Solo Practice

The Solo Bandwagon Marches On...

Posted on June 23, 2009
This week's news brings a handful of law firm start up stories.  First, the Las Vegas Sun profiles two young female lawyers, Tara Young and Elizabeth Sorokac who lost their jobs in February and have already started their own practices.  Both had been practicing for only a few years and never expected to start a firm so soon...

Walter James, Environmental Counseling and Environmental Litigation

Posted on June 23, 2009
Though you don't find many solos practicing in areas like environmental law, that's Walter D. James expertise.  Walter focuses his practice primarily on environmental counseling and environmental litigation, which includes civil enforcement and cost recovery litigation, criminal defense and toxic tort/property damage matters...

MyShingle Profile: Jay Fleischman, New York Bankruptcy Lawyer

Posted on June 23, 2009
The MyShingle profiles are an experimental feature here at MyShingle - to offer some insight into the careers of practicing solo and small firm attorneys, with questions on how they got their start to what gets them going in the morning.  My thanks to Jay Fleischman and Walter James (next post) for serving as guinea pigs for this feature...

Happy Fathers' Day to the Unsung Solo Dads

Posted on June 21, 2009
My dad was what you'd call a company man; he worked as a chemist for a major pharmaceutical company for 35 years until he retired in 1997, avid to spend time with his first grandchild and the six others who would later follow.   My dad's job didn't offer much flexibility in terms of dress code or hours, except in the summer when employees could take advantage of casual dress and flex time...

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Shingular Sensation Scott Greenfield Wins Landmark Victory Protecting Lawyer Speech, With Help from the Blogosphere

Posted on June 15, 2009
On June 9, 2009, New York solo and Simple Justice blogger Scott Greenfield won a unanimous, landmark ruling from the the New York Court of Appeals in Stern v. Bluestone, which ruled that unsolicited, informational faxes distributed by solo Andrew Lavoot Bluestone on legal malpractice issues do not violate the Telephone_Consumer_Protection_Act_of_1991 or the Junk Fax Protection Act of 2005...

Why Is Findlaw Charging Money for Inaccurate Forms When the Correct Forms Are Available Online for Free?

Posted on June 15, 2009
OK, so I understand that a company like Thomson Reuters doesn't "get" the concept of free.  After all, Westlaw, one of Thomson Reuters' flagship legal products costs a pretty penny.  Even so, it's one thing to charge for a product that delivers value, as Westlaw undeniably does...

Newbie Solos and the Importance of Being Nerdy

Posted on June 11, 2009
Over at Legal Blogwatch, I posted about how shingler Kiwi Camara of Camara Sibley, not yet 25 years old and just five years out of law school is giving the RIAA a run for its money in the high profile copyright infringement re-trial of Jammie Thomas.  Thomas' first lawyer, Brian Toder won a new trial of the $222,000 verdict entered against his client, but withdrew thereafter citing financial hardship associated with continued representation...

Blawg Review #215

Posted on June 08, 2009
It's 2:30 am on the morning of World Oceans Day, as I sit here drowning in a sea of submissions for Blawg Review #215.  Buoy, I'm in trouble, with a sinking feeling about all I have yet to do.  But before I sail into the heart of this post, let me share with you why I accepted Ed...

Spaghetti 2.0 and Law Practice - Customizing for Clients

Posted on June 04, 2009
Via Jeff Berman of Lawyer Marketing Sync, I discovered this video clip of Malcolm Gladwell discussing how Prego spaghetti sauce successfully took on Ragu by offering customers a few different sauce options - chunky, spicy and a third (which I can't now remember)...

Upcoming Events for Carolyn Elefant & MyShingle.com

Posted on June 01, 2009
June is a busy month for me here at MyShingle, with a bunch of speaking events, workshops and most exciting, a relaunch of the site (that's a version of the new logo).  So here's the list: I know this is short notice, but tomorrow, I'm participating in a teleconference sponsored by the ABA, entitled Going Solo in A Down Economy, along with Jay Foonberg, who's been teaching lawyers how to solo for nearly 40 years with his classic, How to Start and Build a Law Practice...

