When I was a kid, I often daydreamed about how I would start a business doing something cool. The problem was I had no idea what that cool thing would be. And my big idea was constantly changing. Going into law school, I continued to daydream and naturally thought about hanging my own shingle. But I never really did anything about it.
I graduated from law school in December 2010 and started my solo practice in October 2017. Between this time, I spent a little over 6.5 years as an associate working for my father doing insurance defense–specifically surety bonds.
For various reasons (that I will get into later if you decide to hang with me), I decided that I wanted to hang my own shingle. This article will be about how I did that.
As some additional background, I was a solo attorney in Southeast Idaho (Idaho Falls) from 2017 to 2022, when I sold my practice. I made six figures each year of my practice, including my first year. I practiced primarily doing plaintiff’s consumer rights cases.
If you want to start your own solo practice, here are the first 6 steps:
- Get the motivation to do it.
- Get the very basics set up.
- Consider niche practice areas you want to “sell”
- Pitch your areas to other attorneys
- Ask for referrals in your selected niche
- Sign up clients
1. Get the Motivation to Start Your Own Practice
I dinked around starting new practice areas while working as an associate attorney for my father. This is something I wanted to do because, candidly, I felt like I needed to put my stamp on the firm instead of just riding on my dad’s coattails. He also wanted to diversify the clientele because of some experiences we had during the great housing recession. So it pursuing new lines of business was a win-win idea.
I tried getting into healthcare law, small business, trademarks, and other areas I don’t recall. While we had some success, nothing I worked on took off. It was hard to spend time and energy trying to establish new lines of business when there was still lots of work (and hours I was supposed to bill) in the business we already had. Dabbling didn’t work.
As time went on, I ultimately decided to try my own thing. I wanted to run a podcast about people starting small businesses. I loved reading Entrepreneur Magazine as a kid because I found the success stories inspiring. I wanted to share these types of stories. I called the podcast Small Business Stories.
As part of this adventure, my wife and I moved with our five kids from the Las Vegas area to Idaho Falls to buy a 100-year-old farmhouse. The plan was to fix it up and teach our kids about hard work. The idea was that I was going to essentially freelance writing briefs for attorneys while I got the podcast business going. It didn’t work out very well for us. I wrote about that experience here: The Rise and Fall of my Small Business Podcast.
At the lowest point, we had $800 in our savings account (thanks health care expenses!).
I can tell you that there is nothing more motivating to get you to find a way to make money than when your back is against the wall. At that point, you don’t care about life balance, your morning routine, whether your shower is hot or cold, or all the other crap you read about from online business gurus. You just want to figure out how to find clients and make some money.
For me, I just thought for about 5 minutes about what skills I had that I thought could actually make me some money the fastest and I pretty much new I had to recommit to law.
When my family and I were facing our economic reality, we looked at a bunch of different options. I considered going back to work for my dad, joining up with another firm, or finding an associate job in the area (associate pay for attorneys in Idaho Falls was not good). Ultimately, we decided to sell our farmhouse and try hanging my own shingle. We were fortunate that the market was pretty strong so we ended up netting about $20,000 on the sale. With that, we rented a home and had a little nest egg to help ends meet while I tried to get a practice going.
It is hard, scary work to start any business venture. The whole concept is intimidating with no guarantee of success. If you already have enough to pay the bills, it is very hard to want to face the many burdens of starting a business. I think that’s why most people never actually start that side hustle or new business. “It would be nice to have an extra $500” is just not as motivating as “If I don’t make $4,000 next month my family will be homeless and starve.”
Your motivation doesn’t have to be the verge of financial disaster.
2. Set up the Very Basics for Solo Practice
To get started in law, you need an IOLTA account and, depending on your jurisdiction, malpractice insurance. Other than that, you just need a computer and maybe some office space. Having an LLC formed may make this easier. I’ll touch on each of these.
Forming an LLC
I do not think it is necessary to form an LLC if you are starting a solo law practice. Your greatest risk of individual liability is malpractice and an LLC is not going to shield you from that.
However, having an LLC can allow you to elect to be taxed as an S-Corp. At a certain level of income, treating your taxes as an S-Corp can help you reduce your overall tax burden. I don’t know the ins and outs of that because I just let my CPA handle that side of things. But that was the main impetus as to why I wanted to have an LLC right out the gate.
If you plan on making decent money, it makes sense to start an LLC so you don’t have to redo your forms later.
If you are an attorney and do not know how to start an LLC, don’t feel bad. It’s a two-step process:
Step 1: File a Certificate of Organization
You can generally get this form from your state’s Secretary of State or business office. It should be an online form that you can submit and process pretty quickly. In most states, you will file a certificate of organization for a Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC).
Generally, if I were creating an LLC for a client, I would have them adopt a basic operating agreement. The idea is that adopting and following an operating agreement adds to the validity of the concept that your LLC is a separate and distinct legal entity from you.
I never put together a generic operating agreement for my practice because I didn’t think it was all that important and didn’t want to spend any time on it.
