Speaker 1: It's official, my virtual law firm has been up and running for two years. And man, this last year has been... Welcome to Law Venture, a channel devoted to lawyers and law students so that you can take your legal career to the next level. My name is Jarrett Stone. I'm the owner of Stone Firm PLLC. As you're well aware at this point, my law firm has been up and running for two years. And man, it's felt like five. Okay, now I want to set expectations with this video, because this video is going to have a different approach compared to the year one breakdown video that was sliding above earlier. With this video, I will not be going through month by month how much the income for my law firm was. The reason for this is that the month by month income was especially important during the year one video. And we know that because if you're ever starting a business, you want to no longer be paycheck to paycheck, right? You want to have enough money to where you're not having to stress about the income for the upcoming month, to where you're not having to worry about, okay, what happens if not enough money comes in? What am I going to do with my lifestyle? How do I become profitable as fast as possible? So like I announced in the year one video, in the first 10 months of year one, was able to make over $100,000 in attorney's fees. That was extremely important in that situation because it's all about getting a viable company up and running. Year two, different focus. The viable company is up and running going into year two. So with this particular year, with my particular law firm, the focus was more on case management. So boil down year one, it's all about survive. Year two, it's all about thrive. So let's talk about that a little bit. The focus really turned to the fact that my caseload was increasing at a rapid pace to where it was actually bringing me a lot of stress. We'll talk about this in greater detail throughout the video. But if I remember correctly, during the year one recap video, I mentioned that I had about, that's probably in the twenties, maybe low twenties on clients. But in year two, my peak, probably about 40 clients. Everyone has different tolerances when it comes to their workload and how much they can handle before getting super stress. And in my situation, having about 40 clients at the same time was getting very close to my stress limit. Keep in mind that in the personal injury context, it's not always 40 clients equals 40 cases. You may have some cases where it is a one-to-one client to case ratio, but in other situations, you may actually have three cases with one client. For example, you may have a client who has a liability claim, an underinsured claim, and a personal injury protection claim or med pay claim, depending on which state you're in. Those could be three cases in one. Having 40 clients and obviously more than 40 cases, it was all very draining for me. And if I'm being totally honest, it wasn't until maybe the last couple of weeks that I started settling cases left and right that I've been able to kind of breathe a little bit more. And whenever you have a whole bunch of clients, and as a result, a whole bunch of cases, in my situation, it's like you're not really taking care of your health the way you should. I was being less active. I was having to keep my head down and be that laptop warrior. I was having to be on the phone, battle it out. And whenever you're having to battle it out nonstop all the time, yeah, that gets draining as well. My face has been breaking out from the stress. It hasn't been a fun time. And you also want to avoid the burnout that comes with it. So with all that kind of wrapped up and kind of how the last few months have been going, that had me thinking a thousand different times, is now the time I hire someone? Do I bring in, I don't know, a legal assistant to help me with all the administrative tasks when it comes to each and every case? But at the same time, it's like, if they do their job the way they should, which is the way I would do that job as well, then the caseload should start dwindling quicker because we're moving more efficiently. And as a result, if the caseload starts dwindling more quickly, then the odds of me still needing that legal assistant down the road is also going to go down. And so it's kind of this inherent conflict that crosses my mind to where it would benefit that legal assistant to actually slow play it a little bit so that more cases come in and we stay at a certain workload. All of that is, that stresses me out too, because it's like, I don't want to bring someone in and then let them go just because the caseload was, you know, good and they did their job. And it's like, okay, you did your job. Bye. That just, that didn't sit right with me. Now, at the same time, it's like, well, if year one to year two to year three continues the trajectory that this law firm is on, then as I'm getting more and more busy, it's like, okay, well, maybe this is a simple decision. But it all seems so speculative at this point, right? I'm two years into it. I don't feel like I have enough data points to have an idea of exactly the amount of cases that I have coming in, exactly how many exactly how much work I need done, and exactly how much income is coming in for me to start elevating my expenses, which also elevates the risk. Man, I've had that thought process going in my mind for about three to four months, and I just had to let that out. That was more cathartic than anything. But if you're in a similar position, or if you've gotten past that position at any point, please provide the insight in the comment section. Not only will it be helpful for me to see, but I'm sure it'll be helpful for other Law Venture community members. That actually takes me to a natural progression, because if we're talking about Law Venture community members, and you're not one of them, then we need to change that. First things first, obviously, hit the like button of this video. Obviously, subscribe so you see future content when it is rolled out. Second thing's second, head over to LawVenture.com and join the community. When you join the community, which is absolutely free, then you can get your fix of all the freebies LawVenture.com has. There's free cheat sheets, there are free ultimate guides, and there are free courses that you can take and enjoy. So go check that out. Again, LawVenture.com. So we've covered the biggest hurdle that I've had to face with my virtual law firm during year number two. Now let's cover the five lessons that I've learned that have helped me get to the point where I'm at today. Lesson number one, word of mouth is still extremely powerful. Look, if you talk to somebody who has been practicing law and has been solo since the 90s or maybe even before that, you're going to hear basically the same thing. Back in my day, we didn't need no internet billboards or advertising like that. Everyone just knew everyone. It was a small town. That's how I got all my cases, word of mouth. Look, I don't know where the accent came from. Well, I'm from Texas. That's where it came from. I don't know why I stereotyped every, let's say, elderly and established practicing solo lawyer as a small town lawyer with a country accent. I don't know. But the point remains the same, that that old school way of