Zero. That’s a great answer.

I meet someone. He asks what I do for a living. I tell him I’m a lawyer.

He laughs (don’t they always?) and tells me he’s a lawyer too (aren’t they always?).

“How many lawyers in your firm?” is the NEXT question.

I look deeply into his eyes with a fiery rage forming in mine.

“Has the Facebook purchase of WhatsApp taught you nothing?” I scream (weird, I know).

“$19 BILLION” comes snorting out of my lips and nose; the conflagration of words, spittle, and rage is kind of horrifying. “Fifty employees” comes gurgling out of me.

I collapse to the floor mumbling something like “value is created with fewer employees now. The paradigm has changed. Why don’t you see it? Why are you stuck? Less is more . . . ”

They come, strap me to the gurney, and away we go. It’s all good, I needed a rest.

Does Size Really Matter?

It would be one thing if we happened to wonder about the size of a law firm after learning about what it did, who it served, how it functioned, etc. But that’s not how we roll. Size defines everything for us. We assess other law firms simply by the number of lawyers.

The number of lawyers is what defines us. It’s how we think. It’s the metric we think is most important, and it’s what we try to grow when we try to grow.

What’s the first question a baby lawyer asks after renting an office space? When can I hire an associate?

It’s like we’ve come up with a value system intentionally designed to kill profit. It’s perfect if you’re all about minimizing what you can take home.

If you ask the right questions, you get the right answers. I believe that’s true. The converse is also true. If you ask the wrong questions, you get the wrong answers.

It’s time to stop asking how many lawyers we’ve got and start asking about something that helps us grow. The wrong questions are dangerous.