Let’s face it - you can’t work from home. You need a place to see your clients, somewhere to put your reams of paper and thick files. You cannot possibly get away with working from home.

Oh, and your place is too small. I mean, where would you possibly get anything done?

Maybe it works for a niche practice but certainly not yours. After all, you’re a respected lawyer - your clients demand to see you in the office, and those expectations must be met. Who would pay you if you told them that you work from home?

Losers work from home. Loners, people who won’t ever make much of their professional lives. They’re those lawyers who always look slightly beaten down, as if they’re carrying lead weights on their shoulders. Crumpled suits, scuffed shoes, battered briefcases. Jeez, you almost want to give them a dollar as you walk by.

I’m began writing this as I sat at my kitchen table, cup of coffee at my side along with a dirty breakfast plate (I promise, I’ll do the dishes!). The iPod was playing softly in the background, aptly enough “It Was A Very Good Year,” is just wrapping up. Though I maintain an outside home office (I work from a converted attic in a neighbor’s home), I typically stay at home for three days each week rather than slog down the street to my “real office.”

There is one reason for not working at home - fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of changing the way you think about your world. Fear of how people - your clients, your colleagues, your judges - perceive you.

Yes, it’s a different way of practicing law. A way that involves making the most of your world, of harnessing technology and making it work for you. And yes, you can do it.

But here’s why you don’t - because you have no confidence.

That’s right, I went there. I put it out on the table, and now everyone knows the truth. You don’t have enough confidence.

After all, do you measure your success by the number of bankruptcy cases you file each month? By the brand of suit that drapes lovingly over your shoulders? The type of bag you carry to court?

Try this on for size - you should measure your success by the net profit of your business, your client satisfaction, and your ability to spend time doing the things you love rather than the things you need to do.

Stick with me over the next little bit of time, I have a lot to say about this. But the time is late, and I won’t keep you up any longer. When next we speak, there will be ideas about managing your practice and your life . . . and maybe an announcement or two.

Stay tuned.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 12:45 am and is filed under Practice Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.