How One Lawyer Transformed Her Practice by Thinking Like an Entrepreneur

Lawyers spend three years in law school learning to spot every possible risk in every scenario. It's excellent training for protecting clients—but it can make running a profitable law practice feel like navigating a minefield of administrative burdens, compliance requirements, and cash flow challenges.

Taylor M. Tieman, Esq., a Los Angeles-based attorney specializing in media and business law, discovered this firsthand when she founded her own practice in 2019. After years in civil litigation, she launched a mission-driven firm to serve small business owners in underrepresented communities—particularly those in the Latinx, femme, and BIPOC communities who often couldn't afford traditional legal fees.

Her vision was clear. Her business systems? Not so much.

"I tried doing my numbers and filing taxes myself," Tieman explained. "I'm spending way too much time being miserable with these tasks."

Her story mirrors what thousands of solo and small firm lawyers experience: the tension between practicing law and running a business. But Tieman's transformation offers a blueprint for any attorney ready to think differently about their practice.

The Hidden Cost of Administrative Chaos

According to Thomson Reuters' State of U.S. Small Law Firms report, the average small law attorney spends less than 60% of their time actually practicing law. The rest disappears into administrative tasks—and when lawyers are asked about their biggest challenges, time spent on administrative work consistently ranks highest.

For solo practitioners, this creates a painful math problem. Consider an attorney who spends 10 hours weekly on basic bookkeeping and billing tasks. At even a modest billing rate of $200 per hour, that represents $2,000 in potential weekly revenue—or over $100,000 annually—lost to activities that don't serve clients.

But the costs extend beyond lost billable hours:

Compliance risks mount. Law firm bookkeeping isn't like regular small business accounting. State bar regulations require strict separation between client trust funds and operating accounts. Most state bars mandate monthly three-way reconciliations between bank statements, general ledgers, and client ledgers. Trust accounting errors can lead to ethics violations, bar discipline, financial penalties, and in serious cases, suspension or disbarment.

Cash flow becomes unpredictable. Even profitable firms can fail due to poor cash management. Without clear visibility into what's coming in and going out, attorneys struggle to plan for slow-paying clients, seasonal fluctuations, or growth investments.

Strategic decisions get made blindly. When financial records are disorganized or outdated, pricing decisions, hiring choices, and practice area investments all become guesswork.

The Entrepreneur Mindset Shift

Tieman's breakthrough came when she stopped seeing herself as just a lawyer and started seeing herself as a business owner who happens to practice law.

This mindset shift is increasingly common among successful attorneys. The American Bar Association now emphasizes that thinking outside the traditional attorney box—while staying within the framework of the law—opens doors to both professional opportunities and innovative solutions.

The difference between a struggling solo practice and a thriving one often comes down to whether the attorney embraces what experts call "the integration of business systems"—sales, operations, leadership, financials, and marketing working together systematically.

For Tieman, this meant making a key decision: stop trying to do everything herself. She partnered with a bookkeeping platform that automated her financial management, freeing her to focus on what she actually went to law school to do.

The results were immediate:

• Time reclaimed: Manual data entry and categorization work disappeared
• Financial clarity: Clear profit-and-loss visibility replaced guesswork
• Strategic insights: Understanding financial trends informed better business decisions
• Peace of mind: The constant anxiety of documentation deadlines lifted

Why Lawyers Make Exceptional Business Owners

Here's the paradox: while legal training can initially hinder entrepreneurial thinking, the underlying skills make lawyers exceptionally well-equipped for business success.

At first glance, the idea of a lawyer turning into a successful entrepreneur seems contradictory. Lawyers are trained to minimize risk, adhere strictly to precedent, and avoid uncertainty—while entrepreneurs thrive on innovation, risk-taking, and disruption.

But the qualities that make someone a good lawyer translate remarkably well to business ownership:

Complex problem-solving. The modern definition of a JD might be "a degree in complex problem-solving." Every business needs people who can untangle complicated situations and find workable solutions.

Persuasive communication. Whether in courtrooms or boardrooms, lawyers develop the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and convincingly. This skill translates directly to pitching services, negotiating contracts, and building client trust.

Attention to detail. The same meticulousness that catches contract loopholes catches financial discrepancies, process inefficiencies, and growth opportunities.

