Financial potential is paramount when starting a boutique law firm – but all three argued that spending time on your clients is equally important.

Kinny Legal continues to focus on specific clients with needs that match the specialist skills of the firm’s lawyers. Ms Kinny said this method was key when it came to realising Kinny Legal’s financial potential.

“A boutique law firm will never reach its full financial potential trying to be all things to all people. What has worked for us is being very focused on our ideal clients,” she said.

Ms Murray said when she was building RTI Consultants, which she remains the sole practitioner of, the first step was to build a strong client base before even considering the firm’s financial future.

“In my first couple of years I didn’t turn down any work. It meant I was really busy and couldn’t commit as much time as I would have liked to future planning and building up other operations,” she said.  

“Until you get started it’s impossible to know how things will go, but by staying flexible I have been able to get some great regular clients and am now focussed on growing for the future.”

Ms Kinny added that focusing on specific clients has helped Kinny Legal grow exponentially – and helped cement its financial future.

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“This focus means we can charge top dollar for the work we do and know the client is still getting a great deal. This focus also means we can get more client work with less marketing effort and spend,” she said.  

“Our repeat business continues to steadily increase. Many new clients come to us by referral. And the new clients that don’t come to referral know us from industry reputation or highly targeted marketing, which means they are more likely to convert.”

Mr Kalantar agreed that when starting a boutique firm, it is vital to understand your clientele and the problems you can solve for them.

“As a small business operator, it is really important to understand what problems you are solving for your clients and the best way to do that,” he said.

“I have learned through experience to make sure that I understand my clients’ actual needs and requirements before spending time and cost pursuing something that might be unsuitable.

“To that end, communication and honesty is the best way to make sure you are pricing your work fairly and accurately.”

He added that by focusing on specific clients, Executive Legal is now able to foresee similar problems with similar clients and charge accordingly.

“We have found that we can offer a really high-quality offering to our clients at a fixed fee rate because we know what the task will entail,” Mr Kalantar said.

“With more bespoke or complex work, the challenges are not so clear at the offset and so it becomes about making sure that you properly articulate the strategy that you are going to pursue and making sure that you provide that to the client.”

Ms Murray said that with respect to charging clients, RTI Consultants started far lower than necessary and eventually raised them through a process of “trial and error”.

“I started low at first because I wanted to build a good client base and I was still learning how to run the firm. I definitely undercharged but it was more important for me to build my confidence,” she said.

“However, now that I’ve been working for several years my confidence and experience have grown which means that I’ve raised my prices.”

Whilst many lawyers may undercharge when first opening a boutique law firm, Mr Kalantar said that over time, lawyers become more experienced and are able to ascertain where they sit in the market and charge accordingly. However, he added that people will often think they are “paying more than they should.”

“As a lawyer, you have to ensure that you are able to create a financially sustainable business while also making sure you charge at a fair rate for the expertise that you have,” he said.

“While over the years, my hourly rates have increased, I have found the value that I am able to provide to my clients has also increased dramatically. As a partner, I can usually resolve a complex issue in 30 minutes which would have taken me four or five hours in my younger years.

“Beyond simply being able to do a better job at a faster rate, I have also noticed that the value I can give my clients is far more than it was due to my depth of experience.”

Just as Mr Kalantar has raised his rates as his experience and value grow, Ms Kinny said Kinny Legal’s fees come down to measuring the value of the firm’s staff and changing costs accordingly.  

“You need to know how much time each team member spends on each task to progress a matter, billable and non-billable,” she said.

“You need to know what the market rates are for each member of your team. And you need to regularly review and improve all processes to maximise quality, efficiency and profitability.”

Market rates and value became especially important during the pandemic, according to Mr Kalantar – who said COVID-19 “transformed” the legal industry.

“The pandemic transformed the fundamental way that we do business and created a shift in what people expected in legal services. Whilst we still maintain and encourage clients to come into our office for a conference, it is now a fairly regular process for us to meet via Zoom or other digital software and to make contact through that model,” he said.

“[It] also showed the importance of being able to provide clear and meaningful value for clients in relation to solving their problems. The role of a trusted advisor in times of crisis cannot be understated and people who had operated on a ‘business as usual’ premise were quick to move towards linking up with people who had expertise in very specific areas.”

RTI Consultants has been operating virtually since 2018 and Ms Murray said the pandemic has “completely normalised” her work.

“Everyone has become used to Teams and Zoom calls and staff can be managed virtually. We are entering a new era of working from home and law firms need to embrace this,” she said.

Ms Kinny concluded that her firm had learnt similar lessons during the pandemic – and that looking to the future, being able to connect and support your clients is what matters most.

“We are all human, all people crave connection and understanding, and you don’t need to be in the same room to genuinely connect and support your team, your clients and your target market,” she said.