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Business Planning Whether you are starting a business from scratch, forming an LLC, or establishing a partnership, our team will help you at every step.

We've helped over 10,000 clients find peace of mind, and we can help you, too!

If you require assistance from experienced business planning attorneys, our team at The Law Offices of Daniel Hunt is here with the expert legal counsel you need.

SACRAMENTO, FOLSOM, AND ROSEVILLE BUSINESS PLANNING LAWYERS

A majority of family-owned businesses do not transition successfully to the second generation of ownership. If you would like to transfer ownership of your business to your children, grandchildren, or another successor, you need the help of a business planning lawyer. Similarly, if you plan on selling your business when you retire, a business planning lawyer can help you develop an effective strategy.

THE BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH A BUSINESS PLANNING LAWYER

After working so hard to build your business it can be overwhelming thinking about making significant changes. However, taking the time to consider how you would like the business continued after your death will help you and your loved ones tremendously. At the Law Offices of Daniel Hunt, we work with business owners to achieve their goals and protect their assets for years to come. One of our skilled lawyers will discuss your legal options and work together to create a comprehensive estate plan that addresses business planning.

ENTITY FORMATION

Another critical way to protect your business is through entity formation. Choosing the proper legal business entity provides benefits during your lifetime and after you pass away. Different business formations offer different kinds of benefits, from liability protection while you are operating a business to the ability to use your business as a wealth transfer vehicle.

Choosing the right business entity for your goals and situation offers many benefits. At the Law Offices of Daniel Hunt, we can help you understand the different types of business entities so you can choose the best entity for your needs and goals. We will draft all of the paperwork necessary to form the legal entity of your choice.

SOLE PROPRIETORSHIPS

Most California businesses are sole proprietorships. Creating a sole proprietorship is the easiest business entity to form, and you typically do not need an attorney to form a sole proprietorship. The owner will need to obtain a business license in the city in which the business operates. The owner has complete management authority and does not need to file any formal business information with California.

Even though sole proprietorships are easy to form, they do not offer business owners protection against personal liability. If a customer decides to sue the business, they can come after the business owner’s personal assets, such as their home and savings. For this reason, it is wise for business owners to form another type of business entity to protect themselves.

GENERAL PARTNERSHIPS

California businesses can form one of three different types of partnerships: a general partnership, a limited partnership, or a limited liability partnership. A general partnership is formed by two or more people who jointly agree to carry on the partnership. The partners do not need to file any legal formalities, and each partner has an equal right to control the business and participate in management. Any of the partners can be held responsible for the negligence or wrongdoing of the other partners.

LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS

In a limited partnership, one or more limited partners contribute capital to the business while the general partner or partners manage the business. In this business formation, the limited partner cannot be held personally liable for the obligations of creditors of the partnership. The partners must file a certificate of limited partnership with the state of California.

Limited liability companies (LLC) are increasingly popular in California. They are a hybrid of a partnership with a corporation. LLCs offer the pass-through treatment of a partnership with the limited liability that a corporate shareholder enjoys. Creating an LLC offers protection from personal liability, but it is also one of the most flexible types of business entities. If you would like to form an LLC, you will need to file an Articles of Organization with the state and other required documents, such as a formal operating agreement.

C CORPORATION

A C corporation provides shareholders protection from personal liability for the corporation’s obligations. There are many different advantages and disadvantages to choosing a corporate structure, and California recognizes different corporate forms based on the business’s needs. If you plan to take your business public someday, it is typically best to form a C corporation.

As an owner, you may get preferred stock and you will not be personally on the hook for your business’s liability. Your business will pay taxes at the corporate level, and shareholders will pay taxes on their income from the company. There are strict rules about holding meetings and keeping records, and less management flexibility.

S CORPORATION

If you have a smaller company, you may want to consider an S corporation. In an S corporation, you can have 100 shareholders maximum, and as an owner, you can only get common stock. Your company will only be taxed once. The shareholders will pay taxes on the profits they have received from the company. All shareholders must be residents or citizens of the United States.

CONTACT A BUSINESS PLANNING LAWYER TODAY

If you are interested in starting your own business or in estate planning for your business, contact the Law Offices of Daniel Hunt as soon as possible. One of our skilled estate planning lawyers can help you create a comprehensive estate plan. Whether you would like to sell your business or transfer ownership of your business should you retire or pass away, we can help protect you, your family, and your business. Contact our law firm today to schedule your initial consultation at our Sacramento, Folsom, or Roseville offices. We offer in-person, virtual, and telephone appointments for your convenience.

Our practice focuses on estate plan creation, administration, and litigation; probate; and conservatorships.

Estate Planning includes trusts, wills, financial & medical powers of attorney, and more.

We represent both trustees and beneficiaries in trust & estate litigation matters including will and trust contests, contesting fiduciary accountings, and more.

We assist with California probates when a person dies without a will, with only a will, or with assets left outside of a trust.

When a settlor passes away, we coach trustees step-by-step through the trust administration.

When an adult loses capacity without an estate plan in place, we help seek a court-ordered conservatorship.

Download our Free "Estate Planning Essentials" eBook

Florida Business Planning

Legal planning for florida business.

Whether you’re managing a new company in Florida, an already established out-of-state company looking to relocate, or even a foreign investor starting your venture in the Sunshine State, creating a business plan is critical for giving your business the best chance of success.

As leading Florida business planning attorneys, our job is to help your company uncover its strengths and weaknesses and create a dynamic game plan to follow going forward. We dig deep into regulatory and legal issues that may affect your business now, or in the future, to help avoid risks and seize opportunities.

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Experienced attorneys to guide you through the florida business planning process.

What is a liability?

A liability is something that you are legally responsible for. For business owners, the “big 3” liabilities usually include general liability, professional liability, and product liability. Within these three areas are where the majority of claims against businesses arise.

Having a solid insurance plan in place is just one way that a savvy business owner can help give their business a better chance for long-term success. Steps like securing business insurance may seem like a no-brainer, but insurance contracts can be difficult to understand what is and isn’t covered. That’s where going through the process to create a business plan with an experienced business lawyer helps a business owner methodically outline each area of their business to give each its own plan for success.

Our attorneys take the time to get to know your business and the industry so that we can provide you with the best business plan possible for your unique situation.

Start-Ups: Business Planning for Entrepreneurs

We help new business startups with the following important legal considerations:

• Business plan review and consultation
• Identifying best business entity formation structure
• Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) drafting and review
• Safeguarding trade secrets
• Securing intellectual property assets
• Drafting and reviewing business agreements

How We Help You Create a World-Class Florida Business Plan

From the opportunity statement through financing, a solid business plan from an experienced attorney is going to be straightforward and easy-to-follow. Having a business plan that only collects dust on the shelf is of no use, which is why our business planning process was designed to provide you with a useful tool from day one.

Creating the Best Environment for Your Business to Thrive

When you’re first starting out, especially for foreign owners looking to start a business in Florida, all the steps that need to occur to have a legal business can seem daunting. Our team takes time during the initial business planning phases to really understand your existing situation to help recommend the best course of action.

Things like setting up an LLC vs. a corporation, understanding commercial leases (Florida Landlord Tenant Law), and drafting contracts all have legal considerations that need to be weighed carefully with an experienced business planning attorney.

Getting the Best Rates on Startup Loans

Financial planning is arguably one of the most important steps needed for a successful business. Most owners seek some form of startup capital. Whether that’s as a loan from the SBA or a private bank, the loan agreement outlines all of the terms for the business to repay the debt over time.

But how do you know if you’re getting the most favorable terms for your business loan? Our business attorneys know what to look for within your loan agreement to make sure the terms are ideal for your given situation.

Making Sure You’re in Regulatory Compliance with Proper Licensure

As experts in Florida business law, our team knows the best ways to navigate setting up and running a business within the Florida regulatory environment. There are many different governing authorities at the local, state and federal levels that have requirements for certain types of business to operate. Local ordinances requiring specific permits, the state requiring current licensure, or any number of other regulatory issues can all affect your company’s ability to operate.

Our Florida business lawyers can help guide you through regulatory hurdles like permitting and licensure to ensure your business remains in compliance. Certain locations may also have increased regulatory requirements for manufacturing, distribution, and/or importing and exporting. Our attorneys help you navigate all the regulations affecting your business so you can focus on growing your business.

Protecting Intellectual Capital

When you’ve got a great concept, product or service, it’s important to take steps to protect your intellectual property. Having a business lawyer well-versed in intellectual property law helps preserve your interest in your unique design and make sure you retain this competitive advantage for as long as the law allows. Experienced business lawyers can help with things like getting a trademark.

Growing Your Business

Our business planning attorneys are right with you every step of your business’s growth to help you achieve the best results. We provide business growth legal counsel with things like getting a permit for additional space, reviewing contracts, and helping you get favorable lending terms.

Established Businesses: Business Planning for Continuity & Growth

Our business planning services for more operating businesses include:

• Due diligence review
• Drafting custom employment contracts
• Intellectual property strategy, management, enforcement
• Information technology business planning
• Corporate financing related services
• Software and IP licensing
• Business to business agreements (B2B)
• Franchising
• Buy-Sell agreements
• Corporate succession
• Business insurance advice

Business Planning for Succession

One of the most important steps within the business planning process is succession planning. Our business lawyers help you uncover areas of vulnerability so you can take steps to lessen any potential impacts. Business succession requires a plan for continuity, which encompasses everything from personnel to equipment.

Examples of issues that may face a business at some point include:

• Losing key employees/loss of intrinsic knowledge.
• Experiencing a loss event (fires, floods, and other perils) and negotiating with an insurance adjuster.
• Transfer of ownership.
• Contract disputes with vendors/suppliers.
• E-commerce regulatory restrictions.

Each of the above examples requires a careful and practiced review of the governing documents (contracts, Policies & Procedures, legal statute, etc.) in order to develop a plan of action. On any issues like these, we’ll deep dive with you to come up with a real-world strategy to preserve the legacy of the business you’ve worked so hard to build.

Business Planning for Dissolution

There are important steps to ending a business, which is often referred to as the winding-down process. Therefore, missing steps can potentially create legal ramifications for the owners long after the entity ceases to exist. However, our business attorneys provide consultation to dissolve a business legally and properly, taking into account the important aspects related to the specific entity.

