Morgan & Morgan to Opening Solo? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Currently doing extremely boring general commercial litigation at a mid-sized firm and getting minimal experience outside of drafting research memos and occasional portions of briefs. Junior/midlevel.

I've been contacted by some Morgan & Morgan recruiters and I'm considering it.
My goal is to get trial experience/learn how to take a case from start to finish and eventually open my own Personal Injury shop in 4-5 years.

The *dream* is to make 400k+ a year and have a work-life balance to allow for a couple of vacations a year /watch my kids grow up/spend quality time with my aging family members.

Does anyone have experience with/know about that firm? Is this a realistic goal considering how competitive PI is? What should my expectations be?

[Lacepiece23]

Currently doing extremely boring general commercial litigation at a mid-sized firm and getting minimal experience outside of drafting research memos and occasional portions of briefs. Junior/midlevel.

I've been contacted by some Morgan & Morgan recruiters and I'm considering it.
My goal is to get trial experience/learn how to take a case from start to finish and eventually open my own Personal Injury shop in 4-5 years.

The *dream* is to make 400k+ a year and have a work-life balance to allow for a couple of vacations a year /watch my kids grow up/spend quality time with my aging family members.

Does anyone have experience with/know about that firm? Is this a realistic goal considering how competitive PI is? What should my expectations be?

I’m probably one of the more qualified people to answer this on here. Morgan & Morgan is a good PI firm. They try cases. Have gotten good results. Obviously people hate on them because of their adds.

Regarding comp, I bet if you’re good you can pull in 400k at Morgan. But you’d rather do it on your own so here is that take.

You’ll feel a few years of pain. Either 2 to 4. And you might not make it. But if you can stomach the pain for a bit and make it to the other side, then, year you’re comp goal and work/life goal is completely reasonable, if you’re in a decent market with no tort reform.

[nealric]

As a non-PI person (though I did briefly work as a PI paralegal during law school) I was under the impression that Morgan & Morgan was more of a marketing consortium for PI lawyers than a true law firm. Do they actually have a normal law firm hierarchy and lawyers all coming together in their offices regularly, or is it just eat what you kill for everyone?

Generally, my impression of the PI world is that marketing and getting volume through the door is key. It's a lot easier if you can make a big capital investment in marketing and can float yourself with no income/revenue for at least 6 months and better if you can do a year. Business development tends to have a flywheel effect. I think a lot of solos fail or struggle because they can't afford to invest in substantial marketing and can't afford to invest in larger cases.

[Anonymous User]

Currently doing extremely boring general commercial litigation at a mid-sized firm and getting minimal experience outside of drafting research memos and occasional portions of briefs. Junior/midlevel.

I've been contacted by some Morgan & Morgan recruiters and I'm considering it.
My goal is to get trial experience/learn how to take a case from start to finish and eventually open my own Personal Injury shop in 4-5 years.

The *dream* is to make 400k+ a year and have a work-life balance to allow for a couple of vacations a year /watch my kids grow up/spend quality time with my aging family members.

Does anyone have experience with/know about that firm? Is this a realistic goal considering how competitive PI is? What should my expectations be?

I’m probably one of the more qualified people to answer this on here. Morgan & Morgan is a good PI firm. They try cases. Have gotten good results. Obviously people hate on them because of their adds.

Regarding comp, I bet if you’re good you can pull in 400k at Morgan. But you’d rather do it on your own so here is that take.

You’ll feel a few years of pain. Either 2 to 4. And you might not make it. But if you can stomach the pain for a bit and make it to the other side, then, year you’re comp goal and work/life goal is completely reasonable, if you’re in a decent market with no tort reform.

Thank you.
How did you know you were "ready" to make the leap to your own firm? And for the PI world, do you have an idea of how much money would be needed to start? No way I'd be able to compete with the big dogs to start.

"I bet if you're good you can pull in 400k at Morgan."
Interesting. I would assume that I likely would have to be putting in crazy hours for that at Morgan?

[Lacepiece23]

Currently doing extremely boring general commercial litigation at a mid-sized firm and getting minimal experience outside of drafting research memos and occasional portions of briefs. Junior/midlevel.

I've been contacted by some Morgan & Morgan recruiters and I'm considering it.
My goal is to get trial experience/learn how to take a case from start to finish and eventually open my own Personal Injury shop in 4-5 years.

The *dream* is to make 400k+ a year and have a work-life balance to allow for a couple of vacations a year /watch my kids grow up/spend quality time with my aging family members.

Does anyone have experience with/know about that firm? Is this a realistic goal considering how competitive PI is? What should my expectations be?

I’m probably one of the more qualified people to answer this on here. Morgan & Morgan is a good PI firm. They try cases. Have gotten good results. Obviously people hate on them because of their adds.

Regarding comp, I bet if you’re good you can pull in 400k at Morgan. But you’d rather do it on your own so here is that take.

You’ll feel a few years of pain. Either 2 to 4. And you might not make it. But if you can stomach the pain for a bit and make it to the other side, then, year you’re comp goal and work/life goal is completely reasonable, if you’re in a decent market with no tort reform.

Thank you.
How did you know you were "ready" to make the leap to your own firm? And for the PI world, do you have an idea of how much money would be needed to start? No way I'd be able to compete with the big dogs to start.

"I bet if you're good you can pull in 400k at Morgan."
Interesting. I would assume that I likely would have to be putting in crazy hours for that at Morgan?

I don’t know about the hours at Morgan and I know it’s based on performance. They had some propaganda out there about how they pay biglaw and more. I know it’s true at many high end plaintiffs shops in my market.

Regarding being ready, idk, you never are. You either do it or wonder what if.

Lastly, I think the play is to get referrals. Start slow and build. Market to referral partners like crazy. People will send cases. Then past clients send cases. Then it snowballs and you have some marketing money. It’s a slow build. Will take like 5 years for most people. Some people get there a lot quicker. Some never get there. Whole lot to learn, it’s like becoming a junior associate all over again in terms of business progression. I’m in my mid level phase. Still haven’t even hit senior associate level yet business wise. But I’m getting there.

[yankees12345!]

Seems like a pretty solid plan to me.