Can You Maintain a Second Practice?
Considering Alternative Careers
Can a carefully defined solo practice be a sideline while a lawyer maintains a primary job in a larger organization - providing that no conflicts of interest or other ethical issues intrude? Given the swiftness with which firms fail, partners are de-equitized and associates are laid off, the question is not a moot one. Such a side practice can be a valuable safety net. Today there is a greater inclination by many lawyers to consider alternative career scenarios that would previously have been unnecessary.
Balancing Two Careers
Lawyers, of course, have done moonlighting in a certain sense for many years - in holding positions as elected officials, in serving with nonprofit or community interest boards, in being members of company boards of directors. As with these activities, the practicality of a sideline practice becomes a question of definition. If a lawyer in solo practice has a different full-time job, that full-time client probably represents 90 percent of the lawyer's time and revenue stream. No matter how many other clients the solo practice has, the overall emphasis will be smaller both in the amount of time required and in terms of dollars earned.
Satisfying the Primary Client
If it is essential to retain the primary job, the lawyer must make sure not to anger the primary client (the employer) while serving others. With a full-time job, you have one client; and if that client takes a sudden dislike to your sideline practice, you may find the full-time position terminated without notice. Of course, it is also possible that the full time employer has a sudden problem (a major loss of business, or power structure change) that dramatically impacts you. If your ultimate goal has been to build up the solo practice in order to establish freedom of action if need be, your foresight will be rewarded.
Can You Handle the Pressure?
There is another danger for both the full-time and sideline practice: the risk that the pressure of trying to do too much will create unmanageable pressures that distract your attention and cause you either to neglect clients or actually to make errors in counseling them. Remember that the majority of disciplinary complaints against lawyers relate to careless dealings with clients - poor service, failure to return phone calls, inaccurate arithmetic on the billing statements. These are all management issues, not technical or substantive issues of law. Poor client service is a problem compounded by inattention or distraction. Particularly if you increasingly find one side or other of your dual practice more engaging, you may emotionally desert your clients on the other side well before you make a decision which practice to emphasize. If the result is a malpractice action, you could lose your law license - and both of your practices with it.
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