Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201280377
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 20 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SOME LAWYERS ARE TAKING CASES THEY'D RATHER NOT
Local lawyers are claiming their practices are recession-proof. But some talk of competing harder for the choice cases and facing rising costs to maintain their offices."By and large, the lawyers in the Roanoke Valley are doing quite well," said Roanoke lawyer William R. Rakes, president of the Virginia State Bar. "I don't think lawyers are affected to the extent other businesses are. . . . Litigation certainly is not being hurt by the economy."
However, some specialized firms and solo lawyers who handle real-estate closings, for example, are being hurt by the slowdown in that industry, said.
Large firms in the more-populated areas of the state that have been merging, acquiring other practices and setting up branch offices also have been hurt, Rakes said.
In the Roanoke area, lawyers contend there is enough work to support the established practices.
Several Roanoke lawyers who have gone into private practice in the past few years said they are doing well financially and work is plentiful - although some say they are taking cases and clients that are not the kind of work they'd prefer.
Roanoke lawyer Raphael Ferris said lawyers often are taking cases they're not interested in professionally or work that doesn't generate much income. But they agree to take those cases because they're worried about their future, Ferris said.
Ferris, who three years ago left his position as assistant commonwealth's attorney in Roanoke to go into private practice, said his law firm began advertising last June.
The firm, Rider Thomas Cleaveland Ferris & Eakin, is "doing that because there are more and more attorneys competing for those areas in which clients will pay," Ferris said.
"The sheer number of lawyers out there are not my competition," he said. "The numbers aren't trying the cases I'm trying to get. . . . The big boys with the big names are my competition."
Ferris's firm specializes in personal-injury litigation, criminal and traffic defense, workers' compensation cases and wills and estates, he said.
But because of an uncertain future, Ferris said, "I am seeing myself beginning to take cases we might not have taken before. It's the fear factor that drives you to do that.
"I've got more work than I can say grace over right now, but not all of it is profitable."
Some cases cost more in a lawyer's time than he will earn in a fee, but he takes those cases in hopes that they will generate more business for him, Ferris said.
He said he also takes cases that he does not find interesting, with hopes that the clients will recommend him to other people.
Former Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Blaylock left that position four years ago to go into private practice in Roanoke. He said his business has increased steadily.
"Personally, it's been a good year for me. But who knows what next year will bring?" he said.
Blaylock said it would be extremely difficult for a young lawyer to start in private practice because it costs so much to run an office.
Without name recognition and a base of clients to refer new cases, the overhead of running the business would quickly put a young lawyer out of business, Blaylock said.
He said he pays $400 a month just in health benefits for himself, his family and his secretary.
As commonwealth's attorney, Blaylock said, the state paid for items such as his telephone bill, mail, office machines, secretarial help and stationery. He received paid vacation days and holidays and retirement benefits as well. Those costs add up for a young lawyer just starting out, he said.
Former Roanoke Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Jeff Rudd left that position to go into a sole practice nine months ago.
"I've been pleasantly surprised at how things have gone," Rudd said. But, he said, without the courtroom experience and name recognition he received as a prosecutor, his business probably would not have been so successful.
Although he is doing better financially in private practice than he was as a prosecutor, Rudd said, "Not a week goes by I don't do a gut check in terms of `Today was good, but what happens if no one walks in the door for the next four months?'
"I'm beginning to understand it just happens," he said.
Rudd said he hears people say there are too many lawyers in the Roanoke Valley, but "I don't see too many lawyers in my area of expertise, which is trial work and criminal defense.
"Some competition is critical. Some competition makes any service-oriented business better. It drives you to do better."