I had to do this. I had to review my own book. Not just to give it five stars, mind you, but to explain where I think it falls within the literature devoted to lawyers who open small practices or go solo.
Gerald Singer's original book, "How to Go Directly...Without Missing a Meal" inspired me back in San Francisco in 1978 when, as a recent graduate of Hastings, I had hung out a shingle. In tribute, my book's sub-title echos Singer's title. (I'm not sure he sees the tribute). I gave away my copy of Singer 30 years ago and haven't needed to replace it. In the meantime, Jay Foonberg (a JD/CPA) and Carolyn Elefant (a phenomenon) had become gurus on the subject. I knew nothing of either of them until $olo Contendere was nearly completed. Fortunately, this book does not attempt to do what theirs do. They are exhaustive, detailed, and packed with information. My book is shorter, a quicker read, and crammed with caveats, short-cuts, insights and lessons from my past.
$olo Contendere earns five stars from me, because it achieves the goals that I set for it. It suggests a simple strategy for starting a law firm with almost no money down and with little risk of harm to either attorney or client. It does not offer the formula for success. Neither does it provide detailed analyses or prodigious resources. Others do that; my aforementioned colleagues, the state and local bar associations, the mentoring groups, the malpractice insurors and the internet offer astounding resources to lawyers who inquire. I refer the readers' substantive questions to them.
This book is different. It remembers where I bumped my nose and where the quicksand hides. It remembers lessons I learned as an ethics investigator, and later, as ethics chair. It tells why to avoid having the only known copy of a document or to turn down a case because two other lawyers have touched it already. It warns against deep discounts to friends and family, and it claims that you can build a practice through the use of "thank you" notes. It shows how easy it is to become an expert and how to develop an ethnic or niche clientele. It stresses, "Put it in writing!" It says, "Practice with civility." Above all, it says: "If you really want to practice law, if you really want to represent clients of your own and have a specialty of your own choosing, you can do it."
The May 2011 edition of The Wisconsin Lawyer magazine featured a review of $olo Contendere by Farheen M. Ansari, who went solo one year out,and was a disciple of both Foonberg and Elefant. She wrote:
"What I liked most about Solo Contendere is Garfinkle's positive attitude and the confidence he conveys.
Before learning how to do this in Chapter 2, the reader is first told "you can afford to go solo" in Chapter 1. There are more pep talks than in other solo practice guides I have read, probably because this book is specifically tailored to attorneys who have not practiced before at all. It is so important to have confidence when starting out, even if you have to fake it at times. The book's "yes, you can" theme is especially timely for law students who have graduated recently. For many lawyers, going solo was not something to which they aspired but became a necessity when they could not find jobs... And if this career path does not work out, keep in mind the last chapter's title: "Worst-Case Scenario: Parlay Your Solo Practice into a Real Job."
Ms. Ansari "gets" $olo Contendere. I hope you, dear reader, get it, too.
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