This week in the Law School Insider podcast we have Melinda Budzynski of the Summerfield Law Firm a solo practice that she started on her own after completing her law degree from felt Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. In our interview today we are talking about what it takes to start your own law firm as well as some of the things that you can do to set yourself apart in law school that will prepare you well for your future career.
Melinda Budzynski explained that the law is actually her third career area. While owning her own business she became involved in some very extensive contract negotiations. During this process she came to find what the legal consultants were doing very intriguing. While she did not apply to law school at that time a few years later when she sold her own business she found that this is the right time to apply.
As an older student that already had a Bachelors and Masters degrees. She was used to a sales approach to education. When she entered law school she found that law school was much more black and white as it came to the education she was receiving. Thus, the transition to law school was a bit more difficult as she could herself always trying to sell and that was not what was being asked of her. It took her about a year to get used to the rules and the format of what law school and her professors were asking of her.
When I asked Melinda Budzynski about what she would do differently she said that getting involved early really helped her to get a feel for the profession. She found herself doing whatever she could to volunteer with local law firms, network with lawyers, or do whatever she could to get a feel for the law prior to getting into the career itself.
Melinda Budzynski also had the opportunity to create some very important relationships with faculty members in law school which were critical for her own success.
Melinda Budzynski decided to start her own law firm after graduating law school. Now that she has done this she said that she tells others now that one of the things that you need to think about if you want to start your own firm is the experience you bring into this venture. Early in your career you need to go out and get experience seeing lawyers in court whether as a law clerk or in a internship or externship setting. You have to be around practicing attorneys as you will learn so much from just being around them. She credits a lot of her early education within law firms from working along-side with paralegals. She explains that paralegals are responsible for such work, and they know much more that you would first expect, very practical things. You also can bounce things off of the practicing lawyers at the firms that you are working with. By asking questions you become more knowledgeable, thus preparing you well for your own move to being a solo practitioner.
So networking is key for you whether you are a solo-practitioner or not as this will open doors to you! Melinda Budzynski started becoming involved in business networks early on in her career. She joined a number of these groups and she Melinda Budzynski mentioned that some law students make the mistake of deciding that they want to focus on one area of law and not being open to other areas or the opposite of thinking that they can practice in too many areas. Instead, Melinda found that by focusing on her skills when she was starting her own firm, the areas where she thought there was enough business in to sustain the business were ones that she focused on. She ended up identifying an under served area and created a business plan to target this population!