Re: Representing individuals vs. businesses

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On 4/25/06, Ron D. wrote:

> I'd love to hear some opinions. Should we, as solos,
> concentrate on the "individual" market? Do enough
> businesses bother with solos to make chasing them
> worthwhile, or is this a waste of time?
>
> Thanks in advance for any opinions.

I have a few thoughts. Most businesses don't generate alot
of repeat legal work. The few that do try to internalize as
much as possible.

I worked for a 'Solo' who had business clients, and he was
always trying to puff up his firm size by listing "of
counsel" and others. We were a 2 lawyer firm, and yet we
had 6 attorneys on our letterhead. My quess is that he saw
the difficulty of being a smallfirm going after big clients.
And he had big firm credentials. That said we had one
client that gave us 60% of our work, and a half dozen more
who gave us the rest. We had a few individual clients, but
they were mostly more heartache then they were worth.

But yeah, a solo can get Corportate work but keep in mind
that the profitable work is complex (ie you are too small to
do it) and the work that you can do is heavily discounted...
ie $100-125 an hour. I assume that a highly specialized
solo could obtain high hourly rates for complex work, but I
think thats the exception not the rule.