In planning for dissolving a business entity, we also offer the following legal services:

• Due diligence of business assets
• Settling creditor claims
• Ensuring tax requirements and filings completed
• Proper division of assets
• Proper compensation for contributions
• Preparing internal company dissolution documents
• Filing dissolution certificate with state department

Set Up a Business Planning Consultation

Protecting our client’s interests in business is what it means to be a trusted leader in Florida business law. With an entire team of dedicated professionals, we help Florida businesses maximize their potential by minimizing the risks they face. Schedule a consultation today to start your Florida business plan.

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How to Draft a Law Firm Business Plan

Law firms are something more than a business. Law firms and the lawyers within them are engaged in a profession, with obligations that go beyond purely commercial concerns.

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This truth can obscure the need for lawyers to pay attention to the business management side of their practices: their finances, marketing plans, business development efforts, IT purchases, lease terms and capital needs. For the highly trained lawyer, such concerns may feel at best like an afterthought, or at worst a nuisance that steals time from their true occupation: the “practice of law.”

And yet, those annoying business details are responsible for keeping the lights on. While law firms may be more than a business, there is, in fact, a large and necessary business element to them. For solo practices and small firms in particular, investing time into the business management side of legal practice can make a major difference in the financial rewards they derive from it—or even their survival. Firms that have failed to do so in the past (and even those that haven’t) can get a handle on their law practice business management by taking the step of drafting a business plan.

THE POINT OF A BUSINESS PLAN

We’ll discuss the components of a business plan in a moment, but first, let’s talk about why this exercise is valuable. For another type of business, a business plan may be useful in attracting investors or securing financing. Law firms should not think of their business plans as utilitarian documents in that sense (although someday one could prove helpful in obtaining a line of credit, say, or attracting lateral partners). Instead, the primary value of the business plan, particularly for the solo practice or small firm drafting one for the first time, lies in the fact that it forces the firm to think about business issues that it otherwise would not have considered.

As the D.C. Bar says in its advice to startup law offices : “The act of planning helps you think things through thoroughly, study and research if you are not sure of the facts, and look at your ideas critically. It takes time now, but avoids costly, perhaps disastrous, mistakes later.”

Of course, a business plan does little for anyone if it is quickly forgotten. But the mere act of generating a business plan gives a firm a direction to head in and goals to point toward. If the firm makes it a practice to revisit the business plan on an annual basis (if not more regularly), its business considerations will stay top-of-mind and the firm will continually refine them in ways that improve its performance.

THE CONTENTS OF A BUSINESS PLAN

Creating a strong business plan will require an investment of time and energy. At the same time, no one wants to write, or read, a massive document. To improve the chances that the project gets done, and gets read, it is best to keep a business plan to a reasonable length. Anything over 20 pages may stretch attention spans to the breaking point, and there’s no harm in going shorter if you have covered all the territory you need to by that point.

So, what, exactly, is the territory that you should cover? Most authorities agree that a sound business plan for a law firm should address the following broad areas:

• Overview of the Firm

This section should include basic information about the firm: its name, legal structure, practice areas and leadership positions. It should also contain some deeper information about the firm's identity and aspirations.

This would include:

A mission statement about the firm’s purpose

A vision statement or recitation of medium- and long-term goals for the firm

Important aspects of the firm’s history

Any important philosophies that the firm brings to legal practice

• Market Analysis

This section should discuss the business trends affecting the firm’s important practice areas and clients. It should evaluate any technologies that are affecting your practice area and consider how the firm may leverage or keep up with them. This section should also devote substantial energy to identifying the firm’s major competitors in each of its important practice areas and comparing their services to the firm’s.

In this section, identify the firm’s major clients, breaking them down by important characteristics like size, location, industry and practice groups used. Go through a similar exercise for major client prospects and targets. It’s worth examining how the firm can improve its relationships with both of these groups.

Important financial information includes the firm’s fixed and variable costs, backward- and forward-looking revenue, realization rate, collection rate, monthly overhead, assets and liabilities. A 12-month profit and loss projection should be included and could be considered the heart of the business plan.

There is a great amount of detail that any firm could get into on this front. Don’t get overwhelmed by it; at the same time, this is some of the most important information in the business plan, so it’s not advisable to gloss over it.

This section will address key operational issues like the office lease, equipment purchases and technology plans. You may assign roles to various staff members for operational issues.

Think about what marketing the firm currently performs, how it obtains clients and what marketing goals it wants to set for the future.

After completing these and any other sections the firm might want to address, then go back and draft an executive summary to be included at the beginning of the business plan document. The summary should be professional, but don’t be afraid to give it some optimistic energy. After all, with your eyes on the business management fundamentals of your firm, things should be looking up for the future.

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• How to Draft an Effective Business Plan Considering the Legal Implications

The road to the creation of a new business is a long one that is often filled with unexpected challenges and accomplishments. While the unpredictable nature of starting a business can be appealing to some, for many there is value in developing a plan to help guide new owners through the first months and years of operation. For this reason, one of the most important steps that entrepreneurs can take when starting out is to carefully and thoughtfully develop a comprehensive business plan.

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is both a map and a marketing tool for your business. A business plan helps you carefully set forth the purpose, goals, and priorities of your new business, along with guideposts to help ensure that you stay on the right path. For instance, a business plan may require you to consider what the primary purpose of your business is, or the good or service you intend to provide, who your potential customers are, and how you intend to reach them in an effective and efficient manner. A business plan also allows you to make an honest evaluation of the current status of your business and what you will need to do to get to where you would like to be. This includes taking the time to compile your business balance sheet, analyze existing income and expenses, and determine anticipated financial needs.

Creating a detailed business plan can help business owners acquire outside funding .

In addition, a business plan serves as a marketing tool for new business owners who are attempting to gain financial backing, operational support, or mentoring for their new business. The financial aspects of a business plan lets potential funders or lenders analyze your current income streams and the likelihood of repayment, while the detailed explanation of your business objectives and operational plans helps to convince interested parties that you have taken the time to carefully plan your business endeavors and are invested in the success of your company.

How to Write a Business Plan

There is no one specific way to write a business plan. However, there are key components that most business plans should include, and these are good starting points when working on your own plan. It may also be worth reaching out to an experienced corporate attorney to help you review and revise your business plan before presenting it to others in the business community.

Business plans typically start with a summary of the business and its objectives, and then they describe the operations of the business, the good or service it will be providing, and potential income streams in more detail. Business plans should also include a detailed description of the proposed management structure of the business, including officers or directors and possibly the envisioned composition of the board. Additionally, business plans typically include extensive financial documentation, such as balance sheets, income projections or growth model projections, any pending loan applications, tax returns of the entity, and copies of any relevant legal agreements. If the business has already been in operation for some time, the business plan may also include financial records for the months of operation.

• Summarize the business and its objectives
• Outline how the business is organized and managed
• Describe what the business sells
• Identify potential income streams
• Include financial information, such as balance sheets and projections

Using Your Business Plan

Once you have completed a business plan that you are happy with, you will find that you will often continue to refer to your plan even months or years after it was initially completed. In the initial stages, you can use your business plan to attract investors, partners, board members, or other advisors who are interested in the model you have proposed and would like to contribute to its success. As your business develops, you can continue to refer to the plan to guide you in business decisions, as well as to track timelines or certain goals that you hoped to meet. Even after your business is well-developed, returning to your business plan can help guide your yearly planning for your company, allowing you to modify your goals as they are achieved.

Last reviewed October 2023

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Strategic Business Planning for Law Firms

Emerging technology is driving the evolution of today’s business landscape faster than ever. From AI-driven chatbots to cutting-edge digital marketing tools, many new technologies deserve consideration. This evolution holds as true for law firms as any other business. To stay competitive, law firms — especially smaller ones — must employ strategic business planning for survival. Learn how your firm can use strategic business planning to embrace emerging technology and stay ahead of the curve.

What is a Strategic Business Plan?

A smart business plan assesses your law firm’s internal and external environment. It establishes achievable goals and targets. It lays out implementable strategies to reach those goals on a realistic timeline. 

Your law firm can create an actionable business plan by objectively assessing current trends, challenges, and areas to adapt. A well-developed strategic business plan can propel your law firm’s future achievements and act as a roadmap to success.

How Law Firms Can Succeed in Today’s Legal Services Landscape 

As you prepare for the future, some  emerging trends  to keep your eye on this year include:

• Law firm hiring remains tight, reflecting lowered revenue and client demand.
• Compensation stagnates.
• Gen Z lawyers enter the legal field. Their focus on improved work-life balance and job-hopping habits could trigger a culture change.
• Pressure remains to meet high billable hours, although some firms now credit hours in leadership, mentorship, and firm culture.
• Attorneys embrace hybrid and remote work schedules while prioritizing in-person conferences.
• Some firms encourage alternative career progression outside partnership tracks, allowing flexibility for attorneys with different priorities.
• Artificial intelligence has arrived, and firms are integrating AI in various manners, from marketing to practice management.

These trends simultaneously create new challenges and opportunities for law firms wise enough to recognize them. However, law firm leaders who fail to respond to critical  market changes  and pivot effectively could be left behind by the changing times.

One of the  biggest challenges  facing law firms is increased competition. Law firms that adapt to these realities focus on separating themselves from their competition by embracing change and adopting new technologies and innovations. However, limited resources can complicate matters. It is imperative to review budget distribution and reallocate resources appropriately when priorities shift.

Law firms  can succeed  by prioritizing their digital presence while balancing the demands of effective business management. Firms must evolve to meet clients’ changing needs while leveraging new technologies to streamline operations and attract new business.

Creating Your Law Firm’s Winning Business Plan

A successful business plan must set clear, achievable goals. Once you have thoroughly assessed the current trends and challenges relevant to your firm, your next job is defining success. Success could mean increasing revenue, expanding your client base, or boosting your reputation. 

The next steps include:

• Mapping:  Set clear goals and  SMART objectives .
• Market Analysis:  Understand your client base and competition and integrate these facts into your marketing strategies.
• Marketing Strategies:  Design and implement client acquisition strategies utilizing appropriate technology.
• Technology Integration:  Stay abreast of emerging  legal technology  that can enhance your law firm’s efficiency and grant you a competitive edge.
• Risk Management and Compliance:  Stay updated with emerging compliance issues impacting your law firm and develop strategies to mitigate risks and adhere to regulatory standards.
• Financial Planning:  Budget wisely and consider financial projections.

As you set your objectives, diversify your short- and long-term strategies to ensure your business plan meets your needs today and in the future.

