Sometime in the wake of 9-11, when the Blackberry was the focus of so many stories, I asked several of my solo colleagues whether they thought they’d ever use one in their practice. At the time, Blackberrys were becoming standard for large firm and and corporate employees, but they hadn’t made their way down the
TechShow Wine & Dine Offline
My co-author Nicole Black and I will be at TechShow this year, and as in past years, we’ve organized a dinner for Friday, April 5, to get together with our online colleagues and friends whom we’ve never met or don’t have a chance to see very often in person. If you’d like to attend, there’s
Yelp Sets the Gold Standard for the Type of Value Disclosures That Law Firm Marketing Sites Should Provide
According to Techcrunch, Yelp, an online customer feedback site has announced a new feature that will help small business owners quantify the value of their Yelp listing. To estimate a listing’s worth, Yelp examines customer leads like bookmarking a Yelp business listing, mapping directions to the business, placing a phone call from the
ISBA Report on the Impact of Debt on the Legal Profession: Accurate Assessment or Unfair Assumptions About Solos?
Via Scott Greenfield, I learned about this recent study by the Illinois State Bar Association on
The Impact of Law School Debt on the Legal Profession. Whether or not one blames the debt crisis on law schools (for inflating employment results), the government (for essentially prohibiting discharge of student loans in bankruptcy except
Last Call for Techshow Superpass – and MyShingle Vendor Meetings at Techshow
Even though it includes CLE as part of the admission fee, the ABA’s annual TechShow can still be pricey. To help mitigate the costs, for the past few years, Legal Typist Andrea Cannavina (who’s also speaking this year) has formed SuperPass groups to secure huge volume discounts for attendees. Andrea is organizing groups again this
Counsel of Counsel Relationships: Avoid Conflicts
Nature abhors a vacuum, so the saying goes. So it’s not surprising that with big law’s demise, we’re seeing every flavor of alternative structure evolve, from upscale contract lawyer services to remained law firms, some that rely entirely on outsourced workers to meet client needs to groups of lawyers who operate separately but hold
The End of GoogleReader: A Sign of Blogging’s Decline and Lessons for Lawyers
As you’ve probably heard, yesterday, Google announced that it’s retiring Google Reader, a free service for consolidating and reading RSS feeds on July 1, 2013. Launched in 2005, Google Reader has a loyal following but with user rates declining, the Reader, along with many other products, will now fall victim to another round of
A Lead Generating Website Gone Too Far
Update, 3/12/13 (3 pm) Solosez member and contract lawyer Lisa Solomon posted about this on her
Facebook page and Richard Komaiko, Attorney Fee’s founder is feeling the heat. The emerging dialogue should serve as a warning to future law-preneurs you don’t go beta when people’s careers and livelihood (even lawyers) are on the line.
About
Reinvent Law: Solos Lost in the Transition
I did not attend ReinventLaw, but would have liked to. With four matters pending in various stages at the D.C. Circuit and my daughters in the height of school activities, traveling cross country even for a day wasn’t in the cards this time. So I settled for tracking the conference via the #reinventlaw hashtag
Future of Law Friday: Marketing With Menus
Buying legal services can be confusing. Sometimes – in cases where work is unpredictable, or facts are unknown, opaque information may be acceptable. But for work that is commodity in nature or more predictable, there’s no reason not to make prices available to consumers – if not on your website, then at least in materials