Job Searches, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

A Solo Practitioner's Cautionary Tale

Thinking of starting your own solo practice? Here's a cautionary tale.

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A few weeks ago, I asked for stories from former solo practitioners who have closed up shop and their reasons why. I received a fair number of responses. Some did well, moving on to BigGov, better larger law firms, or decent non-legal jobs, and some even started profitable businesses.

Others dug themselves into a deeper hole. Some got further into debt. Others made no money for years. And others became estranged from family and friends.

From time to time, I want to feature these stories as case studies for people considering going into solo practice.

For today’s inaugural feature, I will profile a lawyer who became a solo practitioner because he had no other options. Things seemed to be going well until something went wrong….

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I went to [a top-30 law school] about 10 years ago. Before, I was working at a dead-end job making just barely over minimum wage with no promotion opportunities. So one day I took the LSAT on a whim and scored above a 160. I did some research on the best schools I got accepted to and learned that most graduates get respectable jobs. This was before the law school scheme was known. So I enrolled.

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I got average 1L grades and that got me nowhere with OCI. I got no summer associate positions with the large firms. I got some temporary law clerk positions, but the cheap small firms I worked for would only take me on an academic credit internship basis. And none of them offered me a full-time position once I graduated.

Fast forward to a year after graduation. I still had no full-time job. At an alumni mixer, I ran into some of my classmates who started their own practices right after graduation. They all told me that their practices were profitable. When I met with them again and picked their brains about how they started and grew their practices, they told me that they advertised, networked, and did good work for their clients, and things just took off from there.

Afterwards, I gave serious thought about starting my own practice. There were too many lawyers where I lived, but somehow my classmates were able to make money. Again I did my research. I read every book I could find on starting a solo practice. For those planning to do the same, most of these books basically say that you can have a successful practice if you network, advertise, and do good work for your clients. It’s funny how these books do not mention the failure rate of solo practices. I suppose failure doesn’t sell.

I must admit that starting a solo practice immediately after graduation was not the career path I had in mind when I went to law school. I had no prior business experience nor did I have a network of referrals. Worst of all, I had no idea what the heck I was doing. But I had no other choice — I couldn’t find a legal job. My résumé gap was getting bigger by the day and the longer this continued, the more likely I would be unemployable. Also, I wanted to do something so people wouldn’t think I was pouting at home with a major sense of entitlement. So I hung a shingle.

I started by purchasing some business cards, setting up a basic website, and sharing an office with a consultant. I got in touch with a few older attorneys who agreed to serve as mentors. I spent a lot of time and money joining every organization and going to every networking event I could. I even volunteered at pro bono clinics (where I was absolutely useless).

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My fixed overhead cost was $600 per month, but if you added in all of the other expenses, like office supplies, buying meals for clients and potential referral sources, paying cover charges for networking events, gas, phone line, minimum advertising fees, and annual fees for various bar associations and social clubs, I paid an average of around $2,000 per month.

And where did I get $2,000 per month? Since I didn’t have clients, I had to work several part-time jobs to pay the bills. I did all kinds of work — waiting tables, day laborer, data entry, babysitting, ghostwriting. And I even got some part-time work from other attorneys once in a while.

My first year, I got four clients, and two of them were family members. Needless to say, I made no money. I wondered if I did anything wrong. Some of my classmates got several clients only a few months after starting their practices and they seemed to be doing well. I thought I wasn’t established enough and so I needed to do something to make myself more visible.

So I decided to do things differently my second year of solo practice. In addition to getting clients, I advertised myself to other attorneys for contract work — appearances, writing motions. I also tried to get some court-appointed work from the local courthouses. I tried to make myself more visible to my community. I took an active role in bar committees, and volunteered in community service events. I was even the in-house attorney to two non-profits.

By volunteering my time more in hopes of getting businesses, I was losing hours from my paying jobs. So there were some months where I lost money. I had to put my student loans on forbearance and my credit card bills were starting to rise.

The good news is that I was able to sign on a fairly wealthy client, but I was unable to handle the case on my own. So I called up one of my mentors to ask for assistance. He took a long time to get back to me and the “advice” he provided was useless. So I called up a second mentor who turned out to be very helpful and knowledgeable. He told me what I needed to do and what traps to avoid.

At the end of my second year of solo practice, I made a small profit and developed a small base of referral sources and a solid client base. I felt hopeful about the future because it seemed like I was on my way up.

For my third year of practice, things took a turn for the worse. Ironically, business was going well and I couldn’t handle everything by myself. So I hired an assistant. The problem was that the assistant needed a place to work and my current office-share arrangement couldn’t accommodate her. So I decided to end the office share arrangement and got a one-year lease at an office building. What this meant was that I had higher overhead — about $5,000 per month. I had to pay for an assistant, bigger office space for her to work, and a phone line for her to communicate with me or with clients.

Two months after moving into my new office, the phones stopped ringing, the referrals dried up, and existing clients were taking longer to pay up. I was panicking because I didn’t have a nest egg saved up and my 29.9% credit card line of credit was almost maxed out. Bills were getting unpaid, and the assistant’s check bounced. Thankfully, I was able to get a loan from family to prevent the office lease from terminating, avoiding eviction. But I had to let the assistant go and cut back on expenses.

I got back to pounding the pavement trying to get new business. But something inside me felt different. My heart wasn’t in it anymore. I didn’t like the business aspect of law practice. I hated the income swings. I hated having to call clients about money. And I hated the panic attacks. I remembered my initial hesitation about starting a solo practice. I was thankful that I didn’t have children to support.

At that point, I updated my résumé and started to look for a job. I told my colleagues that I was planning to shut down my practice and I would appreciate any job leads. Surprisingly, they were very supportive and sent me a lot of job leads. I suppose it was the best way to get rid of a competitor. I closed up most of my client cases and a few I referred out to someone else. I shut down my practice a little after four years.

I now work full-time at a non-legal position. It’s not a stable job and I don’t make a lot of money. I am still looking for work as an attorney. I suppose I had a good run with my solo practice and I learned a lot but it’s something I won’t do again until I get a lot more business experience. The experience left me deep in debt. I hope that my story will help people make an educated decision before going into solo practice.

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I want to thank the writer for coming forward with his story. If I were to grade his performance, I would give him a “C.” Even though he didn’t have the desire to be a solo, he did what he had to do under the circumstances. I award extra credit for his effort and lasting four years. Based on our conversations, I believe he did his best and there was probably nothing more he could do to improve his circumstances. However, I have to deduct a large number of points for starting his solo practice because he was worried that people would otherwise think he was entitled. Now I don’t understand the alpha macho male malarkey mentality except that in many cases it trumps common sense. But it is idiotic to start a business because you are worried about what someone else will think if you don’t. It’s unfortunate that the writer is not working a stable job. I wish him well in the future.

If you have a solo story to share, please email it to me.

Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached at sachimalbe@excite.com.

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