First, a little bio on my legal career:

I graduated Order of the Coif from UC Davis in 1997. Though I was born and raise din teh San Fernando Valley, after law school I moved to Las Vegas to experience something different. I practiced 7 years living in Las Vegas doing business and civil litigation at Lionel Sawyer & Collins and then in a sole practice (broad range of areas, mostly contract disputes and big defense). Then I took a 2 year sabbatical to pursue a writing career. I also decided to move back to the Valley since I had enough of the Las Vegas weather and culture.

For the last 2 years, I've worked on various novels and screenplays, but haven't sold anything. I've also dabbled in bodywork, becoming a certified massage therapist, but did not manage to turn bodywork into a lucrative career either. My 2 years are now up and, as an added wrinkle, I'm going to be a father, which gives me great incentive to return to a place of financial stability, which to me means resuming legal work. I passed the CA bar back in 1999 and activated my license earlier this year, so I'm good to go.

For the 2 weeks, I've been working part-time as a contract lawyer in Van Nuys for a sole practitioner who does mostly criminal and a little civil litigation. I'm also taking steps to open up my own practice near the Van Nuys courthouse (which also happens to be near where I live). My thought is that I can do contract work, including research and writing projects as well as appearances in Van Nuys and, perhaps, other LA courts to bring in income while I develop my own practice. Which brings me to my questions for all of you:

STARTING A LAW FIRM

I found an office space for rent, very close to the courthouse. I guess I'm not sure what order I should do everything. Do I need my business address finalized before I go get my business license? Before I get a trust account? What's a good bank for a trust account? Any recommendations on malpractice carriers? What can I expect to pay for a yellow pages ad? Any other suggested advertising tips? Any list of "common mistakes" new sole practitioners make? How do some lawyers get those ridiculously simple phone numbers like 222-2222? Do you have to bribe some one at the phone company? Anyone willing to generally shoot the brings or give me a run down on issues like these, that would be great.

CONTRACT WORK / TELECOMMUTING

I like the idea of doing contract work to bring in income while I start my own practice. I also think I'd be a very good candidate for telecommuting contract work, where law firms from any location can give me assignments researching various legal areas and writing memos or briefs. My strengths were always issue spotting, legal analysis, and persuasive writing (and oral argument, too, but let's leave that aside). Also, my backgrournd as a general litigator gives me great versitility and an ability to quickly get up to speed on any legal area. Anyway, I have no clue how people get into telecommuting contract work. Do they already have contacts when they start? Are there agencies or are there some proven ways to market yourself? Can you start a website offering telecommuting attorney research and expect to generate business from it?

Any info anyone can give me on telecommuting contract work, I'd really appreciate. Or even contract work in general, as I am rather new to it.

COVERING APPEARANCES

Another question is about covering appearances. I have already done that a half dozen times over the last 2 weeks as a contract attorney, and not just in Van Nuys, but in Lancaster, Compton, Pasadena and Downtown LA. Since I am literally around the corner from the Van Nuys courthouse, I am gonig to start marketing myself to cover court appearances jin Van Nuys as another way of generating some consistent income. I hope to become "the" guy people call (or fax) to cover Van Nuys appearances so I can have a daily stack of matters to take over each morning. Maybe there's too much competition to get that much business, but I see no harm in trying and it would be a nice addition to my new practice.

If anyone has experience at covering appearances as a significant portion of your legal practice, and has any advice on the topic, I'd appreciate hearing it.

Last topic: APPELLATE WORK

For my sole practice, I anticipate that I can't be too choosy about the types of cases I take, and I have a few lawyersI can contact to help walk me through probate, criminal and family matters since my background is mainly civil litigation. However, at the same time, I want to steer my practice as much as possible towards doing appellate work. My past experience as a general litigator has given me a speciality in versitility, so I can quickly become familiar with any type of law that could have been at issue in the underlying trial from product liability to contract disputes to real estate zoning to defamation. I've pretty much seen it all. Plus, again, appellate work seems to consist of those areas of the law that I most enjoy and do best -- case file review, issue spotting, legal research, brief writing and oral advocacy.

If anyone has any advice about how to carve out a niche doing appellate work, or has any other comments on the topic, please share. I have also thought maybe I can offer to do pro bono / public interest appellate work to help get myself established and get more experience with this type of work. I'd love to hear opinions on whether that seems feasible.

CONCLUSION

Well, that's it. if you want to respond via Tribe e-mail, I will see the response sooner but if you post on here, I'll check back periodically. Thanks in advance for reading this far, even if you don't respond.

~Ken~ aka Frinj

p.s. In case anyone is wondering, I do have a legal headhunter looking into what kind of position I might get as an associate in a law firm. It's possible I'll get an offer too good to refuse, but it'd have to be a really good offer because I really like the idea of being my own boss and developing my own practice.