My Shingle

November 2005

An Ethics Decision for the Dogs

November 18, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

David Giacalone of f/k/ahas this post about the recent Florida Supreme Court decision in the 1-800 PIT BULL case (we noted the matter earlier here). The court ruled that a Florida law firm’s use of the phone number 1-800-PIT-BULL and a logo depicting a pit bull in a spiked collar violates Florida ethics rules – [...]

Read more Ethics & Malpractice Issues 30 comments

Why You Should Listen to Your Clients

November 18, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

Many lawyers tend to complain when our clients try to play to lawyer.  These lawyers either feel as if the client is trying to usurp of exclusive domain or simply don’t want to take the time to explain why the law doesn’t work as the client believes it does.  Yet as this article, Court:  NY [...]

Read more Client Relations 1 comment

I Finally Hung Those Shingles!

November 18, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

Readers, I apologize.  I long ago promised to include a side link to any solo or small firm who asked and I’ve been a bit late in following through.  But tonight, I went through the old emails and hung up those shingles (it may take a little time for them to appear at the site, [...]

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Why Getting Back in the Box Isn’t Such A Bad Thing

November 16, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

In these fast moving, high tech times where it seems that everything’s about buzz and hype, no one wants to be caught thinking inside the box.  But as Douglass Rushkoff explains in this essay Get Back in the Box (Fast Company 11/2005), more companies should think about climbing back in the box and returning to [...]

Read more Big Law/Small Law 4 comments

Craig’s List Saves the Day!

November 16, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

From time to time in my practice, I have a need for paralegal type support or quasi-legal  research.  The tasks might include summarizing depositions, finding background on a particular industry, following up on marketing leads, gathering web materials on a recent trend in the law, updating one of  my websites or weblogs or  even doing [...]

Read more Law Practice Management 4 comments

From Blawgthink to Blawgdo

November 15, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

I’ve been back from BlawgThink for a few days, but for various reasons, haven’t been able to post my thoughts until now.  First, everything that’s already been written by my fellow BlawgThink attendees here and here and here — about the energy and the passion and vision  pulsing through the conference, not to mention the [...]

Read more MyShingle Solo 4 comments

Some Really Bad Taglines

November 15, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

Patrick McEvoy of Rainmaker Best Practices wonders about who thought of these really awful law firm taglines? (McEvoy doesn’t name names, but you can find many of the taglines that he uses as examples and their respective owners on this list.)  So what’s McEvoy’s test for a good tagline?  Basically, it’s a phrase that says [...]

Read more Marketing & Making Money 8 comments

Small Firms Need Websites for Marketing – But That’s Not All

November 15, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

This article, Making Their Case to Clients (Nov. 13, 2005) reports on a recent LexisNexis Martindale Hubbell survey on small firm marketing practices.  The survey found that small firm lawyers  spend five percent of their revenues and eight percent of their time on marketing efforts.  And the majority of firms surveyed said that “hanging a [...]

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Nineteen Practice Management Blogs

November 15, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

In a recent piece for Law Practice Today, (November 2005), Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell list nineteen web logs that deal with law practice management issues, including My Shingle.  You’ll want to make sure to include a bunch of these sites in your newsreader, if you haven’t already done so. solotips

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Would You Fire A Client Who Doesn’t Take Your Advice? Here’s What Doctors Are Doing…

November 9, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

What do you do when a client consistently refuses to take your advice?  It’s a knotty problem for many lawyers as to whether they should keep those disagreeing clients and try to bring them around or simply dump them.  This article, Feuding Over Vaccines, (Sandra G. Boodman, Washington Post, November 8, 2005) discusses how pediatricians [...]

Read more Dealing With Clients 8 comments

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