For immediate release
Houston Summit Tackles Why Lawyers Collect on 2.4 Hours a Day
During National Women's Small Business Month, Esquire & Empire offers five hours of Texas-accredited CLE on running a law firm, followed that evening by awards honoring four women who built one.
HOUSTON (Oct. 1, 2026) — The average lawyer captures 3.0 billable hours in an eight-hour workday and collects payment for 2.4 of them, according to Clio's 2025 Legal Trends benchmarks. Law school teaches attorneys to practice law. It doesn't teach them to run the small business a law firm becomes.
On Friday, Oct. 23, Esquire & Empire, presented by The Lex Collective, gives Houston firm owners five hours of CLE on that business, accredited by the State Bar of Texas. The summit runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at La Griglia, 2817 W. Dallas St. It is capped at 90 attorneys who own or lead practices generating $500,000 or more a year.
Sessions cover firm profitability and the true cost of a hire, the practical use of artificial intelligence in a small firm, and firm valuation and succession planning. The AI session includes a live demonstration and addresses where AI creates malpractice exposure. Each attendee leaves with a written 90-day plan.
"You did not build a practice to be trapped inside it," said Eleanor Curry, MBA, JD, founder of The Curry Law Firm and The Lex Collective. "Every attorney in that room is running a small business, whether they call it that or not. Most of us learned the business part by making expensive mistakes. This is five hours of learning it on purpose."
The summit falls during National Women's Small Business Month, which traces to the Women's Business Ownership Act, signed Oct. 25, 1988. Women make up 41% of U.S. lawyers, but they held just 28% of law firm partner positions in 2023, according to the American Bar Association.
That evening, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., the inaugural Empire Awards Dinner honors four women for the firms they built. Brenda DeRouen of DeRouen & Lewis Law Firm, a past president of the Houston Association of Women Attorneys, receives The Empire Builder award. Kara Egwuatu, a solo family law attorney, receives The Solo Powerhouse award. Jamika Wester of Wester Law Office receives The Architect award. Cassandra G. Daniels of Daniels Law Firm receives The Amplifier award.
Curry earned her law degree at night while working full time as a single mother, after an earlier career in commercial real estate. She founded The Curry Law Firm in Houston in 2013 and was named a Houston Business Journal Most Admired CEO.
Registration is open at esquire.thelexcollective.com.
Esquire & Empire is presented with support from Fifth Third Bank.
Media contact: Eleanor Curry, info@thelexcollective.com, 281-433-2355.
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