Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

The Unbearable Weight Of Working From Home As A Solo Lawyer

The wrong scales of justice.

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weight weighing scaleBy now, most lawyers are well familiar with the pros and cons of starting and running a law firm from their home. On the plus side, a home office saves on rent, enabling lawyers to retain a bigger chunk of earnings (around 85 percent at one virtual firm ) For parents, a home office is also convenient, leaving more time to spend with your kids when they’re young.  As many companies move towards telecommuting, home offices for lawyers don’t carry the same stigma they once did.

Still, working from home has some drawbacks: zoning laws may prohibit home offices, you may not enjoy the same motivation as with the peer pressure of others, and of course, ethics rules in some jurisdictions make solo practice nearly impossible. And while you do save on rent and wardrobe, other cost savings are a wash. For example, while you’ll no longer have to pay regular train fare or gas up the car as frequently, expect your electricity bills to increase since rates are typically highest during peak work hours.

Yet even with all of the conversation about home offices, there’s one weighty occupational hazard of working from home that I’ve never seen mentioned until Colin Nissan’s New Yorker piece, I Work From Home: the eating. And eating and eating and eating. This excerpt from Nissan’s piece says it all:

OPERATOR: O.K., can you tell me what food you’ve eaten today?

ROBERT: You mean everything?

OPERATOR: Yes.

ROBERT: I don’t know exactly. I mean, I started out with breakfast before my wife left for work . . . scrambled eggs with toast and coffee . . . and then I think I maybe had a bowl of cereal when she left.

OPERATOR: Is that it?

ROBERT: Like an hour or so later . . . I had a banana with peanut butter.

OPERATOR: Did you slice the banana?

ROBERT: No. I dipped it right into the jar, because no one was watching. (Pause.) No one watches.

OPERATOR: So no plate or anything?

ROBERT: No.

OPERATOR: And that was it until lunch?

ROBERT: No.

OPERATOR: What else did you have?

ROBERT: I made a quesadilla . . . another bowl of cereal, I think . . . and some pretzels, the flat ones that are like chips. I love those.

OPERATOR: Those are good. (Pause.) And did you have lunch after that or was that lunch?

ROBERT: (Pause.) I remember ham . . . lots of ham.

OPERATOR: In a sandwich?

ROBERT: No. No sandwich. Just ham pieces. (Pause.) There were also some . . . spoonfuls of chocolate frosting, two or three . . . green peppers, I think, and yogurt. A large tub of yogurt. Peach.

OPERATOR: O.K., Robert, you understand that what you just described isn’t really lunch, right?

ROBERT: It is lunch. When there are no rules, it is lunch, Cherise!

OPERATOR: Did you at any point dip the green peppers in the peach yogurt?

Though few work at home lawyers will admit it, this dialogue captures the reality. It’s no wonder that so many solos outgrow their home offices — quite literally.

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