Guest Chapter 14

Name: Nicholas (Nick) Troxel

Current Position: Partner and Co-founder of Troxel Fitch, LLC, a law firm built by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs

Legal Practice Area: Corporate, Securities, M&A, Real Estate

Law School and Year: University of Colorado, 2017

Time between undergrad and law school: Three months

Books I recommend:

1.

2. Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen – As humans, we are driven by emotion. Even those among us who claim to be driven purely by logic are, at their core, driven by primal emotions. These emotions, or fear of experiencing these emotions, often lead us to avoid certain situations and conversations. This book will teach you how to handle difficult conversations that are needed to address situations like issues with an underperforming business partner all the way to issues within a romantic relationship that is on the rocks. These skills will be invaluable for your legal practice as well as your life.

Dedicated to my parents, Amy Struthers and Charlie Troxel.

This would have all been a dream without your unwavering love and support.

When you ask the question “How Do I Become a Great Lawyer?” you will likely get a different answer from everyone you ask. The story of how I ended up where I am today starts in Seward, Nebraska, a small town 30 miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska.

That was the day I decided that I wanted to attend law school. I looked up the best law school in the country and told myself that day that I would go to Yale law school. At the time, I knew there was a low likelihood that I would actually get into Yale, because it is not common for someone to get into Yale that simply decides it would be cool to do so on a whim. However, in life I have always believed that you should aim as high as possible and never stop believing in yourself, so that even if you come up short, you'll find yourself a lot further along than you may have initially imagined. To this day, I've never seen a brick wall that I didn't feel like I could run through.

My plan was to get an undergraduate degree in accounting, get a law degree, work for a few years as a lawyer to get startup capital, and then start a business with the foundation of accounting and legal knowledge. I moved back to Lincoln, moved back in with my parents, enrolled at the University of Nebraska, and decided that I would apply every ounce of focus and drive I had to academics. My first semester I had a 4.0 GPA for the first time in my life, and at that point my dreams started to seem a little bit more real.

As undergrad progressed, and I continued to get straight As, I decided that instead of trying to go to Yale, I wanted to move to Los Angeles, attend USC or UCLA, and become a Hollywood attorney. I applied to only schools in LA or San Diego until my mom urged me to apply at University of Nebraska and one other law school that was within a day's drive.

I remember the first time I crested the hill leading into Boulder on US-36 for Admitted Students’ Day like it was yesterday. I can still see the sun shining on the flatirons on that perfect April day. I was seated next to a kid from Florida named Josh Fitch that day at a table with Brad Bernthal (a professor at CU law school who teaches Venture Capital as well as the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic) who told us all about Boulder's entrepreneurial culture and how the law school embraced it. Little did I know that this interaction would change the trajectory of my life forever. I remember getting home the next day and telling my dad, “I found myself, I'm going to CU.”

Attending law school is an interesting and transformative experience. I remember showing up late to the first day of class in a t-shirt and sweatpants with a huge beard, and people looked at me like I was crazy. I have always marched to the beat of my own drum, and law school is a place where you have drilled into you that you need to think a certain way, act a certain way, and look a certain way. I was determined to never buy into this mindset. However, I, like so many others, “drank the Kool-Aid” and bought into the idea that the only path to success was to get into the top 10% and work for a big law firm. This was the biggest mistake I made in law school, other than listening to Jason Mendelson (one of the authors of this book) when he told me to shave my beard and buy into the corporate attorney look (haha).

