New Law School Grads Hang Out Their Shingles

Written by Todd R. Brown

After stepping back into her law office in Old Town Clovis, Teresa B. Petty greeted an elderly client who slipped past her at the front door while she chatted outside.

“How come you didn’t whack me in the back of the head?” she asked playfully as she shook the man’s hand.

A stone’s throw from San Joaquin College of Law on Fifth Street, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 2007, Petty is running a thriving practice that she opened not long after graduating as an alternative to working for an established firm.

“This is really a fourth career for me,” said Petty, who expends about 40% of her efforts on elder law, from helping seniors find power bill discounts and other cost savings, to filing suit against negligent nursing homes. “When I went out and looked in the job market to be an attorney, I wanted maximum flexibility.”

That ultimately led her to decide to be her own boss in order to prioritize her babysitting duties as a local grandmother, among other callings outside the strict 9-to-5 world of a hired gun.

“Can I do this on my own?  Was there enough work? She recalled asking herself.  “It took off like crazy.”

First renting a turnkey 8x10 office with phone and Internet service and furniture in a “beehive” of work-spaces with shared conference rooms, she quickly grew her business to the point where a proper setting was called for, and the Law Office of Teresa B. Petty took root on Woolworth Avenue.

The luxury of being one’s own boss is not the only reason for a growing trend in newly minted lawyers striking out on their own rather than logging time with a recognized firm.  The state of the economy has pushed more attorneys to go it alone rather than battle for shrinking staff openings.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its 2010-11 Occupational Outlook Handbook that more than a quarter of lawyers are self-employed either as sole practitioners or partners in law firms.  “Competition for job openings should be keen,” the handbook said, “because of the large number of student graduating from law school each year.”

Although the ABA (American Bar Association) Journal recently cautioned new grads “not to hang out their own shingle” should their risky solo firms fail, the same publication noted not long before that recent grads are eager to work for themselves rather than not work at all.

“I was sworn in in January, and in just a couple days, we set up shop temporarily in Visalia,” said Kathleen Phillips, who graduated last year from San Joaquin College of Law.

The school turns 40 this fall and will celebrate its anniversary with alumni events Sept. 10 and 11 in Fresno; details are avaialbe at www.sjcl.edu/40th.

“We moved to Tulare in March,” Phillips said of her upstart firm.  “I guess I say ‘we’ because it’s been like a team effort.”

While she hired a legal assistant and a paralegal, the eponymous head of Phillips Law Firm is a sole practitioner who specializes in business matters, including crop-loss cases.  Although she had planned to take a job with an attorney she once worked for as a paralegal and later clerked for part-time, the opportunity didn’t last long enough.

“The economy kind of hit everyone hard,” she said.  “Basically, there was a job there without pay.”

That made the choice to fly solo pretty easy, and Phillips’ back-shop experience was crucial in getting a new office going.  I had always been involved in the administrative side,” she said, noting that she went through the paralegal program at College of the Sequoias in Visalia.  “I really trained more in the procedural aspect.  What’s the timeline to get something filed?  When do I calendar it?”

“A lot of attorneys coming out of law school, that’s the one major problem.  In law school, you’re taught just the law, how to argue it.  But you’re not really taught how to file a motion.  I have that advantage going in.  I know how to do something from start to finish,” she added.

One pitfall for new solo lawyers that she cautioned against was taking on too many contingency cases, where the attorney only makes money if he or she wins.  Although Phillips had experience in employment discrimination cases and expected to make that a big part of her practice, she said, “We ended up doing a lot of focus on our hourly clients and business clients.”

Petty likewise worked as a paralegal before she went to law school and evolved into a full-time attorney.  Having learned about insurance issues that senior citizens face in one of her previous career incarnations, and helping her own mother navigate the Medi-Cal system, aided Petty in homing in on elder care as a specialty.

“I don’t miss civil litigation too awfully,” said Petty, who also focuses on family law even though she first worried that she’d get too emotionally involved in the cases.  “The intrigue – there’s just enough to keep you satisfied.”

She agreed that one shortcoming of law school is that “they say ‘here’s a certificate’ and push you out the door without a roadmap,” but noted that San Joaquin grads tend to band together, a function of the school’s insistence that students cooperate rather than compete since there is no grading curve.  In other words, anyone and everyone can fail.  “There’s a willingness to open up and help each other,” Petty said.

Pahoua C. Lor, a 2008 San Joaquin graduate, opened her own firm early this year after passing the bar and found that not only have her colleagues been a help, but casual friends and family provided her with a windfall of referrals.

“Given the economy and just the lack of job opportunities that were out there, I just decided to jump right into it,” she said.  “The first couple of months were pretty light, which gave me a chance to do paperwork and develop my intake and other procedures.”

Yet another former law clerk and paralegal assistant, the new attorney said she spent time in a gamut of legal environments in the past decade, including criminal and family law offices, solo practices and large corporate firms, and with the nonprofit Central California Legal Services in Fresno, which she found particularly gratifying.

“It was one of the best experiences so far,” she said, “to work for individuals that need legal assistance without having to charge them fees, and giving them adequate representation without worrying about money.”

One friend cautioned Lor against using her “ethnic” name in her solo practice so as not to deter mainstream clients, which took her aback.  “I’ve never had a desire to be a Patty or a Patricia or a Peggy,” said Lor, whose heritage is Hmong.  “The though never occurred to me.  I’ve had such a positive response.  I just can’t imagine taking on a new name.”

Although she’s the boss, Lor gives credit to her small staff – a couple legal assistants, a San Joaquin College o Law intern and a contract attorney – for making Pahoua C. Lor, Attorney and Counselor at Law a success out of the gate.

“We’re like a family here, very close-knit,” she said.  “We have luncheons once a month.  When we go to court, if we have time we all go together.  They call it my little dream team machine.”