My Shingle

May 2009

Mommy, You’re A Hypocrite!

May 27, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Yesterday, while driving home from the mall with my daughters, they began fantasizing about the day that my older daughter would get her license (still four years off) so that they could go shopping together, sans mom.   My daughters then asked if I’d let them take the car to the mall or other destinations when [...]

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Veterans’ Issues As A Practice Area

May 26, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

A few years back, I highlighted a small firm specializing in veterans’ issues.  Now, four years later demand for legal services for veterans remains high.  Fortunately, for solos considering veterans rights and benefits as a practice area, there are multiple opportunities for first rate, hands on training. Today, the Maryland Daily Record discusses the HPRP [...]

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Last Call to Get A Life

May 25, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

The Total Attorney’s Practice Management Association Get a Life conference begins this Wednesday, May 27 and continues through May 28.  There’s a great line up of speakers who don’t typically present at these kinds of events (at least, not all in one place!) including my colleague and friend Allison Shields and some fun activities as well.  [...]

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Calling All Innovative Solo Lawyers – Innovaction Contest!

May 24, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

At the request of my blogging colleague, Jordan Furlong of Law21 and Chair of the College of Law Practice Management Innovaction program, I’m somewhat belatedly posting this call for nominations for this year’s Innovaction Awards sponsored by the College of Law Practice Management.  The awards are given to law firms or other legal services providers [...]

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There Is No Stress Like…

May 22, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Many of you may know what it’s like to stand up when the jury verdict’s about to be read.  Your heart pounds, your palms sweat and you get weak in the knees.   The seconds seem like an eternity as you wait to learn the result. Before I became a mom, I could think of nothing [...]

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Lawyer Marketing Resources

May 18, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m not flashy about marketing, nor am I a believer in those pricey “silver bullet” systems, where the only people who win are the experts selling their products.  Still, I do cover marketing issues, both here at my blog in the Marketing & Making Money category and at the Nolo Legal Marketing Blawg (Nolo is [...]

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Should You Charge for, Or Mark Up the Costs of Legal Research?

May 17, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Over at my Legal Blogwatch beat, I posted about an ongoing lawsuit against biglaw firm Chadbourne Park, alleging that Chadbourne wrongfully billed the client $20,000 for online research services when the actual cost to the firm was only around $5000.   The suit alleges that the firm engaged in deceptive trade practices in violation of state [...]

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Going Solo Means Never Having to Say You Were Fired

May 15, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

A few weeks back, a reader, discouraged after having failed the bar exam yet again, asked whether he should give up on his dream of starting his own practice.  Of the advice that I offered, what resonated most with the reader was my reminder that no matter how many times he passed the bar, once [...]

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Ratings Rate With Clients

May 12, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Lawyers may not be fans of ratings systems, as I’ve posted previously.  But what lawyers, or bar associations think about ratings doesn’t matter, if clients think otherwise.  And as the Washington Post reports, increasingly, consumers are turning to ratings to make decisions about service providers like real estate agents, plumbers and movers.  Moreover, at least [...]

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The Twenty-First Century Mom Lawyer: A Life Without Seams

May 10, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

October 21, 1996 marks the day that I qualified to celebrate Mothers’ Day with the birth of my first daughter, Elana.  Exactly a week to the day of my daughter’s birth, I donned the one non-maternity work skirt that still fit me (albeit with the top button open), slipped a boxy red blazer over my [...]

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