My Shingle

June 2011

Do Successful People Give or Sell?

June 28, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Over at his My Law License blog, my friend and co-defendant Brian Tannebaum adeptly summarized a thought to which I’ve devoted far too many words without ever getting to the point. Specifically, Brian asserts: Successful people give away advice on success, unsuccessful people sell it. Initially, I thought that I could refute Brian’s comment by [...]

Read more Legal Profession Trends 5 comments

Three Lessons for Small Firms from Small Farms

June 27, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

This New York Times article, Small US Farms Find Profit in Tourism does triple duty as an analogue for a law firm niche practice , business model and marketing idea. The Times reports on the trend of farmers creating additional streams of revenue in the form of bed-and-breakfasts, horse-rides and corn mazes to supplement their [...]

Read more New Marketing Ideas 2 comments

Is $160,000 For A Solo Out of Law School Realistic or Rare?

June 24, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

This past week, this refreshingly upbeat MSNBC piece, Law Grads Going Solo and Loving It (BTW, congrats to my fellow blogging colleagues, Susan Cartier-Liebel at Solo Practice University and Aaron Street at Lawyerist for the mainstream mention) has been receiving tons of buzz in the form of tweets and social media pass-arounds but very little [...]

Read more New Marketing Ideas 24 comments

Summertime, Selling and the Solo

June 22, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

So, it’s summertime for the solo, and surprisingly, the selling is easy. At least, I’ve always thought so. For starters, lots of law practices slow down, what with clients, other judges and lawyers on vacation and many lawyers have time on their hands. Moreover, with the economy in its current state, it’s a buyer’s market [...]

Read more Marketing & Making Money 2 comments

Musings from the Other End of the Pleading

June 21, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

For the past month, ever since I learned that I’d been named as a defendant in Rakofsky v. the Internet, I’ve been getting acclimated to life on the other end of the pleading. In my seventeen years as a solo, I’ve inhabited a comfortable spot on the signature line. I still get a thrill at [...]

Read more Ethics Issues 2 comments

The North Carolina Bar’s Double Standard for Data and Dollars

June 20, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Two months ago, North Carolina released Proposed Formal Ethics Opinion 6 , Subscribing to Software as a Service (SaaS) While Fulfilling the Duties of Confidentiality and Preservation of Client Property. As others, including my Social Media for Lawyers co-author Nicole Black, NC Bar LPM Advisor Eric Mazzone, e-lawyering pioneer Richard Granat and North Carolina virtual [...]

Read more Cloud Technology 3 comments

A Tentative Thumbs Up for LawyerUp

June 17, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Update – 6/19/2011 – opposing views, end of post As proprietor of MyShingle, a hub for solo and small firm lawyers, I receive calls and emails every few days pitching the latest, greatest online marketing tools. When I don’t jump at the chance to hop into an affiliate relationship (which I don’t do ) or [...]

Read more Marketing & Making Money 1 comment

ABA report: No New Rules Needed for Law Firm Rankings

June 15, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

The following is a guest post by Roy Ginsburg When U.S. News & World Report decided to rank law schools, this ranking – for better or worse — fundamentally changed the law school admissions process. So when U.S. News announced that it would join forces with Best Lawyers to publish rankings of lawyers, that announcement [...]

Read more Ethics & Malpractice Issues 0 comments

Shingular Sensations Michele Grant & Leo Mulvihill: Solo Celebrities on the Peoples’ Court

June 7, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

After a lengthy hiatus, we’re back on track with our Shingular Sensations, where we focus on solos who have achieved important victories or are otherwise doing interesting work. This month, we feature a pair of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based solos: Michele Grant [MG] of GrantMyersLLC.com – “The Artists Law Firm,” a full-service, talent-side firm focusing on [...]

Read more Shingular Sensations 0 comments

Practice Tips, Courtesy of Rakofsky v. The Internet

June 7, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

(updated, 7 am 6/7/11 to change a few points) As I mentioned a few weeks back, I’m one of the 81 defendants who’s been sued by Joseph Rakofsky. The post that won me an admission ticket to the front lines of this lawsuit tracked a theme common to 45 other posts I’ve written: what not [...]

Read more Ethics & Malpractice Issues 7 comments

← Previous Entries