St. Louis Solo

Dreams of a Solo has another terrific post up this week asking readers when they decided they wanted to go solo.  I am looking forward to all the comments he will be receiving.  The thread has been kicked off my Carolyn Elefant, solo practitioner and blogger extraordinaire, who blogs regulary at My Shingle.

As for me, I have known that I wanted to go solo since second year in law school.  I can honestly say that when I went into law school, I had visions of big law dancing in my head.  Those dreams were quickly kicked to the curb for several reasons:  first, my GPA, while respectable, did not put me in the class of applicants the Silk Stocking Firms were intereted in, and second, I learned more about the concept of billable hours and other accoutrement of big law culture.  Also, the fact that everyone who was interviewing at those firms dressed like a mortician didn’t endear the lifestyle to me either.

So, second year I attended a seminar on starting one own’s law firm.  To my memory, there weren’t many people there but it was enough to plant the spark inside of me.  As the school year wore on, I looked up Foonberg’s book on opening one’s own firm and for the first time realized that opening my own firm, even upon passing the bar exam, was something achievable.

By the end of second year, I had taken a job as a clerk at an area firm for “experience.”  This job lasted through the summer and into my third year.  I had made my intentions of starting my own firm out of law school known to several partners at my workplace but despite this, I was offered a job as an associate attorney.  I took the job, stamping down my own entrepreneurial feelings for several reasons:  first, I really liked the place I was working and the people I was working with; second, the money was good; third, I gave in to my own self-doubt about the reality of opening a solo law practice upon passing the bar.  (If only I had access to some of the blogs that I regularly read now, then.)

Anyway, as time passed, I realized that I still really, really wanted to go out on my own.  As I said, I love the place I work and the people I work with, but this itch is NOT going away.  And that is where I stand now, approximately six months from opening day. 

Filed under: About Me, Questions on November 7th, 2007