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Hey just wondering if others have, or know of, people going from transactional/corporate biglaw to a solo Practice? Seems hard given that the experience is tailored to high end clients, so not sure if that transfers to a solo or small practice setting. Curious on thoughts or experiences.

I have a good friend who went from biglaw transactional to work for a solo (so she’s now the second lawyer at the firm). Both she and the founder have emerging companies backgrounds from CA firms that have well-known practices in that area (think Cooley, Fenwick, WSGR, Gunderson). I work in that space as well (for a biglaw firm) and very occasionally will run across solos on the other side. So it’s doable, but I would guess it’s much easier in a startup/venture capital practice than M&A or Capital Markets, which generally require larger teams. Although, on the M&A side I did once work with a solo who was basically a “rent a lawyer.” He would go work basically in house (although I think as a consultant) for a couple of months for companies going into big M&A deals. He would only have one client at a time, sort of like being seconded.

I could also see a solo handling lower cost work like reviewing fund docs for a fund of funds or reviewing periodic reports for a public company to keep costs down even if the client then goes to a biglaw firm for fund formation or offering work, respectively. I think finding clients could be challenging for a practice like that. You would probably need to have some core to build around that would be willing to go with you when you leave biglaw.