South Carolina Trial Law Blog

A third year law student wrote to Carolyn Elefant of Myshingle and asked the following question:

I graduated law school last year and am finishing up another graduate degree...and am taking the bar this summer.  For law students with little "real world" legal training (some law clerking), any advice on going solo out of law school? I read on your site about attorneys getting $40/hr court appointed cases, but I much prefer non-trial work.

I’m a sole practitioner that started my own practice straight out of law school. I’ve been practicing ten years and now have a straight trial practice.  Looking back, it was tough but not impossible starting a law practice straight out of law school. Here are my recommendations for getting business:

Family law and criminal are two areas of law where there is always more work than money. Performing $2,500 of divorce work for $1,500 isn’t good business, unless you’re just starting off and have no work to do. Then it’s a lifesaver. While both these areas require skill, with the smaller cases, clients will call around and price shop. In the long run these are not the clients that will make you the most money, but they will help you get started.

Many established attorneys routinely turn away clients that can’t afford their retainer. Just like the point above, call and talk to established attorneys and see if they will send the clients that can’t afford their fees to you. As a lawyer just starting off, you won’t have the overhead and can still handle the case for a lesser retainer.

Many established attorneys routinely turn away small, miscellaneous work. Call and talk to the established attorneys in your area. The established attorneys routinely only take the ‘good’ cases and will turn away the smaller work. Talk to them and see if they will refer the smaller cases that they are not interested in. When you’re first starting off, you will be able to handle some of these cases and make a profit on them.

Offer to do Appointed Work for a Set Fee. Every attorney has a certain number of appointed family court or criminal cases. In larger firms, the appointed cases get pushed to the youngest associate. But in smaller firms, the attorneys handle the appointed work themselves. Talk to the attorneys and tell them you will handle their appointed cases for a flat rate. If you price it right, they’ll be delighted to have someone take that over for them.

Talk to the Courthouse and Offer to do Appointed Work In our state, the appointed criminal work is paid at about half the going rate (although I have yet to be paid on a single case in ten years). Talk to the Clerk of Court and let her know that you are looking for cases and would be happy if your name comes up more often than it should in the rotation. Often times they are looking for someone that actually wants the cases. Then learn what it takes to get paid on the cases.

Other ways to get business: If you want to do real estate, go out and talk to real estate agents. Pound the pavement, be fast, accurate and nice. If you want to practice business law, put on seminars on incorporations and starting your own business. Find out what people need and put together a package that they can’t refuse. Rent a spare office from an established attorney and see if they have overflow work that you can perform.

Those are ways to start. After you’ve got your start, you need to figure out where to go from there. Work hard, go in the direction that you want and you’ll do fine. It helps to have either prior business experience or to be too stupid to know how hard of a battle you’ll have. I think I fell in the second category, but have battled through the hard part and have built a solid trial practice.

Dave, what would be a reason a court wouldn't pay the attorney?

As a solo, is your net takehome pay the same as an associate at a mid to large firm (adjusted for the numbers of hours worked)?

Ryan,
When I was getting started, South Carolina would run out of money for the Indigent's Fund before the end of the year. It's my understanding that you could submit the paperwork and it would be paid when they had funds.

The reason we didn't get paid was it seemed like we were spending more time filling out the paperwork and following up on getting paid than we were actually receiving. I only get 10-15 appointed cases per year. After a few go arounds, it seemed easier to do the work and not worry about getting paid.

Most of my appointed cases have been relatively straightforward, although I did have one that required about 150 hours a few years ago.

As for how much you can make as a solo starting off, you can probably make about the same amount (or more/ or less) than an associate starting off.

Looking back at it, there are some things I missed out on by not working with an established plaintiff's firm working on good cases before going out on my own.

However, there have also been advantages to going out on my own right out of law school. Such as, doing things the way I think they should be done, putting more time than necessary learning new technology and new trial techniques.

