Solo In Chicago…Grow Your Practice!

The IL Supreme Court has announced it will now post audio/video of oral arguments the day after the hearing on its Website. Now if the Court can just agree on a standardized electronic filing system statewide and we’ll be getting somewhere…

Well, at least that’s what the Juris 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey by LexisNexis seems to say. Chuck Newton agrees.

So going to a home office is the easiest way to cut a big chunk of costs. Other attorney expenses are generally fairly minimal: malpractice insurance, “group” memberships, and minimal general office expenses. Take it from me, signing that office lease is dumb by itself and then knowing that you have to earn more income often causes further dumb decisions/investments as you flail away, attempting to bring in new business just so you can pay that rent.

I think the “marketing mindset” can be difficult to develop in a lot of analytical thinkers (often lawyers). All of the retailers know that marketing rules. Just open your ears and eyes…marketing is everywhere. And yet I think lawyers often have the mindset of deep down I want and respect competence above all else. I don’t want the slick salesman. Maybe the answer is a mindset change…shift your thinking from selling to helping solve problems. Isn’t that what clients want…a lawyer who is looking out for their needs and making the full breadth of their services known.

Clients must know of your competence.

Well, just wave this story at the judge when she tries to put you into jail.

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — A judge who jailed 46 people who were in his courtroom when a cell phone call interrupted proceedings was removed from the bench Tuesday by a state commission.

Along with opposing attorneys who like to make personal attacks on my clients, few things bother me more than observing crappy legal work in some of the most basic and easy areas of the practice. Two areas I’ve dwelt on recently have been Illinois powers of attorneys and legal representation in residential real estate closings. Basic estate planning and real estate transactions can be great areas for new solos…but do great work!

It’s nearly never the proper thing to do to just use the form Illinois Statutory Short Form Power of Attorney for Property. Tailor that the document to serve your clients best interests…things like gifting and estate planning should be included to empower agents. With real estate, use tax reproration agreements the year after a tax reassessment…there’s big money to be saved if a property’s taxes sky rocket.

Being a great lawyer begins with doing the basics well!

I filed a lawsuit the other day and then went over to place it for service and lo-and-behold found out that the Sheriff has increased its service fees. Now they’re charging a flat fee of $60 per defendant (they say it’s $50 plus a $10 fee). It used to be a mileage based system. So in my case where there were two defendants one in Chicago (literally right out of the door of Daley Center) and the other in Oak Forest the cost was the same. I think this is a significant increase over the old system. Well the “Combine” has to feed itself, right?

Lets see if the success rate is any better…that’s the bigger complaint!

Did you see this one? My Alma mater, SIU, is being sued for $1.5 million by a former 1L for failing to re-admit her when her GPA fell below 1.95, the minimum established by the school to continue after year one.

Where’s the $1.5 mil. in damages coming from?

I’m a periodic but not daily reader of the WSJ and must have missed this article (Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers) but it’s still worth a read. I heard a couple attorneys referencing it and looked it up. In summary it essentially discusses how poor the business climate is for lawyers other than the very top tier from first tier law schools. Here’s a part of the article that’s particularly relevant to us “Solos in Chicago”…

A survey of about 650 Chicago lawyers published in 2005 found that between 1975 and 1995 the inflation-adjusted average income of the top 25% of earners in the survey group grew by 22%, while income for the other 75% of earners dropped.

Essentially the big firm incomes increased by quite a bit over 20 years while the 2-5 person firms often showed declines.

There’s some interesting discussion about the less than full disclosure on the part of law school marketing campaigns…i.e. average salary figures for recent graduates.

One new solos experience:

Some new lawyers try to hang their own shingle. Matthew Fox Curl graduated in 2004 from second-tier University of Houston in the bottom quarter of his class. After months of job hunting, he took his first job working for a sole practitioner focused on personal injury in the Houston area and made $32,000 in his first year. He quickly found that tort-reform legislation has been “brutal” to Texas plaintiffs’ lawyers and last year left the firm to open up his own criminal-defense private practice.

He’s making less money than at his last job and has thought about moving back to his parents’ house. “I didn’t think three years out I’d be uninsured, thinking it’s a great day when a crackhead brings me $500.”

None of these findings surprise me. Through the blog I meet a lot of young attorneys job hunting and get the occasional resume sent my way. For a part time “coverage” position we’ve been trying to fill of late I’ve received nearing 100 resumes. I think the garbage “contract/document review” position is the most likely first job for new graduates in the Chicago area these days.

Would you attend law school if you had to do it all over again?