what you need to have for a solo attorney practice

Why is solo practice important?

However, one of the benefits of solo practice is that you have the chance to design your firm so you have the best chance of doing what you love. When you work for someone else, you generally need to do what’s asked of you. There isn’t much of a choice.

What is the principle of a lawyer?

Principle #1 – Matching up with your abilities. It’s obvious: The main thing that lawyers need to do is competently represent their clients. Particularly for those attorneys (like myself) who are moving into solo practice either right after or soon after passing the bar, competence is a huge issue.

1. Do the math

First, you need to take a hard look at the numbers and fully assess your finances. How much money do you need to generate to feed yourself and your family, pay the mortgage, and keep the lights on? Make a list of every real and estimated expense, both personal and business. Then think about the expenses you can reduce or eliminate.

3. Keep your overhead low

You’re in charge now, and every dollar adds up quicker than you think (especially if you just invested in that great new laptop!). One of the biggest potential expenditures is office space. Think about what type of location would work best for you and your clients: Do you need office space in a central location, or will your home office work?

4. Be thoughtful with your banking

When it comes to managing your money as a solo lawyer, you’ll need an operating account, as well as an IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust Account) account, at the very least. You’ll also want to review the rules for maintaining the IOLTA. They’re not difficult to understand, but they are important.

5. Get your website and other materials in order

Yes, you need a website, even as a small solo law practice. How fancy does it need to be? That probably depends on your practice; the transactional lawyer’s website looks different from the immigration lawyer’s. But remember that your website often makes your first impression for you—so make it a good one.

6. Name your solo practice carefully

One fun aspect of launching your solo firm is, of course, naming it. But before you mimic those big, well-known firms around you, be careful. There are rules about law firm names. If you want to name your firm Smith Law Offices—note the plural “offices”—but you only have one office, that might get you in trouble.

7. Buy law malpractice insurance

Even if it’s not required in your state (for example, it’s not required in Massachusetts), it buys peace of mind. If you’re just starting your solo law firm, you don’t have much exposure yet, so the price can be less than $1,500 for a year. You may be able to spread the payments out over 12 months too.

8. Use your network

In addition to everyone being a PRS, think about potential referrers in your existing and extended networks. If you’re doing family law, talk to counselors. If you’re doing tax law, let your accountant know. If you’re doing personal injury work, reach out to that physical therapist friend.

A Lower-Risk Option for Adding Legal Staff

Contract attorney and freelance services might alleviate the salary issue and meet a solo’s staffing needs in certain situations. But there is a time-tested solution that allows a solo practitioner to bring on additional staff with little to no risk.

Benefits for Both Parties

This arrangement is a win-win for both the established solo practitioner and the new lawyer. The seasoned solo has additional help at virtually no extra cost while the fresh solo has an office, a stream of work to hone their skills — and a new mentor.

Nothing Lasts Forever: Next Steps

Soon enough, however, the balance in your relationship will begin to shift. The fresh solo practitioner will bring in their own clients and hesitate to take on more work from you. This takes about two years, in my experience.

Continuing to Scale

Once you become partners, you can reach out and offer another brand-new solo the exact same deal. It is a completely scalable and risk-mitigating process for building your practice.

Lesson No. 1

I left my job before making any preparations for my new law firm as a solo practitioner. So, in the first few months, I spent a significant amount of time setting up my website, writing website copy ( nearly 10,000 words ), incorporating my practice, buying malpractice insurance, and dealing with technology issues.

Lesson No. 2

Imagining my new practice as a solo practitioner was pure joy and excitement. The possibilities were endless, and I was the boss. I have pages and pages of notes detailing all the technology services I planned on using. ( Shiny Object Syndrome? Guilty as charged.)

Lesson No. 3

Have you ever watched a pro basketball player miss 10 shots in a row and then, without hesitation, take the 11th? When the ball is in his hands, he isn’t worried about those misses. You need to adopt that mindset.

Lesson No. 4

Obvious advice, right? But I sure had a tough time following it. I had so many balls up in the air — client work, marketing, finance, technology, website, and on and on — that knowing what to work on was a challenge.

Lesson No. 6

I would love to have a highly sophisticated Facebook ad campaign that used targeting to capture email addresses from my ideal clients, funneled them into an email drip campaign designed to sign them up for a webinar, and then led them to sign up for an initial consultation. But that’s the holy grail.

Why Do Lawyers Really Struggle for Work-Life Balance?

Successful lawyers adapt and learn new ways to operate their firms so they can keep building their practices while having (or recovering) a life.

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How to create a website for solo attorneys?

As you start to generate clients as a solo attorney, you’ll want to own your marketing assets. There are several elements that make for a good website: 1 It’s trackable, meaning you can see where people are finding you from, what marketing and advertising campaigns are working and be able to track which campaigns produce the strongest ROIs 2 It receives sufficient exposure from online organic sources, such as search engines like Google and Bing and social media websites 3 It’s professional. Make sure it’s well designed, not too simple but not too complicated, shows a professional, high-quality photo of you (the lawyer visitors are considering to hire) 4 It’s very user friendly 5 Shows your expertise while in many places, attorneys can claim to be experts or specialized in an area of law, many places also do not. Regardless, many attorneys still choose the types of cases they do and don’t work on. While you may have to watch the language you use on your website, you should use your site to position yourself as an attorney that handles cases you want to take on. 6 It’s valuable to you and prospective clients. It should have lots of useful content and information that describes what areas of law you practice, the types of situations that clients may be facing that you’re able to help with. This will help you attract more of the rightrights types of clients and also allow potential clients to qualify themselves while browsing your site’s content.

How to promote yourself on social media?

A great way to promote yourself on social media is through sharing your expertise and skill as a lawyer. Blogging and content marketing can be a great staple to add into your social content publishing calendar and share with your audiences.

Solo attorney income – what the data says

In researching this article, I came upon several different studies that purported to look at solo law firm income and draw some conclusions.

Why do solos make less than bigger firm attorneys?

Solo attorneys generally work less on billable legal matters than their counterparts in law firms.

Wrapping it up – get out there and make money

So, we’ve gone through the data and hopefully have a good outlook on the future of solo law practice income.

About the Author

Jeff is currently a Senior Contract Manager with AT&T negotiating contracts between AT&T and suppliers of custom mobile business software. Jeff also owns and runs a public-policy publishing firm in Texas – since 1993, the firm has published 766 titles (more than 100 of which were authored by Jeff).

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What’s The Best Practice Area For A Solo Attorney?

• For new solos, this is often a difficult thing to figure out. There are nearly infinite areas of law and specific types of clients that you can go after. When I started my practice right out of law school, I suppose I was lucky. I had been an artist for a video game company in my pre-lawyer days, so that experience was something I wanted to transfer over to my new career as an attorney. I was also …

See more on sparksolo.com

Principle #1 – Matching Up with Your Abilities

Principle #2 – Achieving Work-Life Balance

Principle #3: Your Ability to Get The Work Done

Principle #4 – Is It A Good Niche?

Principle #5 – Do You Love It?

Principle #6 – Do You Have An Existing Client Base/Overflow Work?

Moving Forward – Choosing The Best Practice Area as A Solo Lawyer

A Lower-Risk Option For Adding Legal Staff

See more on attorneyatwork.com

Benefits For Both Parties

Nothing Lasts Forever: Next Steps

Continuing to Scale