My Shingle

Solo Practice: Priceless

by Carolyn Elefant on August 13, 2006 · View Comments

From Susan Cartier-Liebel’s piece, For the Brave, There’s Life Beyond Biglaw (law.com, August 10, 2006) comes this money quote:

If opening your own practice were portrayed as a MasterCard commercial, it would go something like this: Virtual Office: $150; Cell Phone: $49.99 a month; WiFi laptop: $799; taking your 5-year-old son to his first Mets opening day at Shea Stadium (without derailing the partnership track): Priceless.

What aspect of solo practice is priceless to you? Send me your comments below.

Bernie

For me, it's the freedom to work when needed and not because "face time" is required. When I'm busy, I work long hours. When I'm not, I go play with my kids.
tom kerner

My daughter crawled yesterday for the first time, and I was there to see it.
When she went down for her nap (after all the crawling) I opened the window and watched the rain. When my wife got home, the sun came out so I went for a run on the soccer fields at the nearby university, then stopped off at the beach for an hour to cool down. And I even did 2 hours of billable work, which is all I need to do in a given day to be profitable. Later after dinner I sorted through stock photos to decorate my almost-launched website with, and perused articles to talk about when my blog launches.
Have to say, it was a really good day.
Tamar Israel Dyson

As a "big firm" refugee I agree with everything else that is listed above.
In addition:
1. I have a special needs child; it is wonderful to see how she has improved since I have been able to organize my life around her needs instead of vice versa.
2. Solo practice satisfies the "control freak" in me; "I" get to decide what type of clients I want to represent, my legal fees, whether I want to expand my practice areas, etc.
3. I can smell the roses both literally, in my backyard, and figuratively by taking time to nuture relationships and my non-legal interests.
I would not give anything for the life I have right now. And that says a lot.
Carron

--Being about to homeschool our two children.
--Working till 2am and sleeping late.
--Incorporating technology on a whim.
--Having no personnel issues except for the chronic procrastination of my husband/law partner ;-).
--no office politics
--no generic fox hunt scenes on the corridor walls.
--no minimum billables
Todd

Hear, hear, to the post above.
But also--I have an anxiety disorder. Some days are harder than others for me to interact with people. The solo life gives me a lot more flexibility, as opposed to being Associate #110101, to redo my schedule or focus my energies, whether it's a day I need to get out and see people or one I need to sit and do research.
elguapo

1. Being able to go to work at 11:00 AM in shorts and t-shirt.
2. Filing and serving papers myself, just because I feel like getting some exercise and saving a few dollars.
3. Being able to surf the internet and chat on the phone with friends for a few hours if I don't feel like working.
4. Turning down work that will require me to stay late in the office or where the client seems like a pain in the ***.
5. Taking a few unprofitable cases now and then simply to help decent people who are the victims of injustice.