On this episode of Lawyer Business Advantage, we focus on the Bar Association as an opportunity for business development. My guest, James Wu of Quarles and Brady, has built his book of business by getting involved and serving his local bar association. Get his tips and best practices…coming up next on Lawyer Business Advantage.
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:18] Welcome to Lawyer Business Advantage, your source for biz dev tips, wisdom and inspiration. I’m your host, Alay Yajnik. We’re unleashing your inner rainmaker in 3…2…1….
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:34] I’d like to welcome to the show James Wu. James is Of Counsel at Quarles and Brady. James, welcome to Lawyer Business Advantage.
James Wu: [00:00:41] Thank you. Thank you for the invitation to be here.
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:44] And I’m really happy you could be here too. You and I have known each other for a while, but our members and our audience listeners may not know you that well yet. So tell us a little bit about the growth and evolution of your career, including your experience as a solo, because you were a solo for a while and now you’re not.
James Wu: [00:01:04] Yeah, it’s been a journey for me, professionally speaking, growing up. I started practice in 1996 in Chicago and I always practiced employment labor law, which I started gravitating towards in Chicago and practiced at large law firms for about four years. And then my wife and I moved to Walnut Creek, California, in the end of 2000 and my firm did not have a California office. So I left on great terms, but I needed to find a new landing spot for me professionally. So when I first landed in California, I also joined other large firms through some mutual connections. And I worked at large firms here in the Bay Area for quite some time. And then, as you mentioned, I did go solo after about, I’d say, another 11 years or so. I did go solo and started my own firm. Again, still practicing labor and employment law.
Alay Yajnik: [00:02:10] And James, if I may ask, why was it that you decided to leave those big firms and go solo?
James Wu: [00:02:17] Yeah, at the time I had a couple of things. One was, I was a bit disenchanted with some of the politics and bureaucracy that the large firms I was at, that I won’t name them. But and secondly, quite frankly, it was for family reasons. I had kids. I mean, I still have kids. But at the time they were in elementary school and not seeing them for dinner, not being able to walk them to school or things like that, just little things of life that I wanted to have the opportunity to do, weren’t there by commuting to San Francisco.
James Wu: [00:02:50] So starting my own firm here in Walnut Creek afforded me that opportunity to not only run the firm the way I wanted it to be run, but also to have more personal satisfaction with my family and being there for Little League games and picking them up from school and carpooling with their friends to practices and those life events.
Alay Yajnik: [00:03:15] Congratulations on making that tough decision to prioritize the things that are really important to you! And there’s no judgment here for those of you that are listening. Some people are driven by money. Other people are driven by other things. For most of us, it’s a combination of factors. So, James, you recognize that things had to be changed so that you could live the life you want and you made those changes and started your own firm. And that’s a scary step to take for a lot of people. And congratulations again on having the courage to do that.
James Wu: [00:03:45] Yeah, thank you. And it was scary at the time, and I think that although I didn’t know you at the time,