Future-Forward: Long-Term Strategies

You can implement various strategies for long-term results, including:

• Vision-setting for long-term growth
• Leadership development
• Client relationship management

By implementing immediate objectives and those focused on healthy future goals, you can ensure your strategic business plan can guide your law firm through the necessary stages, moving you toward long-term success.

Navigating Change

Of course, even the best-laid plans are subject to change. Stay agile and aware of technological developments. Tips for keeping your law firm nimble and adaptable include:

• Embrace the digital transformation
• Keep abreast of and adapt to  regulatory changes  and legal reform
• Encourage strategic continued learning and development within your law firm

Get the Tools You Need to Succeed in Today’s Evolving Digital Landscape

Martindale-Avvo helps you stay up-to-date with our constantly evolving legal technology to help you achieve your objectives and reach success. Our digital marketing  tools and services  bring cutting-edge technology to your law firm to target client acquisition and retention:

• Ngage Live Chat  engages potential clients visiting your website 24/7, so you never miss another opportunity.
• Captorra  is an intake SaaS that enhances your intake process to help your firm pursue and manage promising leads more efficiently. 
• Avvo  delivers your law firm a digital platform to connect with clients effortlessly. Attract more referrals and increase your visibility by engaging with client reviews and actively managing your profile. 

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How to Create a Law Firm Business Plan Aimed at Success

Want a successful law firm? Start with a solid business plan. Our guide covers everything that will help you create a roadmap for success.

A firm exists to serve people- so its business plan must take into account those it aims to help. A law firm's business plan lays out the key pillars that will support a practice, from operational details to marketing strategies to financial projections. Furthermore, it should provide a clear roadmap for where the firm hopes to be in the coming years.

In this blog,  we will guide you through the process  of creating a comprehensive law firm business plan that  will help you achieve your goals . Additionally, in our latest Grow Law Firm podcast, our host Sasha Berson conversed with Omar Ochoa, the founding attorney of Omar Ochoa Law Firm, to discuss the topic of creating a law firm business plan aimed at success.

Why Is a Business Plan Important for Law Firms?

A business plan is a vital tool for any law firm to achieve success. It outlines goals, strategies, and the feasibility of business ideas, providing a clear direction and focus for the firm. The plan can be used to secure funding from investors or financial institutions by demonstrating the potential for growth and profitability.

Moreover, a business plan supports decision-making by evaluating the feasibility of new ventures and assessing potential risks and rewards. It helps to manage resources effectively by setting financial goals and tracking progress, ensuring the firm is making the most of its resources and achieving objectives.

Lastly, a law firm's business plan enables growth by identifying new opportunities and developing strategies to capitalize on them. By planning for the future and setting realistic growth targets, law firms can take their businesses to the next level. Overall, a well-developed business plan is critical for success in the legal industry, providing direction and focus, supporting decision-making, managing resources effectively, and enabling growth.

General Tips for Creating an Attorney Business Plan

Building a business plan for law firms is not an easy or intuitive process. By considering the following issues before opening your doors to clients, you have a much better chance of having a stable firm that matches your values and has a clear set of goals.

— Stay Focused

Forming a law firm can feel overwhelming. You have a lot of freedom and can easily get sidetracked into issues that either can wait or do not deserve your attention.

If having a strong law firm website design is important enough for you to include in your plan, you will spend time on that instead of less important matters.

A plan also includes a budget. The process of planning your firm's finances can ensure that you do not overspend (or underspend) as you start your own firm.

The attention to detail that comes from having a plan will help you avoid spreading yourself too thin by focusing on every issue or the wrong issues. Instead, you will maintain your focus on the important issues.

Whether you have law partners or develop a solo law firm business plan, the plan will help you stay focused on your end goals.

— Keep Track of Goals and Results

It is easy to set goals when you  start a law firm and then promptly forget about them.

Your plan will set out your goals and the metrics you will use to determine your progress toward meeting them. The plan should also explain how you will know when you have met them.

For example, you might have a growth goal of reaching five lawyers within two years. Or you might have a revenue goal of collecting $200,000 your first year.

Too many businesses, including law firms, meander on their developmental path. By setting goals and the path for meeting them, you will have guardrails to keep your firm on track.

"If you want to be the number one law firm in the country by revenue right in a 20 year time period, have that be your goal and everything that you do right is in service of that goal. You might not get there, but you're gonna find that you're gonna be very successful either way."

"If you want to be the number one law firm in the country by revenue right in a 20 year time period, have that be your goal and everything that you do right is in service of that goal. You might not get there, but you're gonna find that you're gonna be very successful either way." — Omar Ochoa

— Sort Out Your Own Law Firm Strategy

Developing a clear vision is important for establishing a strategic law firm plan aimed at long-term goals . As Omar Ochoa discusses in the podcast, having very specific milestone visions like where you want to be in five, ten, or fifteen years helps drive the strategy and actions needed to get there.

It's easy to say that you'll run your law firm better. But a plan actually helps you identify how to improve by articulating a concrete strategy. The process of creating the plan will help you pinpoint problems and solutions.

A plan forces consideration of operational details often overlooked. It equates to defining your firm's purpose and then pursuing that vision with purpose-driven strategies and actions. As Omar notes, marrying vision to action through knowledge of other successful law firm models is key to achieving goals.

One area that is frequently overlooked in plans is the inclusion of law firm marketing strategies . Developing this aspect is critical for attracting clients and sustaining growth.

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— Move Forward

You should view your plan as a law firm business development plan that will guide the formation and growth of your firm .

You can review the document periodically to remind you and your law partners of your growth and expansion projections. After this review, you can ensure your growth and expansion remain on track to carry you to your goals.

The review will also tell you whether you need to update your firm's goals. When you started your law firm, you might have been unduly pessimistic or optimistic in your projections. Once you have some time to operate according to your plan, you can update your goals to keep them realistic. You can also update your processes to focus on what works and discard what does not.

The review can provide your projections for what you hope to accomplish and the roadmap for accomplishing it.

Law Firm Business Plan Template

Each of the websites below includes at least one attorney business development plan template:

• Business Plan Workbook
• PracticePro
• Smith & Jones, P.A.
• Wy'East Law Firm

You can use a law firm strategic plan example from these sites to start your firm's plan, then turn the plan into a document unique to your circumstances, goals, and needs.

What to Consider before Starting Law Firm Business Plans

Before starting a law firm business plan, think through a few key issues, including:

— Setting the Goals

Reflect deeply on your firm's purpose. Think about who you represent and how you can best meet their needs. A law firm exists for its clients. As you think about your  law firm goals , think about goals for providing legal services to your clients.

"We continue to try to have the biggest impact that we can because ultimately, in my opinion at least, that's what lawyers are for, is to be able to help people and be able to move us forward." — Omar Ochoa

You need to set realistic and achievable goals. These goals should reflect your reasons for starting your law firm. Thus, if you started your law firm because you expected to make more money on your own than working for someone else, set some goals for collections.

While you are setting your goals, think about how you will reach them and the ways you will measure your success. For example, if you want to expand to include ten lawyers within three years, think about intermediate goals at the end of years one and two. This helps measure your progress.

— Choosing Partnership Structure

For lawyers considering a partnership structure, it's important to select partners that complement each other's strengths and weaknesses to help the firm function effectively.

There are 2 main partnership structure options:

• A single-tier model provides equal decision-making power and liability between partners.
• Meanwhile, a two-tier structure offers tiers like equity and non-equity partners, providing flexibility and career progression opportunities.

While similarly skilled individuals may clash, partners with differing abilities can succeed together. Some attorneys also choose to run their own firm for flexibility. This allows them to leverage different specialists through occasional joint ventures tailored for specific cases, without the constraints of a single long-term partnership. Furthermore, it highlights how the law firm partnership structures impacts freedom and sustainability.

— Thinking of the Revenue You Need

Calculate how much revenue you need to cover your overhead and pay your salary. Suppose your expenses include:

• $2,000 per month for office rent
• $36,000 per year for a legal assistant salary
• $600 per month for courier expenses
• $400 per month for a copier lease

Assume you want the  median annual salary for lawyers  of $127,990. You need $199,990 per year in revenue to cover your salary and expenses.

But revenue is not the end of the story. Your landlord, vendors, and employees expect to get paid monthly. So, you should also calculate how much cash flow you need each month to cover your hard expenses.

You also need a reserve. Clients expect you to front expenses like filing fees. Make sure you have a reserve to pay these costs and float them until clients reimburse you.

— Defining the Rate of Payment

You need to make some difficult decisions when it comes to setting your own fee structure. If you choose a higher billing rate, you will need to work less to meet your revenue goals. But you might not find many clients who are able to pay your fees.

Whether you charge a flat fee, contingent fee, or hourly fee, you should expect potential clients to compare your fees to those of your direct and indirect competitors. Remember, your firm competes against other lawyers, online services like  LegalZoom , and do-it-yourself legal forms books.

Finally, you need to comply with your state's rules of professional conduct when setting your fees. The  ABA's model rules  give eight factors to determine the reasonableness of a fee. These factors include the customary fee for your location and the skill required to provide the requested legal services.

— Making the Cases in Your Law Practice Meet the Revenue Needs

Figure out how much you need to work to meet your revenue target . If you charge a flat fee, you can simply divide your revenue target by your flat fee.

Hourly fee lawyers can calculate the number of hours they need to bill and collect. However, law firm owners rarely bill 100% of the hours they work due to the administrative tasks they perform to run a firm. Also, you will probably not collect 100% of your billings, and clients could take 90 days or longer to pay.

Contingency fee lawyers will find it nearly impossible to project the cases they need. You have no way of knowing the value of your cases in advance. You also have no idea when your cases will settle. You could work on a case for years before you finally get paid.

Parts of a Business Plan for Law Firm Formation: Structure

A law firm business plan is a written document that lays out your law firm goals and strategies.

For many businesses, a business plan helps secure investors. But the ethical rules prohibit law firms from seeking funding from  outside investors or non-lawyer shareholders .

Your business plan is for you and your law partners. It will help you manage everyone's expectations and roles in the firm. Here is a law firm business plan example to help you see the parts and pieces in action.

— Executive Summary

An executive summary combines the important information in the business plan into a single-page overview. Your plan will include details like projections, budgets, and staffing needs. This section highlights the conclusions from those detailed analyses.

