courtesy
of
Barbri.
Lawyers
make
terrific
founders.
Some
might
say
it
is
counterintuitive.
Aren’t
lawyers
rigid
in
their
thinking?
Isn’t
it
all
about
minimizing
risk
above
all
else?
Yes,
for
lawyers
who choose
to
work
as
lawyers.
But
lawyers
who choose
to
start
companies are
making
a
conscious
choice
to
take
significant risks,
calculated
risks.
And
their
JD, far
from being limiting, is actually
beneficial.
Readers
of
this
column
know
that
Ex
Judicata
has
been
front
and
center
in
proclaiming
there
is
a
new,
modern
definition
of
the
JD
degree.
Old:
A
JD
is
a
law
degree.
New:
A
JD
is
a
degree
in
complex
problem-solving.
And
if
there
is
one
thing
every
single
business
needs more
of, it’s
complex
problem-solvers.
Read
on
to
see
how
this
applies
to
lawyers
who
start
companies.
When a
person wants
to
launch
a
business, whether
it
is
buying
a
liquor
store
or
offering
a
product
never
seen
before, the
majority
of people
if
asked
will
say
that it is
a
bad
idea. That’s
just
the
nature
of
new.
And
that
majority
will
almost
always
be
proven
right,
as 90% of
all
new
businesses
fail.
When
a
practicing
lawyer
wants
to
launch
a
nonlegal
business,
an
even
larger
majority
of
people
will
say
that
is
a
bad
idea
because
that
lawyer
has not worked
in
any
kind
of
business
before, has never
held
a “real
job.”
Thus, they
encounter
a
second
wall
of
doubt,
a
second
group
of
naysayers.
Here
they
question
the
sanity
of
leaving
the
practice
of
law
and
abandoning
their
law
degree.
This
is
the
double
whammy.
A
mistake
to
leave
law.
A
mistake
to
do
a
startup.
One
of
the more intriguing,
successful
entrepreneurs
in
the
EXJ
Community
is
Mark
Ferguson.
All
he
did
was
start
an
axe
company,
the
first
new
US
axe
manufacturer
since
World
War II. He knew
very
little
about
axes.
But
he
did
see
an
opportunity.
He
also
had
17
years
of prior
experience working
in
business in
a
nonlegal
job.
When
we interviewed
Mark,
he
told
us
that
after he
and
his
co-founder did their
research, they decided to
bounce
the
idea
off
some
blacksmiths
and
craftspeople over
pizza
and
beer.
You
might
be
able
to
guess
how
that
worked
out.
In
Mark’s
words:
We wound
up
getting
a
group
of
seven
or
eight
of
them
together
and
did
this
big
presentation
and then
said,
‘Isn’t
this
cool?
We’re going
to
do
this,
and
isn’t
this exciting?’
And
just
about
every single
person
said, in not
so
many words,
‘You
guys
are
idiots.
You
don’t
know what
you’re
doing.
You’re
not
going
to
be
able
to
do
this.’
But, Mark
had
an
ace
in
the
hole.
His
legal
training.
What
we
call
the
JD
skill
set.
In
his
case,
it was
particularly
helpful
when
it
came
to
selling
the
product.
Sales is just
like you’re
making your argument
and building
a
case
to
try
to
persuade
customers. You
do
the
research
and
organize
it
and
build
an
argument. I
think
law
school
and
being
a
lawyer
is
fantastic training
for this.
The
company
Mark
co-founded,
Brant
&
Cochran, is
now
16
years
old.
He
overcame all
doubts about the
likelihood
of his success. His
JD
skill
set
served
him
in
making
that
business
a
success.
At
our first startup, Ex
Judicata—the
foundation
for
the
EXJ
Community—we
had the opportunity
to
interview some
other
amazing
JD Founders
including:
Michael
Andrews, Michael
Andrews
Bespoke
Nicole
Clarke,
Trellis Research
Brett
Deutsch,
Deutsch
Photography
Philip
Dube, Whip
Smart
Wine
Company
Helene
Godin, By
the
Way
Bakery
Patrick
Krill,
Krill
Strategies
Velma
Lee,
Lee
Designs
Perry
Ochacher,
Willett
Public
Affairs
April
Rinne, Futurist
and
Author
In
their
interviews, which
can be
accessed above, each founder
credited
the
JD
skill
set
as
a
foundation
for
their
success.
What
is
the
JD
skill
set?
While
there
is
no
formal
list,
here
are
the
traits
we
reference
most
often
in
the
EXJ
Community.
• Analytical
thinking
• Issue
Spotting
• Risk
Assessment
• Delivering
under
pressure
• Superb
presentation
skills
• Driven
to
exceed
expectations
• Laser
focus
on
goal
attainment
• Ability
to
work late
into
the
night
Some
combination
of
these
skills
has
helped
every
non-practicing
lawyer
reading
this
to
advance
in
their
own
chosen
nonlegal
career.
We
highlight
founders
here
because
they have
to play
many
roles,
they
call
on
the entire toolbox.
Nicole
Clarke,
co-founder
&
CEO
of
legal
tech
company
Trellis
Research,
in
her
interview
with
Ex
Judicata,
made
this
point
and
along
the
way
added
some
additional
reasons
why
law
school
training
is
so
valuable
to
founders.
Law school
is
super
grueling,
and
starting
a
business
is incredibly hard.
It’s
a
grind
for
sure.
You’re
working
a
lot. Another
thing
I
took
away
from
law
school
is
that
I
could learn
anything.
I
remember
learning
securities
law. This
was
stuff I
didn’t
think
I’d
ever
come
across again. But
if
I
set my mind
to
it,
I knew
I could
learn
it. And
in
business,
especially
when
starting
a
new company,
you have
to wear many hats.
Many
of
these
roles
will
be
new
to
you.
But
believing
that
you
can
learn,
start
doing
it,
and
knowing that
you’ll
be
able
to
figure
it
out, that’s
core
to
starting a
business.
For
all
lawyers
reading
this
who
harbor
a
notion,
a
dream,
a
concrete
idea,
it
is
safe
to
say
that
you
will
have
a
leg
up
on
other
founders
because
of
your
JD.
The
authors
of The
Great
Escape column, Neil
Handwerker
and Kimberly
Fine, are
the
founders
of
exjudicata.com,
a
platform
designed
to
help
lawyers
move
to
nonlegal
careers.
They
just
launched a
new
related
platform,
the
EXJ
Community,
the
first
ever
peer-to-peer
network
of
non-practicing
lawyers.