I’ve been reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, which explores those factors that contribute to extraordinary success.  Though I’m not quite finished with the book, I’ve already found so many nuggets that help explain why some lawyers who start a law firm experience wild success while others flounder.  I’ll share some of these reasons after I’ve…

Law may be governed by precedent, but oh how soon we forget.  Once upon, the behemoth law firm Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom was just a trio of fellows named Marshall, John and Les who had the crazy idea to hang out their own shingle.  Yet now, forty years later, as the economy tanks and…

One thing that you probably don’t know about me is that when it comes to driving, I’m hopelessly and completely directionally impaired.  On foot or bike, I can navigate easily virtually anywhere under the sun, but somehow, finding my way to a new location while driving at high speeds and trying to avoid an accident…

As I’ve written before, too often in solo practice, we’re our own worst enemy.   For example, as I wrote here, we’ll reject an idea out of hand because it hasn’t been done before or because the challenges, at least on the surface, appear insurmountable.   Even worse, we’ll paralyze ourselves with regrets about clients…

When it comes to starting a firm, fear poses one of the greatest obstacles.  Fear of failure, fear of lost opportunity, fear of embarrassment or cricitism for having made what appears to others as a foolish decision.  My able colleagues in the Solo Space, Susan Cartier Liebel and Sheryl Sisk Schelin have shared words of…

I’ve written previously about the importance of  saying nay to the naysayers – you know, those folks, some jealous, some just well-intentioned – who tell you that you won’t succeed in starting a law firm.  Pesky as these external naysayers may be, the truth is, they’re only part of what’s holding you back.  In many…