Step 2: EIN – Employer Identification Number
You can apply for an EIN directly with the IRS. They will immediately provide you with the number once you submit the form. Once you fill out this form, you should also fill out a w9 because people will ask for it when they need to pay you.
Establish an IOLTA account
You must always keep client funds separate from your own. Bars are not cavalier about this rule. This is done through an “Interest on Lawyer’s Trust Account” or IOLTA. The IOLTA account takes the interest that is earned from the client funds held in trust and sends it to the bar’s pro bono foundation.
Pretty much any bank is going to be able to set up an IOLTA account for you. I chose a bank that was closest to me. It’s just a matter of filling out a form. The bank will want your Certificate of Organization and EIN.
Purchase Malpractice Insurance
It would probably be a good idea to shop around for insurance. I did not do that. My state bar (Idaho) endorsed ALPS Insurance, so I just went with ALPS to make things fast and easy. My first year I purchased the minimum insurance of $100,000/claim and $300,000 aggregate for an annual premium of $1,606.
I do not have anything bad to say about ALPS because, fortunately, I have never had to deal with them to any meaningful degree. It was just, “Here’s the price, and here are your payment options.” ALPS does let you term out your policy payments (with interest), but I doubt that is unique to ALPS.
I always wondered if I was getting the best deal through ALPS, but I never shopped for a comparison. If anyone has any experience or knowledge on this, drop a comment.
Find Office space, if desired
I started my practice helping local people in a relatively small area in Southeast Idaho. Having a virtual office was not really a good option for me. Plus, having a virtual office with five small children in the house is not a fun office environment. I needed my own quiet space. My wife and I also did not want clients or work mail coming to our house.
If you look, there are all sorts of places that have single offices for rent. I first tried to get an office with other attorneys. I hoped that I could also develop some synergy and get referrals. But I didn’t have a lot of luck finding attorneys with open office space.
I eventually found a small, furnished office in the downtown Idaho Falls area for $250/mo. It was a great starter office. There were also plenty of other attorneys with offices downtown, and I did eventually end up getting referrals from many of them.
I know other attorneys will find executive office space. Executive space allows you to use the office address, and receptionist service, and have shared space or access to a day-use office for a relatively low monthly rate. My town didn’t really have anything like that and, even if it did, it would probably end up being something like $250/mo anyway. So I was fortunate to have my own space in a pretty nice, but small office.
If you are doing litigation, I really recommend having an office. You are going to need to meet with clients in person to discuss sensitive matters. You also need to see them in person to assess their credibility and demeanor as a witness. You can’t have these conversations in a coffee shop or in your personal home. Plus, if I were a client, I wouldn’t want that.
Get a Basic Computer
You do not need a fancy computer. I started using the same laptop I used in law school. Yes, it was about 8 years old. But all you need is the internet and a word processor. I had no fancy software when I started. I even tracked my time on cases in excel so I didn’t have to spend money on practice management software.
I eventually purchased a very basic desktop computer. I bought a refurbished machine from an electronics recycling store. As my practice developed, I splurged and bought an iPad and then a Microsoft Surface Pro (<– affiliate link, click it now!). I did not like the iPad because I hated the way the Microsoft apps worked. It seemed so jury-rigged. On the other hand, I absolutely love the SurfacePro. It’s light, fast, smooth, and responsive. I have access to all the native programs I need. I purchased the least expensive option of the pro version (again, since you really only need internet and word processing). It’s been great. I even play Skyrim on it. It’s my absolute favorite computer I’ve ever owned.
But that’s enough about that.
Once you have your IOLTA, malpractice insurance, a place to work, and a serviceable computer, you have all you need to get started. Practice software, bookkeeping, and all that other stuff can wait. The next thing you absolutely need is a client.
3. Find Niche Practice Areas you want to “Sell”
As an attorney, the easiest way to get business is to have other attorneys send you referrals. Attorneys cannot handle every case that comes through the door. However, they do want to send these potential clients to an attorney who might be able to help. So when you are talking to other lawyers, you want them to refer cases to you.
In Nevada, it is normal for attorneys who want to develop a referral relationship to offer a fee split. It was generally 20% of any fees. I do not particularly like the referral fee concept. So I’m happy that this was not something that was done in Idaho. You just referred cases to attorneys who you thought would do the best job for the client’s needs. This is probably idealistic, but I think that’s how professionals should operate.
When I started out on my own, I had not pinpointed what areas I wanted to do just yet. I had a bunch of ideas, including:
- Trademark law
- Consumer Rights
- Wills & Estates
- Evictions
- Construction disputes
- Breach of Contract
- Employment Law
Basically, I was open to doing almost anything other than family law, and I have never had any interest in personal injury cases. I also knew there were already a bunch of attorneys doing family law, personal injury, and criminal defense. I was hoping to fill any gaps, but I was willing to consider pretty much any case or referral that came to me.
I created a list and made sure I had at least one war story that demonstrated how I wanted to help. Then I was going to see which areas had need.
The main idea here is that you create a list of talking points so you have some idea of what specific services you’d like to provide. You will then use this list as you visit with other attorneys in the community.
