Your Pedigree -- What It's Good for, and What It Isn't

I like to make fun of lawyers who went to big-time law schools, mostly because (1) I did not, and therefore probably have a chip on my shoulder I am unwilling to admit, and (2) from what I can gather from my friends who went to schools like Cal (Boalt), Michigan, Stanford, etc., their education prepared them more for running a political campaign than practicing law. I had one colleague in a BigLaw firm who used to joke that I taught him torts, but he really wasn't stretching it too far.

Anyway, let's run down my pedigree first, so you can see that it has little to do with success or failure as a solo; at least, little to do with my success or failure as a solo. Perhaps it has greater impact for others.

In any event, this is me (again, deliberately vague to preserve my anonymity):

• Graduated from an elite undergraduate institution in the early 80s with an engineering degree.
• Took my degree and became an officer in the Marine Corps for several years.
• Got out of the USMC and did a few jobs while I applied to law school.
• Finished in the top 3% at a highly-regarded regional law school. (I don't think "highly regarded regional law school" is an oxymoron.)
• Went to work out of law school at a huge international firm (1000+ lawyers), then left for a "small" 400-lawyer firm after a few years.
• In-house general counsel for a privately held company. Then . . .
• Starving Solo.

Note that the prestigious undergrad education, top 3%, prestigious "ticket punching" law firms, and responsibility for all legal matters of a substantial privately held company all amounted to a hill of beans when it came time to go solo, because (1) none of these things taught me anything about how to do it, and (2) there was no way for me to I couldn't figure out how to parlay these credentials in the solo world.

As far as using this background in my marketing, it may have actually hurt me. You see, I was in BigLaw in some big cities. I now live in a much less urban area about an hour and a half outside the nearest large city, and I don't think the lawyers around here think too much of those kind of firms. Which doesn't exactly increase the odds of referrals. And clients -- at least real people -- really couldn't care less where you went to school.