‘Self, We Need to Get This Work Done’

Like any work situation, hanging a shingle has its pros and cons.

“The biggest pro, I think, is being able to be your own boss and choose what you’re going to work on and handle the cases the way you think you should,” says personal injury and civil rights attorney Miguel Dominguez. “The biggest challenge is that you’re responsible for bankrolling these cases. It’s also your responsibility to figure out where the next case is going to come from. At the end of the day, it’s still a business and it needs to be run as such.”

“Nobody else is breathing down your throat,” adds Regina Mincey, a family law attorney and former prosecutor. “Being your own accountability person is sometimes good and sometimes bad, because I have to say, ‘Self, we didn’t get this work done. Stop procrastinating.’”

Super Lawyers spoke with five Georgia attorneys who have navigated these waters. Here’s what they had to say.

Early Days

Lynne Borsuk, Lynne Y. Borsuk, Esq.; Criminal Defense: White Collar; Decatur: I started practicing in 1986 and I was a public defender until 1991. That’s 33 years in private practice.

Jim Blitch, Blitch Law, PC; Business Litigation; Atlanta: I’ve always had a commercial litigation practice representing both plaintiffs and defendants—depending on the nature of the dispute—and I have almost always been with small firms and managed my own caseload.

Elizabeth Ji, The Ji Law Firm; Immigration; Johns Creek: I started my career in immigration in 2005 as a legal assistant, and then made my way up to senior paralegal before I went to law school. In 2017, I started working for a small boutique firm.

Regina A. Mincey, The Mincey Law Practice; Family Law; Atlanta: I was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1992, and I worked for a firm, then went out on my own in 1998 and came back to another position. I did the D.A.’s office from 2003 to 2014. I was a child support prosecutor, which is what reignited my interest in family law.

Miguel A. Dominguez, Dominguez Law Firm; Personal Injury – General: Plaintiff, Civil Rights; Atlanta: I started my own criminal defense practice fresh after a clerkship but started floating around the idea to the judges in Rockdale County that what I really wanted to do was learn how to be a trial attorney. That’s how I ended up wrapping up my practice and being hired by the district attorney’s office at Rockdale. Eventually I went to the solicitor general’s office in DeKalb County and finished up my prosecution career as an assistant district attorney in Clayton County. I became the first Latino prosecutor in the history of all those jurisdictions.

Taking the Leap

Ji: I didn’t expect to hang my own shingle as soon as I did, but I had an issue with the ethics of the type of cases my employer took. Ultimately I needed to be my own boss in order to have full control.

Borsuk: I really enjoy representing people in the white-collar arena as half of my practice, while the other half is traditional criminal defense. Large firms are often hesitant to have their attorneys do traditional criminal defense work, and I wanted to be able to maintain both.

Blitch: One of my partners in my predecessor firm was seeking a judgeship in a statewide election, and one partner was retiring. Two other partners did exclusively family law and wanted to have their own firm for that purpose, so it was a natural thing for us to think about going in our respective directions. I was always drawn to managing my own situation, and being a solo ended up a very natural next step.

Dominguez: Having the freedom to manage my own schedule, to figure out how much I want to work and what type of causes I want to take on, is a huge part of the appeal. Financially, it was a huge incentive. I didn’t need to share my piece of the pie with anybody.

The Transition

Ji: My husband and I earmarked $10,000 from our savings to give this a go. I probably spent way too much on my first desk. About a year in, I decided to move because I had an opportunity to go to a bigger space. I’m at the end of that lease period and am looking to double again. One of the things that I wasted so much time and energy on was bookkeeping. I spent so many man-hours on that task. If I were to do it again, one of the first things I would do, aside from not buying my very expensive desk, is hire a bookkeeper.

Blitch: I had no one to help me with the lease and different contracts for publications and research platforms, so I had to figure all that out. I learned how to methodically get it done. And then you had to think about your reputation in the community and letting people know that you’re now a solo.

Dominguez: I was preparing myself for some hard times, but thankfully there was sufficient work. I ultimately did much better than I ever would have expected for my first year as a solo plaintiff’s attorney.

Mincey: It may sound funny, but buying my own supplies and paying rent and buying furniture and setting up shop was the biggest challenge. One day with the printer, there was no more cartridge. I couldn’t run down to the office manager’s office and get a cartridge. I had to run out to Staples. I started getting paper by the box because it was cheaper, and learned to save money and be smart with supplies.

Law Office of Attorney at Law

Ji: My LLC is actually Law Office of Elizabeth Ji, LLC. I realized Elizabeth alone is a long name; and when you’re spelling that out to immigrant clients, it takes a long time and it creates a big room for error. So I decided to register—as DBA—as The Ji Law Firm.

Blitch: I wanted something that was easy to remember.

Borsuk: I was an adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law for 10 years. I was president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, I challenged the legal system many years ago when poor people were not being treated as they should, and I volunteer a ton. I know lots of people and people know my name.

Dominguez: I wanted to simply let the public know who the attorney was behind the firm. I wasn’t interested in anything gimmicky. I chose “Firm” because I want us to have space to grow into a bigger operation if that’s where work leads us.

Mincey: The law management section of the Bar told me I couldn’t do “Group” because I didn’t have a group; it was just me. With The Mincey Law Practice, I just thought, “Well, that sounds like it still could be a firm if it needed to be later.”

Ups and Downs

Borsuk: Running a small business is challenging. It’s myself and a paralegal. I don’t have economies of scale. A large law firm has a billing department, a purchasing department and multiple paralegals.