While I didn't always love law school, I was determined to “win” at law school, and to me that meant getting a job with the highest-paying corporate law firm I could. I knew I would need to study hard and make as many connections as possible. I applied the same academic work ethic I had used in undergrad and ended up doing very well. Other than my second semester 1L year, the first snowboarding season I had ever experienced, my grades were in the top 10%. Even with that hiccup I ended up ranked in the top 15%. My favorite classes were without a doubt Venture Capital, Legal Negotiations, and Legal Ethics. Venture Capital because it was what introduced me to the startup world in earnest, as well as introducing me to Jason Mendelson and deepening my relationship with Brad Bernthal, who would both end up being great mentors. Legal Negotiations was a life changer because it taught me about so much more than just negotiating. It taught me how to communicate and navigate complex situations and relationships in all facets of life. Legal Ethics with Peter Huang was another life changer. Professor Huang focuses his course on mindfulness, happiness, and fulfilment within the legal profession, because he feels that instilling more of these traits in lawyers will naturally result in fewer lawyers being involved in shady and unethical situations. I loved this course because it was the first time I had ever learned about this kind of thinking. I had always been a generally happy and fulfilled person, but I was surrounded by law students and lawyers, and most seemed pretty miserable. It was refreshing and just what I needed to start seeing the practice of law in a different light.

I was planning on taking a couple of classes in the business school to better understand the numbers side of business law, such as cap table management, how different types of securities were priced, and the tax ramifications of using different types of securities. I ended up not taking these courses when I learned that the grades for these courses would not count toward my law school GPA.

In law school and in life, learning goes much deeper than your coursework. While in law school I made a concerted effort to build relationships with attorneys who practiced in the areas of law that I wanted to pursue. Further, I tried to get as much time as possible with anyone who I admired or resonated with on a personal level, by any means necessary. I remember noticing that Jason Mendelson would leave my Venture Capital class and take a specific route through the courtyard at CU. I started eating breakfast in the courtyard at a bench directly in his path just to have as many chance interactions as I could. I showed up to events that I had no interest in attending just because I knew someone that I wanted to interact with would be there and I might be able to catch a quick conversation on their way out. I used to take the bus to Denver and back two to three times a week to meet people for coffee just to pick their brain. Every time I met someone I resonated with, I asked them to introduce me to others who may continue my pursuit. Sure, part of the reason I did this was with the hopes of getting a job, but the biggest reason I craved these interactions was to observe and absorb everything I could from these people. I wanted to see how they thought, how they spoke, and how they moved through life and the law. I believe that having this mentality, that you can always learn something from everyone you meet, that you should always be in pursuit of perfection, is what led me to the success I enjoy today. Many of the individuals I met during this time ended up being great mentors. Some even hired Josh and I to perform contract work when we were first starting our firm.

After graduating I thought it would be easy to get a good job and the path forward in life would become clear to me.

Looking back, this was a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to reflect on what I really wanted out of my life and who I wanted to be. I come from a big family, and my parents always told me that life was about more than money and status. Life is about happiness, fulfillment, and spending time with people you love. I remember speaking with my mom while in this state of feeling lost and she reminded me of my original plan of becoming an entrepreneur. She made me realize I had lost my way. I had forgotten who I was and let the bubble of law school convince me I needed to go a certain route. I realized I would never have the life I wanted working for a big law firm, or anyone else for that matter. I realized that I wouldn't find what I was looking for unless I was the captain of my own ship.

Josh had decided months prior that he was going to start his own firm whether I wanted to do it with him or not. I remember Josh used to randomly say, “Troxel Fitch, I'll give you your name first!” Over the course of six months, my self-reflection and Josh wearing me down led me to have the confidence to take the leap into starting Troxel Fitch, LLC. Josh's willingness to believe in me and what we could do together is what has led me to realize my greatest potential. I am grateful beyond measure and will forever be in his debt.

Now I don't want you to think it has all been sunshine and rainbows. Being your own boss is awesome, but sometimes it is scary as hell. When Josh and I first started the firm, we were broke. We drove Lyft and ate canned beans to keep the lights on. But we had a lot of fun along the way as well. I remember the first time I paid myself $1,000. The feeling of signing my name on a piece of paper and that paper then becoming valuable nearly brought me to tears. Success and failure is all relative. One thing is for sure, if you want to start a law firm right out of law school, you have to change the way you view mistakes and the way you view failure. I have made more mistakes in starting and running this firm than I could count on 10 pairs of hands. However, there is no failure unless you quit. If you refuse to lose, if you refuse to give up, you can never fail. Spend the extra hour researching, ask the extra question even if you feel dumb, go to every networking event you can and lean on mentors. Josh and I started the firm in November 2017, and we committed to each attend 150 networking events in 2018. We were anywhere and everywhere small business owners might go to network, shaking hands and kissing babies. Not only did this help us grow our business, it sharpened our ability to walk into a room and confidently talk to hundreds of people. Don't be afraid to curl your toes over the cliff's edge and dive in. It's just life, we're all going to die someday anyways. Do you think you'll remember the failures you had along the way or regret not pursuing your greatest potential?

