Explore Mary Casey's journey in the Law Practice Industry

Well, when I started out, I never thought that I would end up as an attorney. My passions were always math and science in school and I have a degree in Biology from Worcester State University. I also have a degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State. For quite a few years I worked in engineering, sometimes bio-engineering, developing implantable insulin pumps. I also did some other types of engineering in digital equipment but always felt I wanted to do something different. So, my journey began with me wanting to do something on my own and then going into law as opposed to wanting to be a lawyer from the start. – Mary Casey

The Digital Engineering department had a unique program where they would send engineers to Law School, to become patent attorneys. So, I looked into that program and then decided I wanted to go to Law School but I didn’t want to become a patent attorney. They kind of put the bug in my ear with the enticement of that program but after looking at what patent attorneys did and comparing with what I wanted to do, I decided I was going to take a complete shift. – Mary Casey

I actually went from being an engineer and going at law school at night to passing the bar and starting my practice. So, I left engineering, started my law firm and the only person I worked for as an attorney was myself. I enjoyed engineering, I thought it was a great job but I also wanted to do something on my own and I was afraid that if I worked for a law firm, I would never take that next step. I felt like it was a big step anyway, whether you’re an attorney or an engineer looking to start your own firm. – Mary Casey

In the beginning, I thought I would have other attorneys. My idea was that I was going to be able to help not only entrepreneurs like myself but maybe entrepreneurs in other industries. I hoped to help them throughout the process of starting a business, supporting them once they had employees, help them with business contracts and intellectual properties that needed to be protected. So, I saw the firm focused on actually helping entrepreneurs throughout, from the start of their business until they got really successful. – Mary Casey

First of all, it takes some guts, especially if you haven’t worked as an attorney before. I think that it is essential to decide what type of law you want to practice, what your business is going to do, whether you are going to be doing estate planning, divorce, corporate law, real estate, be a litigator, etc. I always wanted to practice business law, intellectual property law and appointment law and whether you heard me at a networking event 20+ years ago or six months ago, my focus was always in those three areas that I knew and always could acquaint to industries that needed that type of law. I think it is important to specialize and can’t stress this enough. – Mary Casey

I think it all starts with knowing what kind of law you want to practice. Also, being a part of the local Bar Association is very vital. I had decided I was going to support small businesses so I started doing volunteer work at other agencies that were also helping entrepreneurs. There are a number of people in business development centers like: Martin Luther King Centre, the Center for Women and Enterprise and they’re just looking for some support. So, it’s important to find out who your community is and engage in that community. I also realized there were complementary professionals that were working with small businesses, local accountants, insurance people, financial people, bankers and I think it is important to find out who else is trying to support who you are trying to support so you can become part of the team and engage in a particular area. – Mary Casey

That’s a great question. It is so counterintuitive because the more you specialize, the better you’re going to be in that particular area and the more people who you may consider your competition, will actually refer to you. So, let’s say you’re going to open a practice and do copyright law for the music industry. If you’ve gone out and you’ve talked about it, then any attorney that has a potential question in that area is going to refer that work to you and they’re not going to be concerned about you taking additional work from them because they know if that’s your area of specialization, you are not going to be their competition and additionally, you’ll be able to refer work to them as well. – Mary Casey

Well, one of the things that I would tell everybody is that it takes longer than you think and is harder than you think. With that being said, you’re doing something that you love so it’s actually more rewarding. In the early days I used to say ‘Expect a lot of downtime but use that downtime very productively, look at potentially being able to work as an independent contractor, look at what’s new in the law, always be working on your profession as opposed to taking the afternoon off’. I remember once going to a presentation and successful people were being asked what was their element for success and I heard one person saying ’you’ve got to be there in the morning to turn the lights on and you’ve got to be there in the afternoon to turn the lights off’. The minute you stop going to the office because you don’t think you have work is kind of a death spiral. – Mary Casey

You have to go out there and find them. You need to get involved in professional networking groups. I would suggest that you pick a couple of those, you visit them and if it resonates with you, become involved with that networking group. As lawyers, we have referral services. The problem with them is that you must have already done something for them to give you a referral so it’s kind of like the chicken and the egg situation. I also think there are a lot of other business associations that are very good to be part of. So, it doesn’t matter what it is, it’s important to get yourself out and promote yourself, sometimes even writing articles or blogs, anything you can do that gets your name out there. One other thing I always say is that you never know where your next referral is coming from, you could be in the grocery store or you could just be talking to someone and the next thing you know, you strike up the conversation and they may know someone who needs services. – Mary Casey

