It takes just one

“It takes just one” is Deck Shifflet’s recurring motto for the fragile economics of a small legal practice: one substantial case, he believes, could transform the firm’s prospects. Repeated while he searches Memphis for clients, the phrase turns a gamble into a working conviction, even as Rudy Baylor’s account shows how that hope can pull lawyers toward tactics he finds ethically troubling.

Meaning and Use

Deck says, “It takes just one,” and repeats the thought in the fuller form, “One big case, and you can retire.” The expression does not promise that success will come; it names the possibility on which Deck’s pursuit depends. He is determined to find the big case for their little firm, treating a single unusually valuable client as a potential escape from the uncertainty of building a practice one small matter at a time.

The refrain belongs to the firm’s daily division of labor. Deck spends his mornings on the phone and goes out to look for business, while Rudy keeps busy with court appointments and other work. Deck is willing to chase ambulances and wait around emergency rooms, and accepts an arrangement in which he receives half the money despite not holding a license to practice law. The hope of landing a major case helps make that precarious partnership worthwhile to him.

Economic Logic and Ethical Tension

Rudy places the slogan within a broader account of competition among hungry lawyers. He observes that the prospect of one lucrative case helps explain practices such as colorful telephone-book advertising, billboards, ads on city buses, and telephone solicitation: lawyers endure the stigma attached to such methods because they imagine a large case will make the effort pay. Deck’s refrain compresses that logic into a few words, connecting financial desperation to the search for a windfall.

The small matters Rudy handles provide a pointed contrast. He has been appointed to represent six indigent defendants, with a maximum fee of one hundred dollars per case and at least four hours of work on each. That modest, measurable income keeps him occupied, but it stands far from the retirement-sized case Deck hopes to find. The phrase therefore marks a difference in emphasis between Rudy’s low-paid appointments and Deck’s pursuit of a breakthrough, while revealing the uncertain promise—and ethical pressure—built into the firm’s search for clients.