Starting a Law Firm - When to Start?

When you look at the bottom of each post in Starting a Law Firm, you will notice that it is written by HTSALF. Clearly this is a pen name, but what does it mean? Pretty simple really - How to Start a Law Firm. Look, as a Maryland DUI attorney, or Virginia criminal attorney, I don't need to be original. We don't reinvent the wheel. But the real question is: "why use a pen name in the first place?" It's because I want this blog to stay anonymous, at least for now.

In any event, the title of this post asks the question of when to start your small law firm, and the answer can be divided into two separate pieces. The first is when to start planning for starting your law firm and the second is when to actually open your law firm.

Once you have made the decision to start a law firm, you should start planning immediately. Opening a business takes a lot of researching, plaanning, and implementing. You want to be as ready as possible whenever you open your days. How much time do you need to plan? It really depends on the person. But I would leave several months at a bare minimum.

No matter when you open your law firm, you will feel as though you didn't do enough preparation. One thing that I did, which may be helpful, is provide a "soft" opening in order to get your feet wet. The reason I did it was because I had to open on very short notice, and it helped with some of my planning. But I think a soft opening can also be a good idea if you have plenty of time to plan and simply want to make the transition a little easier. Also, you won't be pressured with a specific opening date, which helps because you already will have enough pressure to succeed.