In this solo video, a seasoned bookkeeping professional explains the personality traits and professional habits required to specialize in legal bookkeeping for law firms. The speaker emphasizes extreme attention to detail—tracking every penny and persisting until the last cent is accounted for—as a non‑negotiable trait. They stress the need for thick skin and confidence when dealing with attorneys, who are accustomed to arguing and expect clear, direct explanations. The video outlines how bookkeepers must communicate value to clients, help them “sleep at night” by managing trust accounting, and avoid over‑promising by staying within the bookkeeping scope (e.g., not giving tax advice). The speaker also highlights the puzzle‑solving mindset needed for trust‑account reconciliations, the importance of organization, and the benefits of joining a collaborative group like the Law Lab for ongoing support. Finally, the presenter encourages specialization in legal bookkeeping, noting it can be a lucrative, satisfying niche, and reassures viewers that even if the specialization doesn’t work out, it’s a low‑risk experiment.
Chapters
So what constitutes a good or a great legal bookkeeper, legal accounting? What traits do you need to have to be able to go into this kind of work? So if you've landed on our website and you're thinking about maybe I should work exclusively with attorneys and law firms, what kind of personality traits should I have? And this is a question that kind of came out during our Law Lab meeting that we have in our mastermind group. And we were talking about the specific traits of someone who does this kind of work, and I can tell you, you need to be that person that is very detail-oriented. You have to be that type of person that doesn't mind staying with an account until you find that last penny. If you're one of those types of people that's gonna just go and book in an entry because you give up, you can't find that last $15, then legal bookkeeping is not for you. You really have to go right down to the last penny. Penny when it comes to this. I think you have to be very organized and you have to have thick skin. And I think that that's a factor that you might not be thinking about that is extremely important because we're working with attorneys and attorneys live in a world of having to present a case and then be in front of the judge or in court and then they have to explain things and then sometimes they have to prove they're right. And you'll find that as you do this work, As you go through working with these attorneys, you can't be wishy-washy. You have to stand firm in what you know. They're not experts in accounting any more than we're experts in doing legal work. However, sometimes they'll ask you to do things, or they'll push you or drive you to explain something, and you have to be very on point, be very direct. I can't emphasize this enough because they'll see a weakness in you and they'll dive right in. So you have to make sure that you're not afraid of them. And I think we all are in the beginning. We feel a little intimidated. You know, they went to law school, they passed the bar, so it's a big deal. But it's no bigger deal than what we do and the work we put in to pass a ProAdvisor test, for example. I'm not saying that's an equivalent, but we do— you have to remember that you do a lot of different things to get yourself to the position that you're in with the knowledge that you obtained over the years. And all of that is a driving factor in what you know in the books. So if you're challenged on something and you know you're right, you have to stand your ground. Stand firm on your belief and your knowledge that you're— and you have to explain it to the client so that they can understand. I'm not saying you need to argue with them, but remember, they argue all day. So that's a typical reactionary method of theirs, that they'll argue something that they believe is true. And if you know it's not true, like, you can work with clients that— And I've had clients like this where some of them are really nervous about their their trust accounting and they're telling you that they can't sleep at night, they don't believe it's right. And then you're there to help assist them to help them sleep at night. Great term to say to them, hey, I'm here to help you sleep at night. I'm here to take that burden off of you. Remember, you're providing this client a value and the value that the work we do. We have a value as well, but sometimes we discount our value because we know we can do things easily. But actually the value is to the client. Remember that that value really belongs in what is the client value. We may think, oh, reconciling, that takes me 2 seconds. But in the client's mind, reconciliation is a big deal. They don't wanna have to do it. So you are helping them not have to learn all the nuances of QuickBooks and, and all the other parts, the working parts that go to it. They come to you wanting to know what software to use. They come to you for your expertise. So you are that expert in your field just like they are. So I think it's important to remember that fact when you're talking with them. And if you need to rewind this video and play it again to get a little bit of that courage, because it takes courage to stand in front of them and state what you know, stand in front of them and pick apart a financial statement with them and explain to them what these things are. They want to learn and understand their financials. I think that gets forgotten sometimes, because sometimes it's like it's a given fact that we think they know this stuff, but they don't learn this in law school. So we have to remember that and remember that you have a value and that value, don't think of it as a value that's not that high. Oh, I haven't been doing this long and I really don't, I don't know a lot. And yes, that could be true that you've not really done a lot of law firm work and you're building your experience as you go and you may charge less than perhaps I would charge to do the work. And that's fine that we all have to start somewhere. But know that especially if you do, do this work and you wanna continue this work, it's, it's nice to lean into a group like our Law Lab because you'll have our collective minds to help you through any problems, but it's also good to collaborate with others. And I think that's the biggest benefit of the group is the collaboration piece. So know that as you start to do this work, it's important to remember that you are the expert. You know what you're talking about. If you don't know an answer, give yourself some grace and space to find the answer and be honest with the client. Like, you know, that's outta my, um, ability to answer the question. And a lot of times I'll say to the client, That's a tax person question, not a bookkeeping question, but I will try to get you an answer. But this is what I've seen over the years, or this is, you know, I'll find that answer for you. And so we don't ever want to give tax advice. Leave that to the tax professionals. We do what we do, but know that you can stand firm in your resolve of what you know and know that they're looking to you for guidance. And remember, they're people. At the end of the day, they're people just like you and I. And it's just you have to make sure that you stand firm in your conviction of your knowledge and let them know that. And I think that if you look them in the eye and you're very confident, that's gonna get you a long way. So confidence is definitely one of those traits you need to have. You have to be attentive to detail. You have to love a Rubik's Cube type of, um, I, I loved algebra when I was in high school, high school. And, and I think you want to be that type of person that likes to solve puzzles because that's what these are. A lot of times working through trust accounting is puzzles. So I hope this is helpful in guiding you if you're trying to make that decision, if you wanna go down the road of specialization. Remember, if you do decide you wanna specialize, and this is something I had to think about when I was trying to make my determination, if you're going down the road of specialization and it doesn't work out, no harm, no foul. You have a couple of clients that are lawyers and you move on to something else. So don't be afraid of specializing. It's important. I think in the future you're really gonna need to have that specialization under your belt. And I can tell you it's the best business decision I ever made. And I, I'm confident that if you do go down the road of specialization, you're gonna be so happy and all the fears you may have had about being boring or anything like that are just gonna go by the wayside. You won't be bored. I hope this was helpful and until next week. Bye now. Bye.
