Review of "How to Succeed as a Freelance Attorney" by Marina Modlin Esq.

by Sabrina M. Johnson
LCS Graduate Fellow

available at the LCS Library

You have graduated law school, hurdled the bar, and now it is time to work. The ability to find employment taking you in the direction you want to go can be a challenge. Some difficulties in finding employment range from not really knowing what you want to do, to not having enough experience to work in a particular area of law. A solution could be to work as a freelance attorney. A freelance attorney is an independent contractor, your client is a law firm, and you work on projects.

How to Succeed as a Freelance Attorney is conversational and easy to digest. In reading it, I found that I had a mindset that limited my employment options, and this book helped me to see other opportunities available in starting my legal career. Many graduates leave law school with this idea that there is a normal path to follow, and this thinking keeps new lawyers ‘inside the box’, but as Ms. Modlin has said, “freelancing is really a fantastic and very doable path that gives great results.”

One thing that helped to solidify the importance of what this book is about happened as I was leaving class in my LL.M. program. A fellow student was asking the adjunct professors how to find work. Part of their response was to do some freelance work to get experience and to get your name out there.



You should check out How to Succeed as a Freelance Attorney, there might be an opportunity that you have been overlooking that can bring you closer to your career goals. This book is available for check out in the LCS library.

Recently, Ms. Modlin was a guest blogger on Trebuchet and described her experience when she was a recent licensed attorney and student loan payments coming, in a post entitled, When I Hit Rock Bottom as a Young Lawyer.

Marina Modlin emigrated from Saint Petersburg, Russia. She received her B.A. from UC Davis, and her J.D. from Univ. of San Francisco. Immediately after passing the bar, Ms. Modlin founded Modlin Legal Services, Inc., a freelance practice, and grew it through referrals. By January 2010 she felt she had learned enough through her freelance practice to represent her own clients, and converted Modlin Legal to a full-service wills & trust firm with offices in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. In her spare time, Ms. Modlin loves to cycle, hike, and practice yoga.