thinking is still very relevant today, meaning that word of mouth is extremely powerful despite this assumption people are incorrectly making, which is that based on all the Facebook ads and the billboard ads and all the lawyers that are out there, it's oversaturated. There's too much competition. It just simply is not the case, and I'm proof of that. Every single one of my cases this year have all come to me through word of mouth referrals. Look, this is probably going to ruffle some feathers. I'm not trying to get anyone triggered, but I can honestly say that the people who think word of mouth is dead and they think that small town environment is no longer applicable today, they're not killing it with their clients. And that's the issue. If you're not building a connection, if you're not really blowing people away with what you do and with how you handle things, why would people be compelled in order to be your billboard? Why would they talk to their family friend, put their reputation on the line, or talk to their patient, put their reputation on the line, and recommend you if they don't have just stellar things to say about you? Lesson number two, establish boundaries. And this one is so hard for me because I really want to do a terrific job for all clients. I want to turn them into that walking billboard, so I want to over deliver. But just because with my virtual law firm, I can work anywhere, everywhere, and at any point in time, doesn't mean I always should. In other words, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. And so what I've had to establish as some type of comfort base is like, okay, at a certain point in time, stop responding to text messages, stop responding to phone calls, stop responding to emails, stop trying to work on this motion, stop actually thinking about the case, even though you're hanging out with the family. Instead, be more present, be more in the moment, take care of yourself, take care of your mind and your body, and that way you can be happier, and that way I don't burn out. Lesson number three, just because you're solo, that doesn't mean you're alone. So with year number two, I've made a serious effort with reaching out to my connections, my friends who are plaintiff's lawyers, in order to just either pick their brain or to just chat. Whenever you're solo, you're no longer working in that law firm environment, you're working from your virtual law firm at the comfort of your home, it's a little weird to not always be seeing someone. Something hilarious happens, a defense lawyer really messed up, or the defendant takes a really goofy deposition, you kind of want to share that experience with someone. While my wife is amazing, she's also a lawyer, but she's an employment defense attorney, so sometimes it doesn't necessarily translate exactly the way I'm trying to translate it to her. And whenever you can talk to people who are in your line of work, who have maybe experienced something similar, you can have those insightful conversations that really resonate with your audience. And one great way with connecting with new people is joining a membership of some sort, or an association of some sort, that way you can find like-minded individuals. Lesson number four, communication is king. So here's what really stressed me out about having the 40 clients. A lawyer was kind of riding off into the sunset, closing up shop with his law firm, he reached out to me to refer his cases to me, said, Jarrett, they're yours if you want them, and he gave me kind of a rundown over the phone what the cases were. I said, hey, look, I'll take those, like, those sound like really solid cases, let's do it. So he sent the cases my way, you know, basically introduced me to the clients, I chatted with the clients, and then I actually looked at the cases at that point in time, and these handful of cases that I had, they were good cases, but they were neglected all with statute of limitations just around the corner. This gave me so much stress. But the benefit of this was that I was able to really compare, contrast how I was handling those cases, these new cases, and how the original attorneys were handling these cases. I say attorneys, plural, because some of these cases had two or maybe even three attorneys before I touched the case. So they've been neglected for a very long time. And so whenever I made these original phone calls to these new clients, they told me the same thing. This lawyer never called me back, this lawyer never said this, this lawyer never updated me, we have no idea what's going on. And as a result, it's like, wow, lawyers don't really communicate the way I communicate. Like, I'm always providing updates. Even if I don't even have an update, I'll let a client know and be like, look, unfortunately, I don't have an update. I'm trying to get this medical record. But this hospital is either losing these requests, or they're doing X, Y, and Z. And it's extremely frustrating. And I kind of like do this mini vent to the client. So they understand that I'm in it with them. Like I'm I'm working my tail off. But then I end it with something like, but we're going to get this knocked out. I'm going to make sure this is taken care of. So that they don't feel like I'm in over my head at the same time. Clients, they always appreciate it. They would rather me be too forthcoming with the information instead of just never responding to them at all. The silver lining to these neglected cases is that these other lawyers set the bar extremely low. And so I told myself, look, I want to knock it out of the park with these new cases as well. Again, gripped my teeth, was grinding it out, got most of them settled, a couple more still pending. But the ones that I have settled, they loved the communication throughout. They felt like they knew exactly what was going on. They felt like I was finally on their team. And they were just over the moon with everything I was doing just because I kept them in the loop. Lesson number five, experience is a double-edged sword. So what I've learned in the last two years is that whenever you're solo, and especially whenever you're kind of at the beginning years of your legal career, you can't stray too far from your comfort zone. You should always, you know, kind of get out of your comfort zone in order to grow your skills. But if you do it too far, too quickly with too many cases, then you're going to spend too much time educating yourself, talking to mentors, having to do research. And that's time you're going to take away from your actual clients that are within your comfort zone. And that amount of time that you're sacrificing, focusing on those current clients, current cases may end up causing those cases to be delayed. And as a result, if those cases are delayed, then those clients may not be happy. And if they're not happy, they may not become your walking billboards. And if they're not your walking billboards, they may not be those word of mouth referrals that you want. And that's how it all comes full circle. See what I did there? That concludes this video. But before you go, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, or just want to say hi, leave that in the comment section down below. Don't forget to smash the like button. Don't forget to subscribe. With all that said, I'll see you in the next video.