I’ve been blogging long enough to know that readership trends way down on holidays, so instead of new material today, here are two previously run July 4 pieces to enjoy. Happy Fourth of July – and if you haven’t already, make this year that you declare your independence!
Operations
Does It Make Your Heart Sing? A Litmus Test for Law Firm Decisions
My first permanent office, a sublet space in a marble-column-ed Class B building down the street from the White House, was hardly the fanciest in Washington D.C., particularly back in the mid-’90s when big law firm partners still tried to impress clients with mahogany conference room tables and ginormous corner offices. Furnished with cast-offs from…
Solo Sends His Secretary to Law School
Every time I hear that solos have to be entrepreneurs, I cringe. Yes, we all know that solos won’t stay in business if they work for free or spend thousands of dollars that they don’t have on marketing or websites or branding — but understanding these realities doesn’t require business skills so much as…
Judge Easterbrook Slights Solos – But Solos Also Spite Themselves
Just like comedian Rodney Dangerfield, seems that solo and small lawyers just can’t get no respect from the federal courts. Only the slight to solos by federal judges is no laughing matter not just for us solo and small firm appellate lawyers but more importantly, for our clients.
The latest round of elitism and…
Who you calling unethical, Warren Boroson? Please stop picking on solo lawyers!
In an era of lawyer bashing,NJ Columnist Warren Boroson’s piece Why Every Middle Class Family Needs a Lawyer could have been an important educational reminder why lawyers still matter. And while in truth, Boroson’s article makes that case, Boroson does a far greater disservice by advising readers to “avoid solo practitioners” when hiring lawyers.…
Avvocating Conference: A Great Event & A Class Act
Last week, I spoke at Avvocating 2012 (my deck will go up tomorrow; also, full disclosure- Avvo paid my travel to the conference) Much to my own surprise, I’d have to rank it as one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. Yes, Avvocating was a marketing conference and didn’t pretend to be anything other…
NY’s New Pro Bono Requirement Discriminates Against Solos And is Unfair to New Lawyers
File this one under what were they thinking. Now, as a condition of gaining admission to the New York Bar, new graduates (and presumably, new admittees from other jurisdictions) must perform 50 hours of pro bono work, reports the
New York Law Journal.
There’s so much wrong with this proposal that I scarcely know…
MyShingle In Seattle at Avvocating
I’m excited to be speaking at Avvo’s upcoming Avvocating Conference in Seattle on May 3, reconnecting with friends who are also on the agenda and of course, meeting other solo and small firm lawyers. I’ll be talking about the ways that I’ve used online tools like blogging and social media to build my energy regulatory…
Don’t Let Not Having An Office Deter You From Your Dream of Starting A Practice
After reading the recent posts and ensuing discussion on the perennial question of home office versus rental office over at Lawyerist and Above the Law , feels like it’s deja- Foonberg all over again. Because just like Foonberg, both Tannebaum at ATL and most of commenters on Josh Camson’s Lawyerist post uniformly maintain that Renting…
Online, things are seldom what they seem…
This past Saturday, I drove a brand-new Mercedes to the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA) Hanging a Shingle Day. Though I may have looked plenty fancy, the car cost me just twenty bucks a day to rent (our family van is out of commission right now and I didn’t want to leave my husband car-less).…