Solo Practice

Solo/Small Firm Round Up (Solicitors From Hell, Pay Gap), Upcoming Speaking and the Return of Lawagora

By Carolyn Elefant

I hope to put up some more substantive posts next week, so in the interim, let me leave you with a couple of announcements and assorted news items.

News Bag:

So, you thought that Avvo's rankings system was bad? (for the record, I don't).  Well, if you did,  be glad that you don't practice in the UK where you'd have to deal with Solicitors from Hell.com, a website that invites disgruntled clients to share their complaints about solicitors and law firms, with postings appearing on Google within 24 hours.  So how does the site make money?  Extortion.  According to the Law Gazette, firms can pay  £299 to have all current and future traces of their name removed from the site or pay between £99 and £199 to have specific postings deleted.

Do male solos earn more than females?  My guess is that if they do, it's only because many women lawyers go solo for more work life flexibility which means fewer billable hours.  But according to this Freakonomics blog post there are other factors that explain why women earn less than men, including weaker negotiation skills and failure to ask for as much pay.  Is it the same in solo-world?  Please feel free to chime in below.

Upcoming Speaking:  February is my back to school month - I'll be speaking at a Solo and Small Firm Seminar at Case Western on February 5 and 6, and I'll be returning to American University Washington College of Law on February 16 for a lunch time talk.  Please stop by and say hello.

The Return of Lawagora:  Two years ago, I started a beta project known as Lawagora (lawagora.ning.com):  Marketplace of Events for Lawyers.  I never kept it up and it soon lagged.  Well, nothing ever emerged to replace Lawagora and I still believe there's a need for a universal calendar of all the cheap and free seminars, webinars and trainings on line and in person.  Feel free to go in and enter an event - you don't even need to register, just log in as Name: guest@myshingle.com PW - myshingle1234.  Here's how it looks:

Full post as published by My Shingle.com on January 29, 2010 (boomark / email).