Starting a Solo Law Firm Broke? This Mentor Changed Everything - #216

Catch real insights about starting a solo law firm from Christine Lincoln's 25-year solo practice in Houston, serving family law clients.

Christine shares how attorney mentorship benefits changed her practice, why the paid consultation model filters serious clients, and the solo practice work-life balance systems she built over two decades. 

She spent 40-50% of her time on solo attorney marketing strategies early on, then built contract legal services relationships and legal practice management software systems that gave her the flexibility to scale up to two paralegals and then intentionally scale back. 

This is family law solo practice management in action, not theory.

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📄 CHAPTERS

0:00 - Starting a Solo Law Firm With Zero Connections

1:26 - Why 25 Years Solo: Choosing Flexibility Over Growth

3:53 - The Mentor Advice That Changed Everything (Paid Consultations)

6:48 - Solo Attorney Marketing Strategies: She Spent 50% of Time on This

7:43 - Law Firm Systems Automation: Her Virtual Team Toolkit

10:09 - Turning a Bad Review Into a Client Acquisition System

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Transcript

0:00

Chris has been a solopreneur, a solo attorney running her practice for the last 25 years in Houston. She's continuing to build systems and optimize her firm so that she can have the lifestyle, that she's built. Welcome back to the Sterling Family Law Show, the podcast designed to help family attorneys live and build the firm of their dreams. I am your host, Tyler Dolph. I'm also the CEO of our law firm, marketing agency Rocket Clicks. That was built out of our own law firm, Sterling Lawyers, that has grown to over 27 attorneys. Today we continue our owner operator series. And we talked to Chris, who is a solo attorney in Houston, Texas. She built her firm around her life. And, she has some great insights for us today. Chris, thank you so much for your time today. We're excited to have you on the show. I would love the opportunity to have you introduce yourself and, give us a little, little background on yourself and your firm. Okay. Well, Tyler, I appreciate you asking me to be on. I think you have a great podcast. I've watched it a little bit and learned a few things, so I think this is a really great forum. So I'm Chris Lincoln, I'm a solo, practitioner. I mainly work on, family law cases and divorce cases here in Houston, Texas, and I've been doing this for almost 25 years as a solo practitioner. Wow, 25 years. So tell us, like, how did you start your office? Why did you start your own firm? And how's life as a solo? Well, it's, you know, it's interesting. It keeps me busy. One of the things that works for me as a solo practitioner is it allows me to have the flexibility, that I want and need in my life. I have a daughter who is 17, and like I said, I've been doing this 25 years, so it's allowed me to, you know, leave the office and go to all the school functions, whether they're planned or, you know, not planned. And you get that call where you need to go at the last minute. So, I've been able to do that most of the time. But I graduated from law school in, 1998 from Loyola in New Orleans. And at the time, I was, married to my first husband. And his job took us to Houston. So we moved to Houston in 1998, and I had no connections here. And, was not successful in finding a job at a law firm. So I did contract work for about a year. And then after that, I decided to start my own law firm in about 2000. And I've been on my own ever since. Amazing. Have you did did you have ambitions to, to grow and get paralegals and other attorneys? Or was the goal always like, I'm going to keep it small, and just be flexible and, you know, live, live that lifestyle. So the goal was never really to have, other attorneys. But at one time I did have two paralegals, and I was very busy. And then I just got to the point where I decided I needed to scale back because I need to spend more time with my family. And my daughter has a lot of activities. So I didn't really have the desire to, to grow the firm. And I was much busier, you know, ten years ago than I am now. But I'm as busy as I'd like I love that. Yes, absolutely. I think that's one of the benefits of being an entrepreneur is you can decide, you know, what you want to build and how you want to build it. And it's all up to you. Exactly. So that's one of the biggest blessings of being a solo practitioner for me. I love that. Take me back to 25 years ago when you started The Firm. What what were some of those kind of key lessons early on that you had to figure out or that, you know, you you would do a little bit differently if you started over today? So one of the key lessons that I had to learn was that I needed to find mentors. And I figured that out along the way. But it would have been nice if I had figured that out. Sooner might have saved me some hardship. But, you know, that was a big, you know, big learning experience. And and it worked out, and I found some really great people, to observe and talk to and who gave me a lot of good advice and. Any of that advice you remember is still used today? Oh, definitely. I had a lawyer who had been practicing for about 20 years herself, and she took me out to lunch and she said, Chris, do not offer free consultations. It's the worst thing you can do. Now, I do family law. So I realize in other industries it's it's different. For example, personal injury. But I, I, took that advice and I quit offering free consultations. So that was very helpful. Yes. Just more phone calls and headaches as opposed to people who are serious and. exactly. You have you been practicing family all the whole time? I have I've been practicing family law the whole time. And when I started out, I did a little bit of business law, setting up corporations. And then I also did quite a bit of estate planning, for