You Don’t Have to Be Available At All Hours May 13, 2010

Most attorneys have the mindset that they have to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  They often feel like they have to take on every case that comes their way, out of fear that they won’t have enough to cover their overhead.  I have to tell you, this is not how I run my law practice.

It seems that a lot of lawyers share these misconceptions.  Here’s the thing, you don’t have to be available around the clock, as that is not an effective use of your time. Plus, in the long run it is not helping your clients.  You could also be sending the wrong impression if you are always available.  For example, would you hire a heart surgeon for a non-emergency procedure who cannot see you for six weeks or would you hire one that isn’t busy and can see you right away?  I’m sure you see the point I am trying to make.

You don’t have to take every case either.  These small cases can quickly steal your time and that of your staff’s.  Here is one way to think about small cases – if you only had an hour, wouldn’t it be better to use it to increase the value of a case worth $100,000 by 10 percent than it would be to increase the value of a $10,000 case by 10 percent?

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