Every four months for the past fifteen years, I’ve avidly read the Alumni Notes section of my alma mater’s publication,the Cornell Law Forum to see what my classmates have been up to since graduation. In addition to alumni notes, the Forum publishes a couple of articles by professors and students. While some have been moderately
December 2005
Four Tips to Enhance Your Efficiency
Denise Howell modestly offers some tips to enhance your effiency. They include (1) picking 1-2 devices you like best and consolidate your activities on them (Denise’s personal choices are cell phone and Power Book); (2) get a gmail account to eliminate time spent searching email (Evan Schaeffer endorses the gmail tip also) and (3) make…
Is Grant Griffiths Linkbaiting?
Fellow solo and blogger Grant Griffiths has yet another blog, Blogging Tips – and in this post, he blogs about linkbaiting, the practice of writing good content for the sole purpose of attracting links. Grant explains that he links to other posts that offer good content – and he gives some ideas on ways…
Blawg review #35 and Worthless Advice
If you’re not reading the weekly Blawg Review, you should; it’s a great summary of what’s happening in the blawg-o-sphere. This week’s edition Blawg Review #35, hosted by Colin Samuel’s at Infamy and Praise is an especially great example of the Blawg Review genre.
One of the items mentioned in Blawg Review that…
Where You Went To School Does Matter in Solo Practice…As Does Everything Else
I love the blog The Practice, written by three practicing solos, Jon Stein, Shane Jimison and Barry Kaufman. And generally, I generally agree with most of the advice that the trifecta dispenses. But I part company with Jon’s recent post that the value of a top law school is overrated for those who want…
Why Is A Law Firm of One Ever Misleading?
Let me proclaim here and now, for the record, that I’m the founding partner in a law firm, The Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant. Yes, it’s a law firm of one and I’m the only partner, but my firm is just as legitimate and real as any of these. So why is it…
Sometimes Lawyers Tell Clients To Lie, Sometimes Clients Say Lawyers Made Them Lie
This piece, Tri-Cities Lawyer Arrested for Contempt (November 30, 2005), reports on a lawyer arrested for contempt for pressuring his client to lie at trial. The laywyer was caught when the client presented the judge with the email exchanges documenting the lawyer’s advice to the client to lie – and her response that “I
understand…
Be It Resolved That…
Matt Homann of Non Billable Hour is asking all of us lawyers to share our resolutions for 2006 as part of his “Resolutions for Lawyers” blog series. I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to submit, but I do have plenty of ideas. Which in itself makes me grateful because there was a time in…
What Would You Be Doing If You Hadn’t Started A Law Firm?
As most of my readers know, I started my law firm twelve years ago, after five years of practicing as an energy attorney, first for the government and then as an associate with a boutique practice. My firm unceremoniously gave me notice and six months to find a new job, saying that I wasn’t partnership…
An Angry Brief Won’t Win You Anything But A Sanction
Debra Koven’s ranting appellate brief (see excerpts at 5-8) isn’t something that as a lawyer, I’d ever write and as a judge I’d ever want to read. Among other things, Koven accused opposing counsel of suborning perjury and claimed in her brief that “the fix was in.” As a result, the court ordered a $2000…