Dear Mr. Poll,
I subscribe to your blog on my Google reader and I’ve read your works through the ABA and other publications. I even watch your online videos that you’ve recently started doing in your mobile office. Your advice is often on point, intelligent and succinct.
However, in a recent post on your blog, you quoted a statistic by NALP that says that roughly 2% of law graduates from 2008 started their law practice 9-months after graduating law school. You used that statistic to question their competency and I quote: “I wonder what kind of representation their clients are receiving … and how does one interpret or define “competence?” What do you think?”
Being a national leader and speaker on law practice management, I would hope that you realized that all across America, there are law firms big and small and lawyers from all walks of life. There are a myriad of ways to market a law practice and just as many ways to successfully run a law firm. Albeit, there is a general consensus that some things work better than others. However, by your judgment that new attorneys cannot adequately represent clients demeans and belittles the 4 years of college, 3 years of law school and months of studying for the bar exam that all attorneys go through. You imply that they are not fit to practice law despite the fact that they have been certified by their respective jurisdiction. You imply that along the way, they never learned to continue learning; that you assume they will not study extra hard to become experts or associate themselves with colleagues that help each other be better practitioners.
Just like new trends with paperless offices, value and flat-fee billing, legal blogging and twittering, Starting Out Solo is a trend that will continue to rise. And like anything new, it will be rejected at first and I hope that when people see that we are attorneys who are not only competent to represent clients, but in fact, we will go an extra mile for our clients because we need to prove ourselves to those who doubt and to those who dissuade us.
I started out solo two years ago and I now have an associate, run a small law firm, bought another law firm in the process and have not yet committed malpractice.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Cheong, Esq.
owner of Infinity Law Group
Starting Out Solo board member
Gabriel, me thinks thou protesteth too much. First, I didn’t say solos are not competent. But, the question is being asked by many … including major law firms who are creating apprentice programs to teach things law schools didn’t. Second, judging by my own experience when I started out as a solo, I can assure you I was a far better lawyer later. Was I incompetent when I started? No. Are you? Obviously not. But did we know enough to be truly effective? I don’t know; it depends on many factors, including the nature of the practice area.
Let me assure you that I do not impugn the skill of solos. I am faculty at Solo Practice University. And I coach many and help solos become more effective with their clients, more efficient in the delivery of their legal services … and more profitable. I fight the State Bar all the time on behalf of solos … Unfortunately, the real “enemy” is the Bar that fails to treat its solo members with respect; they pay only lip service to their concern while at the same time adopting mandatory malpractice insurance disclosure, focusing disciplinary proceedings on solos, and increasing bar dues, among many others.
Thanks for reading my writings … I appreciate your comments and support your efforts. I also encourage you to join our new community for lawyers at http://www.lawbizforum.com and invite your colleagues as well to express the legitimate opinions and concerns of solos.
Ed:
I have known you for years and respect your work.
I know you refer to a particular state bar, but I have to respond to your suggestion that the organized bar is the enemy of the solo or small firm lawyers. While things may vary from state to state, the bar I work for has done many things for the solo or small firm lawyer, including establishing a popular annual solo and small firm conference, putting on three free programs on how a new lawyer can start their own practice each year, providing Fastcase legal research free ot its members and having a full-time practice management advisor on staff. We’ve done none of the things you accuse “the bar” of doing, except we did have to raise bar dues after 15 years.