Rachel Johnson co-founded J&O Law, a boutique for emerging and high-growth companies, after practicing at McDermott and DLA Piper. In 12 years the firm has grown to about 10 attorneys and 6 operations staff, all while she’s maintained the balance she set out to achieve when she started on her own. In our community session, she walked us through how she built the firm without burning out:
Plan your week around call volume and you’ll get a full day to run the firm. Rachel keeps Mondays light with two or three calls and packs seven to nine a day into Tuesday through Thursday. Fridays have no calls, so she can work on admin and operations. She stops taking calls at 4pm to keep evenings for her kids. Her husband runs his own business, and a full-time nanny (eight years and counting) lets them split the load at home.
Take internal meetings on a walk (and let your team see you do it). When a sync is internal, Rachel turns it into a phone call and walks while she talks. She does it where her team can see, so they feel free to step off video too.
Hire full time once you start turning clients away. J&O grew on founders referring other founders, with no set plan to scale. Rachel tried temps and of counsel attorneys first, but the incentive for them was to put J&O work behind their own. Her first hire was a part-time assistant at $15 an hour who took over invoicing.
How to grow without a marketing budget. J&O has never had one. Rachel started at $200 an hour and now bills about $740, with paralegals and junior attorneys around $450 to $500. The low rate brought clients in the door, and the quality of the work got them talking to other founders. Today the firm’s marketing comes down to showing up in communities like HeyCounsel plus a few small sponsorships.
Offer Big Law caliber work on saner hours, and you’ll attract the right talent. J&O attorneys commit to a 100 billable hour monthly minimum and are available at normal hours. Rachel benchmarks pay against Big Law but accounts for the difference in quality of life. J&O even offers an equity plan. She says to expect to train for six months before a new hire pays for themselves. In 12 years, her fear that the work would dry up hasn’t come true once.
Recruit associates with two or three years of experience by messaging them on LinkedIn. A boutique can’t absorb the training a first-year needs. Rachel has sent direct LinkedIn messages to associates at bigger firms, and she waited to bring in recruiters until the firm grew. J&O also has no origination credit. Every client belongs to the firm, so candidates don’t need a book of business to join.
Run the firm on multiplayer tools. J&O uses Front for shared email, so attorneys can trade drafts and leave internal comments on a thread. Everyone logs time in Harvest, founders and ops staff included. Rachel uses AI (Legora plus Claude) like a junior associate for first-cut redlines and templates. Clients see fewer billable hours, and her team is happier for it.
📆 HeyCounsel’s Upcoming Events
Thu, Oct 15 → The Free AI Legal Research Tool Taking on Harvey/Legora: DingDuff — https://luma.com/heycou-zu75
Tue, Oct 20 → North(OS) Demo and member pilot overview — https://luma.com/heycou-taeu
Tue, Oct 27 → Taxes and Accounting Q&A — https://luma.com/heycou-2zf9
Wed, Oct 28 → HeyCounsel All-Hands — https://luma.com/heycou-fg05
Thu, Oct 29 → Community Chat with GC AI — https://luma.com/heycou-ou55
Wed, Nov 4 → #ai_lab Demo Day: members show off the tools they’ve built — https://luma.com/heycou-i3nw
What’s new this week inside HeyCounsel?
🚀 Opportunity matching got smarter: finish every field of your profile and the matching system can find you. The Vendors page now splits into Software and Service Providers and ranks vendors by what members discuss in Slack, and new opportunities close after 14 days instead of 60. Announcement →
🤖 Pilot a Claude-native operating system for your firm: we’re running a member pilot with North, and their team runs a dedicated onboarding week for everyone who joins. Catch the NorthOS demo and the pilot terms on Tuesday, October 20 at 8am PT. Announcement →
⚖ A court refused to fully seal filings a party ran through consumer Claude: Scott Palmer flagged Fry v. Fry (E.D. Pa.), where the judge denied full sealing in part because a party had uploaded the documents to non-enterprise Claude and Claude Cowork. Check which plan your team is on. Thread →
🎙 Fernanda Hinojosa Cantu and Ian R. Cohen launched a podcast: Assumption of Risk gives lawyers a place for the conversations they never had a safe space to have. Send them a story from your practice (anonymous submissions welcome) through the form on their LinkedIn post. Thread →
📻 One member quit paid search and went analog: a Zamboni wrap, public radio sponsorships, Patch.com, and the occasional discounted billboard. Their biggest lead source now is people who Google the firm by name. Thread →
📄 #practice-ec_vc ran hot: a request for an affordable 409A firm drew 24 replies. Members also dug into whether DGCL 144’s “material relationship” definition sinks the stockholder-approval safe harbor when two founders make up the whole board (15 replies), and how to break a 50/50 cofounder deadlock (13 replies). 409A → DGCL 144 → Deadlock →
💛 HeyCounsel in real life: Julia Clayton and Lindsay Vogel met up at the SF Ferry Building while Lindsay was in town for Tech Week. Thread →
👋 Warm welcomes: Jonathan Ng launched Azure Legal, an EC/VC practice in New York for crypto and early-stage founders, and built the site with Claude Code. Thread → Lisa Angelo runs Angelo Law Firm for privacy, AI governance, and tech transactions, after embedded counsel roles at Meta, Walmart, and the NFL. Thread → And Jan Zimmermann’s firm went live last week, focused on company-side internal investigations. Thread →
🤝 #04-ask-a-lawyer was busy: referral requests spanning UK commercial counsel for a nonprofit, Delaware litigation, restaurant investor structures, Texas landlord-tenant, sports M&A for PE investors, aerospace patents, Rhode Island local counsel, a Portland trip-and-fall, conflict waivers, an India vendor dispute, federal contractor EEO policies, a London vCISO, bankruptcy boutiques, asset tokenization, and Canadian loan servicing.
💼 Referral Opportunities: 17 new opportunities posted this week are still live and accepting bids. Check them out on the dashboard.
🚨 You can now access everything HeyCounsel offers from our HeyCounsel Claude Connector.
Just ask Claude:
1. “Give me a weekly digest of what happened inside the community”
2. “Send me some personalized tips on how to grow and scale my practice”
3. “Benchmark my firm and compare my rates & revenue to my peers in HeyCounsel”
4. “Send me recommendations for lawyers who can help with [insert topic]”
5. so much more…
*requires a HeyCounsel membership*
Thanks for reading! See you next week 🤙
- Brian Scherer, Co-Founder & CEO