Ever wish someone had told you this when you were starting out?  Speakers Lisa Clay and Patrick Walsh did a segment on this exact topic during our seminar last week in Chicago: Opening and Managing Your Practice: The Do’s, Don’ts and Everything In-Between.

As you know we occasionally post snippets from our seminar handout materials and wanted to share this today.

• The importance of, and guidelines for, doing client intakes.
  • Just because a client wants me to represent them doesn’t mean I should.
  • What do I need to know in terms of their background?
  • Their history with other lawyers?
  • Are they frequent flyers/filers?
  • How are they going to pay me?
• Conflicts Checks!
  • How do I do it?
  • What level of conflicts checks do I need conduct as a solo?
• Overhead is EXPENSIVE!
  • Rent, insurance, lexis, phone Internet, etc.
  • It all adds up, and most of it can’t be passed on to a client
• How important it would be to have other attorneys as back-up and resources for things like:
  • Covering me if I’m down and out
  • Subject matter consultations
  • Referrals on cases I don’t want
• That I would have to be my own bill collector. I still suck at this.
• About all the unpaid time I would lose being my own office, and dealing with computer issues, addressing phone problems, taking calls I don’t want, etc., etc., etc.
• That I would have to fire clients (and they might have to fire me).
  • This requires that I have a good retainer, a standard disengagement letter and that I address liens.
• How to keep track of expenses.
  • I use a credit card for everything I can, but I’m still terrible about making sure billable expenses get on bills, and that I don’t lose cabs, meals, etc.
• I can’t take every case. Boundaries are so important for solos.
• How much my opponents would try to use my status as a solo against me.
  • What it’s like to be threatened with “teams” of attorneys and be drowned in discovery by firms with 4 and 5 attorneys on a case
• How important it is to cultivate relationships with other lawyers
• That half of my job would be in the role of therapist/social worker… and that part of my job would be largely unpaid.

This seminar took place last Friday; however, you can still hear the full discussion on the audio version available here.