Your executive summary should include :

• A mission statement explaining the purpose of your firm in one or two sentences
• A list of the core values that your firm will use whenever it makes decisions about its future
• The firm's overarching goals for itself, its lawyers, and the clients it serves
• The unique selling proposition that sets your firm apart from other firms in the legal industry

You should think of this section as a quick way for people like lenders, potential law partners, and merger targets, to quickly understand the principles that drive your firm.

— Law Firm Description and Legal Structure

First, you will describe what your law firm does. You will describe your law practice and the clients you expect to serve.

Second, you will describe how your firm operates. The organization and management overview will explain your legal structure and the management responsibilities of you and your law partners.

This section should fill in the details about your firm's operation and structure by:

• Describing the scope of the legal services you offer and your ideal clients
• Restating your mission statement and core values and expanding upon how they will guide your firm
• Explaining your location and where your clients will come from
• Describing your business entity type and management structure
• Detailing your unique selling proposition , including the features that distinguish your firm from your competitors

When someone reads this section, they should have a clear picture of what you will create.

— Financial Calculations

Your attorney business plan explains where your firm's revenue comes from and where it goes. This is where your skills as a lawyer begin to diverge from your skills as a business owner. You may need to learn a few new accounting concepts so you can perform the analyses expected in a financial plan.

You will need a  financial plan  for at least the first year.

If you plan to seek a bank loan or line of credit, your bank may need a financial plan that covers three years or longer.

You will need more than a few rough numbers for a useful business plan. Instead, you will need to estimate your expenses and revenues as accurately as possible.

"Take some financial statements courses, take some managerial accounting courses that teach you how to track costs, how to frame costs in a way that you're looking at the important costs." — Omar Ochoa

You might need to contact vendors and service providers to get precise costs. You will probably need to track your billings with your prior firm to predict your revenues. If you are opening a law firm after law school or an in-house job, you may need a competitive analysis to show what similar law firms earn in your location and practice area.

Some reports you may need in your business plan include:

• Revenue analysis listing the fees you will collect each month
• Budget describing your monthly and annual expenses
• Financial projections combining the revenue analysis and budgeted expenses to predict your profit margins
• Cash flow statement showing how your revenues and expenses affect your cash on hand.

Your cash flow statement might be the most important financial report because it explains how your bank balance will fluctuate over time. If your clients take too long to pay their bills or you have too many accounts payable due at the same time, your cash flow statement will show you when money might get tight.

— Market Analysis

A market analysis will tell you where you fit into the legal market in your location and field. You need a competitive analysis to understand the other lawyers and law firms that will compete with you for potential clients. You can also analyze their marketing messages to figure out how to stand out from the competition.

A competitive analysis will tell you what services other firms offer, how much they charge, and what features help your competitors succeed.

Your analysis should include a discussion about your :

• Ideal clients and what you can do to help them
• Market size and whether you offer something clients need
• Competitors and what they offer to clients
• Competitive advantages and how you can market them to potential clients

You can also develop and hone your marketing strategy based on the benefits you offer to clients over your competitors. Finally, a market analysis can tell you the locations and practice areas in which your firm may expand in the future.

Your market analysis helps you focus your efforts on your legal niche.

— Marketing Plan

A marketing plan sets out the steps you will take to reach your target market. Your marketing strategy will take your market analysis and turn it into a plan of action.

You will start with the results of your market analysis identifying your clients, your competitors, and your competitive advantages. You will then discuss the message you can deliver to potential clients that captures the advantages you have over your competition.

Some advantages you might have over other lawyers and law firms might include tangible benefits like lower billing rates or local office locations. Other advantages might provide some intangible benefits like more years of experience or state-bar-certified specialists in those states that allow specialization.

You will then discuss your marketing plan. A marketing plan explains :

• Characteristics of the target market you want to reach
• What your competition offers
• The distinct benefits you offer
• A message you can use to explain what separates you from your competition
• Your action plan for delivering your message
• Your goals for your action plan, such as the number of client leads, new clients, or new cases per month

Your action plan will include the marketing channels you want to use to spread your message. Marketing specialists can help you identify the best channels for your marketing message and client base.

For example, if you practice intellectual property law, you need to reach business owners and in-house lawyers who want to protect their companies' brands, inventions, artistic works, and trade secrets. A marketing agency may help you create a marketing strategy geared toward trade publications and business magazines.

However, IP lawyers require an entirely different marketing strategy than firms that practice family law. Family lawyers need to market to individuals and will tailor their marketing efforts toward different marketing channels and messages.

Even if you expect most of your client leads to come from referrals, you still need brand recognition for those leads to find you. You should consider a website, basic SEO, legal directory, and bar association listings.

— Your Law Firm Services

You will outline the services your law firm offers to clients. Lawyers with established clients and an existing legal practice can simply describe what they already do.

Any new law firm or lawyer transitioning from other practice areas should consider:

• Practice areas you know and enjoy
• Overlapping practice fields that will not require extra staff, such as personal injury and workers' comp
• Related legal services your clients may need, such as wills and guardianship

By offering needed services you can competently provide, you can gain clients and avoid referring existing clients out to other lawyers.

— Your Law Firm Budget

You should approach your budget as a living document. You will spend more money as you add more lawyers and staff members to your firm. But you can also look for ways to reduce your operating costs through investments in technology services and other cost-saving measures .

Your budget should set out the amount you expect to initially spend on start-up expenses. As you create your start-up budget, remember many of these expenses are not recurring. Furniture, computers, and office space build-outs can last several years. In short, your budget should answer the question, "What do you need to open a law firm?"

It should also lay out the amount you plan to spend each month to operate your firm. Here, you will include your recurring expenses, such as rent, staff salaries, insurance premiums, and equipment leases.

Using your operating budget, you will determine the amount of money you need to start and run your firm. This, in turn, will tell you whether you need to take out a loan or tap into your savings to start your law firm. You will need a plan for paying your expenses and day-to-day costs while your firm gets onto its feet.

Let us help you create a digital marketing strategy and a growth plan

Some Useful Tips on Creating a Business Plan for Law Firm Creation and Development

As you draft your law firm business plan, you should focus on the process. By putting your thoughts down in writing, you will often identify issues you had not previously considered.

Some other tips for drafting your business plan include:

— Describe Both Strengths and Weaknesses

You want to project confidence as you prepare your business plan. Remember, you will use this plan to approach potential law partners, lenders, and merger targets. You need to show that you have a solid plan backed up by your financial projections.

At the same time, you need to remain realistic. Write a business plan that describes your business challenges as well as your competitive advantages.

For example, if you have a strong competitor that has a solid  law firm reputation management  and many of the clients you will target, acknowledge the difficulty of getting those clients to switch law firms. Describe your marketing strategies for approaching and pitching your law firm to those clients.

— Think Ahead

Remember that your business plan sets out the roadmap for both the establishment and operation of your law firm . Think about issues that could arise as your firm grows and matures.

For example, you may have a goal of reaching ten lawyers in three years. But as your staff grows, you may need a human resources manager. You may also seek to handle your payroll in-house instead of outsourcing it to a payroll provider. These changes will create ripple effects throughout your business plans. You will incur costs when you add staff members. You will also realize benefits like increased attorney efficiency.

At the same time, any projections more than five years into the future will likely be useless. Your firm and its clients will evolve, and technology will change how you practice law.

— Be Clear about Your Intentions

As you develop your plan, you should keep its purpose in mind. First, you want to outline your core values and goals for your law firm. Set out the reasons why you started your law firm and what you intend to accomplish with it.

"You can't just be doing something because you want prestige. There's gotta be more to that, right? You have to have a purpose that you're following. And if you've got that, that purpose is like gravity, right? You will always be grounded." — Omar Ochoa

Second, you set out your path to achieving those goals. This will include boring technical information like how much you spend on legal research every month. But it will also explain your approach to solving problems consistent with your mission statement and philosophy for law firm management.

— Consult and Update If Necessary

Your plan should guide you as you build your firm. It contains your goals and the roadmap for reaching them. But your plan is not carved in stone.

As you face challenges, you will consult your plan to make sure you approach these challenges in a way consistent with achieving your goals. But under some circumstances, you might find that the plan no longer provides the right solution.

As you work with your firm and your law partners, your goals, processes, and solutions to problems may evolve. The technology your firm uses may change. Your law firm's costs may go up with inflation or down as you realize economies of scale. You should update your plan when this happens.

Final Steps

There is no recipe for creating a business plan for law firm development. What goes into your mission statement and plan will depend on several factors, including your law firm's business model. But this is a feature, not a bug of developing a business plan.

The process of business planning will help you develop solutions to issues you might have overlooked. If you have law partners, just going through the process of creating a law firm business plan can ensure that everyone is on the same page.

As you create your plan, the process itself should provoke thoughts and ideas so you can have a unique law firm tailored to your goals and values. This will help you get exactly what you wanted when you started in the legal industry.

To learn how to expand your client base as your firm grows, check out Grow Law Firm, a professional  law firm SEO agency .

Founder of Omar Ochoa Law Firm

Omar Ochoa is a founding attorney with extensive experience in complex litigation, including antitrust, class actions, and securities cases. He has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients and has been nationally recognized as one of the best young trial lawyers in the country.

Omar graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in business administration, accounting, and economics. He later earned his law degree from the university, serving as editor-in-chief of the Texas Law Review. He has clerked for two federal judges and has worked at the prestigious law firm Susman Godfrey L.L.P. Omar is dedicated to seeking excellence. He has been recognized for his outstanding achievements in antitrust litigation.

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Legal product reviews and business guidance from industry experts.

19 Mar 2020

How to Write Your Law Firm Business Plan

By Cari Twitchell

News Articles Healthy Strategy

Every new law practice needs a business plan . This is a guide to creating one.

Here is what should go in your business plan once you’ve decided about your law firm business model.

Section One: Executive Summary

This section provides a succinct overview of your full plan. It should also include the following:

• Mission statement.  This statement should be one or two sentences at most, so you can quickly state it off the top of your head at any given moment. It should clearly state your value and offer inspiration and guidance, while being plausible and specific enough to ensure relevancy. For further direction on how to write a mission statement, read this Entrepreneur article .
• Core values.  Your core values outline the strategy that underpins your business. When written well, they help potential employees and clients understand what drives you every day. When written incorrectly, they include meaningless platitudes that become yet another thing forgotten or ignored during practice. To pack the most punch into your core values, write them as actionable statements that you can follow. And keep them to a minimum: two to four should do just fine. You can read more about writing core values at  Kinesis .
• What sets you apart.  If you are like every other attorney out there, how will you stand out? This is known as your unique selling proposition (USP). What is it that will convince clients to turn to you instead of your competition? By clearly stating your USP, you identify what it is about your firm that will ensure your success.