I was also able to put the emphasis on the client and the case regardless of the learning curve, time or expense. That means that other than my pocketbook, there was no one telling me not to put $10,000 of legal work on a $5,000 case that I would receive $1,666 in fees on. When I started out I did that on purpose. I tried not to do that twice, by learning and being more careful about case selection. But, think it's important that once you get involved in a case that you do whatever is necessary to handle the case properly. Even if it means taking a beating on that particular case. But you learn as you go.

The other advantage of being solo earlier in your career is that it gives you a chance to establish yourself and your name earlier than you would otherwise.

Plus, you get to be your own boss. Some people are cut out for it and some people are not. It's more of a temperament issue than a skill issue.

Hello, you said that you run a straight trial practice. I feel as if trial work is the area of law practice which one requires the most training and experience to become proficient at?

How did you go about getting that experience, and how were you in the beginning??

Thanks!

Adam,
That's a good question. There's various levels to all areas of law. I think that being a good trial lawyer encompasses more disciplines than most areas. Fortunately, life is not like a John Grisham movie. No one hands a several million dollar case to a recent law school grad.

A simple car wreck case can be tried without a tremendous amount of experience.

I got started in family court. You have to learn the ropes, but uncontested divorces are not that hard. Contested divorces have a finite number of issues. Property division, child support, custody and visitation. You can get the hang of those easy.

Now, on the high end where there's a lot of assets it does get complex, but those people won't be going to a young kid straight out of school.

But family court was great for me to get up in front of a judge, say my piece and get used to going to court.

As far as how was I in the beginning...I look back at the skill level then versus now and wince.

However, now and then I see a younger lawyer who you can tell is uncomfortable, and doesn't know exactly what to say. But he knows the facts and believes in his client. It's a powerful thing and the younger lawyer does okay. You see the unease, but you also see the facts and the belief underneath and you actually root *more* for him than if he was slick.

I have learned that when you're young, it's okay to get 'outlawyered', but it's not okay to not do your work and not have your facts together.

I'll have a post up soon on how to learn to be a good trial lawyer.

i just took the feburary 2005 California Bar, seem to be striaghtforward and the trick was in organization. The multi-states were a little tricker or maybe just for us lower strada law students it was. Anyways, I would like to get started in solo environmental practice and would like any tips . Thank you for your time

Scott,

I don't know almost anything about environmental law and am not familiar with the market in California, which would change depending on your location. I would imagine a Los Angeles environmental practice would differ significantly from one in Barstow.

I would talk to people that are doing environmental law in the location you want to practice. Talk to them and let them do most of the talking.

Then follow their advice and if it's something you want to do, see what you can do about getting their 'cast offs', business that is too small for them to mess with.

Sorry I can't be more help, but that's out of my expertise.

Oh. One other thing. Regardless of what school you could get into and/or afford. Never, ever refer to yourself as a lower strata student.

I did not come from money. Before my generation my family had not gone to college. I went to a public law school.

It's not where you come from, what school you went to or how pretty you are that matters. What matters is whether you work hard and do good work.

The only limitations in life are ones we put on ourselves. So regardless if you go out on your own straight out of school or not, please believe in yourself and what you are doing.

I passed the New York bar in Nov 2004 and have not been able to get work so I'm planning to start a solo sooner than I thought. The information you have given here has been of great value.

My interest is in commercial law (transactions and litigation) as well as Real Estate. Are those areas where experience in a law firm(if I can get it) is absolutely necessary? or can I expect businesses to come to a newbie like me? Do you suggest I align with a more experinced attorney so I can better learn to draft contracts and whatever may be required in commercial transactions?

thanks for the help

Carlos,

I think you can do real estate relatively easily. You can get business just by outhustling the more established firms. Giving faster service, being more responsive and just plain ole being nice.

I'm a trial lawyer, so don't take my word for it, but I would think the commercial work would be harder to pick up. Small business stuff probably wouldn't be that hard, but big business commercial stuff I would imagine would be difficult to do. That said, there's a lot of work doing small business work.

If you do decide to go out on your own, I would start off with the real estate and start picking up extra work as you can find it. One of the things you can do is find a more experienced attorney and tell them you will do all of the work and give them the fee if they will give you the forms and tell you what to do.

