INSIDE TRACK

By Laura Blake
Grand Rapids Business Journal

Look at the issues the Grand Rapids Bar Association new Solo/Small Firm section is facing, and they won't appear that much different than those faced by almost any small business.

"We wear a lot of hats," said Sharon R. Brinks, owner of Brinks & Associates, and chairwoman of the Solo/Small firm section. "I go from making a decision on which copier to rent, to handling a client's employment law problem, all in the space of about 10 minutes."

And unlike other association sections, defined by a specific area of law, criteria for membership in the solo/small firm section is their common size.

"The types of things that tie us together are how we're delivering legal services," she said.

Yet even with its different focus, the Solo/Small Firm section will concentrate on the same three elements common to most legal sections: network opportunities, mutual support and continuing legal education.

"We're talking about bringing in specialists from larger firms to talk about updates in the law in their specialty area," Brinks said. "We see it as a win-win situation. This provides a forum to introduce new developments in the law to our members and provides a source of future referrals for those specialists."

The section plans to have one such meeting roughly once per quarter, with the remaining eight monthly meetings providing networking opportunities for members.

Also in the works is a seminar on law firm management.

"You're running a business as a solo practitioner and there are a lot of decisions you need to make and there is no point in inventing the wheel here." She said.

Brinks, 39, a 1980 graduate of Wayne State University, practiced with a small Detroit firm before returning to her native Grand Rapids in 1982.

A specialist in the areas of insurance and employment law, Brinks branched out on her own in early 1993. In the two and a half years since, her practice has grown to include branch offices in Fremont and Allegan and an employee complement of six. In addition to her insurance specialty, Brinks also has developed sub-specialties in employment and disability law, general civil and estate planning, as well as foster and adoptive parent law. She is a founding member of and sits on the board of directors of the Legal Network for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing.

It is the widespread development of such sub specialists among small practitioners that allows them as a cooperative, to offer many of the same amenities of larger law firms, Brinks noted.

"We act almost like the legal gatekeepers," she said, explaining clients rely on her local and national networks within the legal community to refer them to quality practitioners when necessary.

According to the American Bar Association, of the 915,000 U.S. attorneys an estimated 658,000 lawyers are in private practice. Of that number, 46 percent are solo practitioners and 17 percent are members of small firms.

And with slow growth among the country's larger law firms, the number of attorneys going into small firms or solo practice is growing.

"The result of that increasing competitiveness is that the consumer, particularly the business consumer, has become quite sophisticated and quite demanding," Brinks said. "And the way many of us have developed our practices is to show greater efficiency and accessibility than the larger firms."

Part of that has translated into offering clients a narrow network of fellow attorneys, availability and price competitiveness.

"There is more and more niche marketing among smaller firms," she said. "I believe what we are seeing is a situation where attorneys are networking specialty areas and in order to do that networking, you do not need everyone under the same roof."

A second trend Brinks sees driving the growth of small firms is the same as a driving trend for other small businesses: the appeal of independence.

"Solo and small practices offer number one, greater flexibility and number two, women are not as accepting of the very damaging lifestyles sometimes demanded by larger firms," she said. "The very face of the practice of law is changing." Brinks continued. "It used to be that conventional wisdom dictated you'd work your way through the ranks, make partner, and kick back a little, and delegate more to the younger associates. That no longer is so, law firms break up, people leave, and the partner track is not the path up it used to be."

"To be a partner in a large firm no longer means, if it ever did, that you no longer have to work the hours and worry about getting new clients and enjoy your BMW," she said. "I see partners in large law firms working very long, hard hours for less job security than I suspect they would like."

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