An interview with Monica Zent and Eric Pines for Authority Magazine, originally posted here.
March 5, 2023
Law school primarily prepares lawyers for the practice of law. But leading or starting a law firm requires so much more than that. It requires the entrepreneurial skills that any CEO would need to run a business; How to manage personnel, how to hire and fire, how to generate leads, how to advertise, how to manage finances, etc. On the business side of law, what does an attorney need to know to create a successful and thriving law practice? To address these questions, we are talking to successful law firm principals who can share stories and insights from their experience about the “5 Things You Need To Create Or Lead A Successful Law Firm”.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Monica Zent.
Monica Zent is an experienced entrepreneur, investor, inventor, and trusted legal advisor and strategist to multiple global brands. Zent is also founder and CEO of Foxwordy Inc., a patented digital collaboration platform for the legal industry, and founder of ZentLaw, one of the nation’s leading alternative law companies. Taking her role as a thought leader seriously, she regularly writes for various publications on topics spanning from entrepreneurship and leadership to futurism and emerging technology. In her spare time, Zent dedicates her time and talent to charitable causes and is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are? Specifically, we’d love to hear the story of how you began to lead your business.
Anentrepreneur since a young age, I’ve always loved business, wearing different hats, and engaging with people, so starting an alternative law company and becoming a legal tech founder came naturally. I’ve been in the legal industry for 25 years now, continually striving to see around corners and push new innovations. A lot has changed over that period and I’m glad I was able to be a part of that. I was able to create a new business model that was unheard of when I launched my business 20 years ago but is now a respected solution, giving clients more options than what previously existed.
I’m a huge fan of mentorship throughout one’s career. None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Who has been your biggest mentor? What was the most valuable lesson you learned from them?
I’m lucky enough to say that many people have mentored me throughout my life so it’s hard to point to just one individual. Many people have had a meaningful impact on me. Everyone from my parents with their various life lessons to my high school AP English teacher who told me, “you make your own luck in life,” to my favorite business professor who taught me efficiency is often the key to success.
From completing your degree to creating multiple startups and becoming a business owner, your path was most likely challenging. Can you share a story about one of your greatest struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
One of my greatest struggles was building my law company. It was very different twenty years ago when we launched ZentLaw as an Alternative Legal Services Provider (ALSP), offering customers more flexible options. I had to educate the market on a new business model, what we could offer and why it was better for clients. Sometimes carving a new path isn’t easy. ZentLaw was one of the earliest ALSPs, started decades before the majority of the legal industry caught on to the idea. Back then, the thought of subscription legal services, treating clients with a service-oriented mindset, on-demand legal services from a dedicated resource, and “virtual lawyering” were concepts that hadn’t become mainstream. In fact, at the time, these ideas were considered ground-breaking. I’ve been called a “pioneer” in the legal industry for just that reason. It’s a nice reference but what most people don’t realize is how hard it really is to be a pioneer. You’re out there on your own without a lot of support and no path in front of you but the one you create. It took time and lots of proof to convince the industry but eventually the value proposition sold itself and now it’s probably one of the most replicated models in the market.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?
I have many, it’s hard to choose but one I like is “never give up.” I enjoyed distance running in my teen years and it’s stuck with me ever since. You have to keep going and finish the race. It’s easy to consider giving up when things get tough, but that’s when you need to make a change and keep moving forward. The only constant is change. It’s true in business and in life. Being able to adapt, pick yourself up and keep moving forward is the key to success.
This is not easy work. What is your primary motivation and drive behind the work that you do?
I enjoy being an entrepreneur and an innovator, creating new business models, new technologies, new business ideas and helping our clients get where they need to be. Whether we are helping clients support their legal teams via resources from our On Demand solutions or supporting a team member evolving to that next step in their career journey via their role at ZentLaw, or even creating a cool AI-powered chatbot via our work in ZentLaw Labs, I enjoy all aspects of value creation and innovation in the legal industry. Working with people, clients, and team members, and mentoring young female entrepreneurs and junior lawyers is an amazing experience which I also find very rewarding.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
ZentLaw Labs, our innovation lab, which aims to bring tech acumen and startup thinking to law, is working to create an AI-powered chat bot to help clients get answers to basic legal questions. Ultimately, this technology can really benefit our clients and the legal industry.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to discussing the business of law. Can you tell us a bit about the nature of your practice and what you focus on?
