If
you’re
in
Biglaw,
unless
you’re
representing
Donald
Trump
or
Rudy
Giuliani,
you
generally
don’t
have
to
worry
too
much
about
getting
paid.
Huge
corporate
clients
don’t
run
away
from
their
legal
bills.
It’s
a
different
story
at
a
small
or
midsize
law
firm.
Longtime
readers
might
recall
the
story
of
how
I
got
stiffed
out
of
$40,000
after
my
first
trial
—
hilarious,
given
that
I
wasn’t
an
equity
partner
and
I
could
easily
point
out
how
it
was
100
percent
the
fault
of
someone
who
was.
When
you’re
running
your
own
shop,
though,
or
are
(understandably)
more
worried
than
I
was
about
getting
into
trouble,
you
can’t
take
a
$40k
hit.
Fortunately
there
is
a
reasonable
solution
to
this
problem,
and
it
is
easier
to
implement
than
you
might
think.
There
is
an
almost
infinite
supply
of
potential
clients
out
there
who
want
to
sue
someone
and
mistakenly
think
a
few
thousand
bucks
is
enough
to
get
somewhere
with
that.
A
large
number
of
these
folks
cannot
be
convinced
that
litigation
is
actually
a
bad
idea
—
I’ve
lost
count
of
how
many
people
I’ve
failed
to
talk
out
of
hiring
a
lawyer
—
and
they
almost
throw
their
little
war
chest
in
your
direction
at
the
outset.
Now,
that’s
fine,
it’s
a
free
country.
Those
who
have
more
money
than
sense
may
certainly
fund
a
donation
to
their
local
law
firm
should
that
be
their
desire.
The
big
problem
for
the
lawyer,
however,
doesn’t
take
long
to
surface.
Your
relatively
small
bills
for
the
first
couple
months
might
get
paid.
You
may
even
be
holding
a
large
enough
retainer
deposit
to
feel
comfortable
with
the
first
few
monthly
bills
going
unpaid.
But
at
some
point
the
other
side
is
going
to
hire
one
of
those
firms
whose
sole
strategy
is
to
spend
the
other
side
into
the
dirt,
or
someone’s
going
to
file
a
big
dispositive
motion,
or
one
of
the
million
other
things
that
can
turn
a
case
into
your
whole
life
for
a
month
is
going
to
take
place.
When
that
happens,
if
you
don’t
have
a
tremendous
retainer
deposit
comfortably
squirreled
away
in
your
trust
account,
you’re
screwed.
Ethical
rules
about
when
and
how
you
can
legitimately
withdraw
from
a
case
vary
widely
by
jurisdiction,
of
course.
Almost
everywhere
nonpayment
is
a
good
enough
justification
for
an
attorney
to
hit
the
bricks.
Yet,
you
can’t
just
abandon
a
client
on
the
intuition
that
they
are
probably
not
going
to
pay
the
current
month’s
humongous
bill
when
it
eventually
gets
sent
out,
even
if
you’ve
lived
through
that
scenario
again
and
again.
The
financial
management
of
the
aforementioned
firm
where
I
failed
to
collect
on
$40,000
was
not
what
I
would
describe
as
“responsible.”
When
I
was
new
there,
I
can’t
tell
you
how
many
times
I
participated
in
cases
in
which
we
had
to
harangue
former
clients
over
unpaid
legal
bills.
We
were
almost
never
made
fully
whole,
tons
of
firm
resources
that
could
have
been
better
applied
elsewhere
were
dedicated
to
collections,
and
it’s
not
exactly
a
marketing
win
to
be
seen
seeking
judgments
against
your
own
former
clients.
As
soon
as
I
got
enough
power
at
that
place
to
be
managing
my
own
caseload,
I
tripled
the
minimum
retainer
deposit
I’d
accept
in
order
to
open
a
new
file.
I
didn’t
bill
against
it,
just
held
it
to
cover
future
unpaid
balances,
and
the
moment
monthly
bills
were
going
unpaid
reminder
letters
went
out.
A
huge
weight
fell
from
my
shoulders.
I
never
had
to
deal
with
this
problem
again.
Sure,
if
you
turn
away
potential
clients
who
only
have
a
few
thousands
dollars
to
spend
on
what
looks
to
you
like
an
ultimately
expensive
case,
you
are
leaving
a
lot
of
money
on
the
cutting
room
floor.
That’s
a
good
place
for
it
though.
It
will
never
be
worth
the
extra
time
and
expense
of
all
the
free
work
you’re
going
to
put
into
these
cases,
and
you’re
not
really
helping
underrepresented
indigent
people
by
spending
down
their
meager
savings
only
to
have
to
leave
them
in
the
lurch
when
they’ve
run
dry.
Government
lawyers,
contingency
litigators,
in-house
counsels:
my
congratulations
on
never
having
to
deal
with
this.
But
if
you’re
the
kind
of
lawyer
who
bills
by
the
hour
and
handles
cases
that
can
get
very
expensive
very
fast,
trust
me
on
this.
Should
you
have
any
doubts
whatsoever
about
a
potential
client’s
ability
to
pay,
think
of
what
the
bill
would
be
for
the
most
wildly
expensive
month
you
can
conceive
of,
then
at
least
double
that
amount.
The
resulting
figure
is
your
minimum
retainer
deposit.
.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].