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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I knew a personal injury lawyer who was building himself a sweet second home in Colorado ski country - I guess he did alright.  [/quote]

Just curious, then what is the pull of biglaw? If you have to sign your life away and bill an insane amount of hours, wondering why more people just don't do practice law on their own? Especially all the ex-biglaw SAHMs who quit because of the horrendous hours.
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It is really hard to start to your own practice but there is the potential to be very successful.  When you start out (especially if you start on your own right out of law school), you have to take any kind of business that comes your way whether you know about that area or not -- lots of work to get up to speed on different areas of the law and lots of pressure.  Also, you have all of the overhead: rent, phone, malpractice insurance,etc. before anyone pays you a dime.  There is the potential to do better than big law but big law guarantees you a large salary right out of school and you don't have to worry about the overhead (of course, there are other tradeoffs).  Also, when you are on your own you are responsible for all of the rainmaking -- if you don't bring in clients, you won't be paying the rent.  Big law firms (at least when I was there - and I know it has changed the last few years) tend to have a few institutional clients who always generate work.  So, although you have to bring in business to make partner, that pressure isn't there when you are a first or second year attorney right out of school.  Other factors include the lack of mentors or more established attorneys to learn from when you are on your own.  But I wouldn't automatically assume that someone who is on his/her own isn't successful. I actually think it is a pretty impressive accomplishment to start and maintain your own firm.[/quote]

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