For way too long, the legal industry operated under the same outdated model. ZentLaw changed all that. ZentLaw merged the efficiencies and flexibility of outsourcing with the best attributes of a law firm, to offer a better value proposition for clients and a better way to practice for lawyers and legal professionals. By providing a range of cost-effective and efficient solutions, corporate clients and conventional law firms can access the legal resources they need under arrangements that make sense. This is why ZentLaw has been a go-to legal resource for the world’s leading brands for decades.
You are a successful attorney. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? What unique qualities do you have that others may not? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Organization. Persistence. Caring. Hyper organization is my key to balancing complex, day-to-day matters.
Persistence is what kept me going all these years in everything from distance running to building a law company. Law is a people business. Caring about people: our clients, partners, and team members, is at the core of a lot of what we do in my business.
Do you think where you went to school has any bearing on your success? How important is it for a lawyer to go to a top-tier school?
It’s important to strive to go to the best school that you can but we all have different opportunities. If you can, wonderful, but if not, don’t let it hold you back. The truth is that where you go to school has no bearing on future success. You make your own success in life.
Managing being a law practitioner and a business owner is a constant balancing act. How do you manage both roles?
I balance an ever-increasingly busy life by focusing on family and fitness. A classic overachiever, a commitment to balance is the only way to manage my business and personal life successfully. At times, it’s hard to keep everything in balance but I find time outside in nature helps refresh my mind and soul, often providing much-needed clarity.
Can you help articulate the entrepreneurial skills a lawyer needs to run and lead a successful law company?
Lawyers are not typically known for their bedside manner, but they really should be. Listening to people and making them comfortable enough to really talk and connect with you is the best approach to a successful company. How you treat your clients means a lot. In my business, one of our core values is providing excellent client service by listening to our clients’ feedback and delivering what they need. Lawyers are also not often known for collaborating, but I’ve worked to change that because I believe lean, well-formed teams that work together well can accomplish amazing things. For this reason, I foster collaboration in my business via our corporate culture, processes we create, and tools that we use. I also created a collaboration platform through ZentLaw Labs, that’s how important I believe collaboration is in law and in the workplace.
Can you share a specific, non-intuitive insight from your personal experience about how a leader of a law firm should:
Hire great people and trust them to do their jobs. People are the backbone of any successful business so give them the opportunity to really shine and your business will reap the rewards. Also, listen to people and notice the little clues when interviewing. I’ve learned a lot over decades of interviewing people, especially lawyers, Sometimes, the best people don’t always appear that way on paper but it’s seeing who the real person is and seeing their potential that will show you the truth.
Ok, thank you. Here is the main question of our interview about the business side of law. What are your “5 Things An Attorney Needs To Know In Order To Create A Successful And Thriving Law Company”?
1 People skills are the key to your success. Listen to your team and your clients then make the big decisions.
2. Hire good people and trust those people to do their jobs.
3. Leverage technology to your advantage. Keep up with new things as they come.
4. Learn how to be a good communicator — your tone and level of communication make a huge difference.
5. Make sure you have a real understanding about business. You need to understand fundamentals. It’s not all law.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
A kindness movement. Our culture moves at the speed of now and that’s great but there is a decline in our culture and the fundamental common courtesies that make a difference. Our lives are made up of moments. A moment to help someone with the door when they are juggling two cups of coffee, an offer to that person behind you in line to go ahead when they only have two items and you have more, a smile to that rushed person who seems to need it, a compliment to someone just because. These are moments that can make a difference that day for that person. We would have far fewer problems in this world if everyone practiced everyday kindness.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I enjoy writing and speaking on a variety of topics related to the legal industry: legal innovation, legal tech, and entrepreneurship. My pieces are always re-published on Medium and are also available via my LinkedIn or Twitter. My work in the legal industry is at https://zentlawgroup.com/. Also, LawDesk360 was launched out of ZentLaw Labs.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
Thank you for taking the time to interview me. I hope this helps fellow entrepreneurs in the legal industry!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.