2005

Sandra Day O’Connor leaves two legacies as she departs the United State Supreme Court.  the legacy that will garner the most attention in today’s weblogs and tomorrow’s history books, of course, is that of her quarter of a century as the nation’s first female Supreme Court justice.  But Sandra Day O’Connor leaves another equally important…

As I’ve said before, MyShingle doesn’t have a formal policy on announcing seminars and events of interest to solo and small firm lawyers – except that if it’s a free event, we’ll give it top priority.  Here’s an upcoming webinar that’s not just free – but also by Keith Ferrazi, author of Never Eat Alone,…

I’ve always been a smiling lawyer.  During the later round of my first year moot court competition (where I made it, out of 80 students, to the finals!), one of the judges told me that he appreciated my smile when I started my argument and since then, I’ve always smiled in court, to juries and…

All of us solo and small firm lawyers have experience with those “dog” cases that drive us crazy and often lose us money in the process.  This article, Spotting the Losers, James McElhaney (ABA Journal June 2005) offers some ways to clear the duds off your desk – or pass off cases that may…

Have you ever sat down and calculated how much it costs per hour to run your law office?  I haven’t (though I know what my overhead and expenses are from my tax returns, just haven’t reduced them to an hourly rate).  Yet it seems that most of us ought to know that number off the…

Via Matt Homann comes this very cool marketing tip:  set yourself up in you local coffee store for a designated hour where anyone can sit down and ask a question about your area of expertise.  And, as an added bonus, coffee for anyone in the store is on you for that hour.  (That is if…

When I put up this post about the ethics of collecting a profit on fees paid to contract attorneys, I didn’t include my own thoughts because my views are mixed.

From an ethical perspective, I’m fairly certain there’s no problem with the practice, so long as overall rates are reasonable.  In fact, the entire large…

Sometimes I just know that I’ve been practicing solo too long.  One reason?  I’ve completely forgotten how to converse in “partner-ese,” that obscure language used between partners and associates where associates must read between lines, jump through hoops and do everything else short of just asking direct and time saving questions.

Consider these encounters described…