Veteran Lawyer Discovers Freedom in Solo Act

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Veteran Lawyer Discovers Freedom in Solo Act

By DAVID GREENBERG

Staff Reporter





Across the street from attorney Barry Wilk’s cramped eighth-floor Encino office are ads for lawyers plastered on the back of bus benches.

They serve as a reminder about how his profession has changed since he opened his first law practice in 1957, when touting legal services was considered bad form.

As one of L.A. County’s 19,000 solo practitioners, Wilk, who has a general practice, doesn’t advertise. And he likes being alone. It’s a different world than the life of a partner in a large L.A. law firm where attorneys, be they rainmakers or not, are counted on to drum up business. Wilk is his own rainmaker who generates income the old fashion way: from steady, satisfied clients and networking to bring in new business.

“The thing you have to do as a sole practitioner is tell anybody who will listen that you’re available and competent to do their work,” said the 71-year-old Wilk. “Networking is very important. In the old days, you didn’t have ads in the Yellow Pages saying call me if you’re arrested for drunk driving or if you don’t like your husband.”

Although he handles a variety of cases, most of his work entails transactional real estate, family law and general business for small corporations.

Doing lunch

At least four times a week, Wilk tries to drum up business during lunches with clients, colleagues, real estate brokers, accountants and marriage counselors. He is a member of two bar associations and his community’s Tarzana Neighborhood Council and is active in liberal political campaigns. To keep existing clients happy, he buys tickets from them for political fund-raisers even for candidates he does not support. “I’m supporting a client plus expanding my own contacts,” said Wilk.

This networking generates about 20 new clients each year to add to his stable of 100 existing clients, including 10 that provide him with a constant stream of work. It’s a different business than the 25 years of security he enjoyed as a partner with Beverly Hills-based Turner Gerstenfeld Wilk Tigerman & Young, which he left in late 1997.

Initially, he was concerned about the loss of status. In fact, several Westside clients stayed with his old firm, in part, because they didn’t want to drive to Encino where he set up shop. But 50 other clients stayed with him. They include Charles Lyons III, a partner in Fu-Lyons Associates, a Paramount industrial development firm, which for 20 years has used Wilk for sale, loan and leasing agreements.

Lyons said he became disenchanted with large law firms because he felt they dragged out negotiations and stuck him will bills totaling as much as $70,000 a large amount for a company that constructs buildings with an average of only 10,000 square feet.

“We don’t feel we need expensive representation for what we do,” he said. “But when you get two attorneys from big law firms together, it can take two or three months to complete a land purchase agreement. They play ping pong. Wilk is a deal maker. He just seems to get things done quickly.”

Choosing your own hours

Once a client base is established, solo practitioners choose their own cases, as well as their own hours. They also don’t have to align themselves with the rising partner in hopes of getting on the inside track to a partnership themselves.

Then there’s the money. Wilk had grown tired of the firm taking 50 percent of the fees he brought in to Turner Gerstenfeld. He said those funds went to non-partners, legal staff and a lot of computer equipment that the other partners needed more than him.

Today, he has only one staff member a legal secretary he has had for 27 years. Wilk pays only $1,000 a month to lease a Ventura Boulevard office.

“If you do a good job and you do it long enough, you will accumulate clients,” said Wilk. “I’m not saying I work less. But I work when I work and don’t work when I don’t want to.”

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