Should You Stay or Should You Go? How to Leave Big Law to Start a Small Firm

With high starting salaries, major clients and extensive prerequisites, big firm life is alluring. But for some, that sheen wears off, and opening a solo practice or small firm becomes the dream.

Here's how to go about it.

Who's In?

First, consider who might have the faith to follow you. That's according to Jeffrey Schneider of Miami's Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman, or LKLSG, founded by five self-professed "Big Law refugees."

Ethics rules prohibit lawyers from soliciting clients while transitioning to a new firm, so the most you can do is "project who you think would go with you."

"At that point, you are just jumping off the cliff and hoping for the best, because you really don't know who's going to go with you until you do it. And I don’t just mean clients; I mean lawyers," Schneider said.

William Clayton had reached the principal shareholder level and was co-chair of a national litigation practice group at Greenberg Traurig when he left to start Clayton Trial Lawyers in February 2020 — AKA "probably the worst time in the world."

Key to his success were his top associate and assistant of more than 15 years.

"You cannot and I could not, at Greenberg, actively recruit people to go with me," Clayton said. "I could simply say that I'm leaving and wait for them to bring up the question: 'Hey, can I come along?' "

'I Hope You've Saved'

For a while, the biggest concern is getting paid, according to Schneider, who said that means having a conversation with your family about, "How long can we go without a paycheck?"

"There's just so much money that is exiting in order for you to get up and running, and the big question is: when will some money start to enter?" Schneider said.

Clayton seconded that statement, noting it took about a year for him to feel comfortable about having financial success.

"I hope you've saved," Clayton said.

'Who Are You?'

Many clients will view new firms as risky, so flaunting your Big Law credentials can help. When LKLSG began 11 years ago, its tagline went something like, "Big firm quality, small firm service."

"What we were marketing was the fact that, 10 minutes earlier, we had been the big firm lawyers that you were paying big dollars to," Schneider said. "And now, we are those same exact people but we’re in a much smaller setting where we could do things much more cheaply."

Creating an SEO-friendly website packed with content is crucial for communicating your name and reputation, Clayton said.

"You have to have the look and feel of a Big Law website for your clients to have confidence in coming with you or for referral clients to come to you for the first time," Clayton said. “A critical component is identifying an IT person through your network. This person will more important than you ever thought possible.”

Media coverage also helps, according to Schneider, who had wondered, "How do we get past the point where people ask, 'Who are you? I've never heard of that firm.' "

"Over time, that kind of wanes because, when you've been in the paper 10 or 15 times, then you start to become better known," Schneider said. "The insecurity that clients feel about hiring a firm that's unknown, when they can Google you and pick up 50 articles and read about the things that you've done and see that you've been around not just for weeks, months, but now years, then they start to feel more comfortable."

Graphic by Cailtin Kennedy/ALM.

Starting Salaries

It's tough recruiting against Big Law's eye-popping starting salaries, but Schneider suggests telling young lawyers to be patient.

"This is what I tell the lawyers: I can guarantee you will be in a courtroom in the next three to four months. I can guarantee you will have a speaking role when you go to court in the next three to four months. I can guarantee that you will be in trial in the next 18 months," Schneider said. "And I can also guarantee that in the next five years, you're going to call me. It's not even a pitch, it’s the truth. It’s spoken from experience because I was there."

Likewise, Clayton asked former Big Law associates to accept a small salary reduction and invest in the effort with him, and when business went well, he restored their salaries.

Don't Be a Jerk

Leaving a big firm can mean taking some clients and colleagues with you, but it doesn't — and shouldn't — mean causing a scene.

"We got a lot of calls from the press when we left, and so did they, and everybody was looking for the beef. Like, 'What happened?' " Schneider said. "We never badmouthed them and they never badmouthed us, and we wished them the best and they wished us the best, and what ended up happening was the creation of two firms that respected each other and ended up working together on a number of cases, so clients didn’t feel any drama or pressure."

The same goes for clients, Clayton notes, because gone are the days of receptionists, assistants and marketing departments.

"You are the frontline with the clients," Clayton said. "You have to be prepared to be delivering personalized services after hours, on the weekends. You have to be supremely client friendly. You cannot be in the business of 'No.' "

Is This Really You?

Starting a firm from scratch takes courage and diligence.

"Creating a good law firm is like a marriage, and you've got to be able to be married for a while. You don't want to have to get divorced a year later when you've got a 10-year lease or a bank loan with personal guarantees," Schneider said.

Clayton said it helped to ask technical questions of others who've done the same, such as "What data systems do you use? Who's your legal malpractice insurer?"

"You have to believe them when they say, 'Hey, you're going to make it. You're going to be busier than you can imagine.' Because it's scary," Clayton said.

The Ferris Wheel

Once established, you've got to find a way to keep things going. Schneider thinks of his firm as a Ferris wheel, where people can get off and on while it spins.

"You keep getting clients and you keep doing good work and you hope it continues until the day you retire," Schneider said. "And if it really went well, there's something left for the other people there so that it can continue for them as well."

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