Navigating the Challenges of Starting a Law Firm: A Personal Journey (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: So one thing is, you transition and started your own firm. I get a lot of emails from listeners who are on that step, and they kind of come to me for advice and stuff. What's, just tell me about that thought process and the pains and the thoughts you went through when you opened up your own practice. What went there?

Speaker 2: I left a big firm because I just felt like certain things were just not working for my life at that time. Certain ways, big law works. And as you are an associate, you have lack of control. That kind of motivated me to leave. Now, I was young, I was a third year associate. Did I make the smartest decision at that point, walking away from a job? My parents would say, no, they were so against that. Immigrant parents, don't walk away from a stable job. But it was very hard in the beginning. For many, many years, it was just me. I didn't have an associate. I think at the first two, three years, I didn't even have a paralegal. So I did everything. And the funny part is, that is still who I am today, where I still continue to do so many things, which maybe other partners don't do. I like to get into the weeds of cases. I like to get my hands dirty. I still look at approvals. I do my own photocopying. So when I started my own practice, I had to learn a lot, and learn a lot very, very quickly. I didn't have a depth of knowledge of immigration at that time. Like I said, third year. And you have to learn business. Forget just being a lawyer. You have to learn about business, and you have to learn about incorporation, business licenses, billing, if you hire employees, payroll. Just so many aspects I had to learn. Sometimes, you're not being a lawyer. You're being a business person. You're worrying about all those type of things. So it was extremely hard in the beginning. And you don't have colleagues to be like, hey, go into the next room and be like, what do you guys think? And if you're just trying to figure things out on your own, you have to own that decision. So those were some hard days. The first, I want to say, five years was really, really hard. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. I would encourage anybody who wants to do that to realize that the rewards don't come quickly. It will take time. It will take 24-7 dedication, because that's what I felt like I've worked how many Christmases, how many holidays, how many vacations, if I even took a vacation. So you have to want it to make it feel worthwhile at the end.