39)
So you mentioned just the idea of the banks. They were the ones that really got it right first in terms of the portal and interacting with their clients. In terms of financial considerations, what are some things that attorneys should keep in mind? What are some of the most important things they should know or be thinking about when they're starting their own practice?

Adriana Linares (22:43)
Yeah.

This is a great question and the answer to that question is about $20,000 different than it was about 15 or 16 years ago when you were launching your solo practice. Today it's very affordable to launch a practice because Microsoft 365 for Business is going to cost you around $20 a month per user and you get a lot out of it. Your PDF program will probably cost you about $20 a month per license.

Your case management system average around $75, $80 a month. It goes up from there. It can go down. So with just those three basic things to get you started, you're at under $200 a month. And there are very few businesses that you could start. Start for under $200 a month. Now, if you decide you want an office and you're going to create that overhead, then that's different. But if you're going to work from home, you're going to work remote, maybe you've got

you know, share space that you're getting to use, then the basics to just get started. It's very, very affordable. You're not inventorying product and buying product that you have to store. So it's actually very affordable to launch a law practice. I think if you were going to put money into anything upfront, it would be into building a good website. Jason, I know you have programs to make that affordable and easy for attorneys.

And then any other extras that you might want to add on, like legal research can be an expense, but there's plenty of legal research tools. Your state bar association, I guarantee you, wherever you're listening to this from, has a free legal research basic starter tool that isn't going to cost you anything or cost you much. You really need to look into that. Your other upfront costs that are going to probably come on more quickly than you think will be hiring a human to help you when you're ready for that. But your launch costs are

minimal. If you budgeted a thousand dollars a month, you'd have more than enough and you'd be in pretty good shape to be able to start, you know, using the search systems and get to billing. You might spend a little bit on a consultant to help you or if you've got the time, almost everything you need to know is on some case management systems, free resource library anyway. So

It's really the human costs that you're going to end up considering, not the infrastructure.

Jason Marsh (25:20)
Yeah. Isn't that amazing in terms of starting a service business versus a brick and mortar, some place where you need to store inventory that literally for a thousand dollars a month, that can cover your overhead. You can work remotely gone are the days of, we need to go and spend thousand dollars a month on class A office space, beautifully appointed furniture and artwork. You can instead put that money into technology, into building out your team.

Adriana Linares (25:22)
Yes.

A server.

Jason Marsh (25:47)
from the beginning rather than wasting your money on a lot of stuff that is never going to have any impact on the work you bring in or the work that you do.

Adriana Linares (25:56)
And I want to add one thing to that because you reminded me when I said the difference is $20,000 and it was back then, it's because you used to need a server in the office to get you started. Do not let an IT company convince you that you need a server or a server in the cloud. You do not. That is actually what Microsoft 365 can do for you. So do not get physical servers. It's just not something you're going to need today.

Jason Marsh (26:24)
That's good to know. want to get more into some of the don'ts and the things to avoid. But just to stay on the financial topic, just for one more moment, in terms of you mentioned managing your billing. Is there any any tools or practices in particular for managing? mean, billing is important, right? You do the work, you need to get paid. You need to be able to account for it. You may need to have trust accounts, etc. Can you talk a little bit about that and how technology and tools can help you there?

Adriana Linares (26:35)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, for sure. So back to all the things that a case management system can do for you. Time and billing is going to be built into those. Capturing your time is where bad habits form quickly, where attorneys pick up a project to work on. They don't start a timer. They don't have a way of capturing that time as it's happening. So passive timekeeping, there are some great tools that allow you to do that, including a couple that are built right into your case management system.

So you don't want to spend the last day of the month going through your sent items, looking at the documents you've recently worked on to capture time. So you have to figure out a way to do passive time capture. My favorite tool for that is called Chrome ETA. Like Chrome the browser, like Google, but this has nothing to do with Google or Chrome, but it's called Chrome ETA is a really good passive timekeeping tool that helps you do that. So you capture all the work. Earlier I mentioned that a

phone system that integrates with your case management system helps you capture phone call time. So as you're building your practice and your infrastructure, what you're thinking about is integrations, integrations, integrations. What integrates with my case management system so I can capture activity, time, phone calls, texts, and then learn how to quickly generate bills at the end of each month. Clio has a really good legal trends report that they release every year.

And year after year, which by the way, you can just Google a word, Clio, CLIO, Google Trends Report to go look at these trend reports. Here's what they learn and what they teach us from these reports. Your clients are more likely to pay a bill the sooner they get it and if you make it easy for them to pay. How do you do that? You make sure you capture time as you work. You create good, succinct, readable bills. You get them out at the end of the month with a click to pay.

