Legal Mapmaker™

Legal Mapmaker™ offers practical and comprehensive training for law students and lawyers to build and maintain a successful law firm. The goal is to provide a map for all the practical aspects of opening a law firm. By following the Legal Mapmaker™ method, participants will learn, in a step-by-step manner with concrete recommendations, how to develop a thriving practice through specialization, proper marketing, leveraging cutting edge technology, and systematizing the practice of law to keep overhead low.

Legal Mapmaker™ is supported by Baylor Law in cooperation with the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Access to Justice Commission, the Texas Opportunity & Justice Incubator, Texas Young Lawyers Association, Southern Methodist University Law School, South Texas College of Law-Houston, St. Mary’s Univesity School of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, University of Houston Law Center, University of Texas School of Law, and UNT Dallas College of Law.

Legal Mapmaker™ is built to encourage attorneys to start small, and scale as they grow. The materials and recommendations are designed to allow attendees to be set up for future success. The program was created with the expectation that as the business grows and attorney expertise develops, they will naturally start charging more for their services. The goal of the Legal Mapmaker™ is to set attendees up for this growth.

Legal Mapmaker™ shows lawyers how to design a law firm utilizing the Legal Mapmaker™ template with overhead that is far less expensive than traditional methods of running a law firm. The key to low overhead is in leveraging advanced technology solutions and increasing legal process efficiencies to accomplish more with less.

Legal Mapmaker™ currently covers 18 topics: Mission and Professionalism, Selection of Practice Areas, Alternative Fee Arrangements, Business Planning, Technology, Cybersecurity, Financial Management, Health and Wellness, Office and Staffing, Marketing, Website Development, Avoiding Malpractice, Coaching, Bar and Community Involvement, Client Relations and Delivery of Services, and Case Evaluation and Referral. The topics were selected after consultation with a team of successful small firm managers who each started his or her own firm.

Further, each topic includes a speaker who is an expert in that subject. The written materials were compiled after digesting the vast body of available materials on each subject, and they make concrete recommendations regarding best practices to be implemented. In addition, the materials all contain a checklist at the beginning that provides information on the topic and allows attendees to check their progress in developing their own law firm.

In compiling these materials, experts were consulted by the Legal Mapmaker™ writing team to ensure best practices. Moreover, the materials are integrated, meaning that each section is intentionally structured to build upon all the other topics discussed. The topics come together as a plan that can be implemented to start a new firm or re-design and improve existing firms.