The Question Every Attorney Has About Going Solo

The financial questions most practitioners dodge with "it all worked out." Here is what I actually did in year one.

I was at Campbell Law School recently talking to a room full of students who were seriously considering small firm practice or going out on their own after graduation. The questions I got were not about choosing a practice area or setting up an LLC. Almost every question in that room came back to one thing: money.

How long until you felt financially stable? How long before you were actually profitable? How did you pay your bills in the meantime? What about lines of credit?

These are the right questions. They are also the ones most practitioners dodge with some version of "it all worked out." That answer is not useful to anyone.

So here is what I actually told them.

My Honest Answer First

Starting a firm straight out of law school is not easy. I will not dress it up. If I were advising my younger self, I would have worked for someone else for two to three years, saved real money, built some experience, and then made the move. That is still the path I recommend to most people.

But I did not do it that way. I went out on my own early, and I believed, based on analysis I had actually done, that I could match what mid-sized firms were offering me by year two. I was right. But it required meticulous planning before I ever opened the door.

Here Is What I Actually Did

1.  I figured out where quick income could come from before I needed it.

I talked to attorneys in the area who were already in solo practice and asked them directly how they handled cash flow in year one. What I learned was that court-appointed lists exist in most jurisdictions, and document review work is available if you know where to look. Neither pays what private clients do, but both can keep cash moving while you build. I got on those lists before I launched, not after I was desperate.

2.  I gave myself a financial runway and had my marketing ready on day one.

I saved enough to cover my basic personal expenses for three to six months. Not comfort money, basic survival money. At the same time, I treated my first day of practice like a business opening: website live, business cards printed, professional presence established. There is a version of going solo where you spend month one figuring out a website. That version loses time it cannot get back.

3.  I showed up everywhere young lawyers gathered.

Every networking event for young lawyers. Every local bar association meeting I could get into. Not to hand out cards, but to be a consistent presence among people who refer cases, share overflow work, and remember who shows up. That network paid dividends in year one in ways I did not fully anticipate when I was building it.

4.  I spent time at the courthouse.

I observed in courtrooms where cases were being heard in my practice areas. It cost nothing, it sharpened my understanding of how things actually ran in front of that bench, and it put me in the same room as judges, clerks, and other practitioners. If you are planning to litigate, there is no substitute for knowing how that courtroom operates before your client's case is in it.

5.  I used the alumni network I already had.

I went to career services at my law school and got connected to alumni who were practicing on their own. I reached out to them directly, took them to lunch, and asked them to tell me what they knew. Most people are generous with this kind of conversation when you approach it the right way. I learned more in those lunches than I did in most of the formal preparation I had done.

By year two I was generating what the firms had offered me. It was not comfortable getting there, but it was not random either. Every one of those five things I did in year one was deliberate. None of it happened because I ground my way through it on willpower alone.

The attorneys who make it through year one, in my experience, are not necessarily the most talented ones. They are the ones who planned specifically, moved before they felt ready, and asked for help from people who had already done it.

I keep these short, practical, and worth your time. If you ever feel like one isn't, reply and tell me, I read every response.

Talk soon.

Patrick

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