Tom Delay: People Are Unemployed Because They Want To Be

[ADqtPiMel]

Originally Posted by Kevin

I know lawyers who office out of their apartments. And generally to join a federal Bar Association or for State dues, it's only around $200 or so, which just about anyone can scrounge up or put on a credit card.

As far as getting on that list, if it's through the Federal Public Defender's office, I doubt that costs anything. If it's a fairly uniform system (and I'm guessing that's the case), then you just get in contact with the public defender, sit second-chair on something that goes to trial and you're ready to go. Doesn't pay great, but it pays.

Something I know a few lawyers do is just hang out in the courtroom at the criminal arraignment dockets and get appointed to represent (for a fee, of course) whatever unrepresented criminal defendants happen to be there that day. In fact, there are a few folks around here who I'm pretty sure do only that and don't actually even have offices.

And once you're a member of the federal Bar, get some good bankruptcy software and that can be a lucrative and easy field to make money in. As a lawyer, you're never unemployed because if you do a good job networking (note: networking means not networking with other lawyers, church, rotary, etc., are much more reliable ways to pick up clients).

Also, if you can get a simple website online, once you get it indexed well with the search engines, you'll be able to bring in quite a few cases that way. In this profession, getting a job with some big firm is highly overrated. Starting solo, you'll make a lot less money in the short run, but in the long run, in terms of stress and even money, you're more than likely going to come out ahead.

Thank you for the advice. We're not comfortable enough with giving up the retail paycheck (and it is a decent retail job, not one he's likely to find again) to take the chance on solo practice. He's at the court twice a week, sometimes more, and sees more lawyers waiting around to represent the unrepresented than there are cases. It's a risky move at this point for us, and we don't have much of a safety net if it fails.

And big firm jobs aren't even on his radar -- the only person we know out here who managed to go the traditional big firm route is a high school friend who graduated top 10% from Stanford, and even she had her offer deferred. He's looking at the government, smaller boutique firms, and clerkships with judges.

I don't have any interest in belaboring this point -- just saying that people directed toward DC as the Land of Jobs are going to be disappointed.