The Greatest American Lawyer ponders a fascinating question: what should we call practitioners who are not in a partnership based law firm, if not solo practitioners?. GAL writes:
As many of you already know, I have taken issue with the term “solo”
for practitioners who do not practice in a partnership setting. Solo has the
2005
My JD Bliss Profile
This week, JD Bliss is a profile about MyShingle and me. Though I wouldn’t necessarily refer to myself, as JD Bliss does, as a "success story" (more a work-in-progress story), I certainly don’t mind the exposure. For those readers who haven’t checked out JD Bliss, take a look – it’s an interesting site and the…
Asking for Help
My Small Firm Business column for the month, Ask A Simple Question as been posted over at law.com In it, I discuss both the benefits of asking for help as well as places to look that you might not have thought about. I’d have to credit Professor Steven Lubet and his recent article, Artificial Intelligence…
Why Marketing Articles Like This One Drive Me Crazy!
I have a peeve about a great many articles on marketing for law firms. Some of the articles are apparently written by so-called experts who have clearly never practiced at a law firm. Others reiterate the same advice – network, seek referrals, join a bar association – without any analysis of whether these methods actually…
Would You Apologize to Save Your Career?
Here’s a bit of sad piece from AP (4/8/05) on Lawyer Refuses to Apologize to Judge, Goes to Jail. Though details of the incident are sketchy, the article brought this question to my mind: would you apologize when you don’t believe you were wrong to save your legal career?
According to the article, an…
Lex Think, Lex Do
This past Sunday, I attended Lex Think, organized by fellow bloggers Matt Homann, Dennis Kennedy and Sherry Fowler. I’d heard the conference described as a conference about nothing but in the end, it turned out to be about everything, from attorney-client relations, billable hour versus alternative billing and keeping the passion in one’s…
Make Bar Complaints Public – At Least to Other Lawyers
As many of my fellow bloggers and readers know, I’m no fan of bar disciplinary programs. Among other things, I believe that the bars disproportionally target solos and pursue sanctions for trivial infractions while sometimes failing to seriously investigate real dangers. That’s why many may be surprised to learn that after seeing ABA’s 2003 statistics…
The Bigger the Firm, The Bigger the Mistake
Newsflash: like solos, even large firm attorneys can file complaints in the wrong place, miss the statute of limitations and conceal the mistake – as shown in this article, Jury Awards Billy Blanks $15 Million in Legal Malpractice Suit (4/2/05). But it takes an extra special large firm to wind up liable not just for…
Ethics, Technology and the Solo
I have a guest post over at Ben Cowgill’s Legal Ethics Blog on A Solo’s View on Ethics and Technology. Clearly, as a solo, I owe much of my effectiveness today to improved and less costly technology, much of which was not around (or at least was not as affordable) back in November 1993,…
Malpractice Insurance: Don’t Start Practice Without It
Here’s an article, 10 Misconceptions About Malpractice Insurance, Phillip Fraim, Small Firm Business (3/28/05) that discusses some of the mistaken assumptions attorneys make in purchasing malpractice insurance. For example, Fraim points out that many attorneys wrongly believe that defense costs in a malpractice action do not affect policy limits (when they do) or that…