What would you do if your law practice suddenly lost all of its clients and you had to start over from scratch?

That may sound like a dramatic hypothetical — until you look around. My friend Nicole Black recently wrote about AI-driven layoffs sweeping through tech giants like Amazon and Meta, asking whether lawyers might be next. Between automation, consolidation, and shifting client expectations, many law practices are vulnerable to disruption.

AI isn’t the only culprit. During COVID, brick-and-mortar firms vanished almost overnight as clients stopped coming through the doors and courts shut down temporarily. Some firms stayed the course and work bounced back but other firms shut their doors.

Trends change too — something I know firsthand. Fifteen years ago, I was one of the only lawyers in the country representing landowners and communities fighting interstate gas pipelines. Work poured in effortlessly… until I started winning and setting new precedent. Once my victories proved these cases could succeed, the environmental groups that had once turned away my clients jumped into the fray with deep pockets and donor funding. They began taking the same types of cases for free — and even though I’m good, I can’t compete with free. The niche I had built from scratch was suddenly gone.

So, what do you do when that happens? When the phone stops ringing, the email inbox goes quiet, and you’re left staring at a calendar with nothing on it? Here’s what I’ve learned — and what I would do again if I had to start over.

1. Don’t Be Bitter

There’s nothing less attractive than lawyers blaming AI for lost business — for example, whining about clients who rely on cheap AI solutions without acknowledging that high legal fees drove those clients to use AI in the first place. Likewise, while I’d love to blame the environmental groups for stealing my business, the truth is, I took my eyes off the steering wheel. Having been recently widowed, my sole focus was getting my daughters through college debt-free, so I tried to squeeze every penny out of my pipeline work instead of diversifying my income stream. That’s on me, not my competitors.

2. Take Stock of What You Have Left

Even if your client base disappears, your talent doesn’t. You still have expertise, systems, content, relationships, and reputation. To bridge a cashflow gap, reach out to colleagues and offer your services on a per diem basis and let them know you’re open for referrals and work opportunities. My own outreach yielded several contracts, including an ongoing stint as a hearing examiner. If you can’t find work from other sources, you could make your own by pulling together an online course or training to sell to businesses or other lawyers.

3. Pivot to a Need — Not Just an Interest

When business dries up, it’s tempting to chase what feels exciting or novel. But successful reinvention comes from finding unmet demand. Talk to colleagues. Read Reddit threads. Scan LinkedIn posts. Listen to what clients and lawyers are worrying about.

For lawyers displaced or concerned about displacement by AI, reinvention may look like exploring new business models like flat fees or subscriptions or providing hybrid services that leverage AI more heavily for efficiencies but keep humans in the loop. Or maybe it means shifting to another practice area entirely. In my own case, I’ve used the void to move towards building an AI-forward law firm focused on appeals and estate planning and helping lawyers use AI and technology to future-proof their practices.

What’s most important is experimentation. Stop polling other lawyers for advice and get busy doing. Move from saying it won’t work to it didn’t (or even better, it did!). Some experiments will flop, but one success can relaunch your entire trajectory.

4. Don’t Wait for the Market to Come Back — Create the Next One

Markets evolve. The lawyers who thrive aren’t those who cling to what was, but who define what’s next. That might mean becoming the go-to lawyer for AI ethics, fractional general counsel services, or digital estate planning. The next practice area is always born from pain points of the moment or curiosity about solving a new problem.

5. You Did It Before and Can Do It Again

When your practice dries up, it’s hard not to feel like a failure. But here’s the thing that’s true for every law firm owner: You’ve built something from nothing once before. You figured out how to attract clients, make money, and turn uncertainty into opportunity. Those skills don’t disappear

So, when the bottom drops out, don’t just brace for the fall. Use it as a pivot point. Shed the parts of your practice that no longer serve you or your clients and build what comes next on your own terms. Because in the end, survival isn’t what defines law firm owners — reinvention does. If you’ve done it once, you can absolutely do it again.

Just like me.

Carolyn Elefant is one of the country’s most recognized advocates for solo and small firm lawyers. She founded MyShingle.com in 2002, the longest-running blog for solo practitioners, where she has published thousands of articles, resources, and guides on starting, running, and growing independent law practices. She is the author of Solo by Choice, widely regarded as the definitive handbook for launching and sustaining a law practice, and has spoken at countless bar events and legal conferences on technology, innovation, and regulatory reform that impacts solos and smalls. Elefant also develops practical tools like the AI Teach-In to help small firms adopt AI and she consistently champions reforms to level the playing field for independent lawyers. Alongside this work, she runs the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant, a national energy and regulatory practice that handles selective complex, high-stakes matters.

The post When The Bottom Drops Out: What To Do When Your Practice Dries Up appeared first on Above the Law.