Many lawyers (with this notable exception) believe that the 1/3 contingency fee is reasonable and that any fee agreed to between a willing client and an attorney is also reasonable. But in this recent story, Attorney’s 9/11 Fee Called “Shocking, Unconscionable” (law.com 8/28/06), lawyer Tom Troiano had a valid retainer agreement that provided for
2006
Real Sisters In Law
Sisters don’t have to marry a pair of brothers to become sisters in law to each other. As this article, Sisters in law: Siblings Keep legal matters all in the family (Arizona Business Gazette 8/24/06), sisters Hope Kirsch and Lori Kirsch-Goodwin became sisters in law (or sisters at law) when they decided to hang out…
Small Is The New Big and Chat With Seth Godin
I haven’t yet read Seth Godin’s new book, Small Is the New Big, though of course, I linked to Godin’s article of the same name when it came out. Next week, Type Pad will release the August 22 chat with Godin via Podcast. If any readers participated, I’d love to hear the scoop…
Great Advertising for Small Firms
If you want to sell a small business on using your small firm instead of a large, impersonal firm, I can think of no better marketing than this post from Ed Wesemann who describes, bluntly, what small clients really mean to big firms.
You Can Take It [Biglaw Practice] With You
Many large firm lawyers think that if they hang a shingle. they’ll have to throw away their biglaw specialities, like securities regulation or merger practice and trade it in for more general practice fare, like family law or criminal practice. But at least one solo attorney, Walter James, of the newly created Environmental Crimes Blog…
Finding a Way to Do What You Love, Even If What You Love Is Watching TV
This isn’t a post that directly relates to solo practice, though the lessons that it offers will apply. Instead, it’s about the serendipitous way that your passions can lead you to a job that truly fits – which is something that many of us have in fact found in solo practice.
Consider this New York…
How Continuing Legal Education Can Continue To Help You Make Money?
The problem with having less time to write blog posts also means that I have less time to read them. Which is a shame, because in just a few days off the aggregator, I miss so much, including the recent, terrific string of postings by Peter Olson of Solo in Chicago. One neat idea that…
Solo Practice: Priceless
From Susan Cartier-Liebel’s piece, For the Brave, There’s Life Beyond Biglaw (law.com, August 10, 2006) comes this money quote:If opening your own practice were portrayed as a MasterCard commercial, it would go something like this: Virtual Office: $150; Cell Phone: $49.99 a month; WiFi laptop: $799; taking your 5-year-old son to his first Mets opening…
Of counsel – another solo practice option
This month’s issues of GP Solo Magazine has an article by Elio Martinez entitled Of Counsel: An Alternative to Solo and Firm Practice. The article tells a little bit about Martinez’s of counsel arrangement (all of them differ, I think):
My of counsel arrangement is simple. I maintain a separate and independent practice while…
Client Service and More on Niches
I realize that my posts have been sparse over the past month. The slow postings are explained by a couple of factors: my day job as a practicing solo has been fairly busy lately, a project that I’m close to finishing that I believe will greatly benefit MyShingle readers and my divided loyalties now that…