There is a great post on Solo Lawyer, which reviews a post on GP/Solo entitled Sunsetting A Law Practice. It follows an attorney who is leaving the solo life after 16 years of representing family law clients.
The issue is whether such attorneys are just fed up with the practice of law, see a better opportunity, or what.
I agree that lawyers reach a point where they are looking for nirvana, but the feelings about being fed up, and tired, and just plum worn out, are usually systematic of a bigger problem. Maybe it involves a lack of regular earnings, the lack of association and collaboration, maybe the feeling of pushing the wagon alone. Certainly, solos need to take heed to deal with these issues early on.
It is easy to get into a rut. If you are going to be a solo (and especially if you are going to work at home), you need to manage your earnings well. You need to live within your means. You need to actively plan for the future (and we know how hard this is). But, you need to maintain a good social and professional life and support system away from the office. This is really important. That is the reason that the virtual or Third Wave practice is so good. It allows you to get free and move about. And, then some of it probably has to do not so much with the solo life but the area of law chosen.
Transactional work in the long run is maybe better. Litigation gets old and tiring over the years, after the excitement has worn off. And, as Rick Georges indicated in his post, I think I would rather cut my wrists than practice family law. Now I know this of myself, and so I avoid the practice area like the plague. The problem ultimately with some practices areas, like this, is that the law cannot solve the real problems your clients face. This is the law choice issue. Maybe, if you want to be solo, you need to give less thought to your needs today and concentrate on where you want to be 10 years from now when choosing a practice area. If you hate seeing people in personal pain, desperate, unreasonable, when you cannot do something about it, then family law is probably not for you. Then, if you find that your not chosen your practice area well, start to migrate your practice when you feel these pressures.
I would like to point out that life in the corporate world or Big Law has all of the same problems, with more overhead, and even more layers of stress than the solo or Third Wave practice. As Erma Bombeck alway said, "The grass is always greener over the septic tank". Just make sure you are not jumping from the frying pan into the fire. If change is what you crave, I would offer that you can change your practice while staying a solo. I have done it a number of times.
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