Excerpted from
How to Build and Manage a Personal Injury Practice, Second Edition
By K. William Gibson

So why start a personal injury practice?

So why start a personal injury practice? If it is because you think that it offers the greatest opportunity to get rich, you will be disappointed. You may ultimately get rich, but you would be more likely to achieve the same or greater wealth by investing your time and money in real estate or any number of other ventures not connected to the practice of law. Even though the ranks of plaintiffs' lawyers include a number of high-profile, high-income lawyers, thousands more lawyers across the county toil in obscurity and make unremarkable incomes.

On the bright side, however, is the fact that nowhere in the practice of law is there a greater opportunity to help those who are truly in need-who have been wronged through no fault of their own and who are not going to get any relief without a lawyer who is willing to fight for their rights. Nowhere in the practice of law is there more of a David versus Goliath scenario than a working man or woman or retired person or child doing battle with a gigantic insurance company or corporation.

Any lawyer who has taken a deserving client's case through the legal system all the way to trial and has ridden out the waves of delay, obfuscation, and occasional deception knows that there is no better feeling in the world than having put up with all that abuse from the other side and finally having his or her cause validated by a jury. When that happens to you, your client is convinced that you are the best lawyer on the planet; the opposing lawyers have to concede that you might possibly know what you are doing; and you gain a measure of confidence and self-assurance that will keep you in the game for a while longer. You will only be able to enjoy those moments occasionally, and then only if you have managed your practice wisely.

Lawyers who fail to build a successful personal injury practice often point to poor case selection, mismanagement of personnel, and poor use of time and money. No lawyer starts a practice intending to fail, but many start a practice doomed to failure because the practice has not been built on a sound foundation. There are four cornerstones of that sound foundation:

1. A commitment to work hard to make your practice succeed
2. The ability to manage your time, money, and people
3. Adequate capital
4. The desire to do the right thing for your clients

If these cornerstones are in place, success will follow. This maxim is equally true whether you are new to the private practice of law, are an experienced PI lawyer, or are thinking of adding personal injury cases to your established practice.