Letter from the Chair

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: By Renee N. G. Stackhouse

Letter From the Chair

By Renee N. G. Stackhouse

Renee Stackhouse is a San Diego trial attorney and founder of Stackhouse, APC (formerly Galente Law, APC) who focuses on plaintiff's personal injury, military, and criminal defense. She is Chair of the CLA Solo & Small Firm Section, Immediate Past President of California Women Lawyers, President of the CWL Foundaiton, and sits on the San Diego County Bar Association. She is faculty at the prestigious Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College and the founder of MSheLE.com. She can be reached at Renee@StackhouseAPC.com.

BEING SOLO OR SMALL FIRM DOESN'T HAVE TO MEAN YOU'RE ALONE.

Ileft midsized law-firm life in 2011 and haven't looked back. Well, ... occasionally I longingly remember the endless supply closet and what it was like to have two paralegals, but other than those moments, I have thrived with the majority of my time in practice proudly combined with the title "business owner."

In the beginning one of the hardest parts of the transition was withdrawals from the community that law-firm life gave me. I knew that I could always take a stroll through the office or to the kitchen and find someone off of whom I could bounce an idea or with whom to take a quick break. There were after-work evenings out and a variety of people with whom to talk about news and life. When there was a case win, there was usually someone who would send around an email to let everyone know about the accomplishment. As a solo.... Let's just say I've found there are usually less opportunities for that sort of engagement.

So, when I read an article in August about "lawyer loneliness,"¹ and how to overcome that loneliness, it resonated with me. And while I agree with the article that loneliness isn't just about physical isolation, it's definitely a contributing factor and one to keep in mind for SSF practitioners in addition to the general stressors of the profession. "What we do is hard," as one of my colleagues and mentors Lilys McCoy would say. We have the weight of our client's expectations on us, as well as our own (which is usually far heavier). And we want everyone to think we're perfect; a great lawyer, person, parent, significant other, etc. And that carries its own heavy weight, too.

Inadvertently, I fell into finding some of the cures that the article talked about for loneliness; the biggest of which for me was involvement in legal organizations where I could create and build relationships with like-minded folks and where I could...