We are proud and grateful to reflect on how we have managed to reach the 10-year anniversary of our boutique law firm as of May 15. In prior articles, we have shared some of tidbits gleaned from running our firm and managing our practices, including the initial launch of our firm, our experiences and observations as women in the legal field, certain components we came to see as integral to sustaining a law firm, and the preliminary impact of the pandemic on our law firm’s operations. Perhaps the most important thing we have probably learned over the last 10 years is to expect the unexpected and stay nimble and make adjustments as appropriate every single day because we cannot safely predict the future to any significant degree. The good news for us (and our fellow practicing lawyer readers) as attorneys is that the widespread consistent need for our services is certainly the one of the most important contributing factors to our ability to reach the 10-year milestone.

As we start this retrospective, it’s noteworthy to remember the 10 focal points for us in our Jan. 3, 2019, article about sustaining a small law firm: communication, respect, triage, budget maintenance, staffing, billing, reliability, clients, conflict management and enjoyment of work. Thinking about those elements, it’s clear that these categories must be focal points for all practicing attorneys, whether you might be a solo practitioner, work at a law firm founded by others, or, like us, may be a founding members of a small firm. It’s interesting how the further we proceed in our careers, the more it becomes clear that the keys to our staying power seem to be relatively simplistic, reminiscent of the well-known book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Rulghum. Here is that author’s core list:

  • Share everything.
  • Play fair.
  • Don’t hit people.
  • Put things back where you found them.
  • Clean up your own mess.
  • Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
  • Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
  • Wash your hands before you eat.
  • Flush.
  • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  • Live a balanced life—learn some and drink some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  • Take a nap every afternoon.
  • When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
  • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  • Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup—they all die. So do we.
  • And then remember, the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned—the biggest word of all—LOOK.