| Topic Name: |
Solo Attorneys out there? |
| Message Name: |
some details. |
| Date Posted: |
11/15/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
Most big firm attorneys never do the math, and that's why they remain big firm attorneys. Here are the numbers at my firm:
My current hourly rate is $250 (although many of my flat fee services have an effective yield of $500 per hour, but we'll ignore that for now to keep the math simple). If I work just 1000 hours per year, my gross income is $250,000. That's just 84 hours per month! But, of course, I have some overhead. My expenses are $4,000 per month, which includes my part time secretary. It could be less, but I like a nice office. So, I work 16 hours per month to cover my overhead. Thus, to turn that $250,000 gross into $250,000 net, I need to add another 16 hours per month, for a total of 100 hours. If I can't find 100 hours per month of work, I'm really doing something wrong.
Note, however, that the $250,000 is just from my efforts. I also have a number of part-time contract attorneys working for me. They are typically less experienced, so I bill their services at $185 per hour. I pay them between $55 and $100 per hour, depending on what we have negotiated, and the rest goes to me. I have two work stations in my office for the contract attorneys, but most of them work out of their own homes/offices. I use them only when I have work for them, so they add no overhead. Some months I have no work for them, other months they make me an additional $20,000 to $30,000.
In addition to the 100 hours per month of hourly work, I always have a few contingency cases working. I treat these as my bonuses. I have never made less than $50,000 in a year from contingency fees, and I sometimes do much better. Last month I was finally paid a big contingency fee following an appeal. That case was pretty time consuming, but it still yielded an hourly rate in excess of $1,000.
Big firm attorneys never want to believe these numbers because it is just too painful. I earn well over $250,000 per year working just 30 hours per week (except when I'm in trial -- then I work around the clock). When a contingency case hits, I earn far, far more.
Your circumstances may be different -- perhaps you can't bill at that rate -- but the numbers don't lie.
Best of luck to you all. |
| Message: |
Mr. Rhodes...
What kind of work do you do? In what kind of city/state/town do you practice? Most importantly, how do you go about finding your clients?
I've often thought of going solo, but could never figure out how to go about finding people to pay me, to give me work to do.
That is the most significant link in the chains that bind me to BigLaw.
--Ben
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