about 20 years, setting up wills and powers of attorney, and then about five years ago, I quit the estate planning business, and now I just do the family law. What is it about family law that keeps you coming back every day? I like seeing people, get a fresh start in life. You know, they come to me with a problem. Typically they're distraught. Something's not working in their life. And my job is to give them a solution and, put them on the path to a fresh start. It's really great. Yeah. It's, we talk all the time at our firm about the opportunity to, yes, solve a problem, but also ensure that people are able to, you know, take that next step in their life and move forward and do so with confidence. Because it's not easy. It's not. But that's probably one of the, most rewarding things about my job is to see people, you know, have confidence when they're finished with the case and know that they can go on and have a happy life. Hey, family law firm leaders. My partner, Tony Karl's just released his book where he lays bare our precise blueprint for growing sterling lawyers from 0 to 17 million. This is the blueprint that we still use daily. And Tony explains it in very simple terms. The truth is, this is not simple to do. Success requires and demands hard work. But if you have the patience and the work ethic to do it, your family, law firm will succeed. Chris, if, if I'm listening to this and I'm thinking about starting my own practice, and I want to be a solopreneur because I like the idea of flexibility. What are some things that I need to know going in, that will allow me to be successful a little bit faster? You need to have a plan, you know, which is what you hear, every, you know, business coach say, but you really do need to have a plan. I know for myself, when I started out, I probably spent 40 to 50% of my time just on marketing. And I have a business degree in a marketing and sales background, so that came pretty natural to me. And I read books on marketing and, you know, rain making and how to build your law firm. So I would, encourage anyone who's starting out to, you know, read books, listen to podcasts like this. Talk to other attorneys who are doing what you want to do and who are successful and find out what's what's work for them. Yes. Love it. Have you? Being solopreneur, to me, it's like all about systems and process, finding efficiency wherever you can, you know, because you you have to work the cases, but you also have to collect payment and pay bills. I mean, you know, with the internet, when it goes out, what are what are some of the tools or processes or efficiencies that you've built to help you manage your day to day? I have an answering service and it's really helpful. They will send me an email to let me know when somebody is called or if somebody leaves a voicemail. Then it goes straight to my email system, and I have my phone with me all the time. So right away I know if I have a message. Most of my clients contact me on email. You know, they'll call me, but I do a lot of email, and my clients know I'll respond within 24 hours. So nobody ever has a hard time getting a hold of me. And then I have a building software that I use, and then, I have an assistant that comes in a few times a month to help me do the billing. And then I have a contract paralegal that I use to help me, get my drafting. And then I also have a courthouse service that I use to help me keep on top of my filings and keep up when, orders are signed and setting hearing dates. So you've really kind of optimized your systems so that you can do the work that's important and not not be bogged down by all the to do. exactly. And then, of course, I have it. People who make sure that computers and everything are running. And then, website company that hosts and manages my website. All the boxes checked. boxes checked. Yeah, 25 years. I'm sure you've you've figured some things out. Yes. And what is it? Chris, was it future look like for your firm? You know, do you plan on continuing to to work and, Or are you going to be a bigger part of your life? Like, what's what's the future look like for you? I'll probably work for the next 15 or 20 years for as long as I can. I'm not one of those persons who has, big retirement plans, but I realize I probably can't work forever. But, I plan on continuing to do this, basically, until I can't. It's great. It's great. Chris, I appreciate your time, your story. Leave us with some some wisdom, some parting words. Lessons learned. Anything that any of our listeners can use as they're building their firm. Sure. You know, when you're starting out, or maybe any time in life, sometimes you're scared to do things. Maybe you're scared to go to a bar association meeting because you're intimidated and you don't know anyone. But I would say do it anyway. Do it. Afraid. And you can always learn from your mistakes or something that seems, like it's a bad experience could end up being a good experience. And I'll just throw out one little story real quick. In 2013, I had a client, give me a really bad review on Aibo, and I was very upset about it. And he also gave me a bad review on Facebook and Yelp, if you can believe that. So I was a little discouraged. But what I did was, is I went and asked former clients if they would start writing reviews for me. And ever since then, I do that as a matter of habit. When the case is finished, I'll ask the client to write me a review on all the or Google, and, it's worked out. So something that started out, to be a bad experience ended up being a blessing in disguise. So you never know what can happen. Reviews are so, so important, especially to your, your online visibility as well. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So I think having a website and social media presence is very important to be successful in this day and age. I love it. Chris, I'm so appreciative of your time, your insights. Wish you the best of luck and look forward to your continued success.