Attorney-Client Relationship

Why I Do What I Do

Someone identified only as “PaulMac” wrote here on this blog, in response to my post about Richard Bitner, the subprime insider who wrote about his experiences in the subprime industry, the following:

I would add another group of people who are profiting greatly from the subprime problems (and economy in general), and will continue to profit for some time - bankruptcy lawyers. Including the ones who write about the subject for the purpose of marketing and getting clients. Books and Blogs; Pot and Kettle.

Fair enough. But since it’s my blog, I get to respond. In full.

Of course, this blog has a place in my marketing efforts. I’m a solo practitioner. I believe very strongly in the power of blogs to do two very important things: (1) reach people and (2) reach people. People as potential clients and people as consumers. Both need the information I provide here as a matter of public education.

And, yes, I need it as a means to reach more folks than I otherwise would be able to do through “traditional” marketing means (which I eschew in full — I do no advertising, and I don’t even have a Yellow Pages ad — or listing). I can certainly understand being skeptical of any blog that smacks of “advertising.” But that’s not the primary purpose of this blog, which is to educate and empower.

However, to understand fully why I do what I do, you have to know a little bit more about me.

I left a job that paid me about $70,000 a year to launch this solo practice. The timing of that launch was dictated in part by my mother’s final illness — I needed to stay home and take care of her, and I needed to have a way to make money that allowed me to work from home. But that doesn’t explain why I chose consumer bankruptcy as my primary practice area.

In point of fact, that choice doesn’t make a lot of sense, in the context of my legal experience up until the point of my solo practice’s launch. I’d spent my legal career up until that point practicing a very different kind of law: municipal and then more specifically airport law. I had bankruptcy experience in terms of monitoring the airport’s claims against bankrupt airlines but no experience representing debtors.

Why did I choose that practice area, then, when it was brand new? I certainly would have had an easier time focusing solely on employment law (another practice area that I did choose and work in initially, in order to help broaden my prospects), in which I did have direct experience.

The answer is simple: I chose bankruptcy — specifically consumer bankruptcy — because once upon a time, I’d been harassed by creditors and burdened by debt myself. I didn’t file bankruptcy (although in retrospect I think I should have), but I did know first hand what it was like to be buried by medical bills and have precious little income, to be torn and anguished, and to be harassed at all hours by ugly, intimidating, insulting collectors who flaunted their violations of federal law with impunity.

So I educated myself — I spent countless hours poring over every book I could find, reading cases, talking with other bankruptcy lawyers, preparing their petitions as “on the job” training, being mentored by them. And when I was ready, I began accepting my own clients.
As far as the “profiting” comment — well, yes, I turn a profit in the sense that I make more than expenses demand, but not by much. My fees are publicly stated on my website: I make $1200 per Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, and I take no more than 4 cases a month, in order to handle the cases personally. I have no interest in creating a volume practice — in some months, the number is 0. I make nothing like Mr. Bitner’s publicized salary, and never will — at least not from this work. High six figures? More like low five figures — sometimes VERY low!

So as for why I do what I do: I do it, not to get rich, but because I believe in it. Because I believe it’s important work, and I’m uniquely situated to do it. If my daughter and I have to eat hot dogs and mac and cheese a few times a month, and forgo a vacation to — well, anywhere — it’s worth it. I will never get rich off of it, and I don’t want to. I get paid in far more profound ways.

© 2008 SC Bankruptcy & Consumer Law Blog.