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.

This is Harder than I Thought

I'm not talking about launching and sustaining a solo practice. I'm talking about blogging about my turnaround efforts while still maintaining my anonymity.

To describe my efforts with any specificity would probably give away my area of practice. Combined with the fact that I have a professional blog addressing that area of practice, finding out my area of practice would allow one to substantially narrow the field of who The Starving Solo really is.

As if you care. As if there are thousands of people are out there figuring out how to unmask me.

Anyway, I badly want to blog about some recent efforts that may bear fruit, but the actual posts have to wait until I figure the best way to post without risking my unmasking.

Thanks for the Well Wishes

This blog hasn't attracted many readers, but I have received very nice comments and/or e-mails from several people, including a few bloggers on my "Solos Doing It Right" blogroll. All have wished me well in turning around my practice, and I am very grateful for their thoughts.

I had been a little worried that people who saw this blog might think it is satire or write it off as the rantings of a bitter failure, but these comments tell me it is being received as I intended: serious reflections from a solo who has tried hard yet finds himself on the brink of failure.

So thanks for the well wishes, everyone, and know that you have mine, as well.

This is obviously not the job for me.

I'm not talking about the one I have now. I'm talking about the one that San Diego law firm Scholefield & Associates, a boutique construction law firm, is trying to fill.

They're looking for an associate to do client development, and just client development. They're not even looking for an experienced attorney. A brand new lawyer who might have more fun schmoozing potential clients instead of actually practicing law is just what they're looking for.

An excerpt from their website:

You will join and actively participate in client trade groups. This may involve securing speaking engagements for firm attorneys. You can expect to represent the firm in client events such as

• Monthly meetings
• Fundraisers
• Golf tournaments
• Trade group dinners
• Trade group social functions
• Skeet and trap shooting events
• Educational seminars, etc.

A good golf game is a plus, as is an interest in outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting or motorcycles. You will be spending some time outside of the office, including some evenings and weekends attending and participating in client and trade group events. No extended out of the area travel is expected. Unlike a conventional associate position, your job performance will NOT be based on billable hours. You will be measured on your ability to effectively introduce our firm's services to key clients. This is a challenging opportunity for the right person. You will find that this position is unique to the law firm business model. [My emphasis.]

Unique, indeed! Leave it to California, eh?

Oh, and that $100,000 you spent on law school? Well, it won't go to waste. Again, from their website:

You will not let your law school education go to waste as you must be admitted to practice in California, and may be expected to advise clients and attend hearings.

Cool.

Hey, you know, I could use one of these guys. If I had money to hire one, I'd consider it!

To Blog or Not to Blog

I wrote most of this post about a month ago, when it looked like my blog was actually going to bear some fruit. But I can tell you that in that short time I have somewhat soured on blogging.

I work damn hard on my professional blog (I don't mean this one). I can't spend just 20 minutes a day on it like some law bloggers because I cannot "blog my work" -- it's not the nature of my blog.

So anyway, here is what I started writing about a month ago. I'm not sure I believe it any longer, for reasons I'll explain at the end.

Start reading a blog called Real Lawyers Have Blogs. The guy who writes it (and I believe founded the company Lexblog), Kevin O'Keefe, is considered an internet marketing sensation and he knows what he's talking about. There's reams of advice over there.

This post is going to give you some of my personal experience. Not for this blog, obviously, which isn't even two weeks old. No, this post concerns my professional, substantive law blog, which is less than a year old -- and which, in order to retain my anonymity, I cannot name, since my real name obviously appears on my professional blog.

I noticed that my blog started gaining more traffic as time went on, and when I looked at referral sources, I saw that most of it was from Google searches, and that a lot of the traffic was to older posts. Those two factors suggest that your traffic will naturally go up as the number of posts accumulates because there are now more Google searches that will turn up posts on your blog. You may be frustrated early on that non one seems to be reading your blog. Keep with it, and you will see the traffic grow.

A blog opens a relationship with your prospective clients and referral sources. Like all networking relationships, it takes time for it to bear fruit.

Blogging can be a little intimidating. Everyone that tells you to start one tells you to do so at least in part because a blogging on a particular area of the law connotes expertise in that area, and maybe you don't feel like an expert because you're going solo right out of law school or to start practice in a new area of the law. But you can't let that show. Who cares if you say something that people won't agree with. Lawyers disagree all the time. You're all smart enough to make sense most of the time, so don't be intimidated about blogging.

In fact, maybe you are going solo specifically to move into a new practice area. So you might start substantive blogging even BEFORE you open your practice. Your blog is probably portable -- as long as yours is the name on the blog and you do no more than describe yourself as an employee, you might be able to take your blog with you. I think Carolyn Elefant's new book, Solo by Choice, has a chapter on that subject.

My own professional blog is about nine months old. It took several months before it brought in a client inquiry, and it has brought in a total of 20 or so client inquiries, none of which I could take because none of them had any money. But the inquiries came, and they have lately increased. So I think the earlier, the better.