Mommy, You're A Hypocrite!

Posted on May 27, 2009
Yesterday, while driving home from the mall with my daughters, they began fantasizing about the day that my older daughter would get her license (still four years off) so that they could go shopping together, sans mom.   My daughters then asked if I'd let them take the car to the mall or other destinations when they get their licenses...

Veterans' Issues As A Practice Area

Posted on May 26, 2009
A few years back, I highlighted a small firm specializing in veterans' issues.  Now, four years later demand for legal services for veterans remains high.  Fortunately, for solos considering veterans rights and benefits as a practice area, there are multiple opportunities for first rate, hands on training...

Calling All Innovative Solo Lawyers - Innovaction Contest!

Posted on May 25, 2009
At the request of my blogging colleague, Jordan Furlong of Law21 and Chair of the College of Law Practice Management Innovaction program, I'm somewhat belatedly posting this call for nominations for this year's Innovaction Awards sponsored by the College of Law Practice Management...

Last Call to Get A Life

Posted on May 25, 2009
The Total Attorney's Practice Management Association Get a Life conference begins this Wednesday, May 27 and continues through May 28.  There's a great line up of speakers who don't typically present at these kinds of events (at least, not all in one place!) including my colleague and friend Allison Shields and some fun activities as well...

There Is No Stress Like...

Posted on May 22, 2009
<p>Many of you may know what it's like to stand up when the jury verdict's about to be read.  Your heart pounds, your palms sweat and you get weak in the knees.   The seconds seem like an eternity as you wait to learn the result.</p> <p>Before I became a mom, I could think of nothing more stressful than awaiting a jury verdict, followed by the same heart-pounding nervousness of opening an appellate decision...

Lawyer Marketing Resources

Posted on May 18, 2009
I'm not flashy about marketing, nor am I a believer in those pricey "silver bullet" systems, where the only people who win are the experts selling their products.  Still, I do cover marketing issues, both here at my blog in the Marketing & Making Money category and at the Nolo Legal Marketing Blawg (Nolo is a valued sponsor of this site)...

Should You Charge for, Or Mark Up the Costs of Legal Research?

Posted on May 17, 2009
Over at my Legal Blogwatch beat, I posted about an ongoing lawsuit against biglaw firm Chadbourne Park, alleging that Chadbourne wrongfully billed the client $20,000 for online research services when the actual cost to the firm was only around $5000.   The suit alleges that the firm engaged in deceptive trade practices in violation of state law and committed fraud...

Going Solo Means Never Having to Say You Were Fired

Posted on May 15, 2009
A few weeks back, a reader, discouraged after having failed the bar exam yet again, asked whether he should give up on his dream of starting his own practice.  Of the advice that I offered, what resonated most with the reader was my reminder that no matter how many times he passed the bar, once he passed, he'd be a full fledged lawyer, no different from me or any other solo or even the Justices on the Supreme Court...

Ratings Rate With Clients

Posted on May 13, 2009
Lawyers may not be fans of ratings systems, as I've posted previously.  But what lawyers, or bar associations think about ratings doesn't matter, if clients think otherwise.  And as the Washington Post  reports, increasingly, consumers are turning to ratings to make decisions about service providers like real estate agents, plumbers and movers...

The Twenty-First Century Mom Lawyer: A Life Without Seams

Posted on May 11, 2009
October 21, 1996 marks the day that I qualified to celebrate Mothers' Day with the birth of my first daughter, Elana.  Exactly a week to the day of my daughter's birth, I donned the one non-maternity work skirt that still fit me (albeit with the top button open), slipped a boxy red blazer over my swollen, leaky chest and left Elana in the care of her adoring grandparents so that I could head downtown to give a seminar on A Practitioner's Guide to Energy Resources on the World Wide Web...

