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LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT "Part of the joy of being a solo is having the ability to adjust your sails and be agile in response to the market." — DAVID BILINSKY, LAW SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA need litigators to resolve disputes, clients are seeking to cut costs by settling early, according to Dan Pinnington, direc- tor of PracticePRO, a risk management program run by Ontario insurer LawPRO. A family law practice might thrive in a recession, but you may not want to bet your house on it. Initially, couples may try to stay together as money is tight. But family problems and tensions are also amplified as money gets even tighter. As a result, says Pinnington, "There may be more work there. But whether or not there are clients who will pay is the question." The risk for those starting up a solo practice in today's economy is that they will be tempted to "dabble" in areas of law where they do not have expertise, says Pinnington, who notes that dabblers are more likely to make mistakes or over- sights resulting in claims against lawyers' indemnity insurance. "When times are tough and there's less work coming in the door, there's a temptation to work on just about anything." Criminal law should be recession- proof, since clients will usually come up with the money they hope will keep them out of jail and there's legal aid for those who can't pay. That's certainly the experience of Bo Arfai, who launched a solo practice in Toronto last summer. One thing Arfai didn't expect, how- ever, was that he wouldn't be able to get a bank loan. The bottom was just beginning to fall out of the credit mar- ket when he went looking for a line of credit at his local branch. Certainly, like any young lawyer, he had a healthy amount of student debt, but he had been articling with a Bay Street firm and understood that, until now, banks had almost routinely advanced credit to a promising lawyer or a doctor to launch a new practice. Scott discovered the same thing. It's a key difference between this recession and that of 20 years ago, he says. "Then it was easy for a sole practitioner to get a loan. Now you have to self-finance." Arfai used his credit card to finance his new practice, although he did not feel comfortable about doing so. He worked from home and kept his costs to a min- imum, spending just over $10,000 in 18 APRIL 2009 www. ep_CL_Apr_09.indd 1 mag.com 3/17/09 11:58:56 AM