The way that you pay your staff can be crucial to how successful you firm will be. There are a number of various options that you have as a divorce attorney.
The way that law firms are sometimes structured is probably one of the most unique business arrangements out there. While there are certainly similarities and differences with other forms of businesses,
it is has to imagine corporations not in the legal profession having similar setups. The way that you decide to structure your firm can be crucial to you future success.
Most law firms, similar to many nascent businesses, start small and then grow from there. One of the reasons for this is that it can be important not to expend too much capital in the early phases of your business. This means that you are most likely to have a very small staff (or be a solo practitioner) and, as you accumulate clients and legal work to do as divorce attorney, you may then choose to expand your firm size.
If and when you decide to expand your firm size, you may be faced with an interesting dilemma: how should you compensate the additional employees that you would like to bring on. The reason that this might be a challenge is that you may find yourself at a perplexing crossroads – you have more than enough work for yourself, but you may not have enough for another divorce attorney to work full time with you practicing law. In other words, you do not wish to pay a full salary when you do not have enough work to justify this.
There are other possibilities, too, that can lead you to question what the right solution is for you to compensate your attorneys. Another example would be if you had enough to do for a divorce attorney for most of the year, and then this diminishes significantly during other parts of the year. It could be that a lot of your work is seasonal, and, therefore, you are hesitant to hire and fire lawyers at various stages of the year. After all, eventually, you may expect that you will lose the ability to retain your top talent, if their job prospects are so uncertain.
You may find one of two solutions helpful in evaluating a predicament such as the one described above. Firstly, you may pay your attorneys as a number of law firms do, which is to say by the hour that they bill. This is probably the safest to the law firm because it means that the firm, at a minimum, likely will not be losing money. Another method could be to pay a small, flat amount that is consistent throughout the course of the year. Surely there are other approaches, and it is probably best to consider your own unique circumstances in deciding which to pursue.
As a side note, you may decide not to increase your staff, but rather to increase your hourly rate (which would presumably decrease the number of clients that you have) and simply promote yourself rather than your firm.
The above material is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended as professional legal advice and should not be construed as such. Will Beaumont practices law in New Orleans, LA, and Metairie, LA.
