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Our Origin Story
That’s the day our Founder, RJon Robins walked into The Florida Bar’s Law Office Management Assistance Service (LOMAS) for his first official day as a Small Law Firm Management Advisor.
But the story starts before that…
when his own law firm was falling apart.
There I was — graduated from law school, worked for a Federal Bankruptcy Judge, running my own law firm… and I had never taken even a single course on the business of how to manage a small law firm. Instead, I bought into the fairy tale they told most of us in law school: ‘Just do good work for clients and the rest will take care of itself.’ Now I know better that not only is the fairy tale a bunch of self-defeating bullshit — it’s dangerous.
Because the truth is this:
You cannot show up as the best version of yourself —
for clients, staff, or your family —
when your law firm is in chaos.
Most struggling law firm owners
cling to the fantasy:
“If I just had more clients…”
They want to believe that doing great legal work will magically solve everything else. And when the “magic law firm management elves” fail to appear, they internalize the blame:
“If my law firm is still having all these operational problems …
maybe I’m just not a good-enough lawyer.”
So, hundreds of thousands of lawyers quietly carry around guilt, shame, and embarrassment — when what they really need is training, support, and a proper business model.
Which is what
How To Manage A Small Law
Firm helps law firm owners with.
The Law Firm Diagnostic is not a pitch. It’s not a plan. It’s a moment of truth where we help you diagnose how to grow your law firm.
We’ve been doing this since 1999 and have helped start, manage & grow THOUSANDS of law firms. So yes, we have a TON of great stuff that we would love to share with you.
The Law Office Management
Assistance Service (LOMAS);
The DNA of How To Manage
A Small Law Firm
In 1978, Sam Smith — then President of The Florida Bar — said something obvious that no-one had the courage to say publicly before. In a speech to the Board of Governors he said:
The Bar should offer “an ounce of prevention that potentially prevents this costly pound of cure”.
This, according to retired federal bankruptcy Judge Walter S. Crumbley, a past chair of the LOMAS Advisory Board.
“Sam’s comment came during discussions over the 1978 budget when the Bar was considering a request for additional prosecutors for the disciplinary arm of The Florida Bar,” Crumbley said. “Out of this comment and later committee work came the idea to create a membership fees-supported service dedicated to educating the membership of The Florida Bar on how to run a law firm in an economical and professional manner that, hopefully, would slow down the number of grievance cases filed with the Bar’s Lawyer Regulation Department.”
Because more than half of all bar grievances
weren’t legal problems —
they were business problems.
The next year, in 1979, the Bar hired JR Phelps — a seasoned professional legal administrator — to design the first Law Office Management Assistance Service in the country. And in 1980, LOMAS opened its doors to help lawyers run their firms responsibly and profitably.
Florida was the first state to recognize this need. To this day, only about a dozen states offer anything similar. And that’s where RJon turned for help when his own law firm began to eat him alive back in 1998.
The Apprenticeship
Before JR recruited RJon to come to work for him at LOMAS, something crucial happened:
RJon took responsibility. did the work. and turned his own law firm around.
Not by wishing. Not by panicking.
Not by blaming the economy, clients, or opposing counsel.
JR saw that. RJon would describe the problems he was experiencing in his law firm. JR would proscribe corrective action. RJon took action (instead of making excuses).
Things got better. Cause & effect.
You see, real mentors don’t look for perfection. They look for:
Motivation
Humility
Personal Responsibility
The willingness to act instead of hiding out behind a wall of excuses
We Are Not Coaches
How To Manage A Small Law Firm is not here to sell you inspiration. We’re not lead-gen hacks. And we’re definitely not "coach bros" peddling one-size-fits-all “just be like us” advice.
We’re the people who have helped THOUSANDS of law firm owners:
Build systems while drowning in chaos.
Find clarity where there was once shame and confusion.
Discover that that hustle is often a necessary tool, but it’s not a virtue in & of itself.
