This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Sonia Lakhany

Choosing a name for your company or law firm can be difficult. I am asked often by fellow attorneys about the difference between a corporate name and a trademark, so this article will help clarify.

Let’s start with corporate names. A corporate name is the name of the actual business entity – the name that gets registered with the Secretary of State at the time of incorporation. This is the company’s “official” name. Incorporating with a Secretary of State gives the company the right to use its name for official purposes, such as banking, on legal documents, and as a tax payer.

A trademark, on the other hand, is a particular word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination thereof (such as a logo) that is the name shown to the public – the public-facing name the company uses in the stream of commerce to identify its goods or services. Trademark registrations are applied for through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (for federal registration), state offices (for state registration), or internationally.

An easy illustration of the difference between corporate names and trademarks is TJ Maxx. TJ Maxx is a trademark for retail department store services, but that is not its corporate name. The corporate name is TJX Operating Companies, Inc., which most of us do not recognize.

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

 This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Caroline Barnes

I know first hand that starting your own practice right out of law school can seem daunting. You will face many people telling you that you cannot do it and you will face others who think you can eventually do it, just not right out of law school.

Over the past year, I have learned that starting your own practice right out of law school is possible. You just need the drive to do it. If you have the drive, and have made the decision to start your own practice, here are five tips I have learned over the past year that may be beneficial to you:
1)      Don’t be afraid to learn as you go: As a young attorney, you will have to learn as you go in many situations. This can be stressful, but if you are worried about something, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call someone who has more experience.
2)      Don’t underestimate the power of networking: The majority of my clients have come from referrals. Reach out to other attorneys in your city or to other attorneys across your state in your practice area. If you have a federal practice, don’t restrict your networking to local are state-wide sources. You should network nationwide.
3)      Sign up for listservs in your practice area: Once you join the association for your practice area, join the listservs your association offers. When you are part of the listserv, you will receive questions and answers relating to your practice area via email and you can ask more experienced attorneys questions you may have.
4)      Embrace new technology:

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Wes Bailey

I am a fan of low overhead. As my paralegal has stated, quite regularly, I’m a penny-pincher. Well, not exactly but I watch my overhead because i’m a solo practitioner. I pay for everything, so its important that my office runs on a tight budget. So when I get the chance to use something, I want it effective, useful and cheap (if not, free).

As a trial attorney, I am never in the office full time. In fact, if i’m in the office for more than two full days its weird to me and my staff. However, while i’m in court, I am never far from my staff or the needs of my clients. As I have found technology is my best weapon. Here are a few applications I like to use to keep connected to my clients.

First and foremost is google voice. It gives me a new cell number to give to clients so that they in turn can call me directly if they need to. I make sure that this number is never used for personal calls, friends or family. Therefore, I do not have to worry as to whether or not the person that calls has my private number. Each voice message is transcribed, emailed and sent as a text message. This is highly effective if you are sitting in court waiting during a motion day and need to call a client or you have a judge breathing down your neck and need your client to get to court asap. By the way its free.

Second, I use a virtual receptionist called Ruby Receptionist (not a paid endorsement).

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

 This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Liz Araguás

Let me begin by saying that I have no trouble spending money. I have always enjoyed life’s luxuries (to the extent that my meager young adult earnings have allowed) and been annoyed by those who were too tight to join in on the fun. However, when I decided to start a solo practice a few months ago, I was terrified to take on overhead expenses. What if this venture didn’t work? What if I just ended up piling more debt on myself, on top of my student loans? I was paralyzed at the thought of taking on unmanageable expenses, and so I set out in search of cheaper alternatives.

I knew that I could practice law frugally from my work as an Americorps Member Attorney at my local legal aid office. Although I intended to start a for-profit firm, the nonprofit world provided much of the inspiration for my eventual start-up plan. Below is a list of the start-up costs I took on to get my practice off of the ground. At the end of month two, I’m excited to report that I’m profitable and growing. While this tightwad strategy will likely not be a long-term plan for me, it has enabled me to get started doing the work that I love, without unduly straining my budget (or my marriage!).

