Archive for April 2012
Do You Want to Be Discovered or Found Online?
Columbus discovered America. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Lana Turner , like other great movie stars of the day, was discovered drinking a coke at a soda fountain. We all enjoy discovering that terrific little cafe on the backstreets of Brooklyn or Washington D.C. or London or wherever else we happen to be traveling. By contrast,…
Read MoreSolos at the Second [Circuit]: The Battle over the Constitutionality of NY Jud. Code Sec. 470 Continues
I’m fast learning that lawyers’ can’t just act as advocates in defending rights or effecting change in the law; sometimes, we’ve got to play the role of litigant. As I’ve posted previously, I’m defending the First Amendment not as an attorney but as a defendant and client. And now, I’m an amicus along with a…
Read MoreA Solo’s Thank You to Technology, and The Goal of Faster, Better and Cheaper
Back when I started my law firm, one of my first “paying” matters was an appeal of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decision to the D.C. Circuit. I put the term “paying” in quotes because I only collected about $1500 for the matter; my former firm kept the $1000 retainer since I’d brought the…
Read MoreHire Fiverr
Right now, there’s a conversation on Solosez.net about favorite uses for Fiverr, a site that bills itself as “the world’s largest marketplace for small services, starting at $5. Turns out, many solos are using Fiverr, with good success, for blog banners, photo retouching and other small projects. I’ve also seen services for business card design,…
Read MoreOwn Your Own Client Feeder System: Lessons of Trademarkia
In both the first, and now second edition of Solo by Choice , I recommend the solo option as a way to “own, not loan” one’s talents. Yet the choice between ownership versus loan-ership isn’t unique to law practice. It’s also one that lawyers increasingly confront in an era of crowdsourcing, a practice which at its…
Read MoreMyShingle In Seattle at Avvocating
I’m excited to be speaking at Avvo’s upcoming Avvocating Conference in Seattle on May 3, reconnecting with friends who are also on the agenda and of course, meeting other solo and small firm lawyers. I’ll be talking about the ways that I’ve used online tools like blogging and social media to build my energy regulatory…
Read MoreThe Single Secret to Solo Success: The Scrap Heap Strategy
Call it the twitter-ization of going solo, but these days, I’m most often asked about the one thing that guarantees success as a solo. It’s an impossible question of course, since there isn’t any silver bullet — but if I had to settle on the one strategy common to successful solos across generations, regions and…
Read MoreNon-Lawyer Funding and Ownership…What Say You Solos?
Ever since Australia, and now the UK have opened the gates to non-lawyer membership of law firms, the question has been percolating here in the US about whether, and when it can happen here. Currently, the DC Bar, where I practice permits a limited degree of non-lawyer ownership, most likely to accommodate partnerships between law…
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