by JAIME LEVY PESSIN
On a day in July, Richard A. Wilson packed up his office, loaded a handcart and crossed Dearborn Street. In two short trips, he'd put in motion something he had dreamed of doing for years: He started his own law firm.
As of Aug. 1, 2004, Wilson — formerly a partner for three years at family-law firm Nottage and Ward — became one of more than 11,000 solo practitioners in Illinois. Thousands of others are name partners in small firms. By joining the ranks of attorneys who run their own firms, he's gained the ability to control the direction his practice takes without being outvoted or having to worry about what's best for someone else's business.
''Within a year [of becoming a partner], I was already thinking about starting on my own. I didn't act on it until a year ago. I didn't think what I wanted to do with my law practice was going to fit in with this established practice,'' Wilson said. ''I wanted to be freer to experiment with some of the things I wanted to do.''
With that freedom comes a different kind of stress: For lawyers who have never owned their own businesses, tasks like finding office space, setting up a computer network and figuring out a filing system that makes sense can prove more challenging than the nuances of practicing law.
''You need to have a strong stomach because this has been a roller-coaster,'' said Gerald A. Kennedy, who started his own defense litigation firm in October.
''Most lawyers, unless they had other careers, aren't trained to be business people,'' said Josh Friedman, chair of the Chicago Bar Association's solo/small firm practitioners committee. Friedman, a lawyer, works as a marketing consultant to solo and small firms. ''They may be technically proficient, but they don't know how to run a business.''
Lawyers who have set out on their own, or are in the process of doing so, spoke to Chicago Lawyer recently about the challenges they faced and how they overcame them as they established their practices. Some were experienced lawyers in large firms with significant books of business; others had already cut their teeth in small practices; still others were young lawyers looking to follow their own path from the start.
But all of them share the goal of working for themselves and have been willing to take on the risk and inherent stress of hanging out their shingles.
The ranks of independents
There are no exact numbers for how many lawyers start their own firms, but the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission pinned down the number of sole practitioners in Illinois: In 2001, the most recent year for which numbers were available, at least 11,413 lawyers practiced by themselves — 19 percent of those who responded to the ARDC's question. Another 10,715 lawyers, or 18 percent, worked in firms with two to 10 lawyers.
Although many lawyers who have started their own firms recommend crafting a business plan, not all do that. Instead, many lawyers who have recently founded a new firm reported that they spoke to peers and had an idea for what they wanted to accomplish, without anything as formal as a business plan.
''I always worried that maybe I wasn't being specific enough, pragmatic enough,'' said Wilson, who said he drafted just a ''vague'' business plan and set a deadline to have his own office. ''To me, there was no question that it was going to happen — it was going to work and I would be busy.''
At a recent Illinois State Bar Association seminar, about 40 people listened and took notes as speakers described the ins and outs of starting up. Among the first tasks: Figuring out where to put the office.
James F. Dunneback, who runs a small firm in Orland Park, said lawyers starting their own firms have a few options for office space: They can rent their own, share space with other lawyers or share space with non-legal businesses. That third option, he said, is least desirable, as it could pose serious conflicts of interest. For example, lawyers sometimes share space with insurance companies or real estate firms, who will pass along business to a lawyer. But those other businesses might expect the lawyer to rubber-stamp their work, he said.
''Officing with other lawyers is the more preferred way to do it. There are a lot of benefits. You can consult with other lawyers,'' Dunneback said. But he and others warned that there are downsides to that kind of arrangement, such as concerns over confidentiality.
''We shared a common reception room,'' said Springfield attorney and ISBA speaker Carl R. Draper, recalling a time when he shared a suite with other lawyers. ''We had a situation where we both booked the reception room at the same time for new divorce clients. The husband and wife walked into the same room at the same time.''
Wilson, on the other hand, said sharing office space is working well for him. When he left his old firm, a friend had an empty office in his suite on Dearborn Street, so Wilson took the space within another divorce firm, even though he's not affiliated with them.
''I like having people around,'' Wilson said. ''It's a tremendous benefit to be among other lawyers. There's a lot of collaborative discussions, bouncing ideas and thoughts. That process is really healthy.''
The gritty details
Draper advised the group of how important the nuts and bolts of a law firm's machinery can be. Keeping an up-to-date calendar, creating an effective filing system and networking the office's computers, even if the only computers belong to the lawyer and her secretary, can go a long way toward ensuring success.
Those types of details tend to be taken care of already when a lawyer joins an established practice.
