This blog is about my attempt to transition from being a legal aid lawyer to a solo practitioner — hence the subtitle. The title is just my tongue-in-cheek homage to all the solo lawyer blogs I’ve been reading recently in preparing myself for the solo life.
Some background — I spent eight years as a lawyer at a non-profit firm. We provided free civil legal services to low-income people. It was as close to a dream job that I thought I would ever find as a lawyer. However, I have a restless streak, and for family and personal reasons, I decided to leave that job and move across the country to Portland, OR.
I had the luxury of some savings I wasn’t afraid to dip into and a generous boyfriend, so I moved without much of a career plan.
Most people are surprised to learn that a low-paying legal jobs are extremely competitive, but, that’s the reality for most positions at public interest organizations. The combination of low turnover due to high job satisfaction and limited budget means that there are not a lot of openings. I used to be on the hiring committee of at my legal services organization. We were swamped with highly qualified applicants each time we had an opening for a staff attorney.
Point being, since I had no desire to work for a law firm and I didn’t get hired at the local legal aid organization, it eventually occurred to me that maybe I should go into business for myself. I’d like to serve low and moderate income clients — people who are priced out of legal aid but can’t afford to pay much for legal assistance. I’m planning to use this blog to record the adventure of setting up and running my own solo practice.
