David Giacalone of f/k/ahas this post about the recent Florida Supreme Court decision in the 1-800 PIT BULL case (we noted the matter earlier here).
The court ruled that a Florida law firm’s use of the phone number
1-800-PIT-BULL and a logo depicting a pit bull in a spiked collar
violates Florida ethics
November 2005
Why You Should Listen to Your Clients
Many lawyers tend to complain when our clients try to play to lawyer. These lawyers either feel as if the client is trying to usurp of exclusive domain or simply don’t want to take the time to explain why the law doesn’t work as the client believes it does. Yet as this article, Court: NY…
I Finally Hung Those Shingles!
Readers, I apologize. I long ago promised to include a side link to any solo or small firm who asked and I’ve been a bit late in following through. But tonight, I went through the old emails and hung up those shingles (it may take a little time for them to appear at the site,…
Why Getting Back in the Box Isn’t Such A Bad Thing
In these fast moving, high tech times where it seems that everything’s about buzz and hype, no one wants to be caught thinking inside the box. But as Douglass Rushkoff explains in this essay Get Back in the Box (Fast Company 11/2005), more companies should think about climbing back in the box and returning…
Craig’s List Saves the Day!
From time to time in my practice, I have a need for paralegal type support or quasi-legal research. The tasks might include summarizing depositions, finding background on a particular industry, following up on marketing leads, gathering web materials on a recent trend in the law, updating one of my websites or weblogs or even doing…
From Blawgthink to Blawgdo
I’ve been back from BlawgThink for a few days, but for various reasons, haven’t been able to post my thoughts until now. First, everything that’s already been written by my fellow BlawgThink attendees here and here and here — about the energy and the passion and vision pulsing through the conference, not to mention…
Some Really Bad Taglines
Patrick McEvoy of Rainmaker Best Practices wonders about who thought of these really awful law firm taglines? (McEvoy doesn’t name names, but you can find many of the taglines that he uses as examples and their respective owners on this list.) So what’s McEvoy’s test for a good tagline? Basically, it’s a phrase that…
Small Firms Need Websites for Marketing – But That’s Not All
This article, Making Their Case to Clients (Nov. 13, 2005) reports on a recent LexisNexis Martindale Hubbell survey on small firm marketing practices. The survey found that small firm lawyers spend five percent of their revenues and eight percent of their time on marketing efforts. And the majority of firms surveyed said that “hanging a…
Nineteen Practice Management Blogs
In a recent piece for Law Practice Today, (November 2005), Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell list nineteen web logs that deal with law practice management issues, including My Shingle. You’ll want to make sure to include a bunch of these sites in your newsreader, if you haven’t already done so.
solotips
Would You Fire A Client Who Doesn’t Take Your Advice? Here’s What Doctors Are Doing…
What do you do when a client consistently refuses to take your advice? It’s a knotty problem for many lawyers as to whether they should keep those disagreeing clients and try to bring them around or simply dump them. This article, Feuding Over Vaccines, (Sandra G. Boodman, Washington Post, November 8, 2005) discusses how…