What do you think about when you think of a lawyer’s life in a traditional firm? The fight to make partner? Working long hours? High stress? A competitive working environment? Putting your firm’s interests before your own?
Consultant lawyers at Setfords don’t think about those things because, well, they don’t have to. That is not what their life is like. Instead our lawyers tend to think about these five things: a longer life, better relationships, earning more money, a healthier way of living and overall greater happiness.
In the previous five blogs in this series I have outlined in detail why you gain each of these benefits as a consultant at Setfords (you can read these blogs by clicking on the links at the bottom of this article). But let me quickly recap. A longer life comes from reduced stress because you are in control of your career. Better relationships come from working hours that you control and a commute time of whatever it takes to walk from your kitchen to your home office.
Do it the Danish way: trust, security, wealth and freedom
More money comes from our fee-share scheme that allows you to earn up to 80% of what you bill. Being healthier comes from less stress and flexible working. Finally, overall happiness comes from you enjoying trust, security, wealth and freedom – four things the Danes are said to enjoy in such abundance their country is regularly found in surveys to be the happiest in the world.
In the past five weeks I’ve had some terrific feedback about these blogs, and no shortage of people who have got in touch about becoming consultants – we’re due to interview a number of them in the coming weeks. But in some cases people were unsure if they had what it took to become a consultant. So I thought it might be helpful to outline the seven things I think you should do next if you are considering becoming a consultant lawyer.
Seven considerations for future consultants
- Ask yourself three key questions. Do you have a few clients that would follow you if you were to move? Do you have confidence you could find new clients? Do you want a better way of working? If the answers to all of the above are yes, then move onto point two.
- Make sure you have a financial buffer. It doesn’t have to be a large one, especially if you have a number of clients who have committed to following you, but it does need to be enough to tide you over for those first few months as you establish yourself. When becoming a consultant lawyer you are effectively setting up your own business, and all businesses need seed capital to get off the ground.
- Make sure the law firm you choose is the right one for you – a place that shares your ideals. At Setfords we pride ourselves on a few key things, namely offering the biggest and best support in the industry, a large team of like-minded lawyers across multiple disciplines that you can refer clients to, and finally, not setting billing targets. This is important. We believe as a consultant you should be free to decide what is the right number of clients for you. Some people think they want to be consultants, but perhaps secretly enjoy the highly competitive culture of high billing targets, late nights and too many clients. That’s not us. We don’t think it’s healthy for you and we don’t believe it leads to the best possible service for your clients. We believe happy lawyers, delivering great service, attract the best clients.
- Make sure your family are behind you. This might be a wife, husband or partner, your children or your friends. Whatever you call family make sure you have their support. It’s a big decision to start your own business, and it’s important you feel supported. Support is what we’re all about, but we understand we can only offer so much – you need a wider support structure too.
- Believe in yourself. You might be thinking your long-standing loyal clients remain so because of the firm you represent. But trust me, that’s nonsense. Your clients remain loyal because of the service YOU deliver. And as long as you continue to deliver that same level of service, or an even better one, your clients will want to follow you. Which brings me back to my previous point – make sure the consultancy you choose is going to offer the support you need to deliver.
- Make a plan. You will be surprised what great ideas you will come up with when you put to pen to paper. And once you have your plan come and discuss it with us. We have business development, marketing and PR experts that can help make your ideas a reality.
- Start to wonder what you could achieve with the right support. Think big. The truth is the possibilities of being a consultant are endless. You can genuinely change your life. You can earn a lot more money, have better relationships with your clients, have better personal relationships, be healthier, live longer, be happier – I could go on.
Let go of limitations and let’s talk
We have over 180 lawyers who now live the life I’ve been describing. Explore this site and you will find real quotes from real lawyers describing their experience. My favourite: “It’s been more successful than I could possibly have imagined.” On the website you will also find a host of other helpful information including an earnings table and a breakdown of the support we provide.
If you currently work with a team of lawyers there is nothing stopping them from joining too, and us recreating that same dynamic. There are no limitations.
I cannot tell you how excited I am when I meet lawyers who are considering making this move. If you’re one of them why don’t you get in touch via our website or email me and we can arrange to meet.
I look forward to discussing how together, Setfords can make your future work for you.