I think the way to gain credibility is to be very knowledgeable in your area and that is related with specialization. Yet, instead of trying to see across the law, I think it’s important to get your own internal referral resources. If someone asks you a question that is not in your field of work, having a group of other people that you can go to is very helpful. I also think it’s important to always do a quality job, to take on something, complete it and then look for client feedback. Additionally, making your clients and the opposing party aware of where the situation is, even if there’s a delay or something has gone wrong, is the right thing to do. – Mary Casey

That’s a difficult one. No one wants to be associated with late night TV advertisements. I would say marketing the firm is important but in a way, it is low-key marketing, getting involved in your community and being aware of things that are outside the legal profession. I was involved when our town was doing a major renovation to the library, committing a lot of hours to our capital campaign. I ran that for a number of years so I think what you need is indirect marketing, letting people know who you are as a person lets them understand that you are aware of the library, or if the schools need money. In my particular firm, at one point we’ve had people who were on Worcester County Bar, the Worcester Food Bank or on the Salvation Board. It is important that people understand that your law firm isn’t just going to do its job and leave but is really involved in the community. In case someone is buying, selling a business or they’re having an issue, they will feel like they know you. They may not know who you are from a legal perspective but they kind of know who you are as a person. As a law firm, we can’t send out flyers, give specials, there’s no discounts so this kind of involvement is really important because the relationship is always between the attorney and the client, it’s not between the firm and the client. – Mary Casey

I think branding is important and should be consistent. For me, my branding has always been some type of a lighthouse. Choosing the name ‘Harbor Law Group’ was something I decided when I started. I was not going to use my last name, it wasn’t going to be the Casey Law Group and I wasn’t going to start adding other people’s names to the end, just because that didn’t work for me. It really works for a lot of firms but I felt it was more important to have a consistent message and logo. It’s a little harder when it’s an accounting firm, an insurance or a financial firm, realtor, etc. Those types of businesses always tend to use last names. I felt it was more important to be more of a safe harbor for my clients. – Mary Casey

I remember watching one woman open up a shop and people were just flooding into her doors and I just thought that law takes so much longer. The first thing I would ask is: is it still rewarding? Is it still something you want to do? Is getting clients something that makes you really want to show up in the morning? As for my firm, I would say it took five years. I tell people who operate in other businesses that have nothing to do with law that their three-year plan will take them five years and it’s going to take a lot more effort. You rarely see a business that is instantly successful, although I would really love to hear about it. My business has been around for twenty-two years, we’ve gone through Covid-19 recently, it has hit us and the businesses that we support terribly. Not only does it take a while to get started, you’re going to work for it every single day, it’s just part of being an entrepreneur. But as you know, it is the most rewarding thing once you get it down. The process has its ups and downs and it takes a while but you have to be working on your business constantly. It’s not a situation where you can just wait for the phone to ring, it won’t. You’ve got to be calling people and making connections. – Mary Casey

That’s a difficult question. I would say that during the first one-third of my firm’s lifespan, I was working with an idea in mind. I had a certain level of clients that were anywhere between someone who is just opening a small retail shop to someone who’s got a biological breakthrough. That’s basically the range of my client base. In the early years, I thought that my business was going to be a high tech, life science firm and wouldn’t deal with small encounters. Then during the second-third time frame, I realized that I really enjoyed working with smaller entrepreneurs. I was still working with the life science clients but at that point their contracts became almost predictable, their royalties, their licensing, and possibly bringing on employees and stock options, so it’s a different type of contract. During the recent years, I went for a more diverse client base and am enjoying that. Now that I’ve been doing this for a while, a lot of my clients are getting ready to sell businesses or spin them off, so I’m seeing people whose hard work is being rewarded. Just this morning I had two phone calls with clients who were selling their businesses and I’m still looking at some of the early stage businesses. You should also take into consideration that your business has to change as the environment changes. – Mary Casey

Yes, I feel that the one thing that you have to do as a service provider, or even as a person who provides a product, is standing behind your services. There have been times where I’ve had a client who’s come in and has explained what he wants and I’ve formulated all the paperwork for that and I’ve gotten the paperwork back after the client claimed that wasn’t what they asked for. At that point you just gotta do what the client wants. I think the important thing is to make sure that at the end of the day you’ve done a good valuable job and the other person recognizes that because you can have one hundred clients that are absolutely thrilled with your work but you’ve got one person that isn’t and he’s going to be the most vocal one. – Mary Casey

