How to build up a successful law practice? This article answers the question.
Building A Successful Solo Law Practice
By Joseph R. Jacques, CMC
Before commencing a solo law practice, one must ask the question: Why! Your answer may fall into one of two categories: (1) you have to, or (2) you want to. Those falling into the first category may simply be unable to obtain employment as lawyers, or the options available may not allow them to utilize their legal training and skills. Faced with this situation, they must either start their own practice or obtain employment outside of the field of law.
The main advantages of solo practice are freedom and independence, limited only by economic needs and responsibilities assumed to clients and the courts. Lawyers who choose to go into solo practice should be prepared for a few years of lean earnings, non-billable time, and perhaps more than a few frustrations. If you who can manage to get through the first two or three years, have utilized good public and client relations techniques, and provide the highest level of client service and work product, you should be on your way to a fulfilling practice. Lawyers contemplating such a practice also need to be aware that only a very few sole practitioners ever become wealthy from the practice of law. Most will survive economically, but, on the average, sole practitioners are at the bottom of the earnings ladder. Surveys of law practice economics almost universally report that the larger the organization, the more individual lawyers in those firms earn. Any lawyer contemplating solo practice would be well advised to be alert for prospective affiliations, either another lawyer joining you, or your joining another group of your fellow practitioners.