  • My “Office”: $0

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Pamela Williams Kelly

I know…I know…I know! If another person tells you to volunteer aka working for free to “get your name out there,” you will just scream. And you will send that person a copy of your outrageous law school loan debt and its equally outrageous monthly payment schedule! But volunteering can work wonders if you do it strategically and with an end goal always in mind. Below are a sample of the goals that I set and the results that followed:

1. The Big Guys Must Know I Exist

When I decided to leave my full-time, non-legal position with benefits on July 31, 2013 to practice law full-time, I decided that the local bar association needed to know my name. I could not be a secret attorney. Rather, I had to burst upon the scene to grab my colleagues’ attention. So, I answered the call that many attorneys don’t. I embraced pro bono. I volunteered regularly at the weekly and monthly pro bono clinics and joined 3 committees with the local bar association. I made it a point to introduce myself to my colleagues and offered to refer them, which quickly turned into a business card exchange. I accepted at least 2 pro bono clients each month, and I specifically asked for clients that were hard to place because of specialized issues like veterans law. It may seem overwhelming, but the truth is…it really wasn’t. The clients needed my help, and I needed the experience. And I had the luxury of choosing legal issues based on the skills or legal knowledge that I wanted to acquire. Plus, I made sure that the time commitment was balanced. For example, an uncontested divorce case coupled with a forebearance letter for a federal loan was not hard to handle. For over six months, I was everywhere; and then I received 3 unexpected payoffs: 1) The director of the local bar association referred a potential client to me, which meant that she did know my name and my areas of specialty; 2) A staff member at the pro bono clinic admired my client interaction and referred me to her friend, which resulted in a legal fee of over $2,500; and 3) I was honored in October 2013 with the Celebrate Pro Bono Award! At the reception, I was recognized in front of my peers, and a local newspaper wrote a feature about me. (You can read the news article here ) And here’s a picture of the beautiful necklace I received as well. 

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Denise Nichols 

When I started my law practice a few years ago, I was certain that inscribed on some ancient legal manuscript were the words “Thou Shalt Bill Hourly.”  I attempted to adhere to this widely accepted practice, but without much success.  Had I joined a firm, as opposed to hanging out my own shingle immediately after law school, perhaps I would have developed a different view of hourly billing – or at very least, been forced to master the task.   But despite the tips and tricks offered by experienced, well-meaning attorneys, as well as trying various software solutions, I failed miserably at keeping up with my hours.  Simply put, the process of hourly billing felt unnatural to me.

Prior to joining the ranks of the legal profession, I found the attorney-client relationship to be somewhat intimidating; particularly with regard to the costs involved.  I may have liked the person representing me, but I was uncomfortable with the process.  I felt as though there was a wall between me (as client) and my attorney, due in a significant part to my concern about costs. Each time I thought of calling or emailing my attorney with a question or comment, or to simply get a status report, that wall grew ever larger.

Upon moving to the other side of the desk, I found the first question asked by most new clients was “how much will hiring you cost me?”  When I quoted an hourly fee, I sensed an immediate shift in the dynamics of our rapport.  Not because my hourly fee was shockingly high, but because of the total cost the client could incur was unknown.  My clients seemed to be experiencing the same “wall” effect that I had experienced when I was in their shoes.  

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Elizabeth Fenton

The legal blogosphere was atwitter recently over a memo circulated by a female associate at a Biglaw firm to some colleagues. No surprise, the memo was leaked to Above the Law. In the memo, the associate described a meeting of the firm’s women lawyers, where the topics included the “notion that while large law firms have come to respect the obligations of female associates as mothers, this respect for commitments outside of the office hasn’t yet transcended to young associates who aren’t parents, both female and male for that matter.”

