We are a small, full-service firm. Our core practice areas are corporate and transactional, litigation, trial and appeals, intellectual property (prosecution and litigation), real estate, family law, probate and estate planning. We have practiced some in bankruptcy court - creditor claims, some trustee representation, litigation of claims in bankruptcy court. We've done some oil and gas. Some labor and employment. Some administrative law.
In the past, we tried (maybe not hard enough and maybe not doing the right things) to market ourselves as outside general counsel. Basically, as the go-to legal resource for companies too small to hire inside counsel. That's what we'd probably like to do if we could pick a single practice area or niche. Not sure if it's tenable. I've been encouraged to choose a single practice area, boutique-style, or industry and focus on that exclusively. I could never quite make that jump because it would be leaving behind some existing work and clients and making ourselves smaller focused just seemed like it was going to cause us to miss some opportunities.
At this point, I'm tired of working for low-grade clients on low-grade matters. What ends up happening far too often is that the client gets part way into their matter and starts running out of money. Then you are trying to get creative with billing, most likely taking a big haircut, while still trying to deliver quality legal work and positive outcomes for the client. I'm just getting tired of doing everything cut rate or not getting paid altogether and feeling like I'm forced to take flyers all the time on questionable work just to keep the lights on.