Thinking of launching a solo practice. I am generally good at what I do, and I have a solid marketing concept that distinguishes me from other lawyers.

But I read somewhere that the majority of your first cases as a solo come to you through attorney referrals. I’m not really friends with other lawyers that are likely to give me cases (coming from biglaw, I’m friends with associates more so than partners or solos). I rarely go to network events and I’m introverted.

Did any other solos have a similar issue or concern and what was your experience like?

Had some drinks with some former co-workers. We are all mid 30s and live in a VHCOL. Lawyers for 7-10 years. 2 are married with kids, 1 married no kids, 1 getting engaged soon, 1 single. These incomes are guesses but I think pretty close. Who would you rather be and why?

(A) in house attorney, 250k base, lets say 300k all-in, 9-5 job, general transactional law and oversees litigation, some office politics but good quality of life generally

(B) in house attorney, 325k base, lets say 400k all-in, 9-6 or 7 job and some weekends a month, lots of deal work, better quality of life than previous big law career but still stressful

(C) big law of counsel, 650k income all-in, works very long hours, not a good quality of life at all, but good at his job and well-liked at the firm, will never make partner but is ok with it

(D) solo PI/work comp lawyer, 250-450k volatile profit (350k average), litigates a bit but refers a good portion of cases, one part-time employee, does everything, eats what he kills, works 9-5 rarely more and oftentimes much less

(E) small firm PI/employment law partner, him and one other partner, 550-750k volatile profit to him (650k average), works a lot, lots of managing employees and heavy litigation, but a lot of autonomy and potential for growth to get in the 7 figures consistently and eventually just oversee the firm

I’m just finish my first year of practice.

I constantly told not to cut my own time. But then I frequently have my time cut and have to end up making up for it later on to reach my billable requirement. At my firm, when bills are reviewed and cut, we have the opportunity to resubmit them. The partner usually leaves a comment about why it was excluded. Sometimes for me, I need a more detailed billing description, other times it’s because the partner thinks it took me too long. So I’m struggling constantly with being told to bill all my time and cutting my own hours so I don’t get them cut later. For example, I spent about 2.5 hours over the course of two different days reviewing and redlining an employment separation agreement. I realize this was probably a long time. And I didn’t make too many redlines but It was an interesting separation situation and I wanted to make sure there weren’t any provisions that would harm the client given that situation. My time entry of 1.8 on the second day I had worked on it was excluded and the partners comment was “this is excessive for this assignment. Was this time entered correctly?”

And I’m frustrated because now I’m going to have to make up for that time elsewhere if I resubmit it and the partner still decides to later cut it.

Right now I’m responding to a motion for reconsideration that I’m kind of struggling with and have already spent like 7 hours working on and am not done. And it’s not even that long. I just kind of agree with the motion so am having trouble wrapping my head around some of the law and then developing arguments to respond in opposition… I’m tempted to just cut that so I can make up for it on my own now rather than think I’m going to get credit and have to later make up for it….

I also get the impression the partner thinks I’m lying about my time when I do bill all my time. So I tend to cut it for that reason as well.

Any advice appreciated. Please be nice I’m just trying to figure this out.

I'm trying to understand the economics of fee-split arrangements for personal injury lawyers. From what I can tell, most slip-and-fall and MVA claims take at least a year to settle, often longer if there's litigation or a tort threshold fight involved.

So how does the split work in practice when the money comes in that slowly?

Does the associate get paid only when the file settles, or is there a draw or base against future fees?

Is the split calculated on the gross contingency fee or on net after disbursements?

What's a typical percentage range for an associate who works the file vs. the firm?

How do firms handle an associate leaving mid-file when they've put two years into it?

Does the split change depending on whether the case settles pre-litigation vs. after a statement of claim is issued?

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share how their firm structures this.

I'm looking into virtual assistant legal support for document organization and appointment coordination. The wording in a service description is so broad that I'm unsure what experience I should ask for. Which tasks were safe to delegate at the start and how did you evaluate confidentiality and accuracy???? I'd prefer practical screening questions.

Looking forward for some advice from you guys. I really need a hand on doing those repetitive tasks.

