On Going Solo: A Cautionary Tale

[WSJ_law_blog]

Not long ago, we had a chat with a fellow named Mitchell Matorin, a big-firm refugee who, a few years ago, went Han Solo, with fairly happy results.

We were hopeful that we’d hear down the road that the post encouraged someone to strike out on her own — and that things for that person would go remarkably well. This person would call us years later and tell us that not only had we saved her career, but saved her marriage and, in a manner of speaking, saved her life.

All that might happen. (A law blogger can dream, can’t he?) But we’d be remiss if we didn’t also send your way the cautionary tales about solo-life. We came across an interesting one today, courtesy of the American Lawyer. Writes AmLaw’s Nate Raymond:

This winter, Scott Jaffe, Paul Roberts and Ross Schiller had an idea that could only have come out of the recession: a law firm staffed by laid-off lawyers. The trio planned to open a boutique firm in midtown Manhattan that specialized in finance, commercial law and bankruptcies. They bought computers, distributed marketing materials and signed up a few clients.

But by July, Jaffe, Roberts & Schiller was dead. Schiller was out, and Jaffe and Roberts were cutting a deal to combine with another start-up firm, Bryant & Partners. That firm, which was founded in January by DLA Piper refugee B. Seth Bryant, counted E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, among others, as a client.

So what, exactly, was the problem? It was a fairly fundamental one: too few folks willing to pay for their services. Writes Raymond:

Work was slow to arrive. Roberts, 40, says he was close to signing a client who could have covered their monthly expenses. It never happened. The group kept busy with pro bono work, including Chapter 7 filings that Jaffe and Roberts handled to pick up bankruptcy experience, and a loan modification for one of Schiller’s relatives.

Oof. So what happened? One of the trio is still looking for a job, while the two others have moved on to another small firm, where they’ll both be partners.

At the end of the day, maybe the story’s not as dire as we initially thought; maybe the moral is that even if you strike out on your own and fail, you’ll catch on somewhere else — maybe even as a partner.

Takes a lot to run a new practice!