The concepts that Jason Mendelson brings up in this book are spot on and I use them every day in my practice. Clients, and people in general, know when you actually care about their problems and when you are faking it or simply don't care. When you are speaking to another human being in real life, and you treat the interaction like you are analyzing a fact pattern from your legal writing professor, you are going to have a tough time. This is often why so many lawyers have a hard time bringing in business, and, if you didn't know this already, it doesn't matter how good of a lawyer you are if you can't convince clients that you are the lawyer they should pay to help solve their problems.

Many lawyers only think about legal issues from a theoretical perspective, as if they were trying to write an A+ memo, instead of trying to put themselves in the client's shoes and solve a real-world problem for them. Here's a fact I hope more law students and lawyers will take to heart: 99% of clients have no clue what the difference between an A+ lawyer and a D- lawyer looks like. The law is a foreign language to non-lawyers. Clients want a lawyer who listens, understands their problem, and explains a solution to that problem in a digestible manner. Ultimately, clients hire you for the peace of mind you bring them, and feeling confident that you care about their problem is the first step to giving them that peace of mind.

In sum, looking back I wouldn't change a thing. I run a successful law firm where I make more money than most of my law school classmates and I never work on powder days. I am the master of my own destiny and the sky is the limit.

I would implore you to remember that no one has lived this life before. We're all making it up as we go. Stay true to who you are and who you've always been. If you treat people right, work hard, and never stop believing in yourself, I promise you that you will find happiness, fulfillment, and success.

Remember, you can do whatever you set your mind to in this life. Never forget that.

Name: Josh Fitch

Current Position: Partner and Co-founder of Troxel Fitch, LLC, a law firm built by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs

Legal Practice Area: Corporate, Securities, M&A, Real Estate

Law School and Year: University of Colorado, 2017

Time between undergrad and law school: Eight months

One or two books I recommend:

Untethered Soul by Michael Singer: The existence of the body and mind are obvious. Gyms and fitness programs are everywhere to tend to the body, and we are put in school almost immediately after birth to tend to the mind. I think most people would acknowledge the existence of the soul, but other than what happens to it when we die, there isn't much out there about what to do with it, how to understand it, or how to manage it. I consider this book a user manual to the soul, and a guide on how to understand to the pit in your stomach, or the flutter of your heart. Essential reading for those who want their place in the world to sync with their place in the cosmos.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: In contrast to my first recommendation, which is more ethereal, this book is worldly and practical. This is a user-guide to human interaction. Like the unbreakable laws of physics, this book describes the laws of people. If you want to know how to navigate the world with social skill, finesse, and delicacy, look no further than this book.

Dedicated to Timothy James Fitch

Nothing Ventured… Nothing Gained.

In starting a firm directly out of law school, and finding success, it sometimes feels awkward. Nick Troxel and I have found success beyond our wildest dreams, and we are often asked about the foresight it must have required to become such “innovators” or “disruptors” in a traditional legal field that is averse to change.

In truth, Troxel Fitch was born as a reaction to a legal world that seemed unwilling to accept us unless we “fell in line” and as a passion project to a life we knew must exist, even if at the time it was elusive. More than evolution, it was rebellion.

