Dwelling
The Fashionable Regulation Library
Attempt property legislation for a observe with work-life…
The Fashionable Regulation Library
Attempt property legislation for a observe with work-life steadiness, says ‘Life-style Lawyer Revolution’ writer
By Lee Rawles
July 9, 2025, 11:33 am CDT
(Picture courtesy of Laura Cowan)
Laura Cowan began her profession in finance, incomes a licensed public accountant license and dealing at Ernst & Younger and Goldman Sachs. When she determined to go to legislation college at age 35, she knew that she wished to launch a boutique legislation agency with a observe space that complemented that monetary background. Property legislation appeared a great match—however destiny threw her a curve ball simply as she launched her agency.
“I needed to flip my complete observe digital in a single day in 2020 in New York Metropolis due to COVID,” Cowan tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles on this episode of The Fashionable Regulation Library. “I moved to Rhode Island to shelter in place with my dad. Throughout that couple of months that I used to be sheltering in place, I nonetheless needed to get my legislation agency operating. I had a enterprise to run and payments to pay. So I made the whole lot digital, and I actually streamlined the whole lot. And what I discovered was that I may make fairly simply $10,000 a month, working simply a few hours a day.”
She has now leveraged the expertise of launching an all-virtual estate-planning observe into a training program, 2-Hour Life-style Lawyer, to assist different attorneys launch related practices. Her new e book, Life-style Lawyer Revolution: Dwell a Life You Love (With out Leaving the Regulation), is stuffed with suggestions and recommendation for constructing a customized observe to supply work-life steadiness for attorneys.
“Now, what we discovered is that there’s a variety of attorneys who’re blissful working much more than that and are blissful incomes much more, however the identify of the enterprise actually comes from simply this concept which you could nonetheless be a very nice lawyer with out working 10 hours a day, and you can also make a pleasant dwelling with out working 10 hours a day,” Cowan says.
A key a part of not working too many hours is to rent acceptable help, at the same time as a solo simply beginning out, Cowan says.
“What I see a variety of is attorneys that spend an excessive amount of time within the weeds of executing and doing all these various things that an admin may very well be doing and never spending sufficient time doing what the lawyer needs to be specializing in,” Cowan says. “In order that they’re each working an excessive amount of and never making sufficient cash, which is the worst doable mixture.”
Cowan encourages property attorneys to host neighborhood workshops to assist folks perceive the significance of wills and trusts. She says it’s a superb method to set up connections that may result in additional enterprise.
“The actual motive that individuals rent us is due to the connection,” Cowan tells Rawles. “And I firmly imagine this. Folks don’t rent you since you’re the very best drafter on this planet. They rent you due to the best way that you just make them really feel. So use AI and know-how behind the scenes that can assist you get your work achieved and ship a very nice consumer expertise, however always remember that it’s going to be that that makes them rent you.”
On this episode, Cowan additionally discusses the advantages of value-based pricing versus the billable hour, attracting the consumer base you wish to goal, and the best way to take care of your greatest frenemy: know-how.
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In This Podcast:
Laura Cowan
Laura Cowan is a licensed public accountant and an award-winning property planning lawyer. She constructed her seven-figure property planning legislation observe in solely three years and pivoted right into a digital enterprise mannequin. The creator of 2-Hour Life-style Lawyer, Cowan additionally teaches entrepreneurial attorneys the best way to construct their very own digital property planning observe. The writer of Life-style Lawyer Revolution, Cowan obtained her bachelor of science diploma in accounting from Iowa State College and her JD from the College of Minnesota Regulation College.
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