In today’s ever-changing legal landscape, one thing remains certain: Lawyers must constantly evolve. Whether this means incorporating client interactions virtually or attending hearings via Zoom, we must continually adapt to changing times and the evolution of client needs. One of the easier ways to keep up in today’s legal world is by practicing hybrid law.
Hybrid law can refer to several things. First, hybrid law can refer to combining a work-from-home environment with a more traditional law office practice. Especially since the start of the pandemic, hybrid law offices have become the norm for many attorneys. That being said, the term “hybrid law” can also refer to attorneys who practice in more than one area of law, for example, international law and intellectual property law, business law and family law, or tax law and estate planning. Some areas more obviously seem to go hand in hand; however, there are a thousand and one combinations of law that complement each other or have overlapping ideas and principles.
We live in an age when we are constantly bombarded with television commercials and billboard advertisements for large, national, multi-firm practices. To remain relevant—and profitable—those of us in solo or small firms must expand our horizons, whether that means finding new ways to advertise, incorporating new technology, or increasing our practice scope. Practicing in multiple areas of law is just one way in which we not only can broaden our horizons, professionally speaking, but also provide more robust help to our client base.
At the end of the day, no matter how much our hearts are in the right place or how much we genuinely want to help our clients, we have to make money. It’s as simple as that. We need to keep the lights on in order to help those who rely on us. Practicing in more than one area is merely one avenue to explore to accomplish this.
As law students, many of us had a specific idea of the types of law we wanted to practice once we graduated from law school. If you’re anything like me, that idea changed multiple times, and the end result was something different, yet again. Let me be the first to say: There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, there are ways in which you can build and capitalize on it. Combine multiple areas of law: Figure out how they can work together cohesively and how you, as a lawyer, can make the areas overlap. I am of a small minority that works with a true general practitioner in my firm. However, most lawyers I know work in a far more specific field. If you are one of these lawyers, perhaps now is the time to broaden your practice field in ways that expand your client reach while also utilizing your strengths in your existing areas of law. Doing so will expand not only the types of clients you can serve but also the types of services you can provide for your existing clients. And this, in short, means increased profits.
How many times has a client spoken with you about one legal issue, and then at the end of the meeting, they asked if you also handled a different area of law or if you could recommend someone who practiced in that area? Wouldn’t it be great if you were able to tell your client that you could also handle their second legal issue just as easily as their first legal issue? This is ideal because you already have an existing client relationship with this person and know (hopefully) that they pay their bills on time and are generally easy to work with. You have a better chance of being paid by someone you have already dealt with and who is familiar with you as an attorney and how you do business.
By all means, do not take on an area of law in which you have no experience or feel completely out of your depth, but if it’s an area that you’re comfortable with, you’re looking at multiple opportunities to increase your revenue. There are many areas of law that are not necessarily overlapping but complementary.
Working in overlapping or complementary practice areas will also keep your clients coming back. The first legal issue you handle for them might be a one-shot deal, for example, a purchase of property. However, their second legal issue may be more recurring. Perhaps they’re starting a business and will regularly need a lawyer to develop and review contracts, business formation documents, and employment agreements. Being able to help existing clients with a variety of legal issues will keep them returning to you year after year.
Being able to aid your clients in more than one area of law not only keeps your clients coming back but also can aid in word-of-mouth recommendations. Think about a client who may recommend your estate planning services to their friend. The friend might say, “Well, that’s nice, but I’ve already got all of my estate planning taken care of. Do you know if they also handle divorces?” If you had also done this work for your existing client, they could easily recommend you for that work as well. This word-of-mouth recommendation is priceless; there’s no better advertisement for your services . . . and this advertisement is free.
Relying on word-of-mouth advertising such as this is an excellent, easy, and frugal way to get more clients who are similar to your current clients: the type who (again, hopefully) pay their bills on time, are easy to work with, and are good clients all around. The chance of getting a client such as this increases dramatically when the recommendation of your services comes via an existing client, as opposed to via an online ad. That’s not to say that clients who are word-of-mouth referrals will never prove problematic, but the odds of having someone similar to your existing clients are much higher.
When you practice in more than one area, your networking opportunities double. They triple if you’re in three different areas of law, and so on. Think about your state bar association and the variety of sections there are for you to join. Each section has a completely different subset of attorneys. Each of these sections will have different meetings, different CLE opportunities, and different members.
By increasing your networking capabilities, you are increasing opportunities for other attorneys to recommend you. They may not practice in the same two or three areas of law that you do, and this, in turn, can lead to a referral for yourself. Conversely, you may be able to recommend another attorney’s services to your own clients for an area in which you don’t practice; this can lead to potential referral fees for you. Either way, it’s important to view networking opportunities as direct and indirect sources of potential income in your pocket.
Networking is a skill and experience that comes with no downsides. You might meet other attorneys who are sources of business and clients, you might learn something from interactions with these other attorneys, and you might meet mentors, friends, or even mentees. Networking in more than one area of law vastly increases your opportunities to meet a variety of attorneys.
Practicing in more than one area can make us better lawyers. The way in which we handle an estate planning issue may differ vastly from how we handle a family law matter; however, there might be ways in which we can incorporate aspects of one with the other. We might pick up better client interaction skills in one area and then be able to apply them across the board to other interactions in different areas of law. Being a well-rounded attorney makes us better lawyers not only for ourselves but also for our clients and anyone we interact with in a professional scenario.
Further, practicing in multiple areas of law makes us use our brains in different ways. How we think about one practice area can make us think differently about another practice area. We all did this routinely in law school—we took multiple classes spanning a variety of practice areas all at once. We were able to apply critical thinking learned in our tort law class to a different critical thinking issue in our criminal law class. We’re constantly evolving, and with that, we can pick up new ways to deal with problems. When you only deal with one area of law, you lose some of that mental elasticity.
Finally, practicing in more than one area of law keeps life interesting. While seeing the same issue day in and day out is a solid way to become extremely proficient in that particular issue, it can get monotonous. Again, it’s impossible for an attorney to be truly proficient in every area of law out there, and to hold yourself out as such a lawyer would be doing a disservice to your clients. However, it is extremely reasonable to consider yourself proficient in at least two or three different areas of law.
Maybe you feel like you’re not making a difference every time you review an employment contract, but you get a feeling of self-fulfillment when you help someone regain custody of their child. This is not to say that one area of law is better than the other, but that doing a variety of tasks can make you feel as if you are truly impacting clients in a positive way. Professional dissatisfaction is a real concern for attorneys and can manifest itself in very real and very detrimental ways, whether that’s suicide, depression, anxiety, alcoholism or other substance abuse, or a myriad of other ailments. Your job satisfaction as a practicing attorney is just as important as the job you do for your clients. Keeping your professional life interesting on a daily basis by seeing a variety of issues and clients is just one way to increase job satisfaction and, with that, overall life satisfaction.
Many of us who are in small firms are already practicing in multiple areas of law and don’t realize we actually fall into this category of hybrid law. However, if you are truly only practicing in one area of law, be open to expanding your practice scope. There are plenty of ways in which you can become proficient in another area of law without going back to law school. Attend CLEs and conferences, utilize resources and books from sections of your local bar association and the American Bar Association, and talk to other attorneys who are actively practicing in that area of law. Practicing hybrid law is an excellent way not only to increase your potential earnings and client base but also to be a better attorney in a variety of ways. Keep your professional life interesting!
