Contents: How to Start a Law Firm
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3. Getting Support: Networking and Hiring
There is so much to consider when starting your own law firm. Deciding to hang your own shingle is an exciting journey that can be very rewarding. As starting your own law firm involves a lot of research, planning, and work, it’s a good idea to build up a reliable support network of friends, family, colleagues, and mentors that will help lead you on the path to success.
Whether it be for general small business upkeep advice or practice area specific advice, the right people are there to help you—if you know where to look.
Learn how to build the right team around your firm: Clio’s free Guide to Starting a Law Firm covers staffing and support alongside every other phase of launching a modern practice. Download the free guide today!
Assembling an all star law firm staff
When you first start your law firm, your full-time employee count will likely stay at one for a while. But during this period, you may also decide that you need part-time or contract help.
This is when hiring staff for your law firm quickly becomes top of mind. Some of the initial staff positions can include:
- Legal assistants / Paralegals
- Office managers
- Legal consultants
When hiring a legal assistant or paralegal, you can hire locally or remotely (virtual legal assistant). A legal assistant is immensely helpful for:
- Administrative tasks (i.e. data entry)
- Freeing up your time to focus on delivering better client service
- Allow you to bring on more law firm clients
- Empowering you to effectively handle matters and other tasks
Similarly, paralegals can improve your law firm’s efficiency, save you time, and help provide a better overall client-centered experience.
Depending on your area of practice, a legal assistant’s scope of work could include:
- Scheduling appointments
- Billing and accounting
- Managing contracts
- Reviewing documents
- Legal research
Remember to keep timing in mind when staffing your law firm. If you hire too early, there may not be enough work to justify having an entire legal staff.
So, how do you know when it’s time to hire staff for your law firm? Some signs include:
- You find yourself taking on too much work
- Your client experience is suffering
- You’re struggling to manage your day-to-day tasks
- You can’t take on any new cases
It’s helpful to look at how much of your time goes to billable work, too. Clio’s 2023 Legal Trends for Solo Law report found that solo lawyers complete only two hours of billable work each day. This indicates that they’re spending far too much time on administrative tasks—and could benefit from some extra help.
Everything you need to start a law firm—in one checklist How to Start a Law Firm Checklist
Hire a legal consultants
When you first start out, it’s unlikely that you’ll be staffing your law firm right away. Which makes law firm consultants an attractive alternative.
Unlike full time staff legal assistants, consultants work almost exclusively on contracts. From web designers and bookkeepers to IT consultants and more, hiring an expert can make starting your own law firm much easier and more manageable.
When hiring a legal consultants, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Qualifications: You need to know whether a consultant is qualified to make sure they will do the best job possible. Ask for examples of their work, references, and certifications.
- Location: While most consultants have shifted to remote work, consider whether location matters. Different jurisdictions have specific regulations for lawyers, so it may be wise to hire local consultants who are more familiar with those requirements.
- Working hours: When you start your law firm, you may not be working the traditional 9-5 hours. Instead, you may need to work early mornings, late evenings, or throughout the day. You may also find yourself without a set schedule, depending on your workload. Be sure to coordinate working hours with consultants to ensure meeting times are aligned, especially if you are in different time zones.
- Support: Before starting a project with a consultant, ask if they can provide ongoing support. For example, if your systems need upgrading after an IT consultant sets them up for you, will they assist in providing instructions or guidance?
- Rates: Lastly, you should compare rates between consultants to get the best return on investment (ROI). Remember, a good ROI doesn’t mean the cheapest rate. Compare and get quotes from at least two or three options before committing.
Invest in staff training and development
In many jurisdictions, lawyers must complete continuing legal education (CLE) requirements to maintain their licenses to practice law. After all, being a lawyer means keeping up to date with the latest changes in law, technology, and practice management.
When it comes to training and development, it’s important to balance your CLE requirements with additional upskilling as a new business owner.
There are also programs that fit your CLE requirements while showing the fundamentals of owning a solo law firm:
Some programs are free, while others charge a fee. However, depending on the content and lessons involved, it can be a worthwhile investment. When you first start your law firm, it’s always a good idea to be lean—but the key is to spend wisely on positive, long-term investments.
For instance, Clio offers free courses that meet your CLE expectations and requirements. Every month, we bring in experts to speak on cases and updates, new legal technologies, and best practices for running your law firm. Courses range topics like AI in Legal Marketing and How to Automate Client Intake.
View our upcoming CLE-eligible event schedule here
Find your community
There’s a lot more to running your own firm than just practicing law.
You also need to keep the operations side running smoothly. And that’s where legal insights and resources can be a big help. These include:
- Knowledge on setting your rates
- How to file during tax season
- How to keep growing your business
Take it from Stephen C. Paul, who with the help of Pitt Legal Services Incubator, a program designed to help lawyers hang their own shingle, Stephen learned the fundamentals of running a business.
