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This column has already discussed how student debt can affect many of the decisions borrowers make in their lives.  Indeed, student loans can impact the kinds of jobs an individual is able to take, and even the types of industries someone can enter.  Student debt can also keep people from reaching other personal and financial goals.

One of my biggest objectives since entering the legal profession was starting my own law firm.  I always wanted to be my own boss, and the idea of setting out on my own appealed to me.  After years of careful planning, I finally opened my own law firm recently, and the experience so far has been extremely positive.  However, my student loans made it very difficult for me to achieve this dream earlier in my legal career.

The first time I seriously considered starting my own law firm was a few years after I graduated from law school.  I knew that it would be extremely difficult to start a law firm straight out of law school (although I know a few people who successfully did this), since I did not know much about practicing law at this point.  However, after working at a firm for a few years, I felt that I had learned enough about the law and made sufficient connections to open my own practice.

The main reason I did not feel ready to start my own law firm a few years into my legal career was student debt.  At the time, I still had over six figures of student loans, and had to pay a few thousand dollars a month just to make the minimum payments on this debt.  I knew that if I started my own law firm, it would be a while before I earned any significant amount of money, and I would likely not have the income necessary to pay my student loans and operate my shop.

In addition, as I researched various financing options, I realized that student loans could impact my ability to obtain a business loan, line of credit, and any other kind of funding.  Lenders typically consider how much debt a borrower has when deciding to loan money, and my massive student debt burden would prevent me from securing financing.  In addition, since I had to pay a few thousand dollars a month to student loans, I couldn’t save the money necessary for living expenses and to finance certain types of cases I wanted to originate at my firm.

I next seriously considered starting a law firm after I had paid off my student loans.  Since I no longer had the obligation to pay a few thousand dollars a month to student debt, I felt that I could keep my living costs low enough so that I could comfortably start a law firm.  However, I used much of my financial resources to pay off my student loans, and at this time, I hardly had any cash left to devote to any other purpose.  It took me a few years to save up money upon which I could rely when starting a law firm.

More recently, I finally felt comfortable enough to quit my job and start my own shop.  At this point, I had saved up enough money to operate a firm and live comfortably for an extended period of time.  In addition, I gained more experiences in the practice of law than I had when I first considered starting a firm, and these extra years of experience gave me the confidence I needed to finally start my own shop.

Of course, it probably seems obvious that student debt makes it difficult to start a law firm, but some people do not seem to think that this is the case.  I have heard many law school administrators, attorneys, parents, and others relate that graduating law students can simply start their own law firms if they do not have jobs.  Indeed, some law schools have created incubators to try and assist their graduates in starting their own practices, and some seem to view solo practice as a panacea for issues in the legal hiring market.

Of course, most of us know that law schools, for whatever reason, do not teach students to be practicing attorneys.  As a result, it is very difficult for recent graduates to go out on their own and start law firms shortly after graduating.  In addition, financial considerations also make it extremely difficult for recent graduates to begin their own law firms.  Student debt puts extreme financial pressure on borrowers and makes it very difficult for them to accept roles that do not have a steady source of income.  In addition, student loans make it hard for recent graduates to access the capital necessary to start a law firm.

Like many other objectives in life, student debt also makes it difficult to start a law firm.  Student loans did not keep me from reaching my dream of starting my own practice, but I had to wait years until I paid off my debt and saved the money necessary to open my own shop.  In any case, no one should think that solo practice is a panacea for issues in the legal hiring market, since the financial pressures of student debt make it extremely difficult to open a law firm.

Jordan Rothman is the Managing Attorney of The Rothman Law Firm, a New Jersey and New York litigation boutique. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jrothman@rothmanlawyer.com.