The solo.

The solo lawyer is becoming a rarity. The idea of putting up a shingle in a modest office with one secretary and a typewriter has gone the way of the wind.

How can solo lawyers compete in today's world against the forces that conspire against the solo lawyer?

* Do-it-yourself software.

* Online companies providing legal documents to an unknowing public.

* Low-cost legal services provided by discount retailers.

* Legal clinics providing free or greatly reduced priced law services.

* The expense of e-filing court papers requiring expensive equipment and additional personnel.

* Inefficiencies in the adversarial system that cause long delays in cases being heard.

* Demands of continuing legal education that burden the solo lawyer more than the multi-lawyer law firm.

* Mandatory pro bono service that places far more of a time and financial burden on the solo lawyer than on the multi-lawyer law firm.

* Computers churning out floods of legal documents that swamp opposing counsel.

* Costs connected with maintaining an office --rent, utilities, and insurance.

* Steep malpractice premiums.

* Bar association dues.

* Ever more laws, rules, and regulations that even an Albert Einstein would have trouble deciphering.

* Paralegals doing the work of lawyers.

* Inability to stop the unlawful practice of law.

* Client inability to pay for legal services.

* Lawyer advertising that stresses cost over quality and makes a mockery of law as a profession.

* Intense competition for clients because of an overpopulation of lawyers.

* Paying off law school and college student loans.

* Huge law firms with vast financial resources that create very considerable imbalances in the adversarial system.

* Retired lawyers offering free legal advice.

* Employer in-house counsel providing outside pro bono legal services.

* Employer legal services for employees.

* Family life and responsibilities.

These issues must be addressed before any further decline in the solo lawyer population becomes irreversible.

The loss of...