The author then proceeded to declare boldly that she would be “having a baby” a/k/a attending a Katy Perry concert. She hoped her colleagues would cover for her while she was away. I believe this female associate was well-meaning in her attempt to “be the change we wish to see” at the firm. Unfortunately, in sending this memo, she lent credence to “society’s badly mistaken assumption that going on maternity leave is akin to going on vacation,” as Ananda Lowe described in a recent piece for WBUR.

When my first child was born, I was a Biglaw senior associate and I billed up until the evening before she was born. I took some time to recover from childbirth and be home with my child. Because of the hard work of (mostly) women lawyers who preceded me, I was fortunate to have paid maternity leave and to also take unpaid leave. Enjoy that time I did, but it was no Katy Perry concert. If you have stayed home with a newborn, you know what I mean. I recall luxuriating in a child-free day spent during my leave at our litigation department retreat. There, I engaged in the final push (so to speak) for my ultimately successful partner candidacy. My first week back, I was officially a partner.

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

 This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Nichole Goudreau

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who practices in a large city on the east coast.  We talked about his solo practice and whether it was time for him to quit solo and perhaps quit law altogether.  Keep in mind, this guy is not a newbie or an incompetent lawyer but rather he is a seasoned attorney with talent, experience and some professional success. None of this, however, seems to be bringing him much personal satisfaction. And for him, the demands of solo practice are, quite frankly, getting old.  In 2013 there were more than 1.2 million attorneys in the United States and about half of them were solo practitioners. What all of these solos know is that while the independence of being self-employed is liberating, at times it feels like a grind. The responsibilities of customer service, client retention, marketing, promotion, IT, human resources, financial planning, and office management can make running a solo practice overwhelming and even frustrating. Especially when you had no plans to earn an accelerated on-the-job MBA.

 So why bother going solo in the first place?

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger Christine A. Wilton

Have you read Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, by Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee) yet? This book came recommended by Dave Ramsey’s team and I couldn’t put it down. He brings a fresh spin on social media platforms and how to communicate on each of them. As solos, we can exponentially expand our reach and level the playing field of our competition by engaging with others through social media platforms.

He spends the better part of the book explaining how to storytell on Facebook.  What really helps to solidify the concepts are the examples with pictures of companies that get it right and others that don’t.  It’s important to know the demographics on each social media platform, along with how to participate and you get that here.  For example, Gary suggests that we may post pictures of our morning coffee on Facebook, but we would never do that on LinkedIn.  Great advice if you ask me.

Some important takeaways from this read are to learn to speak in the proper context on the various platforms.  In example, I have been working on twitter more than ever.  You can follow me @attychristine to catch my updates and musings.  I have learned to hijack #hashtags on Twitter to get more exposure from a single post. I’m also learning to speak Twitter (I think someone should write a dictionary of terms).  There’s more than enough information to make you a better user however you choose to use social for your business.

This post is part of the MyShingle Solos summer series which will run between June 17 and July 3, 2014. 

 This post is written by MyShingle Guest Blogger LaTasha Riley

As a new or solo attorney, most of your financial resources are spent on necessities like office essentials, transportation, and marketing. After covering the basics to run your law practice, there’s not much cash left for anything else. It’s easy to overlook your most important business asset: YOU! Clients notice your marketing style, courtroom behavior, and appearance. If you’re charging hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to provide legal services, you need to look like you’re worth every penny. Opposing counsel and judges notice your looks too. The way an attorney presents himself/herself impacts on how others perceive his/her skills and capabilities. You only get one shot to make a first impression, so take the time to build a classic yet stylish work wardrobe that projects a professional image.

Yes, you have to look the part. No, you don’t have to spend large sums of money to do so.

The examples below will help you build a professional wardrobe with a limited number of pieces that you can easily mix and match to create a variety of outfits. A minimalist wardrobe will shorten the time it takes you to get ready in the morning and will save you quite a bit of money. That’s right, I’m going to help you save time AND money.

Where to shop

What if you don’t have $500 to budget for clothing? What if you have expensive tastes and don’t believe that $500 will go very far?