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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. I am the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast, How Are You? We are here to help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun and enjoyable for everyone. And today we’re going to talk about what it means to work as an attorney for fun and profit.
[00:00:29] Scott Benton: What does it mean to work as an attorney for fun and profit?
[00:00:32] Scott Benton: [00:01:00] Here’s what I’m getting at. As we know, once you become an attorney and join a law firm, you’re going to show up Monday through Friday in an office somewhere, or maybe another location like a courthouse.
[00:01:30] Scott Benton: And when it comes to working with clients, and really for the sake of this discussion, we’re going to assume that there are two different ways for you to go the minute you find yourself in a working zone. So when the clock strikes go and you’re billing for your time and you have a choice from that point forward that you need to decide how you’re going to work, of either making your work feel like you’re in jail serving out a jail sentence, or you can make your day go quickly, and it’s going to feel [00:02:00] fun and it’s going to make your firm very profitable, because once word gets out, people most likely are going to want to line up to hire you as their attorney. The good news is you get to choose. Do you want your work week to feel like jail? Or do you want it to be a source of fun that energizes you over and over again? And it keeps your mind fully engaged, such that it seems like you blink and the day is already over.
[00:02:25] Scott Benton: Chances are you would much rather have a job as an attorney, where you look forward to coming back to it day after day, and when the closing bell rings, You actually gotta force yourself to go home for the evening and you can’t wait to get up in the morning, jump out of bed and get back to the office.
[00:02:40] Scott Benton: Now the difference between the two polar opposite scenarios that I’ve described is that you have a choice to make every day whether you’re going to work on the cases from the outside in or from the inside out. And that decision is going to make the difference between finding yourself in job jail or job heaven.
[00:02:59] Scott Benton: If you [00:03:00] choose to work on your cases from the outside in, then you can go straight to your office and close your jail cell door because it’s going to feel like an extremely long drawn out day. And by the end of it, all you’re going to want to do is go home, turn on the television, and in about three seconds, you’re going to be fast asleep on your couch.
[00:03:19] Scott Benton: So that leaves the second choice, which is to work on your cases from the inside out. And if you make that decision, then you’re probably going to meet and exceed your minimum billable hourly requirement. And that everything you do is going to feel like a significant accomplishment, and it’s going to seem as if you blink, and now it’s time to go home.
[00:03:40] Scott Benton: You get in your car, and instead of going home, you decide to go spend time with friends for a nice midweek dinner get together somewhere at a fancy restaurant. You go home and you turn in for the evening, you wake up before your alarm goes off feeling refreshed and energized. And since we’re talking about working as an attorney for fun and profit, let’s zoom in [00:04:00] just a little bit closer on the idea of working on your cases from the inside out.
[00:04:05] Scott Benton: Because, what does that mean exactly? Now this is something we talk about a lot on this podcast. This subject does come up, so you’re going to find other episodes where we go a little bit more in depth. If working on your case from the outside in means showing up and performing only the more superficial legal services that are sitting there right in front of you, without much interaction from your client, then working on your case from the inside out is exactly the opposite.
[00:04:31] Scott Benton: In other words you know that you’re working on your case from the inside out when you’re spending significant amounts of time talking to your client, Getting to know them really well, like knowing all the names of the people in their family and knowing about their history and where they went to school and what kind of car they drive and the pets they have and the pet’s names and the baseball schedules.
[00:04:51] Scott Benton: And you’re letting your client talk and tell you freely everything that they know. You’re also asking them questions that allow them just to go deeper and deeper into [00:05:00] their own story. And then what happened? And then what happened? And then tell me more about that so you’re getting to the why behind your client’s case, which tells you the often more hidden reasons that are driving your client’s decision to hire you as their attorney. And you’re also forming a strong trusting relationship with them, and you want that with your client, so it gets to the point where they trust you just 100%, they’re willing to tell you anything about the case.
[00:05:26] Scott Benton: So this is how you work on a case from the inside out as opposed to from the outside in. And this is exactly the moment when you know that you’ve been able to reach that important relationship building milestone. And maybe even prove to yourself that you’ve got everything it takes and all the skills that you need to really become a truly exceptional attorney.
[00:05:50] Scott Benton: Now, ultimately, that’s going to allow you to gather case facts and it’s going to help you reach that why behind your client’s drive to achieve their legal goals. That [00:06:00] alone is going to fill up your to do list with focused and strategic tasks to complete without wasting your time or the client’s time and your day is going to be saturated with all the legal services that you’ve completed and that you have in front of you and that you’ve billed for.
[00:06:15] Scott Benton: And that is how you, as an attorney, can practice law for fun and profit, really not just for the day or the week, but for the entirety of your legal career.
[00:06:27] Scott Benton: So I hope that’s been helpful. My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. Now if this podcast is material that you like and you want to get notified whenever we post a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom2courtroom.
[00:06:42] Scott Benton: com. That’s classroom, the number two, courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. We’ll send you an email anytime we post a new episode. You can also stay on top of all of our new episodes by sharing, liking, and subscribing wherever you find this podcast. And until the next episode, we hope you’ll join us in making the [00:07:00] world a better place, one client at a time
[00:07:03] Scott Benton: thank you so much.
