Solo by Choice : How to be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be
Author: Carolyn Elefant
Publisher: Decision Books (Seattle, WA: 2008)

Book website: http://www.myshingle.com/promo/services/

To purchase Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be (Amazon.com; please note that’s an affiliate link)

Full disclosure: I love Carolyn Elefant. Not in a stalker-y, creepy way (for which I’m sure she’s grateful), but in an “I owe my livelihood and sanity to that woman and her website” kind of way.

See, back when I was struggling with the decision to go solo or stay shackled to my job as a local government attorney, Carolyn’s website MyShingle was my lifeline to the world of solo-dom. I visited it daily — devoured all the links Carolyn had collected, her frequent posts about going solo, the many resources she was able to dig up and write about. It was there that I learned of Solosez, the ABA solo lawyer listserv, and thus began to see a way through my biggest perceived obstacle to what I knew, deep down, I really wanted to do: the lack of collected wisdom you find in a law office that helps you over the parts you’d otherwise freak out about, just a little.

I’m far from the only person who can credit Carolyn Elefant with helping to find the courage to follow her dreams. So – more full disclosure: When I discovered she was writing a book about going solo, I cheered, out loud. And when she asked me via email to contribute a sidebar to that debut book, Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be, I allowed myself one wee small bit of a fangirl moment seated at my desk, then I wrote back “Sure!”

So – I did contribute a few words (on case management software) to Carolyn’s book, along with several other lawyers who’ve “been there, done that, got the solo T-shirt.” But Carolyn insisted that I be honest in this critique, and I hope I’ve done that. You be the judge.

Solo By Choice: Overview

We ought to start with a question: was there a need for another book on going solo? The answer, in my view, is a resounding and firm “Yes, absolutely.”

No disrespect intended towards Jay Foonberg, but his How to Start and Build a Law Practice, long considered the “bible” of hanging a shingle in the U.S., is now in its fifth printing; that’s an impressive record and it’s certainly merited, because Foonberg wrote a good book. And if you’re thinking of going solo, it’s definitely one you want to take a look at.

But no one book can answer all the questions an attorney will have in facing this most profound career choice. And Foonberg’s experience as a solo who’s been in practice for a long time is very different than that of someone like me, for instance, who did it in the 21st century; mine will likewise be different than someone who launches a practice in 2010. It’s just the way things are, as technology in particular and the world in general drastically change the landscape for entrepreneurs of all stripes. Part of the value I find in Carolyn’s book is its timeliness; she addresses topics such as websites and blogs both as marketing tools and as assets to be planned for and divided in the event of a split from a firm.

Organization of Solo By Choice

Carolyn’s book breaks the solo question down into four major projects — “The Decision,” “Planning the Great Escape,” “The Practice,” and “Marketing” — and throws in a FAQ section at the end for good measure. That’s telling, in my view: the book seems aimed chiefly at answering questions, so a FAQ makes sense.

The main portion of the book is then followed by several appendices that cover topics such as business plan writing, day-to-day practice management issues (this is where my contribution on case management software was placed), finding a legal research service you can afford, creating a forms library, and more.

The book’s layout perfectly mirrors the wanna-be solo’s mind — or rather, what the would-be solo’s mind might look like if it were able to stay on track consistently. In that sense, the organization is a valuable road map.

First, there’s a decision to be made: is going solo right for me, as a lawyer and as a person? Here, Carolyn offers three chapters – “Six Reasons to Solo,” “The Big Decision” (which initially mirrors some of the same territory offered up in the first chapter but then branches out into deeper analysis of motivations and concerns), and “Soloing Out of Law School” — by far the hottest hot-button topic on the Solosez listserv and in general conversation as well. Carolyn’s bottom line: It depends on your prior business experience, but it can work for those for whom the law isn’t the first “grown-up” job they’ve ever had.

Next, Carolyn addresses the immediate concerns of those who are currently employed: how do I get out of here with as much grace and goodwill as possible? This is definitely an area in which she excels, and you can tell she’s writing from direct experience. That’s helpful, as office politics are a minefield that’s trapped many an unwary player.

The excitement of building practice is immense, and it deserves some encouragement — which you will find here — but it also deserves a dose of reality. In this vein, I found the “Planning” and “Practice” sections especially helpful. Carolyn’s less a rah-rah cheerleader type (rampant on the web in solo blogs these days, it seems) and more a wise business coach, who wants you to succeed but also knows you need the unvarnished truth before you strike out on your own. This practical, balance approach is a breath of fresh air, and I applaud her for having the courage to “tell it like it is.”

Content and Style

For me, personally, making the decision to go solo was the hardest decision I’d ever made; I don’t think I’m alone in that, judging from the email I get from this blog. So, I would really have liked to have seen more written about that here, as both a business and a personal decision. While it’s true that in the end, a solo has to choose for himself or herself, and no amount of help, and no book, can possibly make that decision for the lawyer, I think there’s a gap in the literature here. To my way of thinking, no book has really adequately covered this subject. On the other hand, I don’t think one can fault any individual author or publisher for this: I’ve tried writing about it myself, and it’s difficult to do.

Where Carolyn’s book really shines is Parts 2, 3, and 4 – the planning and practical aspects of opening a solo law practice. Chapters 4 through 7 cover a myriad of topics that the form the framework of the eventual practice: office location, jurisdiction, practice area, home office versus commercial space, and more. But it also goes into some detail about other critical circumstances that can deeply impact the lawyer departing from another job to launch her own practice: questions such as when to give notice, how to negotiate severance pay, how to handle the clients you’ve been dealing with, and even a section on “Who owns the blog?”

Marketing gets thorough coverage in this book, and for good reason: most questions new solos have relate in some way to marketing — how to do it, why it’s so painful, whether to choose this form over that, and endlessly, how to do it more cost-effectively. All those subjects are addressed in some way here. One of two things will happen to the on-the-fence marketer: you’ll either get excited about it, or you’ll at a minimum swallow your fear and dive in anyway. Either way, you’re better off than before, and so is your practice. Equally helpful: the practical pointers both in the “Practice” chapters and in various appendices related to running your law practice’s daily operations.

“In Their Own Words”: Solo Stories

In the last appendix and liberally throughout the main text are what I believe to be the book’s most value-added segments — individual profiles and Q&As of solos designed to more fully flesh out the one question almost every potential solo has: What’s it really like out there?

Of course, the second-most commonly asked question for solos-to-be is usually asked only to oneself: Can I really hack it? This, as I see it, is what the book’s designed to help the reader figure out for herself or himself. But including the stories of such diverse solos helps the reader get there by illustrating the various paths one couldtake. It’s by sharing stories that we get to “try on” the life of a solo and see if it would really fit and suit us individually. In that regard, these stories are priceless.

Nitpicks and Druthers

If I have any complaints about the book, they’re pretty minor:

• I wish the editor had chosen a larger typeface. At times, my 40+ year old eyes were not too happy with my insistence that we keep reading.
• The use of ellipses for em-dashes is peculiar and off-putting. It signals a context that doesn’t appear, and drew me out of the text, even if briefly.
• I think this subject could have benefited from an index.

Bottom Line: A Must-Have For Any Solo Library

Enough said. Go get it.

Reviewer’s Note: Although I did contribute a short piece to Carolyn’s book, I get no remuneration for that contribution or from sales of the book.