Second City Solos
Shaan Patel’s advice to entrepreneurs to be a big fish in a small pond to increase their chances of entrepreneurial success applies with equal force to lawyers embarking on a solo or small firm career.
Patel, a joint MBA/MD student and owner of Prep Expert learned this lesson the hard way after trying to launch his test prep company in Los Angeles, figuring that in a wealthy market rich with Type-A parents, he could easily attract a dozen students to get his business off the ground. Yet after months of pounding the pavement – traditional and web advertising and meet and greets with high school counselors – Patel came up empty handed. Returning home to Las Vegas, Patel pivoted, and launched PrepExpert there instead. With far less competition, he was able to get started, and once established, he was able to expand.
Patel also confirms – at least anecdotally – that the big fish/small pond strategy works for professionals. He writes:
Doctors and lawyers in smaller cities often earn higher salaries and gain greater recognition than their counterparts in larger cities. With fewer options to the population in small cities, highly skilled professionals can act as monopolists. I remember having a conversation with a very wealthy lawyer in Las Vegas. He mentioned that it was much easier for him to find success in Las Vegas than it was for him to have success in Washington DC where lawyers are a dime a dozen.
Small towns don’t just offer less competition, but also lower marketing costs. Online ads or SEO can cost 3-4 times as much for large markets. Plus, in smaller markets, it’s easier to get more mileage out of sponsoring school sports teams or joining local business groups or bar associations (which don’t cost as much as their larger counterparts).
So if second city solo’ing piques your interest, here are a couple of tips to apply the big fish/small pond strategy to your practice:
- Make Location A Significant Factor in Your Career Decisions If you’re just graduating law school and thinking of starting a firm down the line, you could research smaller, “second cities” where your odds of success are best. This approach isn’t unheard of – before Brazen Careerist and writer Penelope Trunk flipped out , she wrote about her decision to move to Madison, Wisconsin from New York City based solely on research. There are lawyers who adopt the same approach – recently, I learned of a young lawyer couple who during law school, identified three smaller cities throughout the country as potential options for a permanent home, moved after graduation and within two years, started a practice firm that is thriving years later.
- Look for Smaller Options Outside Big Markets Even if you can’t or don’t want to relocate halfway across the country, most likely, there are dozens of smaller markets in your area. Here in Washington D.C., big law dominates energy and environmental regulatory practice but just across state lines in Maryland, my firm is one of a small handful of specialists.But focusing on the edges also works more traditional practice areas. I know of several solos handling criminal cases, traffic ticket litigation and real estate who have found success not only because they’re good lawyers, but because the smaller markets afforded them an opportunity to be noticed. Moreover, their overhead for office space and admin is fifty percent lower than if they’d set up shop in the city.
- Bring Big Clients to The Small Town Being a second city also gives solos and smalls access to larger clients. Many corporations, banks and tech companies have relocated to out-of-the-way areas and they often want local counsel. Having built up a resume with business clients, you could expand your scope to offer your services to large clients in large cities. Same is true for litigation or appeals practice – once you’ve cut your teeth at the local appellate level, you could market your skills to clients throughout the state, at a fraction of the cost.
Even in today’s location-independent world, where you decide to start still matters. And at a time when there’s still big time competition in the legal profession, smaller can be better in more ways than one.
Are you a “second city” solo or small firm lawyer? What’s your experience, and how did you wind up where you are? Please chime in the comments below.
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That’s an interesting approach. Are there any salary studies that show the difference between solo attorneys in big cities vs middle markets and smaller markets? Since Biglaw is concentrated in the big cities, I imagine a lot of lawyers think those are the places to go for jobs.
If I were hanging up my own shingle, I’d definitely consider moving to a smaller market. I doubt this would work if you had hopes of growing a private equity practice in say Santa Fe, New Mexico, but I’d be curious to know if it works for attorneys interested in playing an “outside general counsel” role for small businesses.