By Michael Fisch
innovation
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winter 2023
Suffolk Law’s award-winning Accelerator to Practice (A2P) program has taken practical training to the next level by teaching students the business side of operating a law firm. The A2P’s synthesis of small firm business knowledge and forward-thinking digital approaches has attracted the attention of consulting agency The Lawyerist, which is now partnering with the Law School to offer advice to solos and small firms around the nation.
Through the partnership, students in the A2P seminar will meet throughout the semester over Zoom with assigned attorneys in other parts of the country and, at the end of the course, provide the lawyers with a detailed analysis of their practices’ strengths and areas for improvement—including marketing efforts, the use of technology, performance benchmarks, client interaction and intake, and even the firm’s core business model.
“It’s going to be great for both the students and the participating attorneys,” says Andrew Garcia, JD ’91, who co-teaches the A2P seminar with the faculty director of the A2P, Professor James Matthews. Garcia started his own solo practice in 1992.
In certain areas, like customer relationship management tools, legal software, and document automation, A2P students will often know more than their attorney partner, he says. “Meanwhile, the students have this unique chance to work through the kinds of problems attorneys face before they hang up their own shingle.”