Carolyn Elefant
About Carolyn Elefant (Brandeis University BA 1985, Cornell Law JD 1988)
In 2002, Carolyn created the blog MyShingle.com, the longest-running blog on solo and small law firm practice and responsible for helping thousands of lawyers launch their own firms. Dubbed the patron saint of solo and small firms, Carolyn writes and speaks on topics including starting a modern law firm in the digital age, how small firms can leverage technology to compete with large firms, the need for regulatory and ethics reform to ensure the sustainability of small law firm practice, and the role of woman-owned law firms in achieving gender equality in the legal profession.
Carolyn is the author of