MyShingle : Solo and Small Law Firm Management and Marketing

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Many readers of this blog and my book, Solo by Choice frequently ask for advice on how to get a personal injury practice up and running.   My fellow blogger and colleague here in the Maryland area, Ron Miller explains how lawyers can build a referral based personal injury practice in this comprehensive post at  Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog.  What I like Miller's post is that he's honest and realistic in acknowledging that starting out, most lawyers aren't going to attract quality cases.  However, over as they do a good job with the smaller cases that come their way, better cases will follow.

Miller also recommends that if you want to practice personal injury law, you shouldn't take on other cases.  That's good advice, but not always realistic for new lawyers particularly if they need to come up with money to cover the costs of personal injury cases.  You could try to find contract work on other personal injury matters, but you might also take cases in other practice areas that will have some synergy and potentially lead to PI referrals or that call on the same skill set -- investigatory work, working with experts and litigation.  As you build your PI practice, you can decide at that point whether to drop your other matters or stay a bit more diverse.