Monday Mentors with Dallas Business Lawyer Jim Chester
Jim Chester, a partner at Klemchuk and a business and technology attorney, joins me on today's show. Jim talks about entrepreneurship, finding a fulfilling career path, and deadlines, deliverables, and budgets.
His firm/practice
- Boutique technology law firm
- Focuses on business transactions working with small and mid-size companies at all stages
- Some others in the firm do patent and IP litigation work
- There is always something new, especially with technology company clients (he also does some international / trade work which is always evolving)
- Cybersecurity and data privacy are major issues he works on
- GDPR for all of EU and California's law are important
- Other states are starting to come online
- There isn't a federal law
- Not enough enforcement actions yet to know exactly how these are applying; creates uncertainty
- His career path?
- Tried a bunch of things in law school
- Didn't enjoy litigation
- Started career as an international business / trade lawyer (wrote his master's thesis on NAFTA)
- Sounds sexy, but it isn't.
- Glorified tax law
- Realized he enjoyed working with smaller clients, but they didn't have many trade issues
- Started his own firm to transition
- Commercial/transactional IP
- You have to invest in yourself early in your career; things that you won't be paid for but help you learn what you like and get better at it
- You create a lot of your own luck
- Four quadrant matrix (Interested / Not interested and Market for it / not a market for it) - get into the quadrant that is interested and a market for it
- There has been growth in the business transactions area for them during COVID; people had time and started new projects
- Law doesn't typically embrace change quickly, but COVID forced change (e.g. Zoom, tech, work from home)
- WSJ article - COVID kickstarted the 21st century
- Some of these changes will be silver linings to the pandemic
- Will require more self-discipline
- Need to completely get rid of the stigma of work from home
- His entrepreneurial ventures
- Lawyer co-working space
- His own law firm
- Subscription based model for industry-specific legal forms
- A few other non-legal related
Advice to lawyers in practice
- Manage your manager
- take responsibility for your own projects
- anticipate what is next
- Don't leave a partner's office with an assignment without the deadline / deliverable / budget...the DDB
- Gives you a much better idea as to the scope
- Daniel references a The West Wing episode
- Find someone who has a job you want 20 years from now and look at their bio (Linkedin)
- what skills did they obtain along the way?
- what experiences did they get?
- Don't try to live to someone else's standard of success; listen to yourself.
- The choices are based on the idea that he is a lawyer because of who he is (not the other way around)
- Be a self-starter, creative, entrepreneurial
- Find a mentor
- Think about building a book of business
- The first $100k is the hardest
- $400k to $500k is easier
- Build / maintain relationships
- alumni/classmates
- local bar
Final thoughts
- Be honest with yourself and think in big picture terms as to whether you are in the right place
Rapid Fire Questions
- Name one trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: Ingenuity
- What habit has been key to your success: delusional level of confidence
- Favorite app/productivity tool: Things
- What would be listed first on the interest line of your resume: spending time with family
- Favorite legal movie: To Kill A Mockingbird
Thanks again to Jim Chester for joining us on today's show!