I read an article a while ago in the New York Times about how, given the lack of jobs, many educated and ambitious folks are saying "fuck it," and starting their own businesses.  It drew me in--how could you not root for the plucky underdogs?  But I remember thinking, "I'm way too chicken to do something like that."  Adventure is great, but when it comes to financial security I despise taking risks.  

Which is why I was completely scared shitless when my boyfriend asked me a few weeks ago, "What do you think about me starting a law firm?"

Let me back up here and explain the circumstances.  He graduated law school during the beginning of the credit crisis.  Due to the recession, large amount of law grads in Madison, unwillingness to move (he has a ten-year-old son and a lease), and former investment people hogging all the business law jobs he was after, he was completely screwed when it came time to find a job.  He's been taking cases from the public defender's office, but since Wisconsin, like every other state, is in a budget crisis they didn't give him as many as they initially said they'd be able to, and they just furloughed him a couple of weeks ago--meaning he's still working on their cases, they just won't pay him until July.  He's (sort of) fine with that--money in a few months is better than no money at all--but then it hit him.  If the state can't afford to provide lawyers to people, and if people can't afford private attorneys, why not have his own law firm and charge whatever his clients can afford to pay?  Why not find his own way, and branch out beyond criminal defense?  

Individuals are broke.  The state is broke, and thus there is a surplus of need for lawyers and no lawyers to be had for the prices potential clients can offer.  He's filling a void, and the void is large.  He has a higher-than-average success rate with the cases he's handled so far, the clients he's had love him, and he's experienced and confident enough now with criminal law that he feels okay expanding to other areas such as litigation (which he's also done a bit of), inheritance (also done some of that), and business.  If there ever were a good time to start a law firm it's now, and if there were one person who would make an amazing freelance attorney, it's him. 

His first case is going well: some tenants broke their lease, and now the rental company is charging them the rent they owe from before a subletter moved in (which is fine) but also the utilities for the past year when they did not live in the apartment, and a different tenant did.  This case is sort of gimme as cases go since the rental company was obviously trying to bully the former tenants into coughing up money they don't owe, and he's going to get the utilities charge dropped and it'll be settled out of court.  So deep sigh of relief on that end.

Then he's had lunch with a guy who owns The Orpheum, the most  historic and perhaps biggest theatre/bar/restaurant/venue in town, as well as another downtown restaurant.  This guy DESPISES lawyers and has not yet hired one, but is thinking of selling the place so sort of needs one.  He likes the BF--mostly because he's not associated with a firm, not into law for the money, a small business owner just like him, etc.  They're going to talk more on Tuesday, at which point he will get a firm yes or no--and, if it's a yes, a retainer fee.  A relatively large retainer fee, and an agreement on what hourly fees will be after he chooses to sell or needs a lawyer for any other reason.  No pressure, right?

I have complete faith in this man.  He's brilliant, determined, ambitious, personable, and AMAZING at arguing.  He likes, and has experience with, business, constitutional, and criminal law.  He's not a sleazebag (high praise, I know!), and he's not in law for the money.  He works his ass off to get a good result for his clients, and he's good at working in an unstructured manner.  He will be good at this.

He's established an LLC and a trust for his fees (he can't spend it until the case is over in case the client fires him), made business cards, purchased malpractice insurance, rented an office two blocks from our place, and will have ads airing on the radio emphasizing sliding-scale fees.  His family is helping him with some of the costs--renting the office and buying insurance--but have emphasized that they won't be willing to help much more if this fails.

Entrepreneurship is primed for success, I think, in times like these.  If you don't have a job anyway, and you have services to offer, why not get business by being affordable and helping those who don't have money for an attorney at an established firm?  Rationally it makes perfect sense, but emotionally it's terrifying.  What if the phone never rings?  He has three clients right now, but what if, god forbid, he loses all of their cases and thus his reputation?  Will we be able to eat?  Pay rent? 

The uncertainty is stomach-churning, even though I'm lucky--my grad school stipend and the money I get from fellowships is generous.  But my income supports one person, not three.  He doesn't expect me to be financially responsible for his son (which I'm neither willing nor able to do).  He pays 2/3 of the rent and utilities.  I have less money than I would if we weren't living together with his kid; nontheless, I do okay.  If his business crashes and this loss of reputation as a lawyer hurts his other job prospects, then what?  What the fuck will we do?  It's true that I really, really don't want to give up small luxuries to support him and his kid, but it's also true that even if I gave up every last "extra" I enjoy, I still wouldn't be able to support three people. 

I'm trying to think about how good the propects are, how optimism in this case is probably realistic.  I'm trying to respect his need to branch out and to do something he's always dreamed of doing, and to admire him for his ambition and courage and that good ol' American pioneering spirit; I'm trying not to resent him for dragging me into this web of financial insecurity with him, but that part's hard.  I hardly expect him to provide for me--he doesn't, and as I said I'd actually be better off financially if we weren't living together--but I also don't expect to provide for him.  Even considering the slight possibility that I may have to (or leave) is gut-wrenching.  Especially with a kid in the mix.  I can't do it.  We'll be all be miserable trying.  This self-employment thing is casting doubt on the viability of our relationship.  I wish I weren't this shallow, I wish I weren't so cowed by money, but I am.  And now I know, I completely understand, why finances are the cause of so many divorces.  And I'm deeply, deeply glad we're not married.  And feel bad about that sentiment, too, even though it's not an unreasonable one.

So I stay positive.  If all goes well today and Tuesday, he'll have at least five figures in the trust (even if he can't spend it right away).  He'll be getting paid by his other clients on Monday, and that's a sure thing.  It's not much, but it will get him through the next two months or so.  He still has the state public defender's money coming in July, and that will be a lot of money.  We're okay--for now.

And perspective is good: I'm not starving or homeless and I have health insurance.  We're both well-educated, and if you've got an education there's always something.  (I think.)  I'm not dying of a treatable illness, living in a dictatorship, or living somewhere where there is no safety net.  There's a strange, cold comfort to reading bad news.  I will probably never lose my life savings to a tidal flood in Bangladesh, watch my children die of cholera, or be snatched from an airport and flown to Syria to be tortured because my name sounds like that of a guy who tried to blow something up.  In fact, even if my boyfriend's career hits rock bottom, compared to most of the rest of the world, we are still lucky.  Even if sometimes, compared to my friends and parents and peers, our lifestyle doesn't look quite as good, is not survival and relative comfort enough?  (The answer is no, no it's not.  I am far more materialistic than I would like to be.)

Soooo....does anyone need a lawyer?  And has anyone else started a small business like this?  What do you recommend?