Are you feeling slightly overwhelmed by all of this? Then write this section last, as you’ll find much of what you write here is a summary of everything you include in subsequent sections.

Section Two: Company Description

Write a succinct overview of your company. Here is what it should cover:

• Mission statement and values.  Reiterate your mission statement and core values here.
• Geographic location and areas served.  Identify where your offices are located and the geographic areas that you serve.
• Legal structure and ownership. State whether you are an LLC, S-Corp or other legal entity. If you are something other than a sole proprietor, identify the ownership structure of your firm. How does your law firm business model influence the ownership type?
• Firm history.  If you are writing or updating a plan for a law firm already in existence, write a brief history that summarizes firm highlights and achievements.

This section is often the shortest. Do not spend much time or space here. Touch on the major points and move on.

Section Three: Market Analysis

Done correctly, a well thought out market analysis will help you identify exactly what your potential clients are looking for and how much you should charge for your services. It also enables you to identify your competitors’ weaknesses, which in turn helps you best frame your services in a way that attracts your preferred clientele. You probably already considered some of these subjects when deciding on the small law firm business model, but you need to document them.

Elements of a market analysis include:

• Industry description.  Draft up a summary that encompasses where your particular legal niche is today, where it has been, and which trends will likely affect it in the future. Identify everything from actual market size to project market growth.
• Target audience.  Define your target audience by building your ideal client persona. Use demographics such as location, age, family status, occupation and more. Map out the motivations behind their seeking your services and then how it is you are best able to satisfy their requirements.
• Competitive analysis.  This is where you dive into details about your competitors. What do they do well? Where do they fall short? How are they currently underserving your target market? What challenges do you face by entering legal practice in your field of choice?
• Projections.  Provide specific data on how much your target audience has to spend. Then narrow that down to identify how much you can charge per service.

A proper market analysis includes actual data to support your analysis. If you are unsure of where to find data, Bplans  has a great list of resources for you to use. And if you would like to read further about conducting a market analysis, check out this article from the Small Business Administration.

Section Four: Organization & Management

This section goes into detail about you and any others who may have ownership interest in the firm. The small law firm business model section here should incorporated into the management documentation. Do not be afraid to brag a bit!

• What is your educational background?
• What experience do you currently have?
• Why are you the right person to run your firm?

If there are other individuals involved, it is a good idea to insert your organizational chart here. Visuals help quickly convey information and break up otherwise blocky text.

Section Five: Services

The Services section is the heart of your law firm business model plan. It is where you dive into all aspects of your services, including:

• The problem(s) you are addressing.  What pain points do your preferred clients experience? What can they do right now to alleviate those pain points? Answer these questions, and then take the extra step to explain how those current solutions fail to adequately address their problems.
• The solution(s) you are providing.  This describes how your solutions better resolve your prospective market’s needs. This not only includes the actual work you do, but the benefits that each client will receive based on your work.
• An overview of your competition.  Describe your competition here. For instance, which other solo attorneys and firms provide the same solutions as you? What are your advantages over these competitors? What do you differently when providing your solutions? How will clients gain additional benefits by seeking out your services instead of working with your competitors?

Section 6: Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy section needs to address the three P’s:

• Positioning.  How will you position your law firm and your services? What will you say to present your practice in the best light? What short statements can you use to entice a potential client to pursue your services?
• Pricing.  How much will you charge? How does that fit within the legal industry? Within your niche industry? What do clients receive for that price?
• Promotion.  Which sales channels and marketing activities will you pursue to promote your practice? Who is in charge of these activities? Even if you plan to build your law firm on the basis of word-of-mouth referrals, you must remember that most referrals will still look for information about you before contacting you. Know where they will look and ensure you are there.

Section Seven: Financials

Last comes the financials section. It is the key component to your plan if you are going to seek funding to get your practice off the ground. It is imperative that you complete this section even if you are not seeking funding, however, as you need to paint a clear financial picture before opening your doors.

Two main items make up this section: budgeting and forecasting (sales and cash flow). Answer these questions to help you address these items:

• How much starting capital do you need?
• How much money will it cost to keep your practice operating on a month-to-month basis?
• How many cases will you need to close each month to break even?
• How many cases would you need to close to make a profit?
• What is your projected profit and loss for the year?

This section often incorporates graphs and other images, including profit-and-loss and cash-flow tables. The more specific you get with your numbers, the more likely you are to succeed!

One final note: If your goal is to submit your business plan to potential funders, you want to do everything you can to make sure your plan stands out. One good way to do this is to work with a designer to artfully format your plan. Great presentation can take you a long way.

Originally published 2017-09-23. Republished 2020-07-31.

Cari Twitchell

About the Author

@CariTwitchell

/in/caritwitchell/

Website: https://www.customcontentllc.com

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Starting a law firm can be a rewarding and lucrative venture, but it requires careful planning and strategy. A well-crafted business plan is a crucial tool for any law firm looking to establish itself, secure funding, or grow its practice. The business plan will serve as a roadmap, outlining the law firm’s objectives, strategies, and unique selling proposition

Why Every Law Firm Needs a Business Plan

A well-structured business plan is imperative for every law firm, regardless of its size or specialization. While legal expertise is undoubtedly crucial, having a clear vision and strategic direction is equally essential. A business plan serves as a guiding light, defining the firm’s mission, values, and long-term goals. This clarity is vital for aligning the entire firm towards a common purpose, ensuring that everyone understands the objectives and the path to achieving them. Without a business plan, a law firm may find itself navigating uncertain waters, reacting to circumstances rather than proactively pursuing its ambitions.

The Key Components of a Law Firm Business Plan

A well-structured law firm business plan consists of several key components, each playing a crucial role in guiding the firm’s operations and ensuring its long-term success. Here are the essential elements of a comprehensive law firm business plan:

• Executive summary
• Law firm description
• Market analysis
• Organization and management
• Services 
• Marketing Strategy
• Financial plan
• Start-up budget

Section One: Executive Summary

The executive summary is arguably the most critical section of your law firm’s business plan. While it appears at the beginning, it is often written last, as it serves as a concise yet comprehensive overview of your entire plan. This section should capture the reader’s attention, providing them with a clear understanding of your law firm’s essence, mission, and what to expect from the rest of the document. In your executive summary:

• Introduce your law firm: Briefly describe your law firm’s name, location, and legal specialization.
• Mission and vision: State your firm’s mission and vision, highlighting your commitment to serving clients’ legal needs effectively.
• Your unique selling proposition: Clearly state your USP, and present what is unique about your firm that will ensure success.

The executive summary sets the stage for your entire business plan. It should be a concise yet compelling introduction to your firm’s mission, values, and potential. If crafted well, it can grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to explore other sections in detail. If you feel overwhelmed by this, you can write this section last. 

Section Two: Law Firm Description

This section of your business plan provides a deeper dive into your firm’s background, history, legal specializations, and legal structure and ownership. This section should provide a concise yet informative overview of your firm’s identity and history. Here’s what this section should cover:

• Mission Statement: Briefly reiterate your law firm’s mission statement. This statement should encapsulate your firm’s overarching purpose and guiding principles.
• Geographic Location: State out the physical location of your law firm’s office(s). This should include the city or region where your primary office is situated.
• Legal Structure and Ownership: State the legal structure of your law firm, whether it’s an LLC, S-Corp, or another legal entity. This choice is a fundamental aspect of your business model, influencing ownership, liability, and taxation. If your firm’s ownership is not that of a sole proprietorship, provide details on the ownership structure. Explain how the chosen structure aligns with your firm’s business model, decision-making processes, and long-term goals.
• Firm History: Provide the history of your law firm. Highlight key milestones, achievements, and notable moments in your firm’s journey. If your firm is well-established, briefly summarize its history, showcasing your accomplishments and contributions to the legal field.

Remember that brevity is key in this section. Don’t spend too much time, just touch on important points and achievements. 

Section Three: Market Analysis

A well-conducted market analysis will not only demonstrate your understanding of the legal industry but also inform your law firm’s strategies and decision-making. It goes beyond understanding your competition; it delves deep into your potential clients’ needs and expectations. 

Through market analysis, you can segment your target market based on demographics, industry, legal needs, and preferences. This segmentation allows you to tailor your services to meet the specific needs of different client groups. It also helps you identify the pain points and challenges that potential clients face. By understanding their concerns, you can offer solutions that directly address these pain points.

Your market analysis should also reveal the pricing strategies of your competitors. By benchmarking your pricing against theirs, you can position your services competitively. You can choose to price higher if you offer unique value or lower if you aim to attract price-sensitive clients. Your market analysis should reveal areas where your competitors may be falling short. Use this information to frame your services as the solution to these weaknesses. For example, if competitors have slow response times, emphasize your firm’s commitment to timely communication. 

Showcase your firm’s USPs that directly address client needs and preferences. If you excel in a particular practice area, have a reputation for excellent client service, or offer innovative fee structures, use these strengths to attract your preferred clientele. Ultimately, a well-documented market analysis not only informs your law firm’s business model but also guides your approach to client acquisition, pricing, and service delivery. It ensures that your legal services align with client expectations and positions your firm for success in a competitive legal industry

Section Four: Organization and Management

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This section provides a clear picture of your firm’s internal structure and leadership. Name the key stakeholders in your law firm and what they bring to the table. Highlight any unique experiences or expertise that each partner brings to the firm. This could include prior work at prestigious law firms, involvement in landmark cases, or specialized knowledge in a specific area of law. Explain how these experiences set your firm apart and enhance its capabilities. You can also include an organizational chart that visually represents your law firm’s structure. This chart should showcase the hierarchy, roles, and reporting lines within the firm. By including the names, educational backgrounds, unique experiences, and organizational chart, you paint a comprehensive picture of your law firm’s leadership and structure. This not only builds confidence in your team’s capabilities but also showcases the depth and expertise of your staff to potential clients, partners, or investors.

Section Five: Services

This section is the core of your law firm business plan. Here, you will go into detail about all aspects of your services. Present in simple words:

• The problem(s) your law firm is addressing and your approach to how to alleviate those pain points? Answer these questions, and provide in detail how your firm is in the best position to tackle this problem. 
• The solution(s) you are providing. This should describe how your law firm resolves your prospective market’s needs. This should include the work you do, and the benefits that each client will receive if they work with your firm. 
• Your law firm competition.  This should describe what advantages your law firm has over your competitors? What you do differently when providing your solutions and how your clients will gain additional benefits when they work with your law firm.

