Description
How to Partner at a Big Law Firm from a Solo Practice
[00:00:00] Is it possible for a solo attorney with a large client base to move to a big law firm as a partner?
Yes, definitely. It happens all the time. It's very common.
When I say very common, it happens in all large cities. The main things are going to be the billing rates. What's the look of your billing rates? Are they are they compatible with what the firm is charging? Which, most of the time, they're not going to be. What is the history of your client generation? What is your history? History of originations. They'll look at maybe the past few years. It's almost like buying a house or getting a mortgage or something. And, they'll also look at client types and size of clients.
So, those are the questions.
Large law firms. The amount of business you need is dependent on location. It could be anywhere from $750,000 to $5 million, depending on the location for a large law firm. The firm size that you're going to, and also the practice area.
So if the law firm has or not. So those are the [00:01:00] things they look at when they're doing it. Look at all these different factors if you want to work at a large law firm. In Idaho, that number might be $500,000. If you want to go to work at one of the largest law firms in New York, might be $5 million.
If you want to go to a decent-sized law firm, meaning, AmLaw 200 in New York, it could be as little as a million or 2 million. It just depends. If the firm size is larger, often the more business. Some of the largest law firms, don't have the highest billing rates.
If you're a successful solo attorney, you can move to large law firms, as a partner.
I've taken people that are in immigration. Several people. We move them from small firms to major firms or solo practices to top 100 or 200 size law firms and people that are working for hospitals and doing IP and all sorts of things. So yes, you can always move as a successful solo attorney to other size firms, all the time.
And, it [00:02:00] happens with frequency. The big issue is typically going to be the billing rates and whether or not you can generate as much. If you're billing your clients, say, $500 an hour and the large law firms want you to bill $800 an hour, or $750 an hour. I'm just saying hypothetically, will your clients do that?
That's what they want to know.