You're going ask a client to write a check. You're going to be waiting a long time for that check to get sent.

Jason Marsh (28:50)
Yeah, and you're going to be following up and that's going to suck up more of your time. So, the click to pay, you may be paying a small fee to be able to get that payment done electronically, but it, but it's done. It's done. You don't have to spend time. It's in your bank account quickly. And, so yeah, I think that that's really interesting advice. I'm, very curious to take a look. It's called Chrometa.

Adriana Linares (28:58)
Yep, doesn't matter.

Yeah. Oh, I love Chrome and I've got it right now. C A is Chrome, T A, Chrome ETA. and Jason, before I forget, I just want to mention you did mention trust accounts, which is very, very important to get right. Today's modern case management systems also help you manage trust money. You're probably still going to need a QuickBooks subscription, which we should add to our little table of costs, but that shouldn't cost you more than 50 to $80 a month to have QuickBooks. And that reminds me of another thing. Do not do your own timekeeping.

You won't do it. You don't have time. Hire a bookkeeper.

Jason Marsh (29:43)
Yeah, that's fantastic advice, right? You can really just go down such a rabbit hole with bookkeeping and all sorts of, time tracking and everything else. So listen, I know you don't have a ton of time left, but before we go, we have to talk about the elephant in the room, AI. So it's a big disruptor.

Adriana Linares (29:48)
Yeah.

Sure. Yeah.

Jason Marsh (30:03)
all industries right now, certainly it's affecting legal technology. You're a lawyer starting your own practice. How should they be thinking about AI, both as an opportunity or even a potential challenge?

Adriana Linares (30:14)
So there's a lot of both of those things and what you should be thinking about is not being afraid of it and not thinking, well, I'm going to commit malpractice by using it. How's it going to help me? I'm smarter than a computer. I will tell you right now, these AI tools to help you do basic things like just generate basic email responses, work in spreadsheets, find answers to things, draft a

basic letter, describe what you want it to do and just get you started are amazing. They are generative tools right now, meaning they generate content. They don't research and return quite well yet. That's where a lot of the problems have been. So a very good idea is to make sure you make AI an important part of your practice from the beginning. Get on and find some good resources. There's plenty of lawyers that are teaching and talking about good, smart, efficient, effective ways to use AI.

Jason Marsh (31:06)
Yeah.

Adriana Linares (31:09)
You should spend an entire day just making sure you have a good handle of it so that you're comfortable using it. Microsoft Copilot that comes with an added cost to Microsoft 365. It's actually pretty freaking awesome for a lot of the, again, basic administrative things that an attorney needs.

Jason Marsh (31:28)
Yeah, I think the promise of AI, I I use AI all day long. I call it my assistant intelligence because I treat it as if it's this really bright assistant I have that I can ask about almost anything and it has knowledge and I can ask to draft something. The thing about drafting whatever content, legal content, any other content, the thing that I love about it is it takes you from being a writer to an editor.

Adriana Linares (31:32)
all day long.

That's right.

Jason Marsh (31:56)
So instead of sitting there with the blank page, how do I get started with whatever I'm writing? Now you have it draft something, you have an edit and you can give it feedback and change this, change that, or you can just start editing it directly yourself. the amount of time that it saves. So when you say go spend an entire day to really get a sense of AI, I think the biggest thing is just to start using it, but certainly to augment your knowledge.

Adriana Linares (31:57)
Great. Right.

Jason Marsh (32:21)
one full day and you could probably save yourself weeks and weeks of work over the course of a year. It really is extraordinary.

Adriana Linares (32:25)
weeks.

I'll give you just one example that will resonate with attorneys. Let's say you get an email with, you're on a big case and there's a ton of people in the two list and you would like to just take all of those first names, last names and email addresses that you copied out of the, who the email went to and create a columned list, first name, last name, email. You can copy and paste those, email chunk, you know, that email group.

into something like chat GPT and simply say, parse this data into first name, last name, email, removing any unneeded characters. Done. Now you have a sortable searchable importable, meaning you can import it into Outlook if you wanted or Gmail, whatever you're using list of contacts. So it's those little administrative things that you can start with and not be afraid of that you will start to see the power of these tools and how helpful they can be.

Jason Marsh (33:03)
Yeah, brilliant.

Adriana Linares (33:24)
every minute of your business day.

Jason Marsh (33:27)
Yeah, I mean, think that's a perfect example. And it really is some of these super time consuming tasks that are really mundane that it can do almost instantly. And then of course it can do things far beyond mundane tasks. But I think the biggest thing is just to start using it, testing it out. You'll get a feel for it very quickly. Anyway, before we start wrapping up, reflecting on your experience over time, I want to go back to some of the other don'ts. You know, what are some of the common mistakes that

Adriana Linares (33:40)
Yes.

