Dear Biglaw,
As I write this letter, seven members of your illustrious family have followed Milbank’s lead and upped starting salaries for incoming associates to a stratospheric $190,000. Yet sadly, your benevolence has generated nothing but nasty criticism from ungrateful clients unwilling to subsidize your generosity or envious competitors who’ve sniped that these higher salaries will put more pressure on already overworked associates to work even harder. So that’s why I wanted to reach out and offer you support from the unlikeliest corner of the legal profession: the solo and small firm community.
I’m guessing that my letter will catch you off-guard. After all, as Biglaw, you probably expect us solo and small law firm owners to envy the largesse that you’ve conferred on baby associates by dint of their GPAs, law review credentials and clerkships. Well then, you’d be surprised. Many of us solos and smalls are doing quite well, thank you very much and we relish the satisfaction that comes from the innovation and constant hustle that it took us to get here.
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Still Biglaw, as you know better than anyone, the practice of law today is a competitive business, demanding efficiency and cost-effective practices. As a result, many solo and smalls who seek to hire associates or of counsel to grow their practices don’t always have the resources to attract smart newbies by matching Biglaw salaries. But now that you’ve raised incoming salaries to $190,000, those new associates can pay down debt more quickly, making them available to solos and smalls as a potential source of labor at an even faster rate.
Moreover, even if those ungrateful corporate clients of yours refuse to pay you to train new associates, many of those who depart your hallowed halls will leave with useful experience acquired on your dime and your time. If your clients won’t let you staff cases with newbies, chances are, you’ll have them gain skills through alternative means such as handling pro bono projects to gain litigation experience, attending pricy CLE, earning billable hours credit for mastering new tech, or best of all, assuming marketing tasks like writing blog posts or participating in social media. In short, after their time at Biglaw, those associates will be ripe for practice at solo and small law firms.
Now, I suppose that you’re thinking that I’m assuming facts not in evidence — specifically, the fact that your well-compensated associates will want to leave behind what many view as the brass ring of the legal profession to slum it down at the county courthouse with solos and smalls. Wrong again. Just as technology has changed Biglaw practice, it’s changed solo and small firm practice too. Every day, tech is responsible for creating practice areas that didn’t exist and that touch the majority of the population. So you’ll find solo and small firm lawyers in the most pedestrian practice areas like probate or family law dealing with cutting-edge issues like Bitcoin (how to account for it in a will or divorce), assisted reproductive technology (who gets custody of the embryos and what happens to them when the parents die), just to name a few. Likewise, privacy law, cannabis law, cyberbullying have opened other practice opportunities for solos and smalls.
Biglaw, the bottom line is this: your associates went to law school for a reason. Those who went to get rich will soon discover that Biglaw salaries are paltry compared to what they might make running a law firm or starting a legal tech company. Those who went to law school to represent real clients or leave a legacy behind will soon tire of waiting, no matter how comfortable they are (as for those content to stay, most of us solos and smalls wouldn’t want them anyway). And those women who went because they wanted to have a career that would allow them to spend time with family will leave when they discover the paucity of opportunities available to them, particularly if they seek work alternatives. Once your associates are debt-free and wake up and wonder what’s next, they will rappel from your steel towers and open workspaces and old boys’ networks for more rewarding pastures, including solo and small firm practice. Where my colleagues and I will embrace them with open arms.
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Biglaw, you get a bad rap. The media portrays you as a greedy institution that cares only about profit. Yet with this next round of salary increases you’ve shown that you’re willing to care for and train solos’ and smalls’ future employees and colleagues, and your future competitors. What could be more selfless than that?
All the best from your lowly relations,
Solo & Small Law
Carolyn Elefant has been blogging about solo and small firm practice at MyShingle.comsince 2002 and operated her firm, the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant PLLC, even longer than that. She’s also authored a bunch of books on topics like starting a law practice, social media, and 21st century lawyer representation agreements (affiliate links). If you’re really that interested in learning more about Carolyn, just Google her. The Internet never lies, right? You can contact Carolyn by email at [email protected]or follow her on Twitter at @carolynelefant.