''The things you advise clients on all the time — how to form an entity, how to finance it, getting insurance — it was interesting to do that on my own behalf,'' said William J. Cadigan, who started his own health-care and corporate practice in August, after the Chicago office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld closed. ''I knew I needed to incorporate, to register with the Illinois Supreme Court. I needed to go out and get professional liability coverage. I needed to get a phone number, e-mail address, office space. That stuff takes up a lot of time, more than I would have thought.''
When taking care of the many tasks that go into setting up a new office, lawyers should remember to prioritize, Dunneback said. ''Make sure you understand what the necessary expenses are,'' he said. ''You can go out and get a flat-screen monitor, but not at the expense of workers' compensation insurance, even if you only have one part-time secretary.''
Collecting the bills
For Farah M. Jean-Simon, finding office space was fairly easy: There was an empty office in the Calumet City building where she was working at a small immigration firm. When the professional relationship didn't work out, she made sure to leave on good terms, so it wouldn't pose a conflict for her to stay in the same building.
She opened her firm's doors on Nov. 1 with a lot of help from her family. Many lawyers have to worry about picking out office furniture and computers, but Jean-Simon's brother and brother-in-law brought over some of their equipment. She still doesn't have a receptionist, but her sister comes in occasionally to answer phones.
Jean-Simon has gotten the physical space under control. And she's meeting her goals with clients: She initially set out to gain at least one new client each week. She said she's accomplished that so far through referrals from clients, family, friends and her landlord, a retired lawyer. Also, a real estate firm in her building has passed her some cases, allowing Jean-Simon to do more real estate closings, which she had learned to do just before leaving her old firm.
The hard part, she said, is getting clients to pay. Her first set of bills went out Dec. 1, and one of her clients had left the state.
''He owed me a retainer, but I did the work without it because he was a friend of someone I know,'' Jean-Simon said. ''I had to threaten to withdraw from his case unless he paid me. I sent certified letters, and sure enough, he finally did pay me my retainer. He'll need to pay me more to complete the case, but who knows when I'll see that money.''
For start-up firms like Jean-Simon's, bill collection can be a source of major aggravation, according to lawyers who have been doing it for a long time.
''Your clients will be your friends, but you have to treat them as if they're not — particularly when it comes to billing and collecting fees,'' said John Maville, an attorney from Belvidere who's been practicing solo for 37 years. ''In my opinion, if you want to bill and collect substantial attorney's fees, you have to be a good lawyer. You need to work hard, work every case you take on to the best of your ability.''
Maville built up his own practice slowly while he served three terms as the state's attorney in Boone County. He considered joining a firm, but ultimately decided that he valued the freedom he achieved in his own general practice over having other lawyers around him, he said.
Early in his practice, he learned that it took a lot of time and energy to serve a client well — and that it was very frustrating to spend that time and energy only to have a client try to slither out of paying.
When that happens, Maville advised: ''Take prompt action on an account that's in arrear. Tell your client you're going to withdraw if they don't pay the bill. Do it. It's better to lose $1,000 than $3,000.''
Building business
Of course, Maville's advice on collections is useful only to those lawyers who already have clients from whom they can collect fees. For new lawyers who are just starting out in their practices, finding clients in the first place is the most difficult task.
Shaina A. Moss just graduated from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. She looked for big firm jobs but didn't find anything. She moved to Chicago because she has family here, but she doesn't know anyone in the legal community. With her law school loans starting to come due, she is considering starting her own practice.
''I'm still looking for a job somewhere, sending out resumes. I'm not totally committed to starting out on my own. It's kind of a scary idea,'' said Moss, who attended the ISBA seminar about starting a firm. ''I haven't given up hope of somebody calling me, but I came to the realization that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. I don't have any great desire to do it, but I'm running out of options.''
For now, Moss is looking into finding a business address where she can receive business mail without paying full rent; until she can afford a full office, she plans to work from home. First she needs some clients.
''I hand out my business card,'' she said. ''I'm starting to hand it out to everyone, and hope someone calls.''
Those who've been on their own for a long time advised new lawyers to stay active in their communities and to network with other lawyers who might serve as mentors and eventually might provide referrals.
''You get a lot of great publicity from doing something good. If you're going to do it, be committed to it. These groups have seen a lot of phonies come in, try to network with everyone and be out the door in six months,'' said Bernard Wysocki of Wysocki & Smith in Waukegan. ''Clients and other attorneys aren't necessarily looking for the best lawyer. They're looking for the lawyer they feel is going to care about them.''
For lawyers who have been in the business for a longer time but who are just starting out on their own, referrals from clients and other lawyers — even from former colleagues — provide the prime source of new business.
