Solos first steps

Law.com has a nice piece regarding converting contacts into clients for the new sole practitioner here. It includes the personal stories of some 4-5 young sole practitioners.

A couple new ideas to me:

Do pro bono work to get leads to other work. There needs to be some careful thought on pro bono work and how it can lead to future business. Clearly there's a side of pro bono that is altruistic and this is great. But there are many pro bono programs, particularly for seniors, where future business can also result. The thing about seniors is that often they're retired and they have low incomes and thus they qualify for various types of pro bono legal work. However, they're also typically fairly asset wealthy and have extended families that are very much middle or upper-middle class...potential clients! Seek this type of pro bono work out!!

General counsel (pro bono). Okay, same theme slightly different niche. A young lawyer was quoted above being general counsel to a smallish hockey league. As a jock myself, doesn't that sound sort of fun and you're probably doing a great service AND people are getting to know you as a person AND there are many people with legal service needs.