Hello, readers! I’d like to put together a Top Ten List for my sidebar of reasons that lawyers should consider hanging out a shingle. GAL posted something similar here, a list of the benefits of being an independent practitioner. For me, the reasons for going solo include autonomy, flexibility to achieve balance with family, an
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Solos Learn From Clients’ Bad Experiences
Within the past few months, I read an article, I believe at law.com by a large firm associate, complaining about how much she disliked when other people she encountered shared their negative experiences with other attorneys. (as I recall, in this case, the hotel bellhop had cornered her). The associate wrote that she didn’t quite…
Free Legal Research For Louisiana
Ernie the Attorney reports that the Louisiana Bar is offering Fastcase, a legal research service, free to its members. Louisiana thus joins the twenty other bar associations that offer Casemaker, another free research service. What I noticed about Fastcase is that it includes access to district court decisions dating back to the 1950’s. This impressed…
Starting A Firm May Be the Only Escape from Biglaw Culture
Tony DiRomualdo has this interesting article, Why Corporate Culture Counts, at the Wisconsin Technology Network. (7/7/05) that discusses the relationship between corporate culture and values. He identifies examples of companies like Southwest, where positive corporate culture boosts employee morale, giving the company a leg up on competition. But on the other side of the…
More on Unbundling
In the past, we’ve posted some articles on unbundling of legal services because it offers revenue possibilities to solo and small firm lawyers whose clients may not have the resources to fully fund legal services. Here’s another article on unbundling, Law Firms Find Revenues in Unbundling, National Law Journal, July 6, 2005, that reports…
Finding An Office By Playing Softball
Not all networking needs to be as formal and nervewracking as a singles party. Sometimes, you get to know colleagues in a more relaxed environment through activities like a bar softball softball league, as described in this article, League Creates Connections On and Off the Field, Baltimore Business Journal (7/3/05). The article describes how…
More Biglaw Attorneys Starting Solo Biglaw Practices
We’ve more news to report about former biglaw attorneys who, like the biglaw attorneys here and here, have put out their shingles. What’s unique about all of these new law firms is that they focus on practice areas like securities law, business transactions and communications which have traditionally been within the domain of large…
There’s No Place [to Practice] Like Home
Unfortunately, sometimes even solo and small firm lawyers harbor stereotypes about a home office set-up. But if anyone can put those stereotypes to rest, it would be my fellow blogger and solo, Grant Griffiths, who’s just launched this new web log, Home Office Lawyer. These days, home office is more synonymous with high-tech than homely,…
Solos and Small Firms Should Cautious When It Comes to Litigation Financing
Fellow solo and small firm lawyers: another litigation financing company wants to sell you a service, claiming that it’s just what you need. According to this recent press release, LegalFish Bridges the Funding Gap for Plaintiffs and Attorneys in Litigation.:
The purpose of the [Life Funding] program will provide access to non-recourse loans that…
Shinglers Doing Some on the Side
While many continue to gripe about the second class status of women at biglaw, other women lawyers have taken a different path entirely, not just starting their own practices but finding spare time to start several businesses in one case and embark on a masters running career in another. This article, Lawyers Have A Bent…