Why Lawyers Must Learn to Collect Fees Early (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jordan Turk, attorney and director of education at Smokeball, and this is the second installment of the 15 Things I Wish I'd Learned in Law School series. Second lesson, you have to be a bill collector. So nobody warns you in your wide-eyed law school days that a significant part of your job will now involve chasing down client payments. It's awkward, it's uncomfortable, and unfortunately, absolutely necessary. And as many of us know, even when you do the best job for a client, from favorable settlements to an appellate decision in your favor, sometimes getting paid for that work is like pulling teeth. So here are a few tips to help ease your payment woes based on my many fun experiences as a family law attorney. One, set expectations early with your clients and quote a high enough retainer where you aren't shooting yourself in the foot. Two, send invoices regularly. Clients shouldn't be waiting months to receive their bill. Three, follow up on unpaid invoices about a week after you send out the original ones. And four, know when to just withdraw from a case. If they are two invoices behind, hate to break it to you, but you are officially working for free until you finally wise up and get off that case. And hopefully it's far away enough from trial or a hearing where the judge will actually grant it. Don't leave it down to the wire on that stuff. Do you have any fun stories or tips for this topic? Comment and let me know. Also, if you want the next installment of the 15 Things I Wish I Had Learned in Law School series, make sure to follow or subscribe to get notified of new videos. See y'all later.