I got the opportunity to head up to Pilot Mountain, North Carolina today to meet with some lawyers and talk about the law practice management issues facing solo practitioners and small firm lawyers in rural areas. (The photo was not taken by me, I stupidly forgot my camera, but the mountain was too interesting looking not to share.)
Living in Chapel Hill and working in Cary, it would be easy to forget that most of the lawyers in North Carolina are on their own or in firms smaller than 5 lawyers, and most of them practice in towns a lot more like tiny Pilot Mountain than big, sprawling Raleigh. Even though in many ways the practice of law is different in a small town than a big city, a lot of the issues facing small town lawyers are the same as those facing their colleagues in more urban areas: understanding and using new web-based marketing opportunities, facing increased competition for business, finding efficiencies in management systems to keep overhead down and the bottom line healthy.
It’s a tough job; these folks have to do all the same stuff that a big corporate law firm does (market, sell, deliver legal services, professional development, administrivia, etc, etc) with only a fraction of the staff that a big firm has. On the plus side though, these small firms and solo practices are quick and nimble decision makers. They have freedom and flexibility in how to run their practices that big firm lawyers can only dream about. Not to mention the lack of long, pointless meetings… It can be a nice way to practice.
Anyway, I had a great time getting to know those folks and look forward to being back in Surry County again soon.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thomas 07.28.08 at 12:14 am
A fraction of the staff — or no staff at all. And little to no library, either. And we can’t run down to the UNC School of Law in a pinch.
Thanks for highlighting this difficulty we have.
Erik 07.28.08 at 9:13 am
Hi Thomas, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Happy to shine a light on the work y’all do!