Analytical thinking. Lawyers learn to evaluate evidence, weigh competing interests, and make decisions with incomplete information—exactly what business decisions require.

The key is redirecting these skills from avoiding risk at all costs to taking calculated risks strategically.

The Modern Law Firm Transformation

The legal industry is experiencing rapid transformation, and attorneys who adapt are seeing remarkable results.

According to Clio's 2025 Legal Trends Report, AI usage among lawyers has surged from 19% to 79% in just one year. Approximately four out of five solo and small firm lawyers now use cloud-based legal practice management software. Solo practitioners have increased tech spending by 56% since 2013.

The results speak for themselves: responsible lawyers in solo and small firms saw twice the revenue growth compared to industry averages between 2020-2023. Growing solo practitioners increased their revenue per lawyer while handling 37% more cases than other solos.

The differentiator isn't hiring more lawyers—it's what experts call the "vertical growth model." While larger firms scale horizontally by expanding headcount, successful solo and small firms scale vertically: increasing productivity and efficiency through technology, automation, and systematic workflows.

Small-firm lawyers now devote 61% of their time to billable work, up from 56% the previous year. Firms adopting workflow automation tools report up to 20% higher revenue and 15% faster client conversion.

Building Your Practice Transformation

If you're a lawyer ready to think more like an entrepreneur, here's a practical roadmap based on what's working for successful solo and small firm attorneys:

Step 1: Audit Your Time

Track how you spend your hours for two weeks. Be honest about how much time goes to administrative tasks versus actual legal work. Most attorneys are shocked to discover the gap between perception and reality.

Step 2: Identify Your Highest-Impact Automations

Start small with technology adoption by integrating tools that offer high impact with minimal disruption. Practice management systems, legal billing software, and client collaboration platforms are good starting points. Look for solutions that specifically understand legal requirements—especially trust account management and compliance reporting.

Step 3: Systematize Your Finances

This is where Tieman's breakthrough happened. The bookkeeping requirements for law firms—IOLA trust accounts, contingency case costs, strict regulatory compliance—make generic accounting solutions problematic. Dedicated legal accounting tools or bookkeeping partners who understand these requirements can transform chaotic finances into clear decision-making data.

Key financial practices every law firm should implement:

• Separate operating and trust accounts with clear procedures
• Monthly three-way reconciliations for trust accounts
• Regular cash flow monitoring (weekly or monthly)
• Clear payment terms with consistent follow-up on late payments

Step 4: Define Clear Growth Goals

Set specific, measurable targets for your practice. Instead of vague aspirations like "grow the firm," aim for objectives like "increase revenue by 20% in the next 12 months by acquiring 10 new clients in the real estate sector."

Step 5: Build Strategic Relationships

Join your local chamber of commerce, attend professional networking events, pursue speaking engagements, and build relationships with local business owners. Certain legal fields—such as bankruptcy, employment law, and civil litigation—tend to remain in demand during economic downturns. Consider whether diversification could help insulate your firm from revenue swings.

From Legal Practice to LegalMiga

Tieman's transformation went beyond just fixing her firm's operations. With administrative burdens lifted, she had the mental space and financial clarity to pursue something bigger.

She created LegalMiga, a budget-friendly, membership-based legal platform offering educational workshops and resources. The platform makes legal services more accessible to entrepreneurs who previously couldn't afford traditional legal fees.

This evolution—from overwhelmed solo practitioner to founder of an innovative legal service model—illustrates what becomes possible when attorneys stop drowning in administrative work and start thinking strategically about their practice.

The tools and approaches that enabled her transformation aren't exclusive. They're available to any attorney willing to examine their practice through an entrepreneurial lens and invest in the systems that free them to do their best work.

Take Control of Your Legal Practice Finances

Whether you're a solo practitioner just starting out or a small firm ready to scale, clear financial visibility is the foundation everything else builds on. Without accurate, up-to-date records, pricing decisions become guesswork, compliance becomes risky, and growth becomes unpredictable.

Beancount.io provides plain-text accounting that gives you complete transparency and control over your financial data—no black boxes, no vendor lock-in. Track trust accounts and operating funds separately, maintain the detailed records your state bar requires, and always know exactly where your practice stands. Get started for free and see why professionals who need precision and control are switching to plain-text accounting.