I’ve learned a fair amount about the personal finances of quite a few family law attorneys. I’ve come by the info in two ways. First, I’ve been consulting with a number of lawyers recently, and I always find out what’s happening financially before we get started. I want to be able to measure my effectiveness in helping. Second, we’ve handled the divorces of more than a few family law practitioners. (What’s the deal with that? Haven’t we learned anything from watching our clients?)

What I’ve found is that, in many instances, we aren’t building wealth. Our net worths aren’t big enough. We aren’t getting where we want to go financially. Ugh.

Why is that the case?

More than anything, it’s because we don’t charge for our value. We either (1) charge too little, (2) fail to collect what we’re owed, or (3) charge a fair price, but discount our fees in a variety of ways so that clients no longer pay a fair price.

Why don’t we charge what we’re worth?

Because we don’t believe in our value. We rationalize discounts, undercharging, and free services because we really don’t think we’re worth the money.

“It’s an easy case…”

“It won’t take me much time…”

“I can resolve it with a few phone calls…”

“The referral source is a close friend and…”

“The client can’t afford the fee because…”

“This is a special situation and I ordinarily…”

“If I go after the fee, the client will file a complaint and that will…”

“If I charge that amount, the client will go to someone down the…”

“The client can’t afford to pay that much because…”

“I wouldn’t feel right if the client had to pay that much because…”

The list of excuses is long. There’s always a reason. We’re extraordinarily good at coming up with reasons for failing to get paid what we should get paid.

Look, you went to law school. You spent three long years there. You lost the income you could have earned during those three years if you had been working. If you graduated in the last 10 years, you borrowed a gigantic amount of money to go. You’ve spent time learning since you graduated. You’ve bought books. You’re reading legal publications. You’ve worked on other cases and learned things the hard way. You’re doing something that will save your client money. You’re helping your client avoid mistakes. You’re giving good advice. You’re dealing with the details so your client can do his or her own job. You’re providing an objective sounding board. You’re giving your client a safe place to emote.

You’re providing value.

Get paid for it.

Rationalize that!