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Scott Benton: Hi, everyone. Scott Benton here. I am your host on the Classroom to Courtroom podcast.
And today, the question that we’re going to address is, How can you convert? your JD law degree into a revenue stream. How can you convert your law degree in a revenue stream? Because presumably you’ve gone to law school and you’ve spent all this money on tuition.
You might even have some student loans that you’ve got to pay off. And you now want to, after you’ve graduated, after you’ve passed the bar, you want to be able to go to work and you want to convert that diploma that you have into a revenue stream. I mean, that presumably is the entire point of why you went to law school in the first place.
So let’s get into that a little
bit.
Now, before we discover [00:01:00] how we’re going to do that exactly, let’s take a look at the mission statement of a law school. Now, is the mission statement for a law school about Getting you into a position where you are practicing law as an attorney. Is it putting you in a place where you’re going to generate a lot of revenue?
I would argue that it is not, that is not the mission statement of a law school. That’s not the mission statement of any law school. The mission statement of any law school is to get you to graduate. law school. That’s what they’re doing. They’re not actually teaching you how to practice law. And by the way, you may notice that in a lot of law schools, probably all of them, they sort of kick that can down the road a little bit and they push off that idea of teaching you how to practice law to the law firm that you go and work for.
Or maybe you [00:02:00] start your own law firm, in which case, If you don’t know how to teach yourself how to practice law, how exactly are you going to learn how to practice law as an attorney? I guess through trial and error, but they’re not really teaching you at law school how to practice law as an attorney.
They are teaching you how to graduate law school and how to get your JD degree. Now by the same token, after you’ve finished law school and you’ve graduated, the next step in that process generally is you’re going to study for the bar. A lot of times you’re going to take a bar prep program. So we also have to look at the mission statement of a bar prep program.
Are they in the business, is their mission statement about getting you to practice law as an attorney? And the answer again would be no. So what would the mission statement be for a bar prep program? Well, just like law school is trying to get you to graduate and get your [00:03:00] JD degree. A bar prep program is interested in getting you past the bar.
They want you to pass the bar. which you want as well, but they’re not in the business, like law school, they’re not in the business of teaching you how to practice law as an attorney. Okay, so now you have graduated from law school, you’ve passed the bar, you have your ticket, you’re all ready to go, you are a licensed attorney.
So, you start to look for a job in the legal field, and you go to these firms, and you need to know What the mission statement is of the firm now is the mission statement about Getting you to graduate law school. It is not at all. Is the mission statement about having you pass the bar? No, they’ve already expected you to have graduated law school, that you have your JD, that’s part of the requirement of practicing as an attorney, and that you’ve passed [00:04:00] the bar and that you’re licensed.
Now you can work as an attorney. But the mission statement of a firm is to provide High quality legal services for the clients that they serve. That’s their mission statement. So if you are coming into a law firm or you’re interviewing with a law firm, let’s say, and your expectation is that they are going to teach you how to practice law, well, that’s not really what their mission statement is.
That’s not what they’re looking for. They’re not looking for people who need to learn how to practice law. They’re looking for people Who know how to practice law because their mission statement is to provide quality legal services for their clients. So that is what you are going there to help them accomplish.
You’re not going there to have them teach you. Now, let’s take a 30, 000 foot view of a law firm for a minute. So that we can put that in a [00:05:00] context. Now, a law firm is well, any business really, but a law firm in this context specifically is a system of systems. Okay. So a law firm is going to have all their systems in place.
In other words, how they bring in new clients, how they do. Intake for those their new clients they’ll have a csa a client services agreement for instance And so there’s a whole process for that There’s going to be an entire system for providing legal services and for billing the client and on and on and on There are going to be all of these systems in place and The systems in one law firm are not necessarily going to be duplicated in another law firm.
So if you move from one law firm to another, and you’ve learned the systems in one law firm, chances are you’re not going to know the systems in the new law firm. I mean, you might know some of them. There may be some things that are the same, but chances are they’re going to have different systems.
different systems [00:06:00] that are going to accomplish the same thing, and you’re going to have to learn the new systems. So, going back to the question of how you convert your JD degree into a revenue stream, the answer lies within the idea of continuous education, continuous learning. So, when you sign up for To be an attorney when this is going to be the direction that you’re going to pursue when this is going to become your profession and you are a professional attorney providing legal services for your clients that you are working with, then you’re going to have to know that every single day.
You come into the office every single day that you’re working on a case, you’re going to be confronted with new areas that you don’t know you’re going to be put in a situation where You’re not exactly sure how to accomplish something. I mean, the law changes all the time. [00:07:00] Processes changes all the time.
The world changes all the time. And so you’re going to have to be nimble enough to pivot with those changes, and you’re going to be confronted with learning new material every single day. I mean, if you talk to people who have practiced as attorneys, and let’s say it’s just even in one field, they are confronted with new information every day or new processes or ideas that they have not confronted before or they don’t know.
So You have to be able to figure out how to learn something that’s new that you’re confronting. Now, as a new lawyer, when you go into a firm for the first time, when you’re working as an attorney for the first time, there’s going to be a lot of subjects that you don’t know. Again, you’re going to have to go and learn all the subject material that law firm is working on.
You’re going to have to learn all of their systems. You’re going to want to have a practice guide with you. Probably at all times that you’re highlighting and going through so that you know that subject and [00:08:00] you have that resource in front of you that you can go to because otherwise you’re just going to be lost in that particular area of law.