My law school experience was characterized by the feeling of being misplaced, and stifled. I came to law school seeking the skills to become an entrepreneur. I grew up playing sports, and learned that to become a master of your game, you must also master the rules; only with an awareness of the boundaries can one operate fully within them. I figured that a legal skill set would complement my other talents to make me an effective businessman. Yet in law school I felt that my other talents were viewed as a distraction, and that succeeding in this grade-based environment would require me to abandon the things that made me who I am, and focus solely on the class rank, the pursuit of the big-law job, and the glorification of “the grind.” I felt I understood the law (and the world) well, but didn't see the point in stressing myself to near insanity just to be ready for a cold call about some unrealistic nuance to a legal minutia posed in a theoretical world that would never exist in reality. In short, I was frustrated because I felt like I got it, I understood it, but was being asked to worship it, to sacrifice myself on the alter to it, and was ultimately cast aside for my recognition of the absurdity of it. I greatly enjoyed some of the same classes that Nick has mentioned, and would add that the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic with Brad Bernthal was an incredible experience, but otherwise I basically kept to myself and focused on getting the job done. I finished law school somewhere around the top half of the class, with my will to live and self-esteem still intact, and I considered that a win.

Deciding what to do post-grad was informed by the truths I had found, and a new truth I was desperate to find. During my time in law school I met with many practicing attorneys to decipher what type of life lay ahead for me as a lawyer. With a precious few exceptions, I found that I could be well-compensated, or happy, but likely not both. From my perspective, most of the “high-powered attorneys” were miserable, and those who were happy had essentially stepped off the ladder and abandoned the climb to the top. When I met with recently graduated colleagues who took the big firm route, I found shells of their former selves. They were overworked, struggling in personal relationships, unmotivated by the monotony, and criticized to the point of losing confidence. What a shame! These are extremely talented individuals, with ridiculous focus and drive, a lucrative skill set, and more potential than can be quantified. Why were they so broken? What kind of system is this that takes such wonderful people and extracts everything to the point of leaving nothing but the will to survive?

I wasn't quite ready to abandon my grand ambitions, but I also wasn't willing to sacrifice the joy in my life for the money in my wallet. I was torn between the means and the ends, trying to decide between two unappetizing choices.

Then my life would change forever. Two weeks before my final exams of 3L year, my older brother, to whom this chapter is dedicated, passed away. Tim, as both an example and at times a counterexample, had been my role model, my teacher, my fearless protector, and my champion. Despite Tim living a life of struggle, faced with harsh consequences for every misstep, he took special care to ensure he imparted the lessons derived from those consequences on to me. From a young age I was imbued with wisdom far beyond my years, which I did nothing to earn, paid for by my brother's suffering. Although I was jaded from law school and beginning to succumb to the idea of sacrificing a few years in the name of professional progress, Tim encouraged me to be brave with my talents, and be fearless in pursuit of the life I wanted, even if others were unwilling or unable to do the same. Even if doing so might subject me to rejection and ridicule.

Carrying the weight of immeasurable grief and fighting tears that were never more than a blink away, I hid in the corners of the law school library so I could study without being noticed, free from interactions that would require me to summon a strength I no longer possessed. I began to ponder the brevity and fragility of life, and the value of each and every moment. As the weeks passed, the notion of surrendering even a day to the lines on my resume became repulsive. After exams I resigned myself to the solitude of bar prep, and in that solitude discovered the question that would reveal to me my life's second truth. What type of man am I? Am I the type of man who will waste the wisdom of my brother's legacy and retreat to the safety of convention, or do I have the courage to pursue the life I want, despite how uncertain and terrifying it might be, and honor his legacy?

With that monumental motivation, I determined that I would start my own firm, in hopes that I could build a life of joy and fulfillment, and also ambition and achievement. I was going to harness my talent to build a beautiful life in honor of my loved ones who were deprived of that opportunity, or fail gloriously, knowing I had the courage to go down fighting. That very well might have been the result had Nick not agreed to join me. I consider Nick's willingness to join me in this foolhardy endeavor one of my life's great blessings, and we could never have accomplished what we have without his drive, resilience, and, most importantly, loyalty as a friend.

Now, resolved to start our own firm straight out of law school, and clueless as to how to actually accomplish that, we devised our method.