4. Pitch your Niche Areas to other Attorneys
I talked to as many attorneys as I could. I started doing this by cold-calling to ask about office space. The dialogue would go something like this:
Receptionist: “Good morning, law office.”
Me: “Hi, my name is Leland Faux. I’m a newer attorney in the area and I’m looking for some office space. I was wondering if your office happened to have any space available or if you know of anyone with space available?”
Receptionist: “I’m not sure…let me see if [the attorney] knows of anything.”
I’m fortunate that in my area, once the receptionist knows you are a fellow attorney and that you’re not calling about a case, they are pretty friendly and want to help. The same is true for the attorneys.
Often, the receptionist would forward me to the managing attorney. As I mentioned, no one had any space, but I was able to connect with them at least a little bit. They pretty much always asked me what type of law I was doing and I gave them my list. We would also just chit-chat.
Often, people would tell me, “You should meet with so-and-so–they started their own practice.”
So I did that.
I called up anyone people told me to meet. I would tell them “[such-and-such attorney] said I should get with you to talk about how you started your practice. Would you be open for lunch?”
This is how I set up my first lunch meeting.
At this meeting, I went through my list of ideas to see where help was needed or what holes I could fill.
As I was going through my list, we discussed consumer rights. I mentioned that I defended numerous cases by attorneys in Vegas who made a killing suing used car dealers. I explained how the cases worked. Lo and behold, this attorney had two clients that came to him with similar issues.
I had my first two referrals!
Within a few weeks, these two referrals made me around $12,000 in settlements.
5. Ask for Referrals in Your Selected Niche
From my lunches and conversations with other attorneys, I knew that there was a lot of need in the consumer protection arena.
I called the local court and they sent me the names and addresses of all of the attorneys listed with the court (for free). I put together a simple letter announcing my practice and mailed it off to about 200 attorneys. This may have been overboard, but I used fancy linen paper and actually signed each letter by hand. I’m not sure if that mattered, but I felt like it was an important touch.
Here is a copy of the letter; feel free to borrow what you want:
Within two weeks of sending this letter, I had six more cases come in. I do not recall where all of those cases came from. More often than not, if the client was referred by another attorney, they wouldn’t remember the attorney’s name.
But I don’t think it was a coincidence.
“Ask and ye shall receive”
“If you build it, they will come.”
6. Sign up Clients.
I tried to be very careful about confirming with each client whether I was or was not representing them in writing. If I rejected their case, I would send an email like this:
Hi [potential client],
Thank you for discussing your potential case with me on [date]. At this time, I am not able to accept your case. Please note that all cases must be brought within a specific time. I have not evaluated that time for you. If you wish to pursue your case further, you should do so promptly.
If you remain interested in seeking legal representation, you may consider utilizing the Idaho bar’s referral program: [link].
If I accepted a client’s case, I would have them sign a retainer agreement. I had a form for hourly cases and for consumer protection/contingency cases:
Standard Hourly Form
Word Version:
Consumer Protection Contingency Agreement
Word Version:
You are welcome to use whatever parts of my forms you so desire. I have provided copies in PDF and Word.
Welcome to the Hard Part
The online business gurus I used to listen to often said that the hardest part of starting a business is just that–getting started. They said that once you get things rolling, it gets easier.
In my experience, that is totally bogus.
While I agree that getting started is challenging, getting started is unfortunately the easy part.
It’s a lot easier to spend time getting your name out there when you have nothing else to do. It’s easier to do your best work for a client when that client’s case is one of your only two cases. It’s harder to market or maintain high quality when you have 30 other cases.
It’s also easier to be motivated to devote time to your business when your back is against the wall financially. Once you have enough money coming in to have some peace of mind, you just don’t want to spend 12+ hours a day grinding away at the office.
As more and more cases come in, you need to figure out more and more logistics. You need to figure out practice management software. You need to either learn about doing your books or hire a bookkeeper. You have taxes and other administrative issues to worry about. You have to learn how to balance evaluating new cases against time on current cases. If you need help, you need to figure out how to hire. The issues you need to think about and figure out are endless.
It can also be very lonely.
Since my days as a boy reading Entrepreneur magazine, I thought I would love running a small business. I was very surprised to learn during five years of hanging my own shingle that I enjoyed practicing law much more than I enjoyed running the business.
After a lot of thought, I decided that I did not want to take a break from running a law practice.
So I sold it.
Hanging my own shingle was one of my favorite parts of my life so far. I love the adventure it took to get there and the challenges my family and I overcame to make it happen. I enjoyed working with my clients and the legal community.
That being said, selling my law practice was such a breath of fresh air. I was too stressed out and burned out. I had become more cranky at home. I know it made me a better lawyer and (hopefully) a better person. It had just run its course in my life. So while I was happy it was there, I’m also happy it is gone.
Yet, I’d still encourage anyone who has a dream of hanging their own shingle to give it a shot. If you need have any questions from someone who’s done it, … man, I don’t know what to tell you.
