Long hours – but finally feeling productive…
I got up this morning, didn’t want to crawl out of my warm bed but convinced myself that I needed to, and went to the gym. I made it to the office at a decent hour, had no more unpacking or organizing to do, and got to work.
I managed to sit and work for almost ten hours on a billable project and actually got done what I needed to get done. After sitting and working like that for myself, I felt slightly delirious, but once I entered my time into my case management software a calm, satisfied feeling came over me.
Now, after writing on stuff for a full day, then coming home for dinner and returning to my computer to work on different projects, I find myself having a tough time getting this post written. I think the lesson for today, other than how good it feels to get some substantial billable hours in, is that picking the area of the law that I want to practice is going to be really important.
I’m not sure I want to be a trial lawyer
So I sat in my office and had very little interaction with anyone today other than a few client calls to clarify some issues, and a few emails and calls with other attorneys. I just got to work on my issue and didn’t have to tussle with any of the noise.
I realized that this is probably the ideal situation for my practice. I’m not saying that I don’t like social interaction, but at the same time I remember in my previous job often thinking that this job wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for all the people.
This realization is probably going to lead me to try to work on cultivating the type of business where I don’t have to leave the office to go to court and deal with lots of procedural issues on a regular basis.
I look at the other lawyers in my office who are constantly in trial and dealing with trial-client issues, and I’m not sure that is for me. I tend to romanticize the idea of being a great trial lawyer and battling in court to win big for my clients, and even the idea of renouncing that type of advocacy somewhat tugs at my pride, but the more I think about it I’m not sure that kind of career is for me.
That said, I am planning on signing up for some appointments lists next week to get the trial experience. I am pretty sure I can get some regular income from appointments while I am sorting out getting transactional work.
Endless possibilities
I’ve reached out to a local CPA about meeting up. I need an accountant and also need to meet with local businesspeople to expand my network. I also have a lead on meeting up with a financial advisor to talk to him about sending some business my way. Those sources seem to be reasonable ways to get the kinds of clients I want.
Also, I think doing immigration work will help satisfy my transactional desires. Most of that kind of work is limited to semi-transactional business with little interaction with the courts. I need to figure out how to advertise more for immigration work and get my name out in that area. I’ll probably get referrals from clients that I am working with now, but that area needs to be developed.
At least I have a nice place to work now
I think a big part of my satisfaction with working all day today in my office is because of how nice it turned out. It is still a little bit of a mess and needs some work, primarily I need to hang my degrees and licenses, but overall it is a really nice place to spend my day.