Solo Practice

The Rituals of Oral Argument - Please Share Yours!

Posted on October 26, 2008
Ever since I advanced, rather surprisingly, through the rounds of my first year Moot Court competition, I've adhered rigorously to certain rituals of oral argument.  Back then, my rituals involved meditating in front of a candle and listening to this James Taylor album over and over again...

The Path Not Intended

Posted on October 26, 2008
One thing that you probably don't know about me is that when it comes to driving, I'm hopelessly and completely directionally impaired.  On foot or bike, I can navigate easily virtually anywhere under the sun, but somehow, finding my way to a new location while driving at high speeds and trying to avoid an accident utterly confounds me...

Hey Lawyers - What Ever Happened to Value Billing For Legal Services?

Posted on October 20, 2008
About four years ago, one of my very favorite bloggers, David Giacalone wrote this provocative post, Value Billing versus Value Bilking, arguing that in many instances, value billing represented just another way for lawyers to extract more money from clients when the billable hour didn't yield as much...

Don't Negotiate, Do Accommodate

Posted on October 18, 2008
Last season, my daughters and I became fans of Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice.  While my girls enjoyed  the show for the recognizable products that were often the subject of the challenge, I watched for marketing lessons.  And one of the lessons that's remained with me now, even several months later, was gleaned from a competition between two teams to earn the most money from selling a product on the QVC Home Shopping Network...

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How Cutting Costs Make A Difference in Your Bottom Line

Posted on October 17, 2008
Most solos realize that cutting overhead can sustantially increase our bottom line.  That's why increasingly, many solos favor virtual offices over costly downtown space, or prefer to outsource projects to deal with short term work spurts to avoid adding new staff...

Re-Release of Social Networking Group

Posted on October 14, 2008
I'm releasing an updated version of my Social Networking for Lawyers Group.  This version contains some more information on Twitter, a diagram of the Social Networking Continuum and a sample email showing how you might approach online connections to develop an offline relationship...

More Change At MyShingle and Announcing Six Weeks "til Solo Practice

Posted on October 13, 2008
Over the next few weeks, you'll see some changes here at MyShingle, most notably an enhanced version of our flagship features, the Online Guide and Soloformania.  As always, these resources will remain free for all users - though I will be introducing some new sponsors who will enable me to continue to make this information available at no cost  - though this will require a slight design upgrade...

The Art of the Chart

Posted on October 13, 2008
A few weeks ago, I read an article much like this one about how "charticles" - short news pieces depicted with charts and other graphics - are all the rage in conventional print media.  I didn't think much about this trend, however, until I started getting a noticeable increase in traffic as a result of the Social Networking Continuum graphic that I posted a few days ago...

Social Networking Continuum

Posted on October 11, 2008
I've just updated my online book on Social Networking -- it should be available for download in the next day or two (if you've already downloaded a copy, you'll automatically receive the update).  But I thought I'd share a diagram that I've included in the new version, which focuses on the intermediate step of taking online relationships offline...

Making the Most of Solosez

Posted on October 10, 2008
In a response to my last post, the Underground Solo Railroad, a reader wrote asking for advice on the best way to manage Solosez, the ABA Solo listserve that's now grown to 3500 members.  Without a doubt, the listserve generates over one hundred messages daily...

The Underground Solo Railroad

Posted on October 09, 2008
Remember the Underground Railroad, the hidden network of safe houses and secret routes created by abolitionist sympathetizers to help slaves escape to freedom during he pre-Civil War era?  After spending time in the company of my fellow solos at the National Solo and Small Firm Conference this past week, I realized that another type of underground railroad exists - one comprised of solo and small firm lawyers who help their colleagues escape to the freedom of solo practice, through  informal measures such as mentoring colleagues, volunteering information about "where can I find (a virtual assistant or a good blog designer or shared ofice space) and providing feedback on marketing plans or substantive pleadings...

Solos Must Give Themselves A Break

Posted on October 08, 2008
 As I've written before, too often in solo practice, we're our own worst enemy.   For example, as I wrote here, we'll reject an idea out of hand because it hasn't been done before or because the challenges, at least on the surface, appear insurmountable...

Building a $2 Million Practice From Scratch

Posted on September 29, 2008
Are you building your law practice from scratch?  If so, you might want to follow some of the lessons that Wilton McDonald, winner of one of  Originate magazine's Rainmaker awards shares  here. McDonald isn't a true solo - he was hired by a small firm in Grand Cayman as senior associate for an eat-what-you kill position in the Investment Funds Department...

Your Partner in Life and Law

Posted on September 29, 2008
Update - a reader tipped me off to this letter from Bruce Allen's Marketing Catalyst that seeks a spouse's buy in when a professional signs up for Allen's services.  Actually, I think one of the hardest things for a spouse to understand is that new solos need to invest much of their extra in business first before they can start taking extra money home to pay the bills...

Meet Me At the National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Posted on September 24, 2008
I'll be attending the upcoming ABA National Solo and Small Firm Conference in Santa Fe next week, October 2-4, moderating a panel on blogging.  So if there are any specific questions that you'd like me to explore, drop me a comment, or come to the panel -- it's not too late to sign up...

Whether By Choice or Necessity, They Took the Road Not Taken

Posted on September 23, 2008
Some of us start law firms because we want to, others because we have no alternatives.  I was again reminded of this dichotomy by a pair of inspiring stories, here and here, about two successful shinglers, now in the twilight of their careers, who each started law firms at different times and under different circumstances, but ultimately because they were determined to practice law their way...

