My Shingle

February 2008

New Site for Solos – JD Supra

February 27, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Yesterday marked the launch of JD Supra, a document database and attorney listing site that’s important for solo and small firm lawyers for two reasons.  First, JD Supra gives practitioners access to an enormous database of filings, newsletters and memoranda prepared by other law firms.  While a good deal of the information that I’ve seen [...]

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Start a Law Firm…In North Carolina?

February 27, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Go east, young lawyer if you want to start a law firm.  As this article reports, a recent study released by the Pope Center for Higher Education shows that North Carolina needs more lawyer in light of recent population growth and a strong economy.  The catch – only graduates of accredited ABA law schools qualify [...]

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Starting a Law Firm: The Time of Your Life

February 25, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Terrifying. Scary. Frightening. Those words describe horror movies, but you’ve probably heard them quite frequently from others in reference to what it feels like to start a law firm. And in part, that’s true. Because  starting a firm is scary –  particularly when you don’t have a single client, you don’t know whether you’ll make [...]

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Marketing on A Shoestring

February 18, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

My friend and colleague, Allison Shields of Legal Ease Blog is starting the next round of her course Lawyer Marketing on A Shoestring, which she teaches with Paramjit Mahli, of the Sun Communcations Group.  I haven’t taken the course, but the syllabus shows that it’s value packed.  Plus, I am a huge fan of Allison’s [...]

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Boo to the Billable Hour: A Book Review

February 18, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

I finished lawyer John Derrick’s engaging and well written book, Boo to the Billable Hour several weeks ago (and in one sitting), but I’m just getting around to posting my review now.  As I’ll describe in more detail below, Boo to the Billable Hour offers a great primer for lawyers who haven’t even thought about [...]

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Tech Round Up for Solos

February 14, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

I don’t cover technology here much at MyShingle.  It’s not that I don’t recognize its importance to solos – in fact, more than any other tool, technology has shattered barriers to entry.   It’s just that others like Future Lawyer, Ross Kodner, Victor Medina, or Greatest American Lawyer cover technology so much better that I [...]

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Lessons from a Mouse and Hamster – Marketing Is All About Context

February 13, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m not squeamish about rodents.  As a youngster, I raised several dozen pet mice and even now, as an adult I find my daughter’s Chinese dwarf hamster, Puck completely irresistable  Yet this morning, while out walking the dog, I screamed with fright when a tiny little field mouse scurried across my path. Why does a [...]

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Author’s Cut: Solo Practice – Looking Back, Looking Forward

February 10, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

When I sat down to write Solo by Choice, the context mattered most.  One of the my goals in starting MyShingle was to discuss solo pratice not so much as a category of law practice unto itself , but rather to view the role of, and opportunities for, solo and small firm practitioners in the [...]

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In House Counsel Looking for Deals…Why Not With Solos?

February 10, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

If you thought that large corporations had deep enough pockets to pay whatever fees their outside counsel demanded, you’d be wrong.  Turns out that corporate counsel are positively simmering over the way that many large law firms are ripping off clients with exorbitant mark-ups on contract law attorneys.  Indeed, corporate counsel are so steamed that [...]

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Q&A About Solo By Choice: Why Did You Call It That, and How Can I Order It?

February 7, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

In this latest installment of my Author’s Cut/Pocket Part series, I’m going to address two of the questions about the book that I’ve been frequently asked this month: 1.  Why did you call the book Solo by Choice, particularly when so many people don’t voluntarily choose solo practice? When I started the writing process, my [...]

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