How David Beats Goliath Is the Story of How Solos Thrive

Posted on May 08, 2009
How is that solo and small firm lawyers are thriving at a time when biglaw is crumbling?  Why does the the spirit of optimism still prevail among most solos even as our large firm colleagues experience hopelessness and panic? Over the past few months, I've pondered these questions, but I've never seen the answers articulated as powerfully as in this inspiring New Yorker piece by Malcolm Gladwell, forwarded to me by a reader, on How David Beats Goliath...

The Home Office Niche

Posted on May 07, 2009
With home offices increasing in popularity, what better niche for a home office lawyer than advising home based businesses.  I've shared this idea before, but was reminded of it again after reading this piece from a Colorado publication which describes that: Douglas County [Colorado] is home to one of the largest populations of home-based businesses in the state, with a whopping 40 percent to 50 percent of all businesses in the county being based in a residence...

Be the Lawyer They'd Call for the $144 Million Dollar Matter

Posted on May 05, 2009
Even though I practice in Washington D.C., I don't know much about David Wilmot, the local attorney representing the 82 year old winner of a $144 million Power Ball jackpot.  (As an aside to the D.C. Bar, if it weren't for Avvo listing lawyer in D...

Solos and the Power of Just Showing Up

Posted on April 28, 2009
Each morning as @carolynelefant, I check in on Twitter for my dose of innovation-overload.   Twitter is always brimming with updates on great minds undertaking great change-the-world-or-the-legal-profession ventures and 140-character insights that inspire and offer new perspectives that I'd love to put to action if I only had the time...

Last Call - Pink Slips, Detours & OnRamps

Posted on April 27, 2009
There's still time to register for the Pink Slips, Detours and OnRamps program at MyShingleforMomsDadsToo.com.  Also, if you are a blogger or member or member of the media and you'd like a free press pass, contact me at elefant@myshingle.com.

If You Play the Part of a Solo Lawyer Long Enough, You Can Be One Too!

Posted on April 22, 2009
I'm only just now getting around to commenting on this recent Notes from the Breadline post by Roxana St. Thomas at Above the Law on the drawbacks of solo practice.  Essentially, St. Thomas focuses on the tougher aspects of going solo, from the potential costs associated with office space to figuring out how to choose a practice area and having to come up with ways to market the practice...

Does A Client Really Care if Your Firm Has Great SEO? Higbee dba RecordGone.com Does.

Posted on April 22, 2009
It must have been a slow news day for self-described upstart small law firm, Higbee Associates dba RecordGone.  What else could inspire the firm to issue this bizarre press release Press Release, trumpeting the firm's Alexa search engine ranking of 127,628 and boasting that the ranking outscores any of the top ten largest firms?  For starters, who uses large law firms as a metric of anything Internet or Web 2...

The World According to Wordle

Posted on April 19, 2009
As I've written plenty of times before, I'm not much of a fan of technology for technology's sake.  I'm both too busy and too clumsy to fool around with gizmos and gadgets that don't have an immediate, practical application to my law practice or my life...

Could You Be A Front for A Firm?

Posted on April 15, 2009
I'm getting ready for my upcoming conference, but couldn't resist posting about this article that describes the trend of minority owned firms partnering up with larger firms to help meet diversity requirements.  It's a trend that I mentioned in my book Solo by Choice, so I was interested to learn that the trend has since gained more traction...

Round Up of Posts: Start Up Law Firm Resources, Reputation Online, Workshop

Posted on April 13, 2009
This is one of those "collection posts" - with a couple of different topics. First, I came across a bunch of FREE tools for start-ups at Ladies Who Launch.  Though the tools are geared towards start-up companies generally, as opposed to law firms, there are plenty of forms and templates here, from business templates to non-disclosures, that can help you in your firm or if you represent small businesses...

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