Find your own community through events put on by your local bar association or by small business associations. You could also join Facebook or LinkedIn groups to connect with lawyers in your local jurisdiction.
Here are some other communities to get you started:
- LawyerSmack: LawyerSmack is an online community with 100+ channels dedicated to different legal topics, including one just for starting your own law firm. Members range from local to international and bring a wide range of experiences.
- r/LawFirm on Reddit: While this forum is a more informal option, it’s a good choice to find casual discussion, and talk about the nuts and bolts of running your law firm. If you are a licensed attorney, you can also apply to get access to the lawyer subreddit.
- The Law Community (TLC): With legal tech at the heart of TLC, this community that gives legal professionals an online space to share tips, best practices, and pick up new tech skills.
Taking advantage of online resources can be helpful as well. The Clio blog has scores of articles—from how to write a law firm business plan, to what technology your law firm will need, to tips for staffing a law firm.
Final thoughts on finding the right people for your law firm
Proper research and planning can help set your law firm up for success. But having a support system can make a big difference when you run into challenges. Starting your own law firm will be made so much easier by learning from consultants, other lawyers, and mentors.
You don’t need to get everything right on the first try. Getting started is the important part. But if you’re keen to start hiring and aren’t sure where to start, check out our free guide on how to hire for success, which covers the bet recruitment practices to guide your hiring journey.
The right people are one part of the picture. Beyond hiring, Clio’s Guide to Starting a Law Firm walks you through every phase of launching a modern practice. Get your free copy here.!
Law Firm Staffing FAQs
How do you staff a law firm?
Most new firms start with a staff of one and add help gradually as the workload grows. Your options range from part-time or virtual legal assistants and paralegals to office managers, contract professionals, and eventually permanent hires. The goal is to match support to your actual needs, taking administrative work off your plate so you can focus on billable, client-facing work. Start lean, watch how your time is spent, and bring people on as the data supports it.
When should you hire your first employee at a law firm?
It’s usually time to hire when the work consistently outpaces you. Common signs include taking on too much to handle well, a client experience that’s starting to slip, struggling to keep up with day-to-day tasks, or turning away cases you would otherwise take. It also helps to watch how much of your day goes to billable work, since solo lawyers often spend far more time on administration than billable tasks. Let those signals drive the decision.
Who should you hire first at a law firm?
For most new firms, the first hire is a legal assistant or paralegal who can absorb administrative work like scheduling, billing, document review, and legal research. That frees you to focus on client service and take on more matters. You can hire locally or bring on a virtual assistant who works remotely, which often costs less and widens your options. An office manager or bookkeeper may come later, once your operations grow more complex.
What does a paralegal or legal assistant do?
A paralegal or legal assistant handles the supporting work that keeps a firm running, so you can spend more time practicing law. Depending on your practice area, that can include scheduling appointments, billing and accounting, managing contracts, reviewing documents, and conducting legal research. By taking these tasks off your plate, they improve your efficiency, free up your time, and help you deliver a better, more responsive client experience, which in turn lets you take on more clients.
Should you hire employees or work with contractors?
Early on, contractors and consultants are often a smarter fit than full-time employees. You can bring in web designers, bookkeepers, IT specialists, or contract attorneys for specific needs without the commitment and overhead of a permanent hire. As your workload becomes steady and predictable, a part-time or full-time employee may make sense. Many firms use a mix, leaning on contractors for specialized or occasional work and hiring staff for the day-to-day as they grow.
How do you choose a legal consultant or freelancer?
When hiring a consultant, weigh five things. Check their qualifications by asking for work samples, references, and certifications. Consider whether location matters, since some jurisdictions have specific rules a local consultant will know better. Coordinate working hours, especially across time zones, since your schedule may not be a standard nine to five. Ask whether they offer ongoing support after the project ends. Finally, compare rates from a few options, remembering the best value is not always the cheapest.
How do you build a support network when starting a solo law firm?
Starting a firm is easier with people in your corner, so build your network early. Lean on friends, family, colleagues, and mentors for both encouragement and practical advice, whether that’s general business guidance or practice-area expertise. Local bar association events and small business associations are good places to meet other practitioners, and a trusted mentor who has started their own firm can be invaluable. These relationships often become some of your most reliable support over time.
Where can solo lawyers find a community of peers?
Beyond your personal network, online communities connect you with lawyers facing the same challenges. LawyerSmack offers dedicated channels for solo practice, the r/LawFirm subreddit hosts informal discussion on running a firm, and The Law Community focuses on legal technology and best practices. Local bar association sections and LinkedIn or Facebook groups for your jurisdiction are valuable too. These peer communities are a low-cost way to get practical, real-world advice as you build your practice.
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