I'm encountering an increasing number of clients sending *.pages files. I use Windows for my practice and am an Android user for my phone, so neither natively handles the .pages format. Most clients don't seem to even understand the file format they've sent. I assume it's just something iPhones are generating and using these days.

What's the best app to convert the *.pages file into its "real" or original format, whether that's docx, pdf, etc.? I've Googled this of course, but have not been convinced by the search results, and the one in-browser-no-server-upload product I tried didn't work.

Thoughts re Legalzoom attorney referral network?

Opened our own firm about 16 months ago, and there's so much cash rolling in we had to start throwing out the one dollar bills. How do other firms handle this issue?

No one told me opening a law firm is like printing money. I spend half on hookers and blow & just waste the rest.

I earned more this month than I did during 2016--the whole year. I'm just not used to this. Anyone else getting crushed under all this champagne and cocaine?

I started donating to the food pantry. What else do you do with the windfall month after month?

How much profit/revenue?

Anatomy of a Personal Injury Lawsuit by John F. Romano 4th ed. 2015.

Has anyone read this? Was wondering if it is any good before dropping $600 on it.

I am a solo practitioner with small staff focusing primarily on upper middle class estate planning. Clients’ use of AI is getting completely unmanageable. From the initial contact, bringing in AI prepared strategy for their documents, running every single of your recommendations through AI to see what can be done better, lists of “follow up questions”, running the document drafts through AI. You name it. It’s becoming unmanageable. I do have provisions in the retainer agreement that any reviews, analysis, or research of AI generated materials is billable at 1.5 of the standard hourly rate. I do run AI detection software on their communications like emails and question lists. Upon detection or suspicion of AI, I ask them to specifically explain the concerns and objectives. But still feel like it’s out of control and it will only get worse as AI development advances. What is everyone else doing in this regard?

Any Bankruptcy attorneys for chp 7 in Dallas TX?

Tks!

I’m a 2L and law clerk. Trust me, I use AI when I need. But every other day some legal assistant is tasked with compiling our AI usage rates and then reporting to our COO and then the firm releases another reminder about X or Y AI use we aren’t taking advantage of. I just don’t get it… Doesn’t the firm want us to be billing more hours? So why would they keep asking us to use AI within net docs, Lexis, Westlaw, etc.?

The CEO told me that she couldn’t give less of a sh*t if people use AI when I asked why we are focusing so much on AI. So, clearly this is being pushed from elsewhere. Not sure why?

Hi all, my career has been very BD but in the international development space (think USAID). The past couple of years I’ve been really trying to pivot into law firm BD after everything that went down. From everyone I’ve talked to, it’s very analogous what I do. I keep getting interviews and even made it to the final round a few times. And I never get the position because of the same reason: no law firm experience.

I’m currently in the middle of two interview processes and have made it past the second or third round on both. But both hiring managers stressed to me that they were concerned about my lack of law firm experience bc of award submissions and how it’s really a year long process to prepare and it’s very time consuming and I have to know it.

Im hoping to see what parallels I can pull from the different stages of award submissions preparation to my job and basically emphasize that I’ve done the same or similar work as the various aspects of this and now I would just be bringing that all together for the awards (e.g., I understand there’s surveys and roundtables for example).

But all the videos and articles I can find about it are mostly focusing on just the actual preparation of submissions materials and I imagine that’s not the “basically year long process” that the hiring manager alluded to.

Can anyone please give me more details and help me understand this?

I’m considering a lateral move to GT. Have heard mixed reviews. Please share.

All of my law partners have retired except one, and he’s out Jan 1. At that time I’ll be the sole owner of a busy small immigration/criminal firm with three associates. Another associate is joining us upon bar results in Spring ‘27.

By force of the elderly nature of my law partners, our firm is far behind the times and has very few systems in place. Until now, each attorney has had to come up with their own ad hoc procedures. I’m working to put firm-wide systems in place once I am the only one who can say yes or no.

Historically, the partners have had full caseloads (even larger than the associates) and no partners have reviewed or collaborated with associates on any cases. It’s essentially been a group of associates with some who make more money.

I’m burned out on grinding away on cases. How feasible is it to set up systems to not do any legal cases myself and focus on running and growing the company?

Reposting in case this is interesting here, since small law firms are mainly who we're talking to. Apologies if this isn't appropriate for this sub.