Articles Posted in Solo Practice

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As I made the transition in the early 90’s from advising law students to providing support for dissatisfied lawyers, I assumed their paths would lead them to in-house, government, non-profit and non-law positions. My role would be to help them market and promote themselves so they could find the unadvertized openings in these varied settings.

However, over the last ten years what has happened is that, while lawyers did leave the law firms where they had been working, few chose these alternatives. For practical and substantive reasons, they decided to stay in private practice but usually in a law firm with far few lawyers, often becoming solo practitioners.

Are you surprised by this trend?

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LEXIS HUB FOR NEW ATTORNEYS HAS AGREED TO PUBLISH A SERIES OF FOURTEEN ARTICLES I HAVE WRITTEN – FIVE ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CAREER SEARCH AND NINE ON HOW TO SEARCH FOR A SATISFYING POSITION. (TO READ THE ARTICLES YOU MAY HAVE TO REGISTER AS A MEMBER.) HERE IS A LINK TO THE FOURTEENTH AND FINAL ARTICLE. MY SUGGESTION IS THAT YOU IMMEDIATELY SCROLL TO THE END OF THE ARTICLE WHERE YOU WILL FIND THE TITLES OF ALL FOURTEEN AND BEGIN READING FROM THE FIRST ONE “UNDERSTANDING CAREER PLANNING”

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I had the opportunity and the privilege yesterday to make a presentation entitled “Think Small: Learning About and Locating Positions in Small Law Firms” for the New York State Bar Association. About 30 who registered were “live” in the “studio” at the law office of Lauren Wachtler, the chair of the Committee on Lawyers in Transition. An additional 175 registered for the webcast

THE VIDEO OF THIS 110 MINUTE WORKSHOP IS NOW ACCESSIBLE ON-LINE HERE..

BEFORE YOU BEGIN, HOWEVER, READ BELOW!

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This is for discouraged lawyers (be they unemployed, underemployed or simply dissatisfied) and law students(1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls).  

Today I read this post by The Unemployed Lawyer who is in the Seattle area. Here is the comment I added to her blog.

“I called the Washington State Bar Association and was told that there are 13,000 members from King County. Based on standard US demographics, that would likely mean that about 75%, or 9,750 are in private practice. Julie Salmon at the WSBA said that about 65% (or about 6500) are in firms of 10 or less. Again based on standard US demographics, 50% of the 6500 are sole practitioners, 35% are in firms 2-5 and 15% in firms of 6-10.  THAT MEANS THAT THERE ARE ABOUT 4000 SMALL FIRMS IN KING COUNTY AND MANY OF THEM NEED YOU.

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN THE BOSTON GLOBE

For law graduates, a public-service detour on road to success

By Rich Barlow, Globe Correspondent  |  April 27, 2009

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When the U.S. News & World Report issued its ranking of law schools in March, 1990, I drafted a letter criticizing one major defect in its analysis; i.e., failing to include as a criterion the extent to which the law school ensures that its graduates fulfill the legal profession’s obligation to serve the legal needs of the public. I never sent the letter but, as I reread it, I was not surprised as I realized that most of it was still relevant and current. I decided to post it with edits such as raising the starting salary at BigLaw from $70,000. I reconsidered because I thought that you might want to be aware of how much change is needed in the education provided by law schools and how little progress has been made in the last 20 years. 

To what extent does your rating chart perpetuate or create the crisis in public interest law? To what extent will schools try to conform to your criteria? To what extent will students in colleges choose law schools based on the criteria which you use? To what extent will law schools continue to encourage the kind of results that will be defined as success?

If the criteria of the best law school is the one carrying out its responsibility to the public to ensure that its graduates fulfill the obligation to serve the legal needs of the public, the order may have to be reversed. We can’t be saying that society won.

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What has been a consistent ingredient of my 25 years advising lawyers is the continuing and lasting effect of the failure of legal education to prepare law students for the practice of law – a lack of self-confidence and its companion, a lack of self-worth.

That is one of the primary reasons that I have agreed to accept a position as a career resource for the lawyers/students enrolled in the Solo Practice University.  

A distinguished ABA committee composed of judges, lawyers and law professors in 1992 issued a scathing indictment of law school education since referred to as the “MacCrate Report” finding that law schools failed to teach eight of the ten fundamental skills needed to practice law competently and poorly taught the other two.

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