The title companies are another potential place to pick up real estate business. That and knocking on the doors of the realtors.

Good luck with it.

Your website is a wonderful tool. Thank you for your comments.

I plan to take the Virginia Bar in July and open my law office in December 2005. I am interested in education law, elder law, alternative dispute resolution, and Appellate practice. Do you have any suggestions on how to combine these interests into a profitable solo practice?

Thank you,

Tier

I am scheduled to take the July 2005 Iowa Bar Exam. I have been out of the legal realm for the past few years, and I am desiring to get into the practice of law, but I am not sure I want to work at a firm or work "for" anyone. Therefore, I am strongly considering starting my own practice. My concern is not money -- my previous career is as a teacher, so anything higher than teacher salary will seem huge. My main area of interest is family law, so I know I can get court-appointed cases in that area. I don't worry too much about substantive law, either, because I am good at research, and I know I will take the time and work to make sure I know what I'm doing. My concern, however, is the lack of practical knowledge about how the system actually runs itself -- the exact filing of a complaint, service, etc. I'm just worried about not being a member of "the club" yet, which in Iowa seems to be a big deal.

I am also interested to know how you think working as a solo practitioner would be as compared to working as an associate, for someone (like me) with a young daughter who wants to make being a mother a priority.

I would appreciate your advice.
Thank you,
Shannon

Shannon,

I think it is easier starting off in family law than with civil. There are a finite area of issues in family law; custody, visitation and division of property.

You can get *very* far by being nice to people and asking politely. If you say "Hey, I'm new here and I'm not certain how this works. Could you give me a hand so I give it to you right, rather than you have to kick it back?"

Ask an older attorney to lunch and see if you can get forms from them.

As for whether the solo or associate would be better, they both have advantages and disadvantages. Solo: You're on your own, more flexible hours, can decide your cases.... Asscociate: less flexible hours, someone to ask for advice, all of the forms and the system is there...

It all depends on your personality. I would be shocked if you couldn't find at least *one* sympathetic experienced attorney to give you forms and help and refer extra cases.

The other thing you can do is join your state TLA. Ours has a wonderful listserv that you can ask for any form and get one within 2-3 minutes by e-mail from someone around the state.

Don't worry about the club. Just be nice, friendly and work hard for your clients.

My friend and I started a practice in South Carolina Property Law and found that it was difficult to compete with the deep pocket firms that could drag out as many expert witnesses that we would be forced to counter over a several year stretch.

This is a wonderful resource, thank you for writing this site.

I'm evaluating my options upon law school graduation and considering starting up my own practice (targeting PI) right out of the gate after dabbling in BigLaw-style boutique litigation and small firm transactional work. We're considering the Las Vegas area, where I'm summering right now. I'm fluent in Spanish and coming out of Harvard Law, which I've known since the beginning was an unusual hook for a PI lawyer, as most of my colleagues are BigLaw-bound (I'm that crazy nonconformist who saw before law school that trial lawyers drove hot Italian exotics and had a lot more fun than corporate lawyers, who all seem to be Porsche guys).

My question is this: how much should the marketing and advertising play up the law school before it would become silly/cliche? Do you think it would make a difference using the HLS name when kick-starting a new PI practice, or could it backfire?

Hello, I'm a recent graduate and have just passed the bar in California. I would like to start my own law office right out of school. I want to work in personal injury. What should I expect at the beginning? How hard is it for a new attorney to get started and learn in this particular field? Thank you.

Hello, I just graduated law school in NY and will be taking the bar exam this summer. My law school friend and I have decided to open our own firm right out of school. We have some contacts in real estate and I have some experience in personal bankruptcy.

We plan on renting a suite and sharing office space with other lawyers in the similar position.

I have read many posts on several different blogs and I have picked up some great advice. My concern is essentially whether having a partner so soon in the game is more of a liability (for each of us) than an asset.

I appreciate everyones help.

Thanks