More important than any other specific skill one gains in law school is the ability to learn. Law school teaches you to identify the question, identify the authority, find the answer to the question, and identify the next question. This applies just as much to digital marketing and bookkeeping as it does to income taxation and civil procedure. Combine that ability to learn with the humility to drive Lyft and eat ramen as a licensed attorney, and you've got a powerful combination, not to mention a lucrative skill set. If you can use that skill set to your own benefit, you can learn anything entrepreneurship demands of you, and the price-tag of legal services is high enough to keep you afloat as you figure it out.

As we struggled to get our firm off the ground, we devised a three-pronged attack.

For the first prong, we worked with legal insurance providers doing simple debtor defense work. There are a variety of firms with whom you can simply sign up, and they will send you cases. Basically, when someone didn't pay their credit card bill, they got sued, we filed an answer in defense, and then assisted the settlement negotiation in exchange for a modest fixed fee. This required nothing in the way of business development, and was quick and easy from a legal expertise perspective. The primary objective of this prong was to keep the lights on while we nurtured our fledgling firm.

For the second prong, we worked with a variety of mentors as subcontractors, handling excess work at a very reduced rate in exchange for mentorship and guidance. As licensed attorneys, our work was valuable, and we charged a paralegal rate, so there was benefit to both sides. Our mentors got cheap labor, and we got valuable knowledge. While we performed elementary transactions on our own, we got to assist with sophisticated transactions under the tutelage of our mentors, and use the skills learned for our own benefit. We were extremely lucky to have brilliant and generous mentors who worked with us not only for the professional support, but from the good of their hearts, to help us succeed as people. One such mentor to whom we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude is Stan Doida, who showed us not only how to practice law, but how to operate a law firm, and how to be an upstanding professional. The primary objective of this prong is replicate the mentorship you might find in a big firm in an outsourced, networked fashion. The revenue is secondary to the education. If you find yourself a mentor like Stan, consider yourself extremely lucky.

Finally, the third prong is developing your own client base and providing services at your full rate. This takes time, as initially you have no reputation, and no experience to which you can speak. However, if done correctly, the first two prongs will support you as you slowly climb this hill. Your first clients will choose to work with you because they trust you. They trust you will listen to them, work diligently to understand their business and their problems, and that your zealous effort and attention will overcome your lack of experience. Take extra care to ensure this is true, and dedicate your whole soul to serving and protecting those who have bet on you. This is where you plant the seed of your reputation, and that seed will either turn into a tree that bears fruit, or be the placeholder for your firm's grave. In time, when you have given your everything to prove yourself and do right by your clients, your client base will grow, as will your income, and you can begin to phase out the first two prongs on your way to a self-sustaining firm. This is the final prong and eventually overcomes and eliminates the other two, until you now have a successful law firm. The primary objective of this prong, and of owning a firm generally, is to do great work, treat people right, and benefit your community. At all times beware of what you don't know, and what you don't know that you don't know. Be ferocious and humble as you investigate the gaps in your skill set, and seek always to improve. You won't have a firm above you to review your work and monitor your mistakes, and your clients don't know how to catch them. Honor this trust and autonomy with vigorous and honest self-evaluation. You can't always be perfect, but you can always be improving.

If done right, you will find yourself in the position Nick and I now find ourselves; living a life of full-autonomy, proud and fulfilling achievement, and joyful balance. It fills me with gratitude to look back on the path taken and the lessons learned on the journey to now. I can confidently say I wouldn't change a thing. I have never sacrificed a day to the misery of the heartless grind, I am happier than I ever imagined, as well compensated as I could want, and with limitless potential. I am the sole master of my destiny.

I never thought this life possible, and I wouldn't dare ask for more.

In writing this chapter I hope that my story may inspire others to be brave in resisting the deleterious pressure the legal profession places upon us, and be confident that your skill and drive is sufficient to build your own beautiful life, however that may look. The view is clear atop the shoulders of giants, and the road they walk is well-worn and paved by years of tradition. However, if you seek the freedom and excitement that comes from blazing your own trail, you mustn't be afraid to put your feet in the dirt, and venture into the unknown. Let your legal education be your compass, and I hope this chapter might serve as a torch to light your way when the path seems dark.

If you've gotten this far in the law you already have the skills required for this adventure, so happy trails, and Godspeed.