By the time you go solo, you will have found your true blogging voice and will be in fine form to announce your new solo status on the blog.

So, in ten months of blogging, I have converted exactly ZERO inquiries from it into paying clients because NONE OF THEM HAD ANY MONEY.

What's changed since I started this post a month ago is that I have finally become fed up with people expecting me to work for remotely distant, improbable deferred compensation. It is quite amazing to me that someone can sit in front of my desk, present their case, and then expect me to take it for free or for deferred compensation that has a very dim chance of materializing.

Do these people do this with their doctors? Veterinarians? Grocers? Gardeners? I doubt it. But somehow they think that when they need a service where there is a lot of money at stake, they should not be expected to pay anything up front or even pay as they go.

I suppose it is fallout from all of the personal injury advertising you see. But I am in a field that is not often suitable for contingency fees.

In any event, I am now convinced that the only thing I have accomplished with my blog is to educate other lawyers in my field, convince lawyers in other fields that they can do what I do without hiring me (when I am actually trying to convince them that they need my expertise), and attract penniless clients to my office like bees to honey. I'm getting rather tired of it.

So maybe one part of my advice stands: read the blogs about law blogging. Maybe you'll pick up some tips that will help you avoid my predicament. But honest to God, I have followed a lot of that advice myself, and it has gotten me nowhere.

I'm tired of hearing from people with no money. Do us both a favor. If you can't pay me, don't call me. As this post drags on, I realize that people with no money deserve their own post, so I'll stop here and get started on a new post.

Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down

Been a while since I've posted, but nobody's reading this anyway, so what the hell.

I've tried networking like crazy since before I opened my practice. About a year before I went solo, I joined a local board of lawyers on a local publication that met monthly. Since opening my office, I have joined two Inns of Court chapters in adjoining towns. Each chapter meets once a month (once ten times per year, one 8 times per year).

This seemed superior to attending other types of groups, because the Inns chapters are divided into teams, so you have dinner with the same group of people every month (that is, the ones in your team). I thought this would help develop deeper relationships than going to the kind of monthly get-togethers where you meet different people every month.

Total business revenue generated from referrals after nearly 3 years of meetings: $0.00.

Actually, I don't begrudge any of these guys. At least they were civil and cordial and wished me well.

Lawyers at some other functions, on the other hand, treated me like I had leprosy. Trouble with trying to break into the legal community of a small town, I guess. Business revenue generated from these meetings: $0.00.

I referred a good number of cases to other lawyers when I first opened up. I could have handled a lot of the cases myself, but they weren't in the field of my past experience or desired practice, so I referred them out. I read this was a good way to develop return referrals. Number of return referrals in the following three years: 0.

I talked with a new contact today, who lives and works in a town about 15 miles away. He told me that one of the challenges I faced in my town is that lawyers don't tend to refer cases, but instead keep them for themselves even if they have no experience at all and can't do a good job.

It was nice to hear my impression confirmed by an unsolicited comment.

Things are looking up lately through some other marketing, but I don't want to write about it because I don't want to jinx it. If something pans out from it -- or not -- I'll write about it then.

I want to be a "Shingular Sensation," Yeah!

Carolyn Elefant at My Shingle inaugurated her "Shingular Sensations" series last week. She says that every week or two, she hopes "to interview a solo or a small firm lawyer who in one way or another represents the best that this genre has to offer," and who can also teach us a thing or two. She starts her series with a profile of Andy Simpson, a lawyer in the Virgin Islands who recently obtained a large damage award against the U.S. Marshals Service in a discrimination case.

Believe me, if I can turn around my practice from its present situation, that may be worthy of a "Shingular Sensation" accolade. That would be cool, except for having to relive again how I got here.

But maybe no one will remember that part. Just like when people heap praise on someone for turning their life around from one addiction or another. (Hell, people heap praise on someone just for entering rehab, let alone completing it.) They remember the turnaround, not the addiction.

I hope that's the way it is for me. But to find out, I need to accomplish the turnaround first.

Read Blog Archives for Some Good Advice from Successful Solos

Second link of the day to Carolyn Elefant of My Shingle, who asks her readers if they ever bother reading blog archives. Quite a coincidence, since just hours earlier I linked to a post of hers that is more than two years old!

Anyway, her question got me thinking about the value of blog archives to solo startups.

I can't say that they helped me, because I did not seek their advice until I was in trouble. Had I looked at them from the outset, they might very well have helped. Indeed, I am implementing certain recommendations right now.

I think that anyone considering a solo practice should look at archives on all of the successful solo blogs (many of which are in the "Solos Doing It Right" blogroll in the right sidebar). They have anecdotal advice you won't find in many "how to" books. Plus, since some solo bloggers started their blogs either when they were planning their practice or early in their solo careers, their early posts are likely to be very relevant to your early solo practice (technology tips aside, perhaps).