The solo and small-firm practitioner decides to start and build a law firm because he or she has a passion for a particular field of law. You have a connection with family law, bankruptcy, criminal law, personal injury … whatever it is, you’re in it for a reason.

The firm you built exists to serve your clients, and to serve them well. To do right by the public and, in turn, to make you money (no, “profit,” is not a dirty word).

When you hire new employees you look for technical expertise of some sort. Good computer skills, perhaps experience in the field. For a receptionist, you look for a good speaking voice.

Technical skills are good, to be sure. But the one thing we as business owners must actively seek is not the ability to use Microsoft Word or Outlook, it’s passion. Passion for what we, as business owners, stand for.

Your potential employees need to have that same fire in their gut that made you open the office in the first place. Be it a drive to do good in the community, to help people get to a better place, or just to make a positive impact in the world. Whatever it is that brought you here, that raw energy should be instilled in your employees before they get the job.

Once hired, it’s your job to focus that passion and guide the employee accordingly, You need to train them to put their passion to use, to give them the tools they need to connect with your clients and provide the service for which your firm has been hired.

You can teach the technical aspects of any field of law – as a judge once told me, this ain’t rocket science. Our paralegals and staffers are trained to use the tools we provide, and the lawyers we hire learn to put their education and training to use for our office.

The one thing you can’t teach, however, is caring. And if someone doesn’t care, their only motivation to get something done is the money. The employee is a clock-watcher, someone counting down the slow hours until the end of the day.

If a client email comes in at the end of the day? If you care and are passionate, you’re going to answer it. If you’re a clock-watcher, you’re out the door and on the bus home.

If a phone call comes in during lunch? If you care and are passionate, you’re going to put down the sandwich and talk with the client. If you’re a clock-watcher, the call goes to voice mail.

How do you interview for passion?

Ask questions that don’t relate to the law. Find out what fires up the interviewee. If you can’t find anything, chances are pretty good there’s not much passion there.

Plug the person’s name into Google. Do they have a ton of Facebook friends? Are they on Twitter? Digg? Do they have a blog about a personal hobby? These are clues as to a person’s passions. Ferret them out to get a better idea of the person behind the resume.

In short, learn as much about the person as possible.  Take your time – this is an important decision, and the one you make will help or haunt you for a long time to come.

We must hire for passion, not technical skills. Our firm deserves it, our clients deserve it.

Photo courtesy of Emily’s mind.