Gary Bauer is a Professor of Law at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School and is very passionate about working with students to open up their carer options since the late 1990's. Over the years one of the things that he has come to find is that many people decide to become a solo practitioner by default, not by choice, and Gary Bauer is working hared to make sure that students know what they should be doing ahead of time to be prepared for making an informed choice.
What Gary has found in his many years at WMU-Cooley is that the Business of Law is an important as substantive law that students learn in their classes.
Gary Bauer explored the steps that all students need to take if they are going to make the choice to go solo in their career. To go into business for yourself you have to have a plan. On top of this though, you also need to interact and speak with people that are currently in the field.
As Gary Bauer talks to his students he will set them up to get into the practice area they want to be in as well as interviewing someone with over 10 years of experience as well as newer lawyers too (3-5 years). One of the things that Gary encourages people to ask, is to find out about the good, the bad, and the ugly about going solo, as you need to make sure that you are fully informed on the decision that you make for your future career.
For a while now at WMU-Cooley Law School Gary has been getting students involved with a program called Solo By Design. This program has a number of different parts but in the end it is there to provide students with one-on-one mentoring, as well as goals that people should follow so that they are ready for graduation and for the eventual start of their own solo legal practice.
Part of the program is a blog entitled Solo Lawyer By Design, which is an independent blog that Professor Gary Bauer coordinates. On this blog he shares true stories from himself as well as other professionals' lives. There were two great examples that he shared with all of you today:
Another component of the program is a Google group that Professor Gary Bauer created. This group has grown to over 300 members and it provides people with direct connection with people that have been successful as solo legal practitioners. Gary Bauer was nice enough to invite all of the Law School Insider listeners that are interested in being a solo practitioner to join this group by emailing him at bauerg@cooley.edu.
Professor Gary Bauer also consistently receives feedback from past graduates and members of his community. These people share stories and advice in which Gary Bauer then shares with members of his built community as "Notes from Afar".
Professor Gary Bauer also talked about the thousands of interviews that he has completed over his time as a member of the faculty at WMU-Cooley Law School. In the assessments that he has completed he found that by and large it really does not matter what your GPA was in law school or the law school that you attended. Instead, it was more important that you can perform as a lawyer and that you can show a sincere motivation and work ethic in all that you do.
Did you like this interview? Are you interested in opening your own law practice? Leave a comment below to let me know!
Are you a practicing lawyer? A law student? Would you like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of the Law School Insider? Send me an email at lawschoolinsider@cooley.edu