For those who care to remember, 2009 wasn’t a great year for the legal industry, but that was the year Eric K. Schillinger graduated near the top of his class at Albany Law School. In a normal year, someone with Eric’s grades and reputation would have been a shoe-in for any number of coveted clerkships in greater Albany. But at the height of the recession?—those clerkships went to Ivy-Leaguers.

Dejected but not defeated, Eric took the bar, passed, and began looking for a job—any job—that would allow him to use his new legal license. Eventually, in 2010, he found a rather unique opportunity at a local firm. Rather than work as a salaried member of the practice, Eric would work on a 1099, assisting a partner on the cusp of retirement. The contract wouldn’t pay much, maybe $35,000 a year, but it came with free office space that Eric could use to meet with potential clients as he started his solo criminal defense practice.

There Eric would stay, assisting the firm as a contractor and constructing his own legal practice, until November of 2018, when he opened his own brand-new legal offices in downtown Albany.

“When I made the decision to get out of there and really get out on my own—you know, open my own office, and all that—I knew it was the right thing to do, but it was still nerve-wracking.”

Eric K. Schillinger, Founder, The Law Office of Eric K. Schillinger