Comments on: Solo Trends for 2009

By: Mark P.

Mark P. — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:49:58 +0000

Great Blog!
I do the marketing for a few solo law firms. I am constantly working the social networking portion and I agree with you 100% that facebook will surpass Linked-In. In the last 3 months it has brought more business then Linked-In has all year. Now I have not focused much effort on Twitter but plan on doing so more this year. I imagine a link to a Twitter feed from ones website might build confidence but I donâ€™t see a person other than attorneys going back to read them a second time. I also worry a visitor might not go back to the firms site because they clicked away from it…

By: Mark Britton

Mark Britton — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:42:32 +0000

Great post Carolyn.

By: Sandy Slaga

Sandy Slaga — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:14:22 +0000

Carolyn,
Very much enjoyed your post. It’s given me the foundation for taking some new paths this year. Thanks!

By: mark z.

mark z. — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:18:47 +0000

From a personal injury attorney’s perspective …
P.I. Attys typically colloborate through lists, and if linkedin is utilized in that way, I see it having significant value. Joining groups witihin linkedin to me is key (I joined the solo group and the trial lawyer group). Net based groups for PI lawyers are good referral tools.
Collaboration has value, but get your agreements in writing as to fees, work and dispute resolution upfront. I can tell you about a colloboration that went south and it was the executed agreement that made folks play nice when fees came in.
I see a real key to internet based contacts … the telephone. Some are forgetting the aspect of a call, a follow up call, or even a short VM as a way to get work in the door. Responding to a post abt a referral with an email saying in essence ‘I’ll take it’ is not enough.

By: Robert Abtahi

Robert Abtahi — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:38:06 +0000

I agree with most of your thoughts Carolyn but I feel like soon the social networking sites are going to be over run. Monster.com started with decent jobs and now its mostly junk. Myspace ended up being a haven for junk as well. It’s scary that the future of the profession is in the hands of the Facebook and Twitter gatekeepers. When Facebook is sold, and it probably will be eventually, it will need to become profitable and in will come the advertisers and junk. At some point these sites have to make some money and it seems from the past that obnoxious ads and unfiltered spam is slowly becoming the norm. Hopefully it doesn’t happen but I wrote a similar post about the future of the practice of law.

By: Susan Cartier Liebel

Susan Cartier Liebel — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:28:29 +0000

Carolyn,
Happy New Year. I couldn’t agree with you more on so many of your points.
I’d like to add one prediction. I think more solos WILL band together as they will realize with the social networking tools so easily available to them they can collaborate now more than they ever could before and with ease. The same trust factors work between colleagues online as they do between client/attorney.
However, I think lawyers are more inclined to trust others through social networking sites and seek ways to create partnerships even if for an isolated case or even a different type of collaboration and you will see more lawyers creating some form of duality in their careers.
I also think solos will shine this year in ways they never could achieve before precisely because of the technologies out there. They have gotten there first, always. But now with these sites going mainstream and so visible the light is shining on them in ways not possible before and many are getting publicity for their efforts.
This is really starting to level the playing field.
It will be an interesting year!