We met almost two years ago, and you had an extra lawyer.

By “extra,” I mean that you had one more than you needed.

You explained that you had been busier but things had slowed down. You were talking to me in an effort to build the practice back to its former glory.

I suggested that we jettison the extra lawyer.

You resisted and explained that it’s hard to find an excellent lawyer. You “knew” it was going to get busy, and you “knew” you’d need the lawyer soon.

When I’m hired to do consulting, I say mean, ugly, hostile, but very, very honest things. I’ll beat you to a bloody pulp for your own good. Consulting for lawyers is a lot like consulting for lions: it’s challenging (which is why I rarely do it anymore).

Since you didn’t hire me, I didn’t feel obligated to be mean, ugly, or hostile. I was still honest and pushed just a little for letting go of that extra lawyer.

You resisted. I could tell it was emotional.

Not my problem. I let it go (but I didn’t forget).

We talked last week. You’ve still got an extra lawyer—two years later.

You’re not making the money you’d like because, among other things, you’re still paying the extra lawyer. It’s still emotional. You know what you need to do, but you don’t want to do it.

You still need to jettison that lawyer. It’ll save you a ton of money, and it’ll book your time solid at an even higher hourly rate. You need to make that lawyer available to others. You need to free that lawyer to move forward. No one is winning. Everyone involved is losing.

Holding on to extra people is bad for you, it’s bad for them, and it makes it impossible to move forward. The money you would have spent on marketing is going to payroll. The time you would have spent on networking is going to management. The emotional energy you would have spent on building the practice is spent worrying about the practice.

Let that extra lawyer go.