''My new client base is growing literally every week,'' Cadigan said. ''I actually am receiving a lot of referrals from lawyers at big firms who have conflicts. Now I'm the beneficiary of those kinds of conflicts. It's nice to get business that I wouldn't have otherwise thought to go get.''
That's why it's particularly important to avoid alienating one's former colleagues, said Gary M. Elden, a former Kirkland & Ellis lawyer who 18 years ago started commercial litigation firm Grippo & Elden.
''We were very worried that getting business would be hard competing with big firms, but we were swamped. We were in hiring mode almost immediately, and we needed new space in two years,'' said Elden, whose firm has grown from 15 to more than 40 lawyers. ''If you're leaving another firm, don't burn any bridges. Much of your business may come from the people you used to work with.''
Elden said he and his partners started their firm with the idea that ''you didn't have to be a big firm to do large litigation.'' The firm has received offers to merge and occasionally has to turn away new business from old clients, but Elden said they plan to continue what they're doing.
''It's the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me,'' Elden said of building his firm. ''It's been euphoric.''
Wilson, the divorce lawyer, said he's still working with some of the clients he had at Nottage and Ward, and that he's now getting more inquiries than he got at his old firm.
''I expected to be busy; I'm an optimist,'' he said. ''I've got plenty of work right now, and I'm happy about it because it's interesting stuff. I'm doing as well [financially] as I was before.''
Kennedy, the defense litigator, started his own firm in October after spending almost five years at Hennessy & Roach. He has found his practice busy enough that he's added two associates with whom he used to work.
''The key is to have good people with me — people who are good at making common-sense, thought-out decisions,'' he said. ''Delegating responsibility and decision-making to them has really helped us get off the ground, and made this work as well as it has so far.''
Kennedy said he had thought about starting his own firm even when he was studying at the University of Illinois College of Law in the late 1980s. In 2004, he found the time was right for him to work in a practice more intimate that the larger firms where he'd previously worked.
''More and more clients hire individual lawyers that they build a rapport with over time. It doesn't really matter if you're working at firm X or firm Y,'' Kennedy said. ''You are more responsive if you can focus on clients and the type of work you really like to do.''
Wilson, too, had thought about starting a firm for a long time; he liked the idea of creating something tangible of his own. The urge grew harder to ignore once he became a partner somewhere else.
''In three years of being a partner, as opposed to being an employee, you tend to be thinking about a lot of things. You're more in control of where you're going,'' Wilson said. ''You're committed to partnership, but at the same time, it helped raise questions I was always thinking about, which was having my own business.''
Perks of independence
Criminal defense lawyer Jeffrey Granich has decorated his Monadnock building office with posters of great crime movies: ''Pulp Fiction'' and ''Gangs of Chicago.'' He wears jeans and a torn sweater to work, and he smokes cigarettes at his desk as he juggles calls from his landline and cell phone.
These, he says, are just some of the perks of going solo.
Granich started his criminal law practice in 1993, after he was fired from his job working at a small firm.
''I had to pay rent, and I only had $100 in the bank. And the only thing I knew how to do was practice law,'' said Granich, who was about 25 when he started his own firm. ''I felt like I was thrown out of the nest.''
Because he'd worked as a lawyer for two years prior to starting his own firm, Granich had already established a small client base. He started an office in his apartment. He got a pager. When he could afford one, he bought an ad in the Yellow Pages. Eventually he could pay for his own office.
''The whole first year, I was consumed with the thought of 'What if the phone doesn't ring?' '' he said. ''I still am haunted by that occasionally.''
After all, Granich rarely knows how much he'll make in a given month. But he's never come up short on his bills. Now, Granich says going solo ''is the only way to practice law, as far as I'm concerned.''
Having his own practice allows him to abide by his own set of ethics, he said. For example, he said, he tells clients not to worry about paying him right away — that they should bond out of jail first. Doing what he considers to be the right thing has a business advantage: He has developed good relationships with his clients, who then refer him to their friends and families.
''On one hand, it's a business. On the other hand, it's more than a business — it's a profession,'' he said. ''You don't necessarily have to succeed to be a successful lawyer. You have to care.''
Now, Granich said, he plans to expand his practice area into civil rights work — another luxury of running his own business. Similarly, Wilson is looking forward to growing a same-sex law practice.
''I sort of pinch myself a bit. This is a little slipshod, the way it's set up now, but that's OK. I'm able to manage, and I'm busy, and I'm energized and enthused, and I like what I'm doing,'' Wilson said. ''It's my own.''
Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Co.
