For me, the above LegalForce brand concept — a scales of justice anthropomorphized — encapsulates all that excites me about the launch of the exciting new LegalForce business model conceived by lawyer/entrepreneur Raj Abhyanker that I attended last night in Palo Alto, California.
For so long, images of the scales of justices have served as
The Dangers of the 19th Century Retainer Agreement
OK, maybe this Engagement Agreement sample, extracted from a Start Up Law Firm Toolkit published by Lawyers Mutual North Carolina isn’t as outdated as the Pony Express. Still, the engagement letter provision below, which seeks express client authorization for use of any modern day method of communication is so antiquated and short-sighted made me
Are data-driven matches between lawyers and clients always made in heaven?
With the dawning of the Age of Big Data, increasingly, we’re seeing the rise of the data-driven match. Yesterday, I came across a primitive example of this concept (primitive because it’s based on user-input rather than analytics); a new matchmaking site, Same Plate.com where users can select dates based on food preferences. Likewise, some
Ethics Follow Up 2: Will Virginia law blogger’s challenge to discipline deprive other blogs of First Amendment protection?
In October 2011, I blogged about a Virginia lawyer Horace Hunter’s challenge to a disciplinary charge for failing to include a disclaimer on his blog stating that results in past cases handled by the firm (and reported on the blog) are unique to the facts and do not guarantee a similar outcome in other cases.
Ethics Follow Up Part I: New Jersey bonafide office rule improves but still fails to recognize reality of the cloud
For those of you who track ethics developments at MyShingle, there are a couple of updates to report. Here’s Part I; Part II (on blogs and the First Amendment) is Ethics Follow Up 2: Will Virginia law blogger’s challenge to discipline deprive other blogs of First Amendment protection?
Back in March 2010, I mocked New
The Siren’s Song of the Unlaw Firm: Will Today’s New Business Models Help Solos…or End Their Careers?
Call it the un-law firm. As big law crumbles and some solos struggle to compete with national non-lawyer providers like Legal Zoom, new business models for law firms are cropping up to fill the void. From Virtual Law Partners and Rimon Legal to branded networks of solos and franchise offices, alternatives to the standard
Open Letter to New Lawyer: You should be dragging me into the 21st century not the other way around
Dear New Lawyer,
At 48 years old, I am old enough to be your mother. And you should be ashamed of yourself. Here you are, coming to me for a legal job when you don’t know the first thing about RSS feeds, blogging (reading them, let alone writing them), Twitter, Pinterest or YouTube. And what’s
MyShingle Will Pay THREE Readers $125 To Test Out Divorce Discourse/Lee Rosen’s Networking 101 Program
Regular readers know that MyShingle is all about original content, all the time, almost always authored by me rather than guest posters (though I’m always open to high-quality submissions). But when a recent bout with the flu rendered me at less than full-capacity for over a week, I’ve had no choice but to revise my
Serving The Needs Consumers Didn’t Know They Had
So, I’m finally back to work and blogging after some highly aggressive bout of flu or sinusitis knocked me off my feet for almost five days. When my symptoms reached the point where I felt too nauseous and feverish to leave my bed, I knew that it was time to seek medical help. As has