Published in Pennsylvania Rising Stars 2007 — December 2007
By Bill Glose

When Christy Adams started her personal injury firm in 2002, she had just one employee: a secretary. Since then she has added a paralegal, a full-time receptionist and a file clerk and is currently in the process of hiring an associate.

"When you work for yourself, you have to worry about the office element, such as paying employees, bookkeeping, etc.," Adams says. "You have to continually bring in business to make sure your employees are taken care of. There's definitely more stress involved because it’s not just practicing law."

Her motivation to go solo came from a desire for more control. "You can decide what cases you take, what you don't take. Instead of just being an employee of a firm where you have less say in the outcome or less say in how to handle certain matters, you're running the show."

She points to one client, an injured woman whose recommended surgery was refused by insurance. "She cannot afford to stay out of work, but the insurance company is refusing to pay her claim. Because she's not technically out of work, she's not going to receive workers' comp benefits. ... I took her case, litigated it to fruition, and probably spent about $5,000 on it. I would not have been able to do that, I think, working for somebody else because [of] the bottom line."

And it worked out well for her client: her medical benefits were reinstated, her surgery was paid for, and while she was out of work during surgery and recovery, workers' comp kicked in.

"Helping her was the right thing to do,” she says.