Starting a solo practice in Massachusetts

I have been practicing as an associate for a previously solo practitioner in the Greater Boston Area for six years. I posted my compensation in the yearly, “How much are you making?” thread in /r/lawyers and the three comments on my salary were: “Dude…”, “get out now”, and “You'll make more hanging your own shingle.”

The seed was planted, and on January 4th, I put in my notice. On January 7th, while I took an emergency day off to help my hospitalized sister with her newborn child, I was fired by phone call.

So fuck it, let’s get started today!

I’ve enjoyed reading the updates and frank budgetary breakdowns posted by /u/Florida_Esq and /u/TXSoloLaw regarding starting up a firm. Obviously, we’re facing a brave new world regarding practice due to COVID so I thought others may mind the info about my journey helpful.

I practice in the areas of federal workers’ compensation, MA workers’ comp, federal and Massachusetts state disability retirement benefits, and Social Security.

Start-up Expenses

  • $500 - PLLC Corporate Registration - This is mainly to protect me down the line so no one sues me and steals all my student loans.
  • $800 - Office deposit - I'm renting a small office mainly to boost my Google MyBusiness listing (as Google doesn’t favor virtual office listings).
  • $150- I bought some bookshelves and shelving to revamp my home office to accommodate full time work.

Total One-time Start-Up Expenses = $1,450

Annual Expenses

  • $975 - Malpractice Insurance - $.5M/$1M limit, $2,000 deductible.
  • $200 - GoDaddy website hosting and domain registration for the next year. I certainly could have cheaped out on this one but I like their domain builder and the tools it comes with.
  • $399 - Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group
  • $350- Massachusetts Bar registration
  • $310 - Massachusetts Bar Association dues
  • $100 - Local County Bar Association

Total Annually Recurring Expenses = $2,334 (I’ll reconsider my associations next year...they are all currently active having been paid by my old firm)

Monthly Expenses

  • $400 - Rent - A small single office with all expenses included. For Boston-area, the rent is great. The building isn’t A+ but it’s professional enough for now if I ever meet clients in-person again.
  • $70- CLIO. My old firm had NO case management and using one finally is amazing. I also use the e-signing and credit card options which I’d be paying for separately so it is worth it for me for now.
  • $40 - VoIP Phone - Signed up with RingCentral for an ePhone and eFax.
  • $20 - Quickbooks
  • $10 - Google storage for files. I may be able to reduce this once I get the files sorted out...I needed to

Total Monthly Expenses = $540

Miscellaneous Expenses * $400.00 - Business Cards and business folders. I feel like since I won’t be seeing clients ‘in person’, I want to have a decent quality folder/packet to send them when they sign up.

These are the expenses spent so far. My savings are about $7,000.

My lowball goal is to pay daycare expenses for the year: that is, make it more valuable for me to be a lawyer than to be a SAHM clipping coupons. My reach goal this first year is to out-earn my old position while pouring money back into the business to upgrade tech/office furniture/marketing.

My work is contingency, with a year+ lead time on a lot of types of cases. I’m hoping to bring many/most clients from my old firm. I have about 50 clients that I handle exclusively or predominantly with an average fee of $4500 or less. I will be splitting these fees with the old firm, however, at a rate/amount we have yet to work out. I am still working with the firm I’m leaving to prepare the joint letter to claimants.

I've been networking with other attorneys and attending the local bar association virtual meetings. I’ve emailed several attorneys to talk a little bit more personally which has been nice. I’m planning on launching some online advertising and creating videos for marketing. Filming videos is easier said than done!

I hope this helps. Since the last post series on this topic, a) software has shifted to a subscription model and b) COVID-19 so I hope this can be helpful.

If anyone has any suggestions/comments/questions, please let me know. Also I’m happy to talk to anyone working in Massachusetts or who practices in or needs help in federal workers’ comp or Social Security.