3 Reasons Why Now is the Perfect Time to Go Solo
Times are a changin’, y’all! The legal industry is in a period of immense disruption. Law firms seem to be scrambling to adapt and the vibe is honestly a bit grim.
It’s easy to find evidence right now that the world is utterly f____ed.* Finding such evidence seems to be a sport in some circles. But there’s also lots of evidence that this is the absolute best time to be alive, and that’s the lens we’re gonna use today.
The changes in the industry are creating the perfect environment for solo lawyers to thrive. Here are the three reasons why I think now is an awesome time to be in solo practice:
1. Client’s are more cost conscious and their expectations have changed
As a younger-ish attorney, I heard stories of ye good ol’ days of lawyering, where wealthy clients paid, without question, astronomically high bills for “legal services rendered.” These days, clients are more likely to scrutinize every tenth of an hour charged, and they want to understand the value they are receiving for their money.
The old law firm model placed high value on appearances; fancy offices, leather-bound books, polished assistants in nice clothes, candidates with all the right connections, er, credentials. These things all cost money. Like, a LOT of money, and it had to be paid for by the clients.
There was a time that people were willing to pay to be represented by the prestigious law firms. Perhaps those people still exist, I just don’t run into them on any sort of regular basis.
These days, people are simply less inclined to want to pay for marble lobbies and their lawyer’s Rolex. Which means, as a solo, they don’t actually care that you don’t have a fancy office (or an office at all, in my case).
Since I don’t have an office or an assistant, I price my services under the market rate for my area. The value of running a lean firm is passed (at least in part) on to my clients. When my clients hear my hourly rate is $100 less than my colleagues, I assure you that they are happy to meet via Zoom. And they have never once complained that I personally answer their calls, rather than having to go through an assistant.
2. Technology has evened the playing field
When I first started out, there was no way I could afford to hire an assistant or pay for a fancy office. I figured that this was a shortcoming my business would outgrow. But in the 7ish years since I first hung out my own shingle (figuratively, given the no-office thing), technology has rendered both of those unnecessary for me.**
The majority of my contact with clients is by phone and email. I do new client consultations via Zoom so we can both benefit from the face-to-face contact at the beginning. In the very rare case I do need to meet with someone in person, I rent a conference room from another attorney or shared workspace. It works great.
The biggest boon to my practice has been the advent of document automation. I use document automation tools heavily in my practice. All of my family law forms are automated thanks to MyPleadings (available in Washington and Oregon). Clio also provides document automation that I can use to automate my own documents that aren’t available in MyPleadings. It’s not the most user-friendly feature, but I’ve developed a system over time that makes it incredibly useful to me. I’m able to automatically generate new client agreements, letters to opposing counsel, motions, briefs, etc., to name a few.
My practice is nearly 100% paperless. All of my files are digital. My bills go out at the click of a button, and most of them are paid by credit card. The money just shows up in my account. It’s rare that I need to mail anything or receive a paper document. Although I’ve even found a tool for that.
When I went to law school, we didn’t learn to do research using books, so the need to maintain a library has been gone for a long time. But the cost of legal research tools continues to go down and is totally accessible now to even the smallest firms.
Every time I encounter something that I need to do repeatedly in my firm, I ask if there is a tool that will make it take less time and have less friction. So often these days, the answer to that question is “yes.”
3. Even the Courts know how to use Zoom
There are some shifts in the practice of law that have caught on generally (many thanks to covid for that). Most counties in Washington allow (or even require) appearance by Zoom. Most have the option to e-file documents and to receive filed copies online. In the last 4 years, I haven’t had a single colleague refuse to accept service by email, and likewise, I haven’t run into any trouble using e-signatures for everything. All of these things reduce the transaction costs of interacting with the court, and make it possible for the solo attorney to handle things like filing and service well, solo.
For the way I practice, I have found things like getting a client’s signature, filing, and serving to add very little time to the activities that I would have previously thought of as being squarely “attorney” tasks anyway. When I draft a Petition for Dissolution, for example, I’m using my attorney brain to figure out what goes in each section. It takes me all of a minute to send it to my client for signature once I hit “save.” It would actually take me longer to draft an email to an assistant to request it be done, and would ultimately cost my clients much more to pay for that assistant to be available than to just pay me for the minute it takes to prep an e-signature. And once I confirm I have all the documents ready to file and serve (which would always be my job anyway), it takes minimal time to drag them into an email for service and upload them to the court for filing.
All this is to say, that while there is a bit of a learning curve, it is totally achievable to run a whole, functioning law firm totally solo (and from a spare bedroom if you wish). It’s not awful (in fact, I find it pretty fun), and the perks are immense. There’s no better time than now.
*please choose the adjective that resonates most with you. I suggest “fuddled” if nothing else comes to mind.
**To be clear, I don’t want to devalue the contribution of a rockstar paralegal. I can get by without one, but there are infinite ways they add value. I think they should be paid well, and accordingly, they represent a big investment. I have chosen to make different choices in my practice.