When you decide to start a business, you may feel that it’s great to have someone else joining you. What I would tell people is: go out on your own, even though it’s scary. It might seem reassuring having someone from law school and thinking about starting a firm together but what you find out is that it’s hard enough to start a company, let alone having to deal with multiple personalities, economic, financial and family backgrounds. When I started, I had talked with two of my friends from law school because I felt it would be a nice complementary group and then it just didn’t come to fruition because they weren’t as committed. So if you’re actually going to include someone else in your business, it’s better to get those agreements in writing because sadly, in my practice I’ve seen what happens when you have partners that don’t get along. So, over the years, I’ve taken some precautions, especially when I see clients that are starting a business. I get immediately concerned and ask a lot of questions. As for myself, when I started off, I thought it would just be easier and comforting to have somebody else there in the office with me because it’s hard to go from being an engineer and running a large group to coming in to work and having no one there. But thinking like that can be a major mistake, so I tell people to avoid partners if they can. – Mary Casey

There’s two parts to Harbor Law, one part is the Corporate Transactional Law, which consists of helping small entrepreneurs. I expect that it is going to continue growing at the same pace but I expect that the litigation side may in fact thrive because I feel like that is a growth area and it’s actually been expanding a lot faster than the other sides. So, I would say that ratio right now is probably 50:50 and I would expect in the future it might shift to one-third to two-thirds. – Mary Casey

The time commitment hasn’t really changed compared to the first ten years. On average, one working day is nine-hours. It’s even more when you’re starting out because you’re doing a lot of networking, and that means early mornings and late evenings. So, I would say it’s a regular 40+ hour week. Since it’s your own business, you’re going to want to spend one or two Saturdays a month to be able to come in and deal with payroll, do invoicing, etc. uninterrupted. So, I have pretty much gotten into a situation where I come to work every day and then spend three to four hours one or two Saturdays a month just for doing other things. – Mary Casey

In my practice I’ve hired my daughter and son-in-law. They’re both attorneys at the practice and it’s really nice to be able to work with them so I would say that is an achievement. I would also like to say to the people out there trying to decide whether or not they want to be an entrepreneur that I believe this is the most rewarding job that you could have. Looking back, in the corporate world, I worked really hard and sometimes the recognition and the rewards weren’t there but I’ve never felt that as an entrepreneur. I’ve always felt like I am in control of my own destiny, especially now. If I want to dial back, I dial back, I can pick the cases or the clients that I want. This amount of independence comes from a lot of hard work and is really rewarding. – Mary Casey

I mostly agree with just about everything that I’ve heard, especially if I go to a presentation and I listen to other people giving advice to entrepreneurs. Maybe I’ve done some things differently but I pretty much understand what the general advice is so I don’t really have examples of bad ones. – Mary Casey

Well, I started this late in life. When I went to college, I had one daughter in college and one daughter in high school. Later on, when I graduated, I had one daughter that graduated college and the other one was in college. So, I was at that point in my life where I had lots of time for myself. Nonetheless, you have to make sure that you’ve got some balance. You have to schedule the downtime, just like you schedule the work time. So, I generally schedule two vacations, a nice winter one and one in the summer. I have five grandchildren and I schedule to spend time with them individually. I also schedule time with my friends so there are certain times I go out. I have other passions too. I do triathlon, which requires a certain amount of time commitment and is a complete break from the office. Basically, I think you’ve got to schedule your playtime, your downtime and your work time.

I would have started by going off on my own right from the beginning and I would have worried less. When I look back, at the person who started off working in a 300 square feet site, I remember myself turning on the lights, wondering if I was going to be there in a year. I just wish I could’ve gone back and told that person: this is going to be good; you don’t have to worry as much, this will actually happen. 

I believe I am. I really enjoy practicing law but I also like being able to give my clients business advice. For instance, in the current situation, as a lot of small businesses were concerned about closing down, I was able to relate to them because I am a business person myself. But if I had to pick one or the other, I’d go with entrepreneurship. When you’re sitting in a room, figuring how you are going to come up with a sale price of a business or purchase price of a business, it’s good to have that business acumen.

Well, if there’s an attorney watching this, I would say you probably want to open your practice. You may have watched this and thought maybe you don’t want to do that, you want to focus on being an attorney. So, if what you want to do is to completely practice law, you’re probably better off to work for a law practice. But if you want to be more in charge of your own destiny, choosing what cases you want, then I ask: what’s the worst that can happen? If you go out and start a practice, even after one or two years you’ll still be an attorney and you’re still very vital and marketable and out in the world. So really, where is the downside? Of course, I’m all about people starting practices.