Legal News

More on the Ups and Downs of the Solo Life

By Ashby Jones

We didn’t expect to revisit the solo-practice topic so soon after our Q&A with Mitch Matorin, but the topic is still buzzing in our brains for a couple reasons.

The first: The comments from LBers on the Matorin post. We were perhaps most intrigued by the split among readers on the general topic of going Han Solo. Some couldn’t seem to recommend it more highly enough, others made it sound like a decision on par with, say, a 19-year old heading off to law school.

One, from someone called “Valley Isle Law,” applauded the idea:

If you keep overhead under control, it is pretty difficult not to make money as a Solo. You will never be rich but you might just be happy. Not a bad trade.

Another, from “Texan Lawyer,” was downright bleak:

Most of the solo attys I know here in Texas are about to go broke, at least from what I am hearing. Family law and criminal defense attys have really been hit hard. It's always been that way. Come to think of it, going solo is usually followed by going into another profession entirely.

And then there was this chilling take from “bar”:

“I went solo right out of law school and was sued for malpractice and was disbarred. Don't do it.”

The second reason we’re revisiting the topic: a recent blog post on law.com’s Legal Blog Watch by Carolyn Elefant, the brains behind MyShingle, a resource for solo practitioners.

The title of the post: Should You Work as a Paralegal if You Can’t Find Work as a Lawyer? — hints at a question we’ve pondered throughout the last couple of years whenever we’ve heard tale of newly minted JDs, yes, swallowing their pride and taking jobs as paralegals. We never thought it was a particularly bad idea — what else are you gonna do if you can’t find a job as a lawyer? — but Elefant’s post made us reconsider that notion.

Elefant’s post, which used this article, from the Long Island Business News, as a jumping off point, first articulated why it’s sometimes hard to get a paralegal job as a recent JD. Writes Elefant:

In general, lawyers are either over-qualified or under-qualified for many of the available non-lawyer positions. For example, one firm that advertised for an administrative assistant was inundated with lawyer résumés. But the firm declined to hire a lawyer because it felt the candidate would simply leave once a better job came along.

So what does Elefant suggest instead of sitting around, waiting for a lawyer or paralegal job to come along? That’s right, take a flight with Han. She nods with approval at the following excerpts from the Long Island Business News:

David Gabor, a lawyer whose firm turned down a JD for an administrative position, said says that unemployed attorneys should start their own one-person practices.

Elefant also quotes the snippet from the story on Denise Doty:

Denise Doty, a Long Island attorney who was laid off in October, decided to start her own firm after spending six months looking for a job and doing pro bono work. Doty — who has 15 years of experience — realized that no one was going to hire her for a secretarial position, so she decided to strike out on her own. Now she has a growing client base that she’s developed through word-of-mouth and social networking sites.

Concludes Elefant:

I agree with Gabor. If you spent three years in law school, you shouldn’t be looking for work as a paralegal or a secretary. You should be finding a way to practice as a full-fledged lawyer.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 10, 2009 (boomark / email).