Novelist and lawyer Scott Turow takes aim at the billable hour in this provocative piece, The Billable Hour Must Die, featured as (of all places!) the cover story of this month’s ABA Journal (more on the redesign in another post). Turow acknowleges the usual litany of criticisms of the billable hour: the toll that
Operations
The Other Side of Solo Practice
It’s difficult to fully respond to an article like this one,
The Snark: Flying solothat discusses the drawbacks of solo practice because I can’t decide whether the author is trying to be funny or is truly pathetic, and pathetically uninformed.
Basically, the article is intended to discourage unhappy associates from making the mistake of…
Yes, You Can Solo Part Time
Conventional wisdom used to be that if you’re going to succeed as a solo, you need to jump in with both feet. But the one rule of solo practice is that there are no rules, only millions of exceptions. And here’s one of those exceptions: Danielle Colyer, a teacher by day, busy real estate attorney…
Announcing….SOLOFORMANIA – now in beta!

My site has been dead for so long, that I couldn’t wait to get some new content going. So here it is, in beta…SOLO-formania. What is SOLOFORMANIA? It’s a cornucopia of forms for the busy solo – ranging from FREE sample practice guides, fee agreements and retainer letters, to court forms for all…
For All DC Area Attorneys and New Law Grads: DC Bar Event re: Contract Lawyering
Contract Lawyering and Outsourcing: Career Options
Start: May 24, 2007 Thursday 12:00 PM
End: May 24, 2007 Thursday 1:30 PM
Description
D.C. Bar Law Practice Management Section; Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice Section; Corporation, Finance and Securities Law Section; Government Contracts and Litigation Section; Administrative Law and Agency Practice Section; Health Law Section;…
Will be resuming posting shortly
Readers, I just looked at the date of my last post, and I can’t believe that I’ve gone a week without posting. This is a busy time with work still coming in. And I’m polishing up the final draft of my book which should be out by the end of the year. The book has…
Solo at Above the Law
When I started this blog back in December 2002, I lamented the absence of solo voices from mainstream legal media. But with blogs, we solos have come a long way. The most recent case in point: over at Above the Law, one of the most popular and widely recognized law related websites, solo Billy…
If you had 20 hours of law student time this summer, how would you spend it? And if you’re a law student, what would make you want to take a job with a solo?
This is a two part post, for my fellow shinglers, and also for law students. To my colleagues, first: Imagine that you had twenty hours of reliable law student assistance for the summer…how would you use it? Would you have the students help stock your blog with materials, like at SCOTUS Blog? Ask them…
Great Criminal Law Resource, and Why It Helps Solos
At Illinois Trial Lawyer , Evan Schaeffer shares a wonderfully valuable resource, The Center for Criminal Justice Advocacy. The Center was formed as a free, non-partisan training resource to assist new lawyers in becoming competent criminal practitioners. And one of the Center’s missions is to provide newly licensed sole practitioners with materials to provide…
Striking It Rich by Striking Out on Your Own
Thanks to a tip from a sharp eyed reader, here’s a link to a story that I overlooked: The Secrets of Million Dollar Solos, (GM Filisko and Meg Tebo, ABA Journal 3/29/07) that features four solos running million dollar practices. There’s much that other solos and the legal profession generally can learn from these…