Section Six: Marketing Strategy

As you craft your business plan, keep these four essential questions in mind:

• What Is Your Firm’s Value Proposition? Clearly define what sets your law firm apart from others. This should guide your marketing and sales strategies, emphasizing the unique value you offer to clients.
• Who Is Your Target Audience? Identify your ideal client profile. Understanding your target audience helps tailor your marketing efforts to reach those most likely to benefit from your services.
• What Are Your Growth Goals? Set specific, measurable growth goals for your firm. These goals should inform your sales and marketing strategies, outlining how you plan to achieve them.
• How Will You Measure Success? Determine key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your marketing and sales efforts. Whether it’s tracking client acquisition rates, website traffic, or revenue growth, having measurable metrics will help you gauge your progress and make informed adjustments.

It is also valuable to perform a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to assess your law firm’s internal and external factors. Describe your online marketing efforts, including your website, social media presence, and email marketing campaigns. Explain how you plan to leverage marketing  to reach and engage potential clients effectively. You should also define your pricing structure and fee arrangements. This may include hourly rates for specific legal services, retainer agreements for ongoing representation, or flat fees for standardized services. 

Section Seven: Financial Plan

If you want to expand your law firm and ensure a steady income, it’s essential to create a financial strategy for your practice. While you might not have all the answers regarding your firm’s finances, provide comprehensive details. Your goal should be to establish a financial plan, particularly for the initial year of your firm’s operation.

Provide comprehensive financial projections that cover the anticipated income, expenses, and cash flow for your law firm. These forecasts should offer a clear picture of how your firm expects to perform financially. You should also Incorporate income statements, which show your firm’s revenue and expenses, balance sheets that detail your assets and liabilities, and cash flow projections, which illustrate how money moves in and out of your business. These financial statements offer a holistic view of your firm’s financial health.

Explain the assumptions underlying your financial projections. This may include factors like growth rates, market trends, client acquisition strategies, and pricing models. Describe your strategies for achieving growth and how they translate into financial outcomes. This section is critical for demonstrating your law firm’s financial preparedness and sustainability. Investors, lenders, or partners will scrutinize these sections to assess the viability of your firm, making it essential to provide detailed and well-supported financial information.

Section Eight: Start-up Budget

When developing a business plan for your law firm, it is essential to create a realistic startup budget. This involves carefully considering various initial and ongoing expenses and factoring them into your revenue objectives. Here are some instances of expenses to incorporate into your budget:

• Hardware costs, such as laptops, printers, scanners, and office furniture.
• Office space expenses, whether you plan to rent space or work from home.
• Malpractice insurance fees.
• Staff salaries, including potential hires like administrative assistants or paralegals.
• Utility expenses, covering phone and internet services, among others.
• Expenses on practice management software or other tech tools

After itemizing these costs, review them thoroughly. Clearly state the total amount of funding you require to start and sustain your law firm. Explain how this funding will be allocated, including how much goes into covering startup costs and how much is reserved for ongoing operations. Be specific about the purpose of each funding component. 

Additionally, explore tools and solutions that can streamline non-billable tasks, freeing up more time for your legal practice. This not only enhances your overall productivity but also allows you to allocate more time to your legal practice. One exceptional solution that can significantly benefit your law firm operations is a legal practice management software. 

DigitsLaw: The Legal Practice Management Software for Law Firms

DigitsLaw is an all-in-one practice management software that streamlines and simplifies the day-to-day operations of a law firm. Whether you are a small firm or you have law firms in major cities, DigitsLaw can meet the unique needs of your legal practice. Our simple and intuitive tool offers a wealth of features that can make a substantial difference in the success and efficiency of your firm.

Here’s how DigitsLaw can help your new law firm scale:

• Effortless Case Management: DigitsLaw simplifies case management by centralizing all your client information, documents, and communications in one secure location. This ensures that you have easy access to everything you need, right at your fingertips.
• Time Tracking and Billing: With DigitsLaw, tracking billable hours and generating invoices is seamless. You can accurately record your time, expenses, and activities, allowing for transparent and error-free billing processes.
• Conflict Check: DigitsLaw provides a robust conflict check system that assists law firms in maintaining ethical standards and preventing conflicts of interest. By incorporating DigitsLaw conflict check capabilities into your law firm’s workflow, you can enhance your due diligence processes, reduce the risk of conflicts of interest, and uphold the highest ethical standards in your legal practice. 
• Client Collaboration: Foster better client relationships through DigitsLaw’s client portal . Clients can securely access case information, share documents, and communicate with your firm, enhancing transparency and trust.
• Legal Document Management: Say goodbye to the hassle of paper documents and disorganized files. DigitsLaw enables efficient document storage, organization, and collaboration, saving you time and reducing the risk of errors.
• Secure and Compliant: DigitsLaw prioritizes security and compliance, ensuring that your client data and sensitive information are protected at the highest standards.

By leveraging DigitsLaw’s capabilities, you can significantly reduce administrative overhead, minimize errors, and provide a more streamlined and responsive experience for your clients. It’s a strategic investment that will pay dividends as your firm grows and prospers.

Sample Business Plan and Fillable Template

If you’re in the early stages of creating your business plan, we’ve prepared an example that can serve as a reference. You can also download a blank version of our template here. Remember to tailor your plan to your specific requirements and objectives. 

Download your copy of our law firm business plan template HERE

Final thoughts.

In conclusion, crafting a law firm business plan is not just a formality; it’s a roadmap that guides your firm toward success. Whether you’re launching a new law firm or seeking to revitalize an existing one, a well-thought-out plan helps you.  From defining your firm’s mission and values to conducting a thorough market analysis every section of your plan plays a crucial role in shaping your law firm’s journey. It’s not just about impressing potential investors; it’s about setting clear goals, making informed decisions, and ensuring that your firm is well-prepared for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

As you start planning, remember that your business plan is a living document. It should evolve and adapt as your firm grows and the legal industry changes. Regularly revisit and update your plan to stay aligned with your mission, serve your clients better, and achieve your long-term vision.

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University of Virginia School of Law

Business Planning

Information introduction.

Franks, Harry

Schedule Information

Course description, course requirements, exam information.

Final Type (if any): Flex

Description: Flex exam at end of course.

Other Course Details

Prerequisites: (Corporations (6103) OR Corporations (Law & Business) (6109)) Also, Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance (in college, law school, or from work experience) are encouraged. Concurrencies: None

Exclusive With: None

Laptops Allowed: Yes

First Day Attendance Required: No

Course Resources: To be announced.

Graduation Requirements

Satisfies Understanding Bias/Racism/Cross-Cultural Competency requirement: No

Satisfies Writing Requirement: No

Credits For Prof. Skills Requirement: No

Satisfies Professional Ethics: No

Additional Course Information

Schedule No.: 124217882

Modified Type: Lecture

Cross Listed: No

Concentrations: Business Organization and Finance

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Opens: Sunday, April 14, 12:01 AM

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Closes: Sunday, April 28, 11:59 PM

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Law Firm Business Plan Template

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1. Don't worry about finding an exact match

We have over 550 sample business plan templates . So, make sure the plan is a close match, but don't get hung up on the details.

Your business is unique and will differ from any example or template you come across. So, use this example as a starting point and customize it to your needs.

2. Remember it's just an example

Our sample business plans are examples of what one business owner did. That doesn't make them perfect or require you to cram your business idea to fit the plan structure.

Use the information, financials, and formatting for inspiration. It will speed up and guide the plan writing process.

3. Know why you're writing a business plan

To create a plan that fits your needs , you need to know what you intend to do with it.

Are you planning to use your plan to apply for a loan or pitch to investors? Then it's worth following the format from your chosen sample plan to ensure you cover all necessary information.

But, if you don't plan to share your plan with anyone outside of your business—you likely don't need everything.

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Simple Business Plan Outline

How to Write a Law Firm Business Plan

Business Plan Template

How to Write a Business Plan

Industry Business Planning Guides

10 Qualities of a Good Business Plan

How to Start a Business With No Money

How to Write a Business Plan for Investors

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A Definitive Guide to Master Law Firm Business Development

As a law firm, building robust, long-lasting client relationships can be challenging. After all, networking, client engagement, and lead generation tactics can be time consuming. However, adapting to modern business development strategies and incorporating new technology can streamline these processes.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to make connections, set your firm up for a prosperous future, and integrate innovative tools so that your vision of your firm’s success can become a reality.

• What is Law Firm Business Development?

Five Business Development Ideas for Law Firms

How to create a law firm business development plan, law firm business development vs. law firm marketing, resources to support law firm business development, what is law firm business development.

Law firm business development refers to anything you do, intentionally and systemically, to generate your firm’s revenue and gain clientele. It focuses more on the big picture rather than smaller transactional tasks.

You may apply law firm business development strategies by:

• Taking on new practice areas
• Cross-selling to existing or former clients
• Expanding the geography of your practice
• Implementing a more robust client intake process 

Constructing a business development plan requires time, reviewing data regarding your firm’s performance, staying up to date on trends in the industry, and keeping an eye on your competitor’s performance. 

Law firms of any size, practice, or location can use these law firm business development ideas to build their business:

When you hear “networking,” you may automatically think of attending happy hours or big legal conferences. That’s one way to do it, and it’s a good start. This way, you can feel more comfortable and make connections in a more relaxed environment. But don’t stop there.

After you’ve attended a few events and gotten the hang of how they work, it might be time to explore other ways to put yourself out there. You may want to base your approach on your clientele and practice area.

For example, if your clients are predominantly from the medical field or need health law related services, attend events that sponsor and host physicians. Should one of their patients need representation, a doctor you met at one of these events could direct them to you.

Online Forums

People with a common problem usually take to online forums to get answers to their questions. The conversation is a collection of posted messages, allowing multiple people to participate.

Drop into a forum and offer insights and advice to people seeking help. You might just land your next customer if you check out:

• Social media groups
• Thomas Reuters Legal Community
• Bar Association forums
• The Lawyerist Community
• Law school alumni forums

Referrals/Reviews

Some lawyers might avoid asking for referrals or reviews since they consider it free legal marketing . As long as you comply with the American Bar Association’s (ABA) guidelines, there’s no need to worry.