We step-in to small law firms and function as the C-Suite that every big & mid-size law firm has but which most small law firm owners have never imagined.
Working with How To Manage A Small Law Firm is like going from trying to drive a car for the first time, blindfolded and with four flat tires. . . to having an experienced driving instructor remove the blindfold for you, teaching you how every part of the car works and sitting beside you to help you drive it to wherever you want to go so you can get there quickly, safely, with more confidence and learn to actually have fun along the way.
Wait I thought you were coaches.
Coaching is a tool in the toolbox of every capable law firm C-Suite advisor; but doing the job of a CEO, COO, CFO &/or CMO of a law firm is so much more than that.
OK but you do have a system, don’t you?
No, we don’t.
Because you’re not a “cog” - you’re a unique human being who has unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and you likely face a unique set of threats in your business and in your life. So we don’t try to cram the law firms we work with into a “one size fits all” system.
Instead we leverage decades of experience with thousands of law firms and we follow a unique approach that begins with helping you take the diagnostic to step out of your law firm for a few clarifying hours to figure out where the business is today, what got it to wherever it is today and how that’s affecting you & your family.
Based on that we’ll help you identify your options and opportunities; help you evaluate the pros & cons of each. And then, depending on what you choose we can help you architect a plan and we can even step in to help you build and maintain it for years to come.
This is what we have been doing for more than a decade; and we do it better than any other organization on the planet – with overwhelming “proof of concept” you can hear more about by exploring our testimonials.
So What Do We Actually Do?
We help Solo and Small Law Firm Owners build the business side of their law firms with the same rigor they bring to the legal side.
We do that by plugging in experienced professionals who take responsibility for the most critical parts of your business:
CEO & Strategic Direction
Clarifying your vision, setting goals, and creating accountability.
COO & Operations
Designing and improving your systems, workflows, and team structure.
CFO & Financial Clarity
Budgeting, forecasting, pricing, and making your numbers make sense.
CMO & Marketing Strategy
Helping you generate leads that match your values and capacity.
And yes, there’s coaching—but it’s not the center of what we do.
It’s just one part of how we support implementation.
Most of our Members work with us for years. Because once their law firm starts working for them—not just the other way around—they want to keep it that way.
The Law Firm Diagnostic is not a pitch. It’s not a plan. It’s a moment of truth where we help you diagnose how to grow your law firm.
We’ve been doing this since 1999 and have helped start, manage & grow THOUSANDS of law firms. So yes, we have a TON of great stuff that we would love to share with you.
No Cookie-Cutter Systems
We don’t believe in “one size fits all.”
You’re not a cog. You’re a complex human being running a complex business. That’s why we begin every engagement with The Diagnostic — a few hours of structured clarity to:
Assess where your firm actually is.
Understand what’s really driving (or limiting) performance.
Identify real options for growth.
From there, we help you build a customized strategy—and help you implement it for the long haul.
The business part isn’t hard.
What’s hard is facing your fears and ditching your excuses.
Proven Over Decades
This isn’t just theory. It’s thousands of law firms, real-world results, and the most experienced team in the business.
We’ve been doing this since before it was trendy.
And we do it better than anyone else.
Learn what others say about us on the Testimonials page.
What We Believe
A law firm is a business. Not a calling. Not a charity. A business.
You’re allowed to want profit, peace, and a personal life.
Struggle isn’t noble.
It’s often a symptom of bad systems.
Great lawyers become great owners when they stop trying to do it all alone.
And yes, there’s coaching—but it’s not the center of what we do.
It’s just one part of how we support implementation.
Most of our Members work with us for years. Because once their law firm starts working for them—not just the other way around—they want to keep it that way.
Back to Our
Origin Story
One day, back in 1999
It was the chance of a lifetime
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Well, the fact of the matter is that at first
RJON DID SAY NO.
Keep in mind in 1999,
RJon was all of 28 years old - a baby!