You need to be able to have resources, so you need to know What all the resources are that you can go to now when you start working at a law firm, you want to, of course, capitalize on your social connections in that law firm. So you want to get to know the people in that law firm. You want to build relationships when you get there.
You want to make sure that all those relationships are strong and that you know who to go to when you have a question. Now, it’s not that law firms aren’t going to teach you how to practice law. They are going to provide resources for you. In a lot of cases, there’s going to be mentorship that they’re going to provide to you.
They want to make sure that you are getting up to speed and that you’re able to do the job, know, as quickly as possible. And so they’re going to provide. a resource just in terms of their knowledge. Maybe they’ve [00:09:00] been working at this law firm for several years and they have a wider range of knowledge than you do and you’re going to need to know when to go to them with your questions.
Now you’re also going to need to know that you can, for instance, Go find files that are of like cases, and let’s say there’s a form you’re filling out. Well, you want to go find a file with a case that has a similar form to it. But the point is that you need to know where to go get those resources.
Whether it’s with people at the firm, or files, or you want to go to your practice guide, or whatever. There’s going to be a moment every single day. in your life, no matter how long you work as an attorney, where that gap is gonna open up that gap of unknowing that gap where you haven’t done the thing that you need to do that’s right in front of you.
And when you’re starting as an attorney, that could even be something like going to a hearing. Sometimes Even things like going to a [00:10:00] hearing are going to be unfamiliar to you. And so you’re going to need to figure out what going to a hearing is all about and how you need to prepare for that. You’re going to need to maybe go to a senior attorney or another attorney who has done many hearings and you’re going to need to ask them.
What it is that you need to pay attention to now at some point, you’re just going to have to jump right in. You’re going to have to jump into the pool. You’re going to have to jump into the deep end. At some point, you’re going to be uncomfortable and you’re just going to have to push your way through it.
Now, it’s one thing when you’re doing your first hearing or trial. It’s another thing when you’re doing your 10th, and by the time you’ve done your 10th trial, it’s going to be much more familiar to you. It’s going to be a process that you’ve done over and over and over again. And in terms of continuous learning, And improving your skill sets and improving the skills that you already have.
You want to improve the areas that you’re strong in. You want to improve the areas that you’re [00:11:00] weak in. Because, believe it or not, everyone’s going to know that you’re weak in a subject. You’re going to know that you’re weak in a subject. So, you’re going to want to think about how to improve that area in your life.
You want to do your CLEs, for example, or you want to go take a class. Maybe you want to, you know, Go to trial school, for instance, you’re going to want to sign up and go take these courses for either your CLEs or just on your own, or you want to read books about it or do something. You want to watch YouTube videos, for instance, maybe there are and I know this for a fact, cause I just went and looked them up.
There are YouTube videos on how to do an online deposition for instance. So. Maybe you have to do a zoom call and this is going to be a three hour deposition and it’s going to be online and you need to know how to present. those items, those exhibits, you want to know how to do that, but maybe you’re not familiar with zoom or maybe you don’t know how to do a deposition.
So you want to go talk to an attorney or [00:12:00] maybe a paralegal who knows who’s done this several times and they can fill you in and get you up to speed so that when you go into that online remote deposition you’ll have an idea of how to do that just by virtue of watching YouTube videos. Maybe you want to practice doing a deposition with another attorney or maybe another legal assistant or a law clerk or somebody so that you know how to work all of the tools, but it’s going to be about continuous education and just recognize that you’re going to find yourself in that gap of unknowing all of the time.
One of the secrets that I’ve heard from other attorneys that it’s like a mantra that runs through their head is they know that they need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and you need to know that you’re going to be uncomfortable frequently and you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and recognize that you’re in that gap, recognize that you’re in that space and that you’re in that uncomfortable [00:13:00] place and you need to know.
How to Stop and find an answer to the question of how to do the thing it is that you’re trying to do, whether that’s going to other people in the law firm, whether that’s watching a YouTube video, whether that’s going to your practice guide, whether that’s going to the files and finding if you’re going to do a deposition, for instance, finding a transcript or reading several transcripts that have already been done in depositions, In the types of cases that you’re working on right now.
So you want to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s a little bit of a paradox, I know, but just understand that your entire legal career is going to be about finding yourself in a place where you don’t know the subject or the task that is in front of you that you now need to complete. And again, the law is changing all the time.
The world is changing all the time. So you need to know how to stop and pivot, you need to know where to go, and you need to get comfortable with being [00:14:00] uncomfortable, and you need to know how to solve those items that you are going to confront where you don’t know how to fill out a form, you don’t know how to do a deposition, you don’t know how to do a hearing, you don’t know how to go to a trial, that’s just going to come up over and over and over again, and these are things that you’re going to have to pay attention to in order to Gain that knowledge and this is exactly how you’re going to convert your JD diploma, your law degree into a revenue stream because the more that you focus on continuous learning and not just for a short period of time throughout your career, even if you’ve been practicing for 10, 20, 30 years, understand that you are making a commitment as an attorney, as a professional to lifelong continuous learning, and that this is going to come up for you.
every single day. So I hope this has been helpful. I am your host on the Classroom to Courtroom podcast. My name is Scott Benton and if you’d like to get our Alerts. If [00:15:00] you’d like to check us out a little bit closer, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom2courtroom. com. That’s classroom, the number two courtroom.
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Thank you very much.
Wonderful episode!