Paths to Independence: Starting & Building Your Own Solo Practice

Editor's Note: Ms. JD's annual conference, Avenues to Advancement, was held November 20-21 in Chicago.  These are some tips shared by the panelists during the Solo Practice panel.

It's not just a matter of drumming up a client base (no small feat)--you've also got to master payroll, facilities management, and labor law compliance. It won't be easy, but being your own boss just might be worth it. Here are five tips from the panelists on starting and buliding a successful solo practice.

Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be [Clippings]

Sometime Ms. JD blogger and ever-faithful friend of the solo practitioner Carolyn Elefant has written a new book, Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be. As a solo practitioner and a regular contributor to law.com, she is an expert on the subject and a woman successfully forging her own path in the legal profession. I haven't had a chance to read the book, but Susan Carter Liebel (another Ms. JD contributor, who also knows her stuff about building a solo practice) says it's "a good reference book filled with great information aggregated in one easy to read collection and a necessary tool for your solo practice."

Here's an excerpt from the author's cut:

[D]iversity, too, is playing its own role in the new popularity of solo and small firms. Though women and minorities comprise, respectively, 50 and 20 percent of law school graduating classes, they remain woefully under-represented in the upper ranks of Biglaw. Women account for only 17 percent of partnerships at large firms (Why Do So Few Women Reach the Top of Big Law Firms? New York Times (March, 2006)), while 5.01 percent of large firm partnerships are held by minorities (NALP Bulletin, February 2007). This under-representation comes at a time when large corporate clients are demanding diversity in law firms and, in some instances, even cutting firms from bidding for legal work for lack of diversity (Wall Street Journal, December 2006; see WSJ Law Blog). This inability to meet the diversity requirements of corporate clients creates new opportunities for women and minority owned firms to service corporate clients directly. Or, they can forge alliances with larger firms to help them satisfy corporate diversity needs, as did Gray Haile, a minority-owned corporate law boutique which established a strategic alliance with a large law firm (Day Pitney Forges Alliance With Minority Owned Firm, Connecticut Law Tribune, May 2007).

Carolyn has posted reviews and more excerpts at her blog, My Shingle. You can order a copy for yourself at Amazon, or ask your school library to get one. As current or former law students, we probably all know how hard it is to finish a major writing project while juggling everyday life and legal practice. Congrats, Carolyn!

When In Doubt About Going Solo, Look for Life's Little Affirmations You Made the Right Decision

This post is a little more intimate because I am going to share a personal story. But then, again, going solo, being an entrepreneur is a very personal and intimate decision.

Law School Learning Leaves Solos in Cold

Connecticut Law Tribune/Law.com - June, 2005

Recently, I met a young female lawyer at an awards dinner. She had been working for a large firm for the past seven years as a litigator. She was ready to start a family, but her employer was not amenable to her cutting back her hours. When I asked what she would do, her response amazed me. "I guess I will have to leave the profession," she said.

My jaw dropped. Here was an intelligent, sophisticated, experienced litigator who had graduated at the top of her class from a reputed school and she assumed if she couldn’t work for someone she would have to sacrifice her $90,000-plus educational investment in herself; lose her seven years of litigation experience, not to mention her self-esteem.