r/solofirm

I'm really interested in law brand and marketing right now. The majority of the time, the big law firms, visual identity and marketing strategy seems terrible or non existent, at the very least basic compared to other industries.

What is the situation in the solo firm industry, do you just not have time to do this, even though it could be the biggest impact to the bottom line? Or is it something you don't see as important compared to referrals and physical introductions? I assume it's massively different to the large firms?

For me I feel like the biggest impact a solo firm could do is content for GEO/owned media, am I wrong?

Do you run your law firm like a business, or like a legal practice that employs people?

We recently spoke with a law firm owner who left Big Law after becoming interested in the startup world.

He realized he couldn’t walk into an established company and say, “Fire your current lawyers and hire me.” But as a solo attorney, he could serve smaller startups and investment funds that larger firms often overlooked.

That gave him a place to start. Nearly 20 years later, his firm has grown to 55 people.

One of his biggest lessons was that being a strong attorney did not automatically make him a strong business owner.

At first, he thought growth was mostly about creating better systems, explaining those systems to the team, and expecting people to follow them. Then the firm grew, and the systems started breaking.

He learned that systems need constant work, but the people using them matter even more. The firm began investing heavily in hiring, extended onboarding, employee development, and clear channels for communication and feedback.

The goal was not simply to give employees a procedure to follow. It was to build a team capable of maintaining and improving the business without waiting for the owner to solve every problem.

I suspect many attorneys inside larger firms want more control over how legal services are delivered. They may want to build something of their own but have no idea where to begin.

For the law firm owners here….

Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur, or primarily an attorney who owns a practice?

What has made the greatest difference in growing your firm?

Have systems or people been the harder part of scaling?

If you could advise yourself at the beginning of firm ownership, what would you say?

I’m a solo (employment, commercial litigation) just getting off the ground and have recently decided to go with Clio over Practice Panther. I’m interested to know how anyone currently using Clio gets the most out of Clio Grow and Clio Work. Thanks in advance!