The Trendy Regulation Library
Strive property legislation for a follow with work-life stability, says ‘Life-style Lawyer Revolution’ writer
July 9, 2025, 11:33 am CDT
(Picture courtesy of Laura Cowan)
Laura Cowan began her profession in finance, incomes an authorized public accountant license and dealing at Ernst & Younger and Goldman Sachs. When she determined to go to legislation faculty at age 35, she knew that she wished to launch a boutique legislation agency with a follow space that complemented that monetary background. Property legislation appeared a very good match—however destiny threw her a curve ball simply as she launched her agency.
“I needed to flip my complete follow 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 Trendy 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 working. I had a enterprise to run and payments to pay. So I made every part digital, and I actually streamlined every part. And what I discovered was that I might 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 follow into a training program, 2-Hour Life-style Lawyer, to assist different legal professionals launch comparable practices. Her new e-book, Life-style Lawyer Revolution: Reside a Life You Love (With out Leaving the Regulation), is filled with ideas and recommendation for constructing a personalised follow to offer work-life stability for attorneys.
“Now, what we discovered is that there’s a whole lot of legal professionals who’re glad working much more than that and are glad incomes much more, however the title of the enterprise actually comes from simply this concept that you may nonetheless be a very nice lawyer with out working 10 hours a day, and you may make a pleasant residing 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 whole lot of is legal professionals that spend an excessive amount of time within the weeds of executing and doing all these various things that an admin could possibly be doing and never spending sufficient time doing what the lawyer ought 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 group workshops to assist individuals perceive the significance of wills and trusts. She says it’s a wonderful option to set up connections that may result in additional enterprise.
“The true cause that individuals rent us is due to the connection,” Cowan tells Rawles. “And I firmly consider this. Folks don’t rent you since you’re the most effective drafter on this planet. They rent you due to the best way that you just make them really feel. So use AI and expertise behind the scenes that can assist you get your work carried out and ship a very nice shopper 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 shopper base you wish to goal, and how one can take care of your largest frenemy: expertise.
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In This Podcast:
Laura Cowan
Laura Cowan is an authorized public accountant and an award-winning property planning lawyer. She constructed her seven-figure property planning legislation follow 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 how one can construct their very own digital property planning follow. 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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