Edward Poll, The Daily Record Newswire
Lawyers are — ahem — cheap. There, I’ve said it. I hate to say that about myself and my profession, but it’s true: We are cheap.
One of the basic global mistakes that I’ve seen among lawyers is that lawyers who need assistance don’t want to pay for it and don’t want to pay for the value of that assistance.
My do-it-yourself registry for buying and selling law practices, www.lawbizregistry.com, came about because of this “cheap” phenomenon. I was receiving numerous phone calls from lawyers, mostly those who wanted to sell their practices but also some from lawyers who wanted to buy a practice; and they had no place to go, and they didn’t want to pay a considerable fee. I thought to myself, “There’s something wrong here. How can I match this need (selling) with this want (buying), but at a modest price?”
Interestingly enough, there’s no doubt and no reluctance by a lawyer who feels a need to engage a bookkeeper, to engage a CPA or to engage a person to prepare a tax return. The accountant can charge a lot, but lawyers still engage him/her. Lawyers believe that whether they see value in it or not, something quite onerous may result if they don’t engage them — and by that I mean there is a prison cell. If we don’t file a tax return, we may go to jail and/or the state bar will remove our license to continue to earn a living. So, lawyers don’t argue with that.
But thinking about the rest of our lives and getting somebody to help us plan for that process, we zipper our wallets. If we get far enough to hear a number quoted to us for the service of planning, we just hear a number and say, “That’s too much money.”
My response? “What’s not too much money?”
“Well, I don’t know,” the potentially retiring lawyer says.
“Well, do you have a budget for this?”
“No.”
“Well, how do you know that the number that’s been quoted is too much?”
“Well, it just sounds like it. Selling a law practice is too easy for someone to be charging that much to do it for me.”
My thoughts on this reasoning are this: If it’s too easy, why did you need to call me? If it’s too easy, why didn’t you take care of it yourself? If it’s too easy, why isn’t it done?
Regardless, lawyers now have no excuse. If they don’t want to pay the money for the services of someone who will help them sell their practice, they can do it themselves on the Registry.
The important thing for all lawyers to remember is that their practice has value. ALL practices have value. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that most lawyers believe that their practice is worth nothing. But it is worth something. It always is. And lawyers who neglect to monetize that value by selling their practice for what it’s worth do a grave disservice not only to their heirs, who will lose out on their inheritance, but also to their own legacy. They do a great disservice to their clients by not providing a smooth transition from their representation to that of another qualified lawyer.
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Edward Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC, is a law practice management thought leader and contributor to this publication. His website is at www.lawbiz.com.
