Things to Think About Before You Grow: Advice for Small Firms

  • November 30, 2015
  • Carolynne Burkholder-James

When Ches Crosbie started his law firm in the early 1990s, he had no specific plan to grow his practice.

Crosbie, a lawyer with Ches Crosbie Barristers in St. John’s specializing in personal injury, medical malpractice and class action lawsuits, started his firm in 1991 with a partner. When they parted ways due to his partner’s health issues, Crosbie’s wife joined the small practice.

“I guess you could say we were a mom-and-pop shop,” says Crosbie, with a laugh. His wife, Lois Hoegg, is now a justice on the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal.

“If I had my time back, I think I would have done more planning and had more specific objectives. It would have been better if I had had specific objectives about firm size and that kind of thing,” he says. “At the time I started the firm, I knew that personal injury was something I was passionate about and that's what I wanted to do – represent people with legal problems in that area and give them the best experience I could give them.”

Crosbie now has three associates working for him. He says the firm has fluctuated between four and five lawyers.

“It's a comfortable number,” he explains. “If you start going beyond five lawyers there starts to be more management issues and the need for more staff to deal with those issues. It's a comfortable number for a small boutique firm specializing personal injury.”

Likewise, John Lakes says he wasn’t thinking in terms of growth when he and a partner founded Lakes, Whyte LLP, in 1986.

Lakes specializes in wills and estates, real estate and small business in his North Vancouver firm.

“I don't think that anyone really has a plan,” he says. “A lot of people end up being surprised where they are.”

The law firm has grown to include two partners, two associates and an articling student.

“I never wanted to be to be a solo practitioner,” says Lakes. “My father was a solo practitioner and it can be a pretty lonely thing.”

With more than 50 years of experience between them running their own firms, Lakes and Crosbie have several pieces of advice for other lawyers looking to grow their practices:

1. Analyze your reasons for growth

Adding more lawyers won’t necessarily make your firm more efficient, says Crosbie, who notes that what when most people add lawyers what they’re really looking for is more productivity – and consequently more profitability.

“Don't think of how large the firm is in terms of lawyers and staff but in terms of profitability,” he says. “I think that most lawyers who are in the private sector should be interested in profitability before growth. You can grow in that sense without increasing your number of staff or lawyers.”

He recommends that lawyers attempting to grow their practice first look for efficiencies before hiring new associates.

“Ask yourself whether your case management software is being properly used and determine the efficiencies that technology can give you,” Crosbie advises. “Ask yourself if your ratio of support staff to lawyers is appropriate. Are you maximizing the productivity of the lawyers in terms of supporting them that way?”

2. Make good business decisions

Think of law as a business, says Lakes.

“If you are going to run a practice, you have to realize that you're also running a business as well,” he says. “You have to be interested in the business aspect too. You have to be aware of the bottom line and you have to be aware of marketing and you also have to deal with client relationships.”

3. Market your firm

“You can be the best lawyer in your neck of the woods, but if you don't have clients to help by employing those skills on their behalf then you're not doing anyone any good,” says Crosbie. “Marketing is extremely important.”

Crosbie says that he always aims for the “wow factor.”

“The experience of dealing with your firm should exceed the client's expectations and leave them with a feeling of ‘wow’,” he says. “A firm that wants to grow needs to pay close attention to the client experience right from the get-go.”

4. Get help from others

“Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need to,” says Lakes. “There's always a few lawyers around who are willing to give you five minutes of their time.”

Making use of professionals in other fields is a smart move as well.

“You need a good accountant,” he advises. “My accountant is like my best friend. You need someone to advise you in your practice and look at it from the outside looking in.”

“I did my books for about a month and my accountant said, ‘Don't do your books. You're running a business’.”

5. Balance your work and your life

Both Crosbie and Lakes recommend that lawyers running their own practices make time for their families, friends and hobbies.

“You want a manageable life where work doesn't consume all your time,” says Crosbie. “You need to have a balanced life. Business and finance are only part of a balanced life.”

He recommends that lawyers consider their family life and hobbies as part of their business objectives.

Lakes agrees, saying that time off from work is also important.

“I've always said to my staff, ‘You've got to take holidays.’ I make everyone take three weeks of holidays because you need to do that to refresh your mind,” he says.

“I'm still having fun doing what I'm doing,” adds Lakes. “The last thing you want to do is retire because you hate what you're doing. Life's too short.”

Carolynne Burkholder-James is an associate with Heather Sadler Jenkins LLP in Prince George, B.C.