Re: Rock Bottom

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I was a solo for 2 years out of law school. I actually passed
up several job offers because I wanted to be on my own. Solo
practice sucks. The clients suck. They are usually bottom of
barrel types who don't believe they should have to pay a
lawyer. The work sucks. Usually messy and boring. Solos are
not respected within the legal profession. Given the high
student loan debt levels, I am surprised anybody would ever go
solo anymore. I'm not saying this to be a downer. I'm just
sharing my experience. During my 2 years as a solo, I never
had any money to do anything. Whenever I got a big fee, I put
it back into the business. I couldn't take my kids to the
ballgame or do anything.

Then throw in things like this: You do a great job for a
client but the case does not work out well, maybe because it
was a difficult one to win anyway. Then, they either sue you
or file a complaint against you. Solo practice, and non-
biglaw firm life sucks. Biglaw sucks too, but at least there
you are well paid and have a powerful organization behind
you. If you can't get a biglaw job, go to government, or non
traditional. Solo life really sucks.

On 10/02/06, Carol wrote:
> On 9/30/06, Some Guy wrote:
>> So you made the plunge into law and eventually solo
>> practice. As it turns out, things don't go so well. In
> fact
>> they go really bad. Your bankrupt, or on the verge of
>> filing bankruptcy. You live with your parents. Your womans
>> dumped you. Your burned out. Your overweight. You have no
>> friends. Your car is broken and you can't afford to fix
> it,
>> and you have to ride the bus. Plus you've been unemployed
>> for 6 months, and you've been disciplined for attorney
>> misconduct... failure to return files, failure to return
>> phone calls, client abandonment, failure to do work
>> compentently.
>>
>> How do you recover from that? What do you do with your
> life
>> now?
> well, not be flip but it looks like things can only get
> better. you're not the only one to be disciplined, many
> attorneys get disciplined but only the ones that people
> complain about. You might consider public service, the
> legal openings in government don't pay well but they hire.
> most states have a state job board on the net. maybe you
> just got in over your head with the solo. i've made some
> significant errors in my practice too, it's called a
> learning curve, but if you dwell on it and let it get you
> down it just snowballs. It sounds like you may be suffering
> from depression. scrape together the money and go see a
> doctor, get on an anti-depressant, learn to meditate and
> find a counselor that can help you through this. been
> there. going through a dry spell myself right now, the rear
> bumper of my car is fixed with duck tape cos I don't have
> the money to get it fixed right. at least you have a bus to
> ride. btw, there is no ethical reason (imho) to tell clients
> all of this but you should definitely let potential
> employers know. good luck.