Dominguez: At the bigger firms, they’re getting literally hundreds, if not thousands, of calls every month with cases. So there isn’t a big preoccupation with where the next check is coming from or whether you’re going to be able to bankroll a difficult or expensive case. When you’re a solo practitioner, that’s at the forefront of your mind.

Blitch: Everything falls on your shoulders when you’re solo. Some of the work might be tedious, or something you would prefer not doing, but you just have to put your shoulder to the plow. It’s not all glamour, but I wasn’t deterred. Those negatives are far outweighed by the positives.

Mincey: There’s a lot of flexibility in your schedule. When I started solo I had a small child and I didn’t want to miss all the school functions. At the D.A.’s office, most of the time I was in court at least four days a week. I can remember my child getting sick a couple of times and I had to have other people go get him because I was in the middle of court and could not leave.

Ji: I was very lucky because I had enough contacts. I never had to worry about where my next case was going to come from. … But it wasn’t until year four of being a solo practitioner that it dawned on me: What happens if I’m not able to work or want to take a vacation? While I’m still the person who’s ultimately responsible for the legal work, I’m also responsible for all the things that come with being self-employed. I feel like I have two full-time jobs.

I also learned that being a solo practitioner was very lonely. Essentially, you don’t talk to anyone other than your clients and the wall for the entire day; I wasn’t accustomed to working in that type of environment. But you don’t have unnecessary drama and you can stay hyperfocused on accomplishing your goals.

Most Memorable Cases

Borsuk: I’ve handled bribery cases. I handled a double murder case for a woman who was acting completely in self-defense, and hundreds, or maybe thousands, of people who are at the toughest juncture of their lives. The opportunity to help them, hopefully with good legal advice and compassion, and get them through that as unscathed as possible, is really rewarding.

Dominguez: A young protestor, a journalism major, decided, like many other young people here in Atlanta and across the U.S., to take to the streets to express her disgust with the George Floyd murder. They were peacefully assembling. A Georgia state trooper deployed what they refer to as “rubber” bullets, but actually there’s no rubber in these projectiles at all. They’re all hard plastic and metal. Unfortunately for my client, she got shot in the face by one of these projectiles and it fractured her face and caused all kinds of psychological issues. Ultimately, the state settled with us. We got that resolved for $1.5 million.

Blitch: There was a partnership dispute where I represented an individual and we were adverse to a large corporate partner. For a long time we were dismissed as having no case, nothing of any merit. We soldiered on and with time we were able to get a very successful outcome. It was a case that would have made a big splash had we tried it, but they ended up offering so much money that we had to settle.

Mincey: The most memorable are probably the divorce cases where there was an “oh my gosh” moment, where you didn’t see it coming, maybe either adultery or the surprise kid that pops up—and the other person has no clue whatsoever. On the flip side, getting custody of a client’s child in a fierce custody battle, and they hug you and cry because they’re so happy that they got through it—those are some good moments.

Ji: There was a gentleman whose employer had hired a big global law firm. But because it was such a big machine, his wife’s case fell through the cracks. He and his wife were from a country where domestic partnerships were recognized, but the U.S. doesn’t recognize his partner as his wife, so she didn’t have a dependent visa. Instead, she was here pursuant to a different visa type that required more frequent extensions. The other firm forgot to extend the wife’s visa for more than a year. The man was working in a field where his expertise was in need for the U.S. as we were going through COVID. We were able to get it approved. If the government had not seen it the way we wanted them to see it, she would have been banned for 10 years from coming back. And the husband would have left, too. I was able to deliver the good news right before Christmas.

Advice to Potential Solos

Blitch: Make sure you have a solid set of skills before you venture out on your own. Some people go into solo practice right off the bat, and I think that’s hard because you don’t have mentors around you. No matter what age you are, make sure you have a handful of people that are in other firms that you can lean on for advice and support and friendship.

Dominguez: There are a lot of people coming out of law school that want to work for themselves. I really discourage it. I can’t say enough about how much you get from being in a firm environment. Going solo right after law school can be a huge problem in terms of how it can dwarf your development. Just because you can handle a particular case doesn’t mean you should, particularly alone. Don’t think about how much it’s going to cost you to share a case with an amazing lawyer in whatever the practice area is. The reality is 100% of zero is still zero.

Ji: First, define, as clearly as you can, why you want to do this. Is it because you’re running from a toxic employer? Is it because you have dreams of growing a business beyond yourself? Or is it because you want to distill everything down, maybe take three or four cases a month to generate X amount of dollars and spend the rest of your time doing other things? Second, get malpractice insurance. It’s not as expensive as you think. And lastly, get trusted advisers. Because a J.D. does not equal an MBA.

Mincey: Have some backup income streams for the low points. Continue to study and perfect the craft. Don’t be such an island. One thing I’ve noticed with the solos is that they try to do too much. Home in on a certain area that you’d like to practice and do that, and do it well. Otherwise, you’ll end up being a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

Borsuk: Stay focused on the needs of your client and make sure you collect your fees. It’s harder than it sounds.

Closing Arguments

Mincey: You may get thank-you cards and emails at a firm, but you get them quicker and more direct and it’s more personable when you’re solo. You develop a friendship with that client because it’s just you.

Blitch: I’m not opposed to thinking about other ways to practice law or shifting in another direction one day. But right now, it’s been a successful, rewarding experience for me.

Borsuk: I enjoy the freedom to take those cases that I find intriguing or challenging, without needing to satisfy the needs of a firm.

Dominguez: Opening up my own firm  is literally one of the best decisions I’ve ever made—besides the woman I chose to be my wife.

Ji: I absolutely love it. I keep setting goals and I keep crushing them. I made some bad business decisions that I was not entrepreneurially mature enough to recognize; but I wouldn’t take any of that back.