Jason Marsh (33:54)
you know, new solo practitioners might make and how to avoid them, things not to do that people tell them, you know, like get a server.

Adriana Linares (34:03)
Yeah. don't think you can do everything yourself. Bookkeeping being one of the very first things that you need to hire someone to do your month end bookkeeping and then know how to ask for the right reports so that you know where your money is going. Don't think that there's a guy or a gal who can do it for you. And this kind of goes back to legal assistance. Legal assistants are becoming very hard to find. Jason, you have a niece, right? She's how old is your niece?

Jason Marsh (34:29)
She is eight.

Adriana Linares (34:30)
Do you hope that someday your niece becomes a legal secretary?

Jason Marsh (34:36)
without disparaging legal secretaries. think, yeah, of course. Yeah, no, I think I'd rather see her stick with ballet and what she's currently interested in.

Adriana Linares (34:39)
Yes, without disparaging what is an honorable profession.

No. Okay.

Yes. So the point being that young girls today and men are not growing up dreaming of becoming assistants. So that pool of talent is slowly, slowly, slowly retiring. And the type of experience that you're going to get is going to be very basic and administrative. You are not going to have the legal secretaries of yesteryear who are as

Good as a young attorney at understanding deadlines, details, filing procedures, basic processes in legal. So you need to know how to manage your own documents, draft your own documents, edit your own documents, capture your own time. You really need to become very self-proficient and efficient. And to be honest, it's just not that hard with a little bit of training. Got to get some training. Don't think you don't need training.

Jason Marsh (35:35)
Right. And is it the sort of thing

once you know it and you have, you know, the requisite expertise, you can then document that, train your staff on that to do it exactly the way you want it done.

Adriana Linares (35:44)
Yes, right.

Yep, for sure.

Jason Marsh (35:50)
Cool. All right, last bit. So attorneys, they're contemplating transitioning from wherever they are, big firm, another firm into a solo practice. What's just the most basic advice you would give them as they contemplate this thought?

Adriana Linares (36:06)
Do it. There's nothing I love more than watching an attorney who's been less than happy working for someone else, not being able to control their own destiny and their time and their location and their technology. So when an attorney decides to launch, just know that you're not the first to do it. It's been done successfully by many before you. You have wonderful, wonderful resources out there, including, and this is like a funny thing because people forget.

including other humans, networking is one of the most important things that you can do when you're launching. So turn to your bar association, turn to events, go to local events, find a mentor if you can, which I know is a little bit hard to do, but certainly there are resources out there. I know Alps Insurance, ALPS Insurance has a free mentor matching system. You don't have to be a client of Alps to do that, but there's...

help for you out there. you take the time to research, to find, to investigate and learn, you will have no problem building a successful and profitable law firm. But you really have to do some homework up ahead and dedicate some time into research and maybe having a couple of fails, but then setting up your practice in a way that when you're ready to add a second or a third person, it's set, ready to launch.

Jason Marsh (37:25)
Well, I mean, it's really encouraging in terms of everything you've shared into the prospect of starting the firm. And I think in some it's like, yeah, just do the right preparation, put some of the right tools in place and you'll be in good shape because it is a lot to start any new business, but taking the right steps up front, building good habits, being, you know, be good to go.

Adriana Linares (37:46)
You should be.

Jason Marsh (37:48)
Well, if you all don't know, I'm here with Adriana Linares. We've been talking about strategies and tactics around launching a new practice. As I mentioned, Adriana, you can find her. She's the host of New Solo podcast on the Legal Talk Network. You can get that wherever you get your podcast. Again, that's New Solo. And maybe more importantly, you can reach Adriana directly by visiting her website at LawTechPartners.com to help you get off on the right foot. She helps do full consultations.

and training for new firm launches. She does document cleanup, what I think she calls Microsoft Word makeovers, all sorts of legal technology consulting and training, whether that's as an individual or as a firm. So Adriana, thank you so much for being on the show today. I love talking to you as always.

Adriana Linares (38:23)
Yep.

Jason, I'm honored. Thank you so much. And you know, you're my number one guy when it comes to marketing and websites. And I very much appreciate all the help you have given all my clients in the past. So I'm happy you started this podcast and I know it's gonna be awesome.

Jason Marsh (38:47)
Yeah, thanks a lot.

Jason Marsh (38:49)
Thanks for listening to the Alpha Lawyer podcast. I'm your host, Jason Marsh, and I appreciate you joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with other lawyers who might benefit. You can find more resources and insights on building a thriving law firm at alphalawyer.io or the Alpha Lawyer YouTube channel. Until next time, keep building the firm of your dreams so you can live your best life.