What You Need Once Your Legal Practice Becomes Operational

Opening a legal practice is a big undertaking. The people who are in most need of legal services rarely have the money to afford them. Nevertheless, the overhead, years of research, years of study, and skilled labor that goes into a professional practice make it impossible to lower prices and maintain any quality of service.

Most attorneys are able to find a particular niche of law that has strong paying clients and plenty of work to keep them busy. But once your legal practice becomes operational, there are a few things you will need to make it fully operational. Let's consider what they are below.

#1: A Subscription to Lexis Nexis and Westlaw

Every legal practice relies on access to a full spectrum of case-law and rules to draft legal documents and briefs. Without knowledge of the current controlling laws and the contours of how each law and rule is defined by the courts, attorneys will be lightly regarded and can find themselves facing disciplinary action for willful negligence.

The best online programs for legal research are Lexis Nexis and WestLaw. Because the courts themselves use these platforms for legal research, it will be easy for them to look up precedents that you cite for their own internal research and verification.

Ravel Law is a data and analytics tool that can be integrated with Lexis Advanced to make these tools even more powerful. Investing in an annual subscription for Bloomberg Law is another must-have for any attorney who wants to keep an edge by keeping tabs on the latest noteworthy decisions.

#2: Experts and Reporters

In order for an attorney to be prepared for full representation of clients, they need to have access to leading experts in various types of forensics and court reporters for many hearings. Although the courts have their own reporters for many proceedings, depositions, preliminary hearings, and other proceedings may require attorneys to retain their own court reporters. Court Reporters Portland is one resource that many Oregon attorneys go through for help.

Ensuring that your expert witnesses are respected in the field and leaders in their various trades can provide an attorney with the evidentiary edge they need to compel jurors in highly debated trials. In fact, the pre-trial reports by expert witnesses are often enough to persuade insurance companies to settle in personal injury cases.

#3: Paralegals

The more work that a law firm books, the more reliant they become on in-house paralegals to handle most of the research and document drafting. Starting a working relationship early with at least one talented paralegal can help to secure a solid workforce of paralegals in the future.

If you have one talented paralegal who has been with the law firm from the beginning, they can eventually move into a managerial position to oversee other paralegals working in the law firm.

Paralegals can perform 99 percent of the work for attorneys because they are effectively up to date on all the case-law and document drafting skills. It is only the job of the attorney to review documents and arguments before they are submitted to the courts.

Finding high-quality paralegals who could, themselves, act as attorneys if the occasion permitted it is not difficult. Finding paralegals who have passionately studied law for a decade or more can even result in a long-term partnership.

Many paralegals will work independently in carrying out research for clients that produces leads for additional attorney legal representation services. And that is the Achilles heel of a paralegal, that they are not authorized to practice law and require the constant supervision of a licensed attorney to perform any legal services.

Finding the right building, starting to advertise, and taking on cases is only the beginning of a law firm. In order to succeed, attorneys have to find the right colleagues to provide a full range of services. Attorneys who quickly realize that it is a team effort will fare the best in the long-run.