Referrals and reviews are a great lead generation strategy for law firms. Referred leads tend to have a higher conversion rate as they come from clients you’ve worked with and established a line of trust.

Client Engagement

Receiving leads and, ultimately, clients requires you to build strong personal relationships with your current clients. You can do this by being attentive to their needs, providing emotional support, and maintaining constant and clear communication.

As cliché as it sounds, put yourself in their position and ask yourself what you would want. Take the time to ensure they understand everything regarding their case. When you get an update on their case, let them know immediately. 

Once the case resolves, ask them for feedback. Your proactivity and willingness to do better prove your dedication and care for them.

They’ll remember how you went the extra mile for them and may feel more inclined to share their experiences with their friends and family, who just may be your future clients.

Thought Leadership

Thought leadership increases brand awareness and is another avenue to convert leads into clients. In other words, what’s your niche? If one thing about your firm stands out, make sure your prospects know what it is. Showcase your expertise by focusing on the quality of the service or perk you can provide rather than the quantity.

If you’re a personal injury attorney, provide content about common mistakes people make when dealing with insurance companies. If you run an immigration firm , write a post or make a video on how the Green Card process goes step by step.

Creating a law firm business plan sounds intimidating, but when you break it down into simple steps, you’ll feel like you can do anything.

Define Measurable Goals

Start small, and list the goals you want to accomplish in the next year. This can look like reaching a broader clientele by taking on a new practice area or partnering with another lawyer. You may have specific revenue goals you want to achieve and want to better define your law firm’s finances.  

Goals combine your firm’s performance and aspirations to create actionable, tangible achievements. 

Create Actionable Strategies

As mentioned before, goals need to be tangible and elicit action. How will you achieve these goals? Some ideas for strategies are:

• Increasing visibility on LinkedIn or Facebook
• Attending networking events that are more clientele-based than colleague-based (See the doctor example above)
• Setting aside time to answer questions on social media or forums

Prioritize Your Goals

Prioritizing your firm’s goals will help you make actionable steps that you can measure and adjust along the way based on their performance. Overloading yourself with too many goals at once can be overwhelming and may be hard to track.

For example, if you want to build a presence on Instagram the most, take steps like:

• Converting your page into a business account
• Learning the different tools and which hashtags to use
• Deciding if you want to post photos, videos, or a mix
• Figuring out how often you’ll post both on your account and stories
• Leverage Instagram or Facebook ads

Your firm should aim to implement a set of goals over a defined period, likely on a quarterly basis. 

Develop a Timeline To Test and Measure Performance

Goals are nothing without timelines or creating processes to track them. You’ll want to set a cadence, pull reports, and gauge revenue generation. This way, you can see what’s working and what isn’t.

Law firm business development and legal marketing tend to go hand-in-hand, but there is a distinction. 

Digital marketing , such as Google advertising or pay-per-click (PPC), can generate immediate revenue.

In business development, your focus is still generating revenue, but it’s less of a focus on selling. Instead, it’s about building your firm and relationships and setting up revenue streams with the long-term end goal in mind.

Investing in law practice management software can help maximize your firm’s business development and marketing. With PracticePanther, your firm has access to native resources to effectively attract and retain more business, including: 

• CRM : From lead to closed business, easily collect and store important client data in PracticePanther’s legal crm . Use this information to populate documents, create audience lists for email marketing campaigns, and more! 
• Custom tags : Easily track where leads came from with tags that can be customized to your firm’s liking. Create custom tags for “LinkedIn Ads” or “Website” to track the performance of a campaign. Then, you can easily filter your tags and generate reports to identify which marketing tactics don’t work for your firm.
• Email management : Use PracticePanther to automate your firm’s email marketing. Once a contact is created in PracticePanther, you can use the MailChimp integration or another email automation tool to sync to your email contact list. Having a space with all the information on one platform can save you time from bouncing back and forth from different websites.
• Client intake : Streamline the onboarding process with automated client intake forms . Add custom fields to capture the information your firm needs and add your logo. Embed intake forms on your website and email signature so clients can contact your firm from anywhere. Once a client’s information is captured, it automatically syncs to PracticePanther as a contact, so you always have the record. (Yes, you can even tag them!)
• Integrated legal calendaring software : Easily keep track of deadlines, appointments, court dates, and meetings with a built-in calendaring system . Sync your Google or Outlook calendars to PracticePanther to keep track of your events, meetings, and tasks in one place without double entry. 

Use These Tips To Effectively Invest in Your Firm’s Profitability

By adopting modern business development strategies and adopting legal-specific software, your firm can increase its visibility, generate more new business and enhance client satisfaction. As we’ve discussed, goals are nothing without processes to measure them. PracticePanther helps firms manage all aspects of their practice from business development to legal case management in one place.

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Kamron Sanders

Kamron Sanders is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist at PracticePanther, an all-in-one legal practice management software. She is responsible for creating engaging content across multiple channels including social media, articles, videos, and more. Kamron views marketing through a customer-focused lens and equips legal professionals with the information and tools to automate their practice.

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Seven Sample Attorney Business Plans: Why Attorneys Must Have Business Plans

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By  Harrison Barnes

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• Business plans are a dying art, especially in the legal profession.
• Needless to say, business plans are also essential for a lawyer’s career.
• As the adage goes, if you don't plan your career, someone else will plan it for you.

Many of you work in firms that don't have a business plan for the firm as a whole , let alone your practice group or individual attorneys. And some of you are not privy to the firm's plan, even if there is one.

• If you are interested in seeing the elements of a lateral partner business plan click here: Partner Business Plans: Key Elements

Even so, that's no reason to forgo developing a plan for yourself. Remember, if you don't plan your career, someone else will plan it for you.

Have no fear. Personal business planning is not about writing a 50-page manifesto outlining every detail of every day of your professional life for the next 10 years . In fact, personal business planning can be as simple as you want to make it, as you can see here with this sample business plan for law practice PDF . You don't even have to call it a business plan -- call it a career plan if you prefer.

No matter how simple you make it or what you call it, personal business planning is about taking inventory of where you are , determining where you want to go and building a roadmap for getting there. Once you have the plan in writing, all you have to do is revisit it periodically to check your course and make any necessary adjustments.

Also, when it comes to planning, the biggest land mines are complexity and procrastination. Try to avoid creating a plan that overwhelms you or anyone you tell about it. And remember that any plan is better than no plan at all.

Strive to keep your plan simple and start taking action. As an attorney, you're well-versed in the areas of analysis and logic. In every work matter, you look at the situation and connect the dots to accomplish the desired objective. Apply the same approach to personal business planning and the dots you connect will lead you to the career you've always wanted.

• See 30 Ways to Generate Business as an Attorney for more information.

Business Plan For A Law Firm

How do i write a business plan for a law firm, what goes into a business plan, overview of the firm.

• A mission statement about the firm’s purpose.
• A vision statement or recitation of medium- and long-term goals for the firm.
• Important aspects of the firm’s history.
• Any important philosophies that the firm brings to legal practice.

Market Analysis

Do lawyers write business plans, 1. what are your goals.

• What do I want to achieve by starting my own law firm ?
• What is the impact I want to have?
• What am I good at?
• How do I want to service my clients?
• What problems do I want to help solve?
• What does success look like after starting this law firm?

2. Consider how much revenue you will need.

3. setting your fee structure, 4. determine how many cases you need to meet that revenue goal, how to create a law firm business plan, 1. executive summary.

• Mission statement: One or two sentences describing your firm’s purpose.
• Core values: What values are most important to the firm?
• Major goals: What are your firm’s overarching goals and objectives?
• Unique selling proposition: What sets your firm apart from other firms?

2. Firm Description

• Service(s): What type of law do you practice? What types of clients do you serve?
• Firm values: Restate your mission statement and core values.
• Legal structure: What sort of business entity are you? Are you in a sole proprietorship or a limited liability partnership?
• Location: Where is the office geographically located? What areas does the firm serve?
• Unique selling proposition: What makes your firm stand out? What technology or services give your firm an edge?

3. Market Analysis

• Ideal client: What demographics (like location, age, occupation), needs, and motivations would signify the best client match for your firm, and why?
• Industry description: What is the current and projected size of the market your firm is in? What are the trends in your legal niche?
• Competitive analysis: Who are your direct and indirect competitors, and how are they serving your target market? Where do your competitors succeed? What opportunities are there for your firm?
• Projections: How much can your ideal clients spend on legal services? How much can you charge?

4. Organization and Management Overview

• Describe what makes you unique and what sets you apart from other applicants.
• If applicable, include what makes each member of your team suitable for their particular roles.
• The organizational chart is a great visual aid if you have a larger practice.

5. Services

• What problems do your potential clients need your help with?
• How can your services uniquely help your clients solve their problems?
• What is the benefit of your services to clients?
• Why would potential clients choose your firm over another firm?

6. Marketing Strategy

• Ideal client: Where would you find your ideal client?
• Marketing goals: Detail what specific outcomes you hope to accomplish through marketing. Goals should include tactical objectives (more clients? Higher billing rates?) and overall objectives (like increased name recognition).
• Unique selling proposition: Restate what sets you apart and makes you uniquely able to best serve your clients.
• Competition: Detail who your competition is—and what they are doing to gain clients. Analyze their marketing strategies and assess where the cost of your services fits in with your competitors.
• Action plan: List the specific actions your firm will take to reach your target market and achieve your marketing goals (this could include a media/advertising strategy).

7. Financial Plan

• Revenue goal: How much money you want to make broken down by month.
• Financial projections: What you will really expect to earn, how many cases you think you will have the capacity to take on, and what you will be charging each client each month.
• Budget: A breakdown of your expenses and what your money will be going towards each month.
• Cash flow statement: What you actually earned and spent each month. This is different from your projections and budget and should be updated as the year progresses. You will find that you may have budgeted for something that cost you much less than you originally thought or made more in a month than you projected, these discrepancies should be recorded in your cash flow statement.

