Interview with Dejan Aleksov, an attorney-at-law at the Aleksov & Memishi Law Office
"I started this business with 0 clients and one Fender guitar sold to provide finance at least for the first several months."
Who is Dejan Aleksov and for how long has he been working as an attorney?
Hello, Akademik friends!
I have been working as an attorney since 01.01.2017, and I officially opened my laptop the next day and started “thinking about what to do” 😊. I started this business with 0 clients and one Fender guitar sold to provide finance at least for the first several months.
To the right of the law practice is the mountain biking, and to the right of the mountain biking are the sprint triathlons. Now, 6-7 years later, I plan to get the guitar back, as well.
In which fields do you work the most?
We work mostly in commercial and business law, especially in the IT industry and the start-up community. Here we “honed” our expertise, especially since the development of technology is much faster than the laws, so we saw an interesting challenge to work on.
How many are there in your team and what are the top 3 priorities that you pay attention to in the internal work?
At the moment, there are two attorneys-at-law, one associate expert and one intern, and we also have an external content collaborator in the team. In the office, we place the greatest emphasis on:
- Documenting processes and transfer of know-how. We have created a detailed instruction/handbook, which explains all the types of procedures we do, and it is intended for both existing and new people joining us. It helps us a lot in optimizing the time for the transfer of knowledge from one to another.
- A clear plan for progress and motivation. This plan is linked to the handbook, so that after achieving certain measurable indicators we have different ways of encouragement related to increase in remunerations, days to work from home, short working hours etc.
- Building a team culture that puts more emphasis on mentorship rather than management.
These priorities greatly help us to ensure continuity and stability in customer service.
What do you pay the most attention to in the work with clients?
There are obvious answers to this question, which are related to the Code of Ethics of the Lawyers’ Chamber (confidentiality and trust, representing interests in the best way, independence, etc). Although the Code of Ethics is the number 1 guide for the relationship with the client, we pay particular attention to the experience that the client has when working with us.
If we take a simple example, the registration of a trade company is a procedure that can be carried out by any registration agent. As a result, you get your act on establishment. And you get this result regardless of which registration agent you use. So in conditions where the result is the same, we pay the most attention to the process and how the client experiences the process.
The client should not only be satisfied with the result, but also with the course of the procedure.
How much and in what way does informal learning help you in running the office?
It helps the most! I have been fortunate to have friends who are experts in a variety of fields, especially in the IT industry and the start-up community, which helps me in many aspects of my work. I learned a lot of basics and got guidance. I realized that individual upgrading through independent, continuous learning (books, podcasts, videos, etc.) activates a creative zone in which we look for a way to implement what we have learned in practice, which is ultimately the only key to development.
Any recommendations to your fellow attorneys-at-law?
It is exactly what I just mentioned, I would recommend to them to constantly learn and be curious. To those who like to read or who plan to start reading, I would recommend the books: “High Output Management” by Andrew S. Grove, former CEO of the company “Intel”, and “Influence” by Robert B. Cialdini, and those colleagues who prefer listening should check out the “The Law Entrepreneur” podcast by Neil Tyra.