From Biglaw to Boutique: Grammar Police
As lawyers, words are our stock and trade. What is an argument but a collection of ideas, expressed in words, intended to persuade?
From Biglaw to Boutique: Writing on the Wall
If you’re planning on leaving your firm, don’t be obvious about it. If you really want your departure memo to come as a surprise, don’t let your colleagues read the writing on the wall....
USCIS shift to electronic payments: What immigration firms need to know
As of October 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requires electronic payments for filing fees. Learn key updates, exemptions, and how firms can prepare.
From Biglaw to Boutique: Leaving Stones Unturned
Winning is never free, and winning without regard to cost is not really winning. One of the most difficult aspects faced by smaller firms handling smaller matters is deciding which stones to leave unturned.
From Biglaw to Boutique: Just Say No
When is it appropriate to turn down a client who is willing and able to pay your fees?
From Biglaw to Boutique: Beyond the Math
If you're currently working for a big law firm, should you start your own firm to make more money? Well, not so fast....
From Biglaw to Boutique: Fire in the Belly
If not the money, and not the public good, then what motivates a trial lawyer to win? Tom Wallerstein says you need a fire in your belly...
3 Ways Lawyers Are Finding New Efficiencies With AI
Those who’ve adopted legal-specific systems are seeing big benefits.
From Biglaw to Boutique: A Moment of Truth
The changing market invites, if not demands, lawyers to offer concessions for clients. Happily, many of the concessions have relatively little impact on the firm’s bottom line, but can garner significant goodwill with clients. For example....
From Biglaw to Boutique: Scaling Up and Down
The major disincentive to growth in small law firms is the inability to predict future business. This uncertainty makes hiring additional associates extremely risky -- even if the immediate workload warrants it....
From Biglaw to Boutique: The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall
'David versus Goliath' captures the challenge a smaller firm faces when litigating against an AmLaw 200 firm. A small firm can feel like David when facing a larger firm that can bring more resources to bear on legal research, drafting motions, reviewing documents, etc. So how can a small firm, especially representing a smaller company, effectively litigate against a proverbial army of lawyers representing a client to whom money is no object?
From Biglaw to Boutique: Where Does the Time Go?
For attorneys who bill by the hour, one of the less enjoyable aspects of the job is recording time. Associates know that all too often their worth might be measured by their billable hours. Of course, big and small firms alike tolerate the timesheets because they are the firms’ lifeblood. Recording time enables firms to generate their invoices. The inherent purpose of entering time is to generate this request for payment. But an invoice can and should do much more, especially for a small firm or solo practice....
Pursuing The Pro Bono Story: A Conversation With Alicia Aiken
This Pro Bono Week, get inspired to give back with PLI’s Pursuing Justice: The Pro Bono Files, a one-of-a-kind podcast hosted by Alicia Aiken.
From Biglaw to Boutique: ‘There’s a Practice Guide for That’
Tom Wallerstein's firm, like most firms in California, has a series of Rutter guides on its shelves. And even though he runs a virtually paperless office, he still loves his printed Rutter guides. Wallerstein even has a joke about Rutter. Whenever a colleague questions his ability to solve a particular issue, he jokes, “I’m sure there’s a Rutter Guide for that.” The joke has a serious point, namely, that the basics of most practice areas can always be learned. And if it’s easy enough to learn a practice area, why shouldn’t a lawyer forming a small firm become a true generalist; handling everything from family law, wills and trusts, civil, criminal, and essentially whatever walks in the door?
From Biglaw to Boutique: Which is Better for Clients?
A general counsel recently asked Tom Wallerstein, “Why should my company risk hiring a lesser-known, small firm?” Tom told him that it shouldn’t. Tom doesn’t think any company should unnecessarily “risk” its business without good reason. Tom will be the first to admit that there are some matters that simply demand big firm attention. But Tom also told the GC that there were many matters that he thought his smaller firm could handle just as well as could a big firm....
From Biglaw to Boutique: A Marketing Matrix
When Above the Law first covered Tom Wallerstein's "adventure in shingle hanging," he remembers someone quipping that his only business came from attorney referrals and that he didn’t have his “own” clients. The comment wasn’t true, but he still found it interesting. Is a client who pays you money somehow not “your” client, or not a “real” client, just because the client was referred to you by another attorney? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to him....
From Biglaw to Boutique: Beyond the ‘Small Law Firm’ Stereotype
For some, the phrase “small law firm” implies certain stereotyped practice areas, clients, and attorneys. At its worst, the stereotype invokes unsophisticated clients and matters that are routine and uninteresting. To break the stereotype, Tom Wallerstein remarks on some great practice opportunities for smaller law firms which exist in Silicon Valley....
From Biglaw to Boutique: Why Wait?
Tom Wallerstein thinks that if you are in law school and you have the choice between working for an established firm -- big or small -- or working for yourself/starting your own firm, it’s a no-brainer that you should go with the established firm first. You can always leave the firm to pursue your own practice at any time, but the converse isn’t true....