What followed wasn’t just a job.
IT WAS AN APPRENTICESHIP.
Thousands of hours of hands-on instruction. Real-world case work. Deep pattern recognition. Practical training in how law firm owners think, struggle, adapt, and succeed.
It was like going to law school, all over again; except this time for the BUSINESS side of the law instead of the practice of law.
Helping thousands of real-world law firms from the inside out.With no time for theories. No hypotheticals. No motivational hype.
Our Founder was out in the field for weeks at a time every month. Up to his elbows in alligators, crawling through the guts of broken law firms to help save businesses, save careers, and save some of those law firms from bankruptcy ... and their owners from even bigger problems at home.
During his four years as a LOMAS Small Law Firm Mangement Advisor, it is a documented fact in Florida Bar records that RJon had the very unique opportunity to work with more than 9,000 solo & small law firms on every aspect of law firm management including marketing, sales, staffing, workflow & operating systems, physical plant, financial controls, financial controls, financial controls and mindset, mindset, mindset and more mindset.
These were real law firms. Being run by real human beings. Facing some very real consequences.
And after all of that, one truth became impossible to ignore:
MOST LAW FIRM PROBLEMS
AREN’T LEGAL PROBLEMS.
THEY’RE BUSINESS PROBLEMS —
CREATED BY A BAD MODEL, BAD
ASSUMPTIONS, AND NO TRAINING.
THE HARDEST LESSON
First,
At the time the firm had more than 50 accountants, it was one the largest independent accounting firms in the Southeast - a very solid mid-size accounting firm. And it had very deep experience advising small and mid-size law firms regarding a wide variety of business strategy. It was at the Berkowitz firm that RJon developed a deep understanding of how badly financial literacy is needed by owners of law firms. Because he saw over & over & over again the enormously positive impact it can have not only a the business side of a law firm; but also in the personal life of a law firm owner when they are taught how to feel empowered-by, instead of intimidated by their firm’s financials.
After all of that and even more,our founder went out on his own — and then went broke!
Why
BECAUSE HE FAILED TO FOLLOW HIS OWN ADVICE. . .
which is the same advice that today forms the bedrock of everything we do for the 500+ solo & small law firms we now help to manage:
CAUSES LEAD TO EFFECTS, IN BUSINESS AND IN LIFE.
REALITY DOESN’T NEGOTIATE.
TAKE ALL YOUR EXCUSES AND SHOVE THEM UP YOUR ASS.
. . . and that there are some important strategic and very practical tactical differences between building a highly profitable “practice” which depends on your availability -vs.- a sustainable business where each of The 7 Main Parts™ keep going & growing even while you’re away for days, weeks and even months at a time.
The most valuable, was that I earned the right to stand in front of anyone and say'You can be brilliant, talented, experienced, and dedicated — and still fail if you don’t build the business on purpose’ and ‘If I can do it, you can too.’“
You just have to want it bad-enough to be willing to do what is required. And once you do, you’ll realize it didn’t have to be as hard as it was. That it was your fears, your doubts and all those excuses all along, that made it so much harder than it had to be. The business part is actually pretty simple.
The Beginning
of How To Manage A Small Law Firm
RJon founded
HOW TO MANAGE A SMALL LAW FIRM
Not because he wanted attention.
Chaos quiets
Finances stabilize
The owner breathes
The family relaxes
Confidence returns
The work product gets better
The law firm’s good reputation grows
And the entire trajectory of a lawyer’s life changes
That is the foundation of this company:
Apprenticeship.
Action.
Failure.
Rebuilding.
Patterns.
Truth.
Thousands of law firms.
Today, we help over 500 law firmsmanage their growth, their operations, and their mindset—so they can create freedom, profitability, and peace of mind.
Want to see where your firm stands?
Want to understand what phase you’re in?
This isn’t a pitch.
It’s an invitation to CLARITY.
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