Archive for April 2013
Low-end Marketing Tip: Keep Your Digital Footprint Fingerprint Free
Sometimes, the best marketing ideas cost the least amount of money. Like trotting out a branded powerstrip at a hearing or conference: it’s a way to connect by providing a useful service (a power outlet) and striking up a conversation in the process. Same with a laptop cover— a great icebreaker and potential business idea…
Read MoreFREE WEBINAR: Launching a 21st Century Practice….Or Lifting the One You Have Now
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.-Oscar Wilde As you’ve probably heard, many futurists believe that the legal profession is dying — and that within a decade, lawyers will go the way of journalists, travel agents and bike couriers into extinction. They urge lawyers to dump the…
Read MoreEven In An Online Age, Bar and Professional Associations Are More Relevant To Marketing Than We’d Like to Admit
Longtime readers of this blog know that I have a love-hate (or more accurately, a friend/frenemy) relationship with bar and professional associations. To be clear, my beef isn’t about the services provided to solos: in the past decade since I’ve started this blog, the bars have stepped up – and I’ve watched as the initially…
Read MoreIron Tech Lawyer Competition – Report
I left the office on Wednesday afternoon to attend the Iron Tech Lawyer competition at Georgetown Law School. I must confess that after six months of white noise about disruption, rethinking and access to justice as a way to access venture capital, I didn’t have high hopes for the students’ projects, which employ NeotaLogic (a…
Read MorePrenda, the Law Firm Pretenda — and Lessons for the Future of Law
Alas poor Prenda – it coulda been a contenda in the future of law. Instead, Prenda now faces its likely demise inside a California federal district court room for questionable tactics in connection with hundreds of copyright lawsuits. Once upon a time, Prenda Law — one of the largest copyright trolling operations — had all of…
Read MoreTax Day: A Reminder of The Ups and Downs of Solo Practice
With 2012 taxes now complete, I’ve officially marked the last action of the worst year of my practice in a half-decade. While I won’t discuss everything that went wrong, the problem is pretty obvious: more money out, less money in. In my case, an office upgrade and more personnel took a bit of a toll…
Read MoreOffice Debate Follow Up: Sustainable Solos, Sustainable Families
This post is a quick follow up to Would You Rent Office Space for $500 or Less? which has generated some useful feedback from other solos weighing in with personal experiences and opinions. While you should read the comments directly, they generally fall into the following clusters of viewpoints: 1. Don’t start a firm unless…
Read MoreWould You Rent Office Space If It Only Cost $500/Month – And What Can We Do To Make That Happen?
[Note – this is a long read, and it’s about much more than the home vs. office debate but rather, the importance of affordable office space to the sustainability of solos and long term access to justice] Fishtown Lawyer Jordan Rushie makes some strong arguments in favor of renting office space when starting a firm.…
Read More