My Shingle

May 2011

MyShingle Fashion: Pulling Off Wide Leg Pants

May 16, 2011 by HumaRashid

That sounds a little odd, doesn’t it? I promise, this post is not about disrobing. It’s about pulling off a rather challenging look: the wide leg pants. Wide leg pants add width to the body, and so you run the risk of wearing a not-so-flattering outfit. Not so terrible in the grand scheme of things, [...]

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MyShingle’s Been Sued in Rakofsky v. the Internet

May 13, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

After seven and a half years of blogging at MyShingle, I thought that I’d seen the last of my firsts. But thanks to Joseph Rakofsky and the Rakofsky Law Firm PC, MyShingle.com is one of multiple defendants named in this first ever law suit against my site, keeping company with Above the Law, the Washington [...]

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Sorry Seth Godin – Solving a Problem In Five Minutes Isn’t Hard Work

May 11, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Ordinarily, I agree with much of what Seth Godin writes. But in this post discussing the difference between a lawyer’s hard work and long work,Seth Godin gets it wrong. Godin writes: Long work is what the lawyer who bills 14 hours a day filling in forms does. Hard work is what the insightful litigator does [...]

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Will Technology Make Lawyers More or Less Truthful About Whether They Work from Home?

May 10, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

During the past seventeen years of my practice, I’ve alternated between a traditional office (which I had before my first daughter was born, and currently have now) and maintaining a virtual space while working from home. I strongly believe that home-based offices offer many benefits for both lawyers and clients. For lawyers, particularly for cash-strapped [...]

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Some Open Questions for Flat Fee Aficionados and Ethics Gurus

May 9, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Over the past few years, I’ve transitioned my practice from the billable hour to flat fees. For me, the flat fee works because most of the matters that I handle are, if not entirely predictable, then easily divided into discrete segments, each of which can each be assigned a set price. Though I can’t tell [...]

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Social Media: Best Mother’s Day Gift for Lawyer Moms

May 8, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

So, social media for lawyers has been experiencing a bit of a backlash lately. Some of it, deservedly so — and that’s from someone who’s co-authored a book on the subject. By now, many lawyers are not only recognizing, but beginning to agree that despite the hype from self-professed experts social media doesn’t make lawyers [...]

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No Do Overs in Solo Practice

May 3, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

One of the aspects of solo practice that I love most is that it keeps us engaged. We spend most of our professional life on the wire – dealing with clients and small businesses instead of mindlessly researching and reviewing documents, while always wondering in the back of our minds where the next case is [...]

Read more Ethics & Malpractice Issues 6 comments

Where I’ve Been Hanging Out Online

May 3, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

So I know that there wasn’t much happening  at MyShingle last week. Between my talk on starting a practice at Georgetown Law and three days catching up with clients and colleagues at my trade association’s Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference, I didn’t have much energy left for posting. In addition, I’ve been spending a bit [...]

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They Listened, They Really Listened!

May 3, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

The ABA Ethics 2020 Commission today released several issues papers, including one on lawyer use of technology and client confidentiality. I’ve just skimmed the proposal very quickly, but preliminarily, I was excited to see that the Commission adopted my proposed risk assessment approach to confidentiality. The proposed rule states that lawyers must understand the risks [...]

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