Help Me Update MyShingle and Get A Copy of SBC, Plus A Consult

Posted on September 17, 2008
The Online Guide to Solo Practice has been a flagship feature of MyShingle, ever since I launched this blog almost six years ago.  Though it's been updated a couple of times over the years, in the process of completing Solo by Choice and my recent workload, the Guide has fallen into a state of disrepair...

What We Do Matters: A Reminder from the Last Lecture

Posted on September 17, 2008
Everyday across the nation, hundreds of solos talk to their clients -- breaking bad news, explaining how the law works or offering suggestions on how to handle a divorce or fight a trumped up criminal charges or save their home from foreclosure. Nothing precedent-setting or earthshattering, nothing as sexy or high profile as, for example, working on the goverment rescue of the mortgage industry...

A Lawyer's Guide To Collaboration: Re-imagining Your Law Practice

Posted on September 17, 2008
I've waited far longer than I ever intended to review The Lawyer's Guide To Collaboration by familiar lawyer-bloggers Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy.  It's not that I haven't had time to read the book - in fact, I devoured it the moment it arrived and reference it frequently for various projects in my practice...

Twitter: A Downpour of Information But the Sun Always Shines

Posted on September 11, 2008
Like some of my lawyer buddies on Twitter, I've noticed that I've had an increase in followers ever since JD Supra  published this list of lawyers on Twitter.  While I'm flattered to have you all as new friends, don't expect my tweets to give all that much insight on what I'm (or anyone else on Twitter, for that matter) really like because as I like to say, on Twitter, the sun always shines...

Making Opportunities for Your Practice: An Interview With Ari Kaplan

Posted on September 09, 2008
A few months back, I had the opportunity to interview Ari Kaplan, author of a terrific new book, The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career  Through Creative  Networking nd Business Development.   Though the book is relatively short, it's incredibly dense - reading it literally made my head spin, because there are dozens of ideas for networking and building relationships and reputation in every chapter...

Legal Writing Expert Lisa Solomon Opines on ABA Opinion on Outsourcing

Posted on September 01, 2008
Last week, I posted about a recently released ABA Opinion 08-451 on the ethics of outsourcing.  At the time of the post, I didn't have the opinion and griped that the ABA would issue a decision of such potential consequence and fail to make it publicly available...

Solo Offerings for Solos: Marketing Listserve (Free) & Solo Boot Camp in Maryland

Posted on September 01, 2008
Here are a couple of items of interest for practicing and aspiring solos.  First, California lawyer and  The Practice Blog author, Jon Stein is accepting new members  to a newly created Solo Lawyer Marketing List Serve.  So how do I know that this is a list worth joining?  Well, I've been a member of  a smaller (well, if you can call 200 small!) marketing list that Jon's been running for more than a year, and it's produced a steady stream of marketing ideas as well as direct feedback from folks like Mark Britton of Avvo...

Everything You Need to Know to Succeed As An Associate, You Can Learn From Solo Practice

Posted on September 01, 2008
As much as I love blogging about the nitty gritty aspects of solo practice -- the how-tos, the marketing, overcoming your fears and all that good stuff, I'm just as interested in the role that solos play in the broader context of our profession and what other lawyers can learn from us and vice versa...

What Michelle Obama Couldn't Have Found at The (So-Called) Fifty Best Law Firms For Women.

Posted on August 26, 2008
I'm not much of a political junkie, but I made a point of watching Michelle Obama's speech to the Democrat National Convention.   Michelle (it's tough for me to refer to someone a few months older than me as "Mrs.")  intrigues me, largely because she's a contemporary with many superficialities in common:   we both graduated law school in 1988 (in fact, a high school friend of mine was in some of Obama's classes at Harvard); we both married in 1992 and we both have two daughters with lyrical names (Elana and Mira vs...

Failing To Make Opinion Available on Outsourcing Is Just So ABA

Posted on August 26, 2008
Perusing five years of archives, I realized that it's been a while since I've bashed the American Bar Association for policies like legitimatizing firm-created obstacles for retiring lawyers to start their own practices or picking on solo and small firm lawyers in the disciplinary process or simply taking a negative view of solos...

What Questions Do You Have About Starting And Running Your Firm...Maybe I've Answered Them

Posted on August 21, 2008
Both lawyers and law students thinking about solo practice have dozens of questions.   But some questions are asked more frequently than others and those are the ones that I've tried to address in my book, Solo by Choice.  Take a look at some of the questions that I've addressed in the book and think about whether it might be a useful purchase for you: What can I gain from starting my own law firm -- 6 powerful motivators...

I'm Back, With Lessons from London

Posted on August 20, 2008
Well readers, after a two week absence I'm back.  And in the tradition of previous trips, I bring you real life marketing lessons from London.  By way of background, this vacation grew out of my husband's two week business trip to his employer's London office...

Taking A Vacation

Posted on August 07, 2008
Tomorrow, I'm leaving for a family vacation to London and while I'm exhausted from scrambling around trying to finish a brief and get my daughers ready for school (which begins the last week in August, just a week after we return), I'm also incredibly excited...

Laid Off By Cadwalader? Why Not Solo by Choice?

Posted on July 30, 2008
 This post is for the 96 Cadwalader attorneys who were pink slipped today.   Let me blunt:  consider starting a law firm.  No, don't do it now while you're still nursing your wounds; getting axed is never pleasant even when it's not your fault (and hey, we all know that it's economics pure and simple)...

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