BE THAT LAWYER Tom Dunlap: Scaling Your Law Firm with Business Experts
In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Tom Dunlap discuss:
- Letting go of the old things to promote the new things.
- The power in relinquishing control.
- The two paths to scaling.
- Finding the right fit for your team, clients, and fees.
Key Takeaways:
- Having your name on the door makes you the lightning rod for problems. It is not as big of a benefit as most lawyers think.
- If viable for your firm, consider bringing in non-lawyer team members who can help with the non-legal aspects of running a firm.
- You have to find the right fit clients in the right stage in the right scope.
- If some people don’t say ‘no’ to your fees, you’re charging way too little.
"You went to law school to be a lawyer. The highest and best use of your time is the billable hour and getting clients and keeping them happy. If you want to manage a law firm, you should have professionals who work for you doing it." — Tom Dunlap
Find out more about the 10 Easy-to-Execute Hacks to Unlock Your Full Potential at: https://fretzin.com/events
Thank you to our Sponsors!
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Episode References:
About Tom Dunlap: Tom is the managing partner of a law firm he does not run and is the better for it. Leveraging his time working in terrible law firm and corporate environments, and then leaving law to command a Recon Scout Platoon and Infantry company in the Us Army, together with a series of graduate projects crafted during his last years in an MBA program, much of Tom’s time, not practicing law, has been spent building his national firm of more than 80 lawyers from the ground up as a place where lawyers want to be.
In his legal practice as principally an IP and government contracts lawyer he has handled
numerous successful bid protests before the GAO and Court of Federal Claims, and Federal district court jury and bench trials as lead counsel including a $12 million jury verdict in a patent infringement case doubled as a result of punitive damages to $24,635,000 in the Bunch of Balloons case, and a $2,600,000 jury counterclaim verdict in a copyright and commercial litigation dispute over Blackwater. He is the past president of the Loudoun County Bar Association and admitted to the state and Federal bars of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC, VA, and MD and more than 30 other Federal Courts. Tom has repeatedly been a Washington, D.C., and Virginia SuperLawyer (2006 – 2024).
Tom received his law degree from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and earned an MBA and MS in Biotechnology at the University of Maryland.
Outside of law, Tom founded a successful software company for first-person MMORPG gaming, and a biotechnology company, where he was also an inventor on patents are that currently the standard used by NIH for COVID wastewater surveillance (www.ceresnano.com). Tom is also a licensed instrument pilot, PADI Master SCUBA Diver, Freemason, and avid runner, recently completing the 2023 Paris Marathon.
Connect with Tom Dunlap:
Website: dbllawyers.com
Show: dbllawyers.com/podcasts-seasons
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomdunlap & linkedin.com/company/dbllawyers
Twitter: twitter.com/DBLLawyers
Facebook: facebook.com/dbllawyers
Instagram: instagram.com/dbl_lawyers
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
Book: Legal Business Development Isn't Rocket Science and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.