Continued from last week: Click Here to read the Part 1 Back to Mr. Ade and his article about why it is a mistake to start a law firm right out of law school Where does Mr. Ade stand on this three part spectrum? Well, he has taken the time to write an article for Us Thenigerialawyer.com. He gets a sounding board to tell all you young, inexperienced lawyers that you have no right starting a law firm in the first place. In his own words, “These fresh-out-of-law school shingle-hangers can be a black mark on the legal profession. I cringe when I hear that people fresh out of law school have started their own practices.” Let’s call a spade a spade – he detests the idea that a lawyer could come straight out of law school, start their own law firm, and actually be successful. In the comments to the article, Mr. Ade says that he helps young lawyers by speaking at bar association meetings on trial advocacy, and that he spends “a considerable amount of [his] professional time with law students and young lawyers, usually because they have found themselves in a jam at their client’s expense.” Again, while I applaud Mr. Ade for his assistance to young lawyers, he is also making a jab at young lawyers for messing up their client’s case as a result of their “inexperience”. I’m going to give Mr. Ade the benefit of the doubt here and call him a Type-3 person (according to Mr. Ringer’s rating system). Mr. Ade has all the good intentions (presumably) in the world, but what he appears to be doing is finding a different way to market his law firm, by letting young lawyers pick up the clients and then come to him for his “experience and expertise”. He is speaking to young lawyers and telling them that they don’t know enough to handle their own cases. He is probably also telling them that when they get stuck, give him a call so he can mentor them. Now whether or not he is now coming on as “co-counsel” on these cases or just guiding the young lawyer to where they need to go with the case would be indicative of how genuine he is with his idea of “mentoring” young lawyers. I suspect they are coming to him and he is somehow getting involved in the case such that he will, at the end of the day, generate a legal fee for himself and his firm. And Ade, if all you are doing is mentoring these young attorneys and staying out of the case, or letting them keep the entire fee, I very much applaud you for your efforts. More attorneys should act that way. What to do if you run into trouble starting a law firm If you are a young lawyer straight out of law school, and you are starting your own law firm, you should actively seek out and promote relationships with mentors and other, more experienced lawyers who can answer your questions about any complicated cases you get (and lets be honest, when you are first starting out, they are all complicated). You need to build these networks so that you have a place to turn when you run into a problem. In addition, so long as you recognize that there is a potential legal issue that you can counsel your client on, you are 90% of the way there. The problem Mr. Ade alludes to is that most young lawyers don’t always recognize all the legal issues – and I don’t entirely disagree with that. This is another reason I advocate sticking with only one practice area. But these self-entitled, righteous articles that are telling young lawyers all the reasons why they shouldn’t be going it alone are complete and utter BS. Agree? Disagree? This is a controversial topic – I would love to hear your thoughts. Response received from part i 1.Eyibio Udo I agree with you. On the other hand, you were just lucky to have stayed for 12 years and learn comfortably. They are several reasons why some lawyers do that. I did mind after about 6 years of bad experiences in two law firms. When some of these bad experiences are relished to new lawyers, some will not want to experience it especially the older once. 2. Chiaka Onyemauwa How is that even possible..in Australia, when you get admitted. You hold a restricted licence for two years before you can go out on your own.. There are things in law you only learn from experience.. The legal system needs serious reforms.. 3. Oliver N Chukwuma Noting wrong 2 open a chamber if can perform de ball is ur crt 4. Williams Anthony Yes you can, no you should have some experience from a law firm but you must not mind the pay, with utmost respect to Seniors Lawyers don’t pay well some do but are very few 5. Peter Ocheikwu Ask senior lawyers who started as you seek to start to gain what they did go through. No venture, no success. I know one. He is successful today and relatively still young.]]>