The Solo Bandwagon Marches On…

This week’s news brings a handful of law firm start up stories.  First, the Las Vegas Sun profiles
two young female lawyers, Tara Young and Elizabeth Sorokac who lost their jobs in February and have already started their own practices.  Both had been practicing for only a few years and never expected to start a firm so soon.  Though Young had expected to go solo eventually, her lay off forced her down the solo path more quickly than she’d planned.  As for Sorokac, she loved her firm and went solo more as a stop-gap method to stay afloat between jobs.  But to her surprise, she’s taken to solo practice and enjoys it more than she ever thought – a tribute to transformative nature of solo practice.

Meanwhile, the National Law Journal reports on NatoliLapin, a virtual firm that started back in March 2008, offering low-cost legal services for entrepreneurs, artists and others launching new business ventures.  Natoli reports that the firm is growing rapidly, given that there are more entrepreneurs because people have lost their jobs.  The firm reports that with low overhead, it keeps 80 percent of its revenue as profit.  One of the firm’s selling points are reasonable flat fees – for example, an LLC starts at $395.  The firm is doing well, filling an underserved niche – just like the $25 dollar New York-DC buses that I blogged about a few years back.

So, if you find yourself thinking about starting a practice, check out this site and my book, as well as this summary from Above the Law of a panel on Starting A Practice sponsored by the Vault and City Bar of NY and a recording by Susan Cartier Liebel and myself on Going Solo in A New Economy.