I really enjoyed this piece by Mark Donald, An Ode to Okra (Texas Lawyer – 12/1/05, law.com) about Dale Wooten, a Texas bankruptcy solo lawyer, who’s also a “restaurateur, raconteur and gardener.” Wooten, who’s enjoyed a successful 35 years law practice and generally interesting side businesses, is now winding down a 35 year solo career
GAL Does the Decent Thing
The Greatest American Lawyer has been on the greatest of blog-posting frenzies this past week, with a number of must-read posts. But the one I’ve selected to focus on is this, which asks Have you ever considered waiving fees even when you did nothing wrong? There, GAL describes his decision to forego several thousand dollars
A Really Nice Thing – And A Blog To Check
I’ve been having a lousy week, with one matter continuing to generate all kinds of knotty issues. So it was a real pick-me-up to get a call from the editors over at Lawyer and Business Executives in the News to inform me that I’d been selected Person of the Week. And even though as
Client Expenses – Not Whether They Pay, But How Much
Over at The Practice, Jonathan Stein ponders whether clients should be billed for smaller incidental costs like photocopying or faxing. Jon falls on the side of rolling these incidentals into overhead rather than reflecting them on a client bill.
I agree with Jon. But for me, the much trickier question when it comes to
Biglaw’s Got the View But Not Much Worthwhile to Do
Yet another article, Smaller Can Be Beautiful for Some Lawyers, (bizjournal, 11/2005) on biglaw attorneys leaving their firms for smaller – or in this case, mid-sized pastures. But what I found so sad about this piece is the reason that some folks stay on at biglaw: not because they prefer the work but rather,
US AGs Decide to Shingle
It’s not just biglaw attorneys who are hanging shingles these days. This article, AUSAs to Start New Trial Firm, Justin Scheck, the Recorder 11/23/2005 reports on a pair of former US Attorneys who’ll be hanging a shingle in Northern California and foregoing biglaw practice. The reason? These guys want to be trial lawyers.
Small Firms Fighting Big Companies
I loved Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action and so I was happy to come across this article, Two Person Firm Wrestles Oil Giant (November 26, 2005) about another small firm doing battle with a major corporation, albeit with better results. But it’s still an uphill fight. From the lead of the article:
It’s the old
What David Swanner’s Giving Away, and Not Just for Holiday Gifts
A few weeks ago at Blawgthink, I met David Swanner, who blogs at South Carolina Trial Law Blog. David was giving out copies of his Winning With Powerpoint CD that you can get from him through his blog as described here. From David’s perspective, the payment is possible referrals, but more importantly,
Big Companies Starting To Pin Point Small Firms
Finally – it’s happening. Big companies are started to wonder why they should pay $600 an hour to fly their regular biglaw counsel from New York or L.A. out to Buffalo or Kalamazoo to litigate a case, when they can just as well retain local counsel for a fraction of the price – and better
Announcing “The Billable Hour” Timepieces
As Thanksgiving and winter holidays approach, like me, many of you are
probably scrambling to find the perfect gift for lawyer-friends and
colleagues who’ve helped you throughout the year. This year, you don’t
need to waste any more billable hours looking for gifts because fellow
solo Lisa Solomon and her
attorney husband Mark have come