Google the phrase lawyers and “client service,” and you’ll find hundreds of posts on the importance of great client service – not as a reminder that lawyers have an ethical obligation to serve clients well – but rather as a way to generate future referrals or avoid malpractice. Lawyers are advised to over promise
Solos Are the Future? Not News To Us But Good News Nonetheless
I’ve long believed that solo and small firm practice is the best kept secret of the legal profession. For thirteen years, I’ve blogged about all of the benefits that solo and small firm practice has to offer, particularly in these transformative times. Yet even as big law fell from grace, the legal profession continued to
Making A Successful Solo Practice A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Let’s say that you aced law school or spent a couple of years at the most prestigious firm in your state or the country or worked in-house at a Fortune 500 corporation. If you have these credentials — and even if you don’t — but you’re itching to try your hand at starting your own
The Unexpected Surprise of Starting A Law Firm
Starting a law firm is nothing if not an adventure always full of surprises. Here are some of the things that surprised me about starting a firm.
You will always be terrified. For as long as you are in practice, you’ll always fret that one day the phone will stop ringing, that business will dry
What Next, Solo?
In one of those press releases-cum-SEO drivers that routinely crop up in my news aggregator, I noticed this announcement about Stephanie Fierro’s promotion from law firm associate to senior counsel at Frutkin Law, a mid-sized Arizona law firm. Nothing out of the ordinary there – but what most caught my eye was that prior to
Solo Is A State of Mind
Though it may surprise you, I’m not a fan of lawyers describing themselves as solos. Despite eleven years of promoting the virtues of hanging a shingle and big law’s tarnished image, the legal profession — from law schools to judges — still reveres big firm lawyers and their shiny credentials. Even the so-called Newlaw
A Post Celebrating Thanksgivukkah, Menurkeys and Solo Lawyers
Behold the Menurkey. Part Menorah, part Turkey, the Menurkey commemorates the intersection of Thanksgiving and Hanukah, two holidays that celebrate the triumph of religious freedom over oppression; of small outliers over large dynasties. In many ways, both holidays represent the story of solos.
Although age-old holidays inspired the Menurkey, it came to life
Sometimes, First Is Worst
Recently, one of my colleagues shared with me the success of a monthly subscription service that he’d recently launched for his clients, who are businesses in a relatively specialized industry. He was surprised by the positive results because another one of our colleagues had tried a similar program a decade earlier with no takers.
There
High Anxiety: The Reason Why Lawyers Are So Vulnerable To High-Pressure, Low-Return Marketing Scams
Seems that no matter what lawyers do these days – whether it’s accepting a phone call from an unknown number, or scanning press releases on a news aggregator or visiting a bar association website, or signing up for what appeared to be a free service — they quickly find themselves bombarded with high-pressure sales offers
Part of Starting A Law Firm Is Changing “It Won’t” to “It Didn’t”
We’re our own worst enemy when it comes to starting a law firm. Alhough naysayers abound, frequently your worst enemy is you.
Because I blog about starting a law firm and have done it myself in my respective practice area, not surprisingly, I’m asked for advice on getting started. Yet more often than not,