8. Start-Up Budget

• Hardware (laptops, printers, scanners, office furniture, etc.)
• Office space (Will you rent, or work from home?)
• Malpractice insurance
• Staff salaries (Are you planning to hire an administrative assistant or paralegal?)
• Utilities (Phone, internet, etc.)
• Practice management software or other technology services
• Partner Business Plans: Key Elements
• You Need to be Self-Managing and Responsible
• The Importance of Finding and Creating Demand
• The Importance of Asking the Right Questions, Self Improvement and Perception
• Attorney Business Plan Sample 1
• Attorney Business Plan Sample 2
• Attorney Business Plan Sample 3
• Attorney Business Plan Sample 4
• Attorney Business Plan Sample 5
• Attorney Business Plan Sample 6
• Attorney Business Plan Sample 7

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Harrison Barnes does a weekly free webinar with live Q&A for attorneys and law students each Wednesday at 10:00 am PST. You can attend anonymously and ask questions about your career, this article, or any other legal career-related topics. You can sign up for the weekly webinar here: Register on Zoom

Harrison also does a weekly free webinar with live Q&A for law firms, companies, and others who hire attorneys each Wednesday at 10:00 am PST. You can sign up for the weekly webinar here: Register on Zoom

You can browse a list of past webinars here: Webinar Replays

You can also listen to Harrison Barnes Podcasts here: Attorney Career Advice Podcasts

You can also read Harrison Barnes' articles and books here: Harrison's Perspectives

Harrison Barnes is the legal profession's mentor and may be the only person in your legal career who will tell you why you are not reaching your full potential and what you really need to do to grow as an attorney--regardless of how much it hurts. If you prefer truth to stagnation, growth to comfort, and actionable ideas instead of fluffy concepts, you and Harrison will get along just fine. If, however, you want to stay where you are, talk about your past successes, and feel comfortable, Harrison is not for you.

Truly great mentors are like parents, doctors, therapists, spiritual figures, and others because in order to help you they need to expose you to pain and expose your weaknesses. But suppose you act on the advice and pain created by a mentor. In that case, you will become better: a better attorney, better employees, a better boss, know where you are going, and appreciate where you have been--you will hopefully also become a happier and better person. As you learn from Harrison, he hopes he will become your mentor.

To read more career and life advice articles visit Harrison's personal blog.

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This practice/simulation course will cover the entrepreneurial business, from its inception to its end — by dissolution, liquidation, merger or public offering. Like Gaul, the course will be divided into three parts, which will be covered and interfaced with each other on a continuing basis — state enterprise law, Federal income tax law and enterprise documentation. The range of subjects will include the choice of entity (partnership vs. corporation), tax implications (equity vs. debt), bringing in others (investors, key employees, independent contractors), protecting the enterprise (covenants not to compete or solicit business or customers, protection of intellectual property and confidential information), expanding the business (form and format for subsidiaries and affiliates, acquisitions and joint ventures) and mergers, consolidations and public offerings.

Uber-Backed E-Bike Startup Lime Planning Fleet Expansion (1)

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The San Francisco-based company will add more than 30,000 net-new bikes across North America, Europe and Australia while also replacing aging ones, CEO Wayne Ting said in an interview. It’s also looking to return to Greece and Mexico — markets that it had exited during the pandemic, he said, and is exploring new business lines such as advertising deals and a new vehicle type for its shared ...

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New rule strengthening federal job protections could counter Trump promises to remake the government

FILE - The Theodore Roosevelt Building, location of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, on Feb. 13, 2024, in Washington. The government’s chief human resources agency has issued a new rule making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees. Advocates hope the rule will head off former President Donald Trump’s promises to radically remake the workforce along ideological lines if he wins back the White House in November. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s chief human resources agency issued a new rule on Thursday making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees, hoping to head off former President Donald Trump’s promises to radically remake the workforce along ideological lines if he wins back the White House in November.

The Office of Personnel Management regulations will bar career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees or as other at-will workers, who are more easily dismissed from their jobs.

It comes in response to Schedule F, an executive order Trump issued in 2020 that sought to allow for reclassifying tens of thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees and thus reduce their job security protections.

President Joe Biden nullified Schedule F upon taking office. But if Trump were to revive it during a second administration, he could dramatically increase the around 4,000 federal employees who are considered political appointees and typically change with each new president.

Biden called the rule a “step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people.’

The potential effects of the change are wide-reaching since how many federal employees might have been affected by Schedule F is unclear. The National Treasury Employee Union used freedom of information requests to obtain documents suggesting that workers like office managers and specialists in human resources and cybersecurity might have been among those subject to reclassification.

The new rule moves to counter a future Schedule F order by spelling out procedural requirements for reclassifying federal employees and clarifying that civil service protections accrued by employees can’t be taken away, regardless of job type. It also makes clear that policymaking classifications apply to noncareer, political appointments.

AP AUDIO: New rule strengthening federal job protections could counter Trump promises to remake the government.

AP correspondent Jennifer King reports.

Good government groups and activists have cheered the change. They viewed cementing federal worker protections as a top priority given that replacing existing government employees with new, more conservative alternatives is a key piece of a plan spearheaded by former Trump administration officials and the Heritage Foundation think tank, known as Project 2025 .

It calls for vetting and potentially firing scores of federal workers and recruiting conservative replacements to wipe out what leading Republicans have long decried as the “deep state” governmental bureaucracy.

Doreen Greenwald, president of the treasury union, said the new rule “will now be much harder for any president to arbitrarily remove the nonpartisan professionals who staff our federal agencies just to make room for hand-picked partisan loyalists.”

But Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, countered that it was “yet another example of the Biden Administration’s efforts to insulate the federal workforce from accountability.”

“The Biden Administration’s rule will further undermine Americans’ confidence in their government since it allows poor performing federal workers and those who attempt to thwart the policies of a duly elected President to remain entrenched in the federal bureaucracy,” Comer said in a statement.

He also promised that his committee “will continue to conduct rigorous oversight of the federal workforce” while exploring legislation “to make the unelected, unaccountable federal workforce more accountable.”

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which has led a coalition of nearly 30 advocacy organizations supporting the rule, called it an “extraordinarily strong” counter to the “highly resourced, anti-democratic groups” behind Project 2025.

“This is not a wonky issue, even though it may be billed that way at times,” Perryman said. “This is really foundational to how we can ensure that the government delivers for people and, for us, that’s what a democracy is about.”

Running to 237 pages, the rule is being published in the federal registry and set to formally take effect next month.

The Office of Personnel Management first proposed the changes last November, then reviewed and responded to 4,000-plus public comments on them. Officials at some top conservative organizations opposed the rule, but around two-thirds of the comments were supportive.

If Trump wins another term, his administration could direct the Office of Personnel Management to draft new rules. But the process takes months and requires detailed explanation on why new regulations would be improvements — potentially allowing for legal challenges to be brought by opponents.

Rob Shriver, deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management, said the new rule ensures that federal employee protections “cannot be erased by a technical, HR process” which he said “Schedule F sought to do.”

“This rule is about making sure the American public can continue to count on federal workers to apply their skills and expertise in carrying out their jobs, no matter their personal political beliefs,” Shriver said on a call with reporters.

He noted that 85% of federal workers are based outside the Washington area and are “our friends, neighbors and family members,” who are “dedicated to serving the American people, not political agendas.”

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LIVE RADAR: Strong to severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts prompt Weather Authority Alert

2 warnings, a watch and 8 advisories in effect for 31 regions in the area, last call for dry towns new york weighs lifting post-prohibition law that let towns keep booze bans.

Maysoon Khan

Associated Press

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Rob Waltar, managing partner of the Fulton Grand bar, make drinks for customers, Feb. 28, 2024, in New York. Towns in New York that have never repealed Prohibition-era rules banning the sale of alcohol would be forced to lift their liquor restrictions under a bill moving through the state legislature. The bills sponsor argues it will spur business growth in seven towns that still have booze bans. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York towns and villages that have post-Prohibition bans on alcohol sales would be forced to lift such restrictions under a bill moving through the Legislature.

The bill, which is up for a state Senate vote after advancing out of a committee last week, would strike down a 1934 law passed right after Prohibition that allowed towns and cities to opt to stay dry .

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Many U.S. communities fully or partially ban alcohol sales . Pennsylvania, for example, has about 675 that have some sort of restriction.

In the Empire State, only seven communities have complete booze bans, according to the New York State Liquor Authority. The largest, the western New York town of Caneadea, is home to about 2,000 people.

The bill’s sponsor argues that lifting restrictions will spur business growth and save those who live in such places from having to buy their booze elsewhere , allowing them to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner at local restaurants.

“This ain’t the Prohibition era any longer. We live in New York in 2024, and this thing is kind of silly,” said state Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat who chairs a legislative committee that most of the state alcohol laws pass through.

That sentiment resonates with Brittany Gerould, a general manager at the Dutch Village Restaurant in Clymer, a southwestern New York town of about 1,700 near the Pennsylvania border. If the bill becomes law, it would bring in “big profits” for the business, Gerould said.

“We definitely lose some business because of it,” she said of the alcohol sales ban. “We try to do wing nights, but of course we can’t have alcohol. We aren’t even open on Saturday nights because they were such a miss.”

Not everyone is on board.

Philip G. Stockin, Caneadea's deputy town supervisor, said he's fine with the status quo, citing alcohol abuse as a major concern.

"It gets frustrating when the state hands down mandates, it takes more and more control away from the locals,” Stockin said.

Caneadea last voted on its booze restrictions in 1986.

In Lapeer, a town of roughly 800 people about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Syracuse, most people buy their alcohol in the nearest town, according to Cindy Butler McFarland, Lapeer's town clerk.

McFarland, who grew up in Lapeer, said that even if the bill becomes law, she doesn't think anyone would open a bar, restaurant or store in Lapeer that could sell alcohol because there's a grocery store in the next town.

But Desiree Brown, the bar manager at the Olde School Pub in Sandy Creek, a village of about 700 roughly 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Syracuse, said she thinks there is a market for a watering hole in the nearby dry town of Orwell.

“I can tell you just because the town is dry, the people in there are not,” said Brown. “A lot of people have talked about how they wish Orwell wasn’t a dry town because it would be one more spot to put a little pub or bar.”

Argyle, a town of about 3,500 roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Albany, voted to remove its dry status in 2019. Before then, some residents would spend their Friday nights drinking at a restaurant in a neighboring town, said Renee Montero-Kober, Argyle's deputy town clerk.

“I just think people got tired of driving out of town, and we were losing revenue by not selling it here. People were obviously going somewhere to buy it,” said Montero-Kober, who voted to end Argyle's dry era. “I do think it’s better now.”

Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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The European Central Bank held borrowing costs at a record high as expected on Thursday but signalled it may soon cut interest rates, even as investors increasingly questioned whether its U.S. counterpart will follow along.