Unlock your potential: Are you ready to start your own practice?

Do you enjoy interacting with different kinds of people?  Are you generally confident about yourself?  Have you ever done anything as an entrepreneur in the past?  These are just three of the questions that "Unlock Your Potential," [PDF] a resource guide from the Young Lawyers Division, poses to lawyers who are contemplating striking out on their own and starting a solo practice.

For those who decide they have what it takes – the guide includes an assessment of responses – there is information about how to market your solo firm, how to handle office administration and human resources, as well as how to form your law practice. Chapter headings run the gamut:

• Starting your law practice
• Forming your law practice
• Business financing
• Office infrastructure
• Office administration
• Marketing
• Human Resources
• Timekeeping, billing, and other considerations
• Business insurance

The information provided is very practical, and includes checklists and lists of questions that need to be asked and answered. A checklist of things a lawyer should have completed prior to resigning from his or her current firm or position, for example, includes:

• A complete and thorough business plan, which provides a plan of action tailored to that lawyer's needs
• Finalized office arrangements, including equipment and needed assistance
• Access to resources, such as through bar association practice management and solo/small firm sections
• A handle on finances, as the first client check probably won't arrive for a few months

"Unlock Your Potential" was the member service project of the Young Lawyers Division for the 2004-2005 bar year, and the online resource guide continues to provide information and guidance for lawyers seeking to hang out their own shingle.  The guide is not intended to serve as legal advice; lawyers interested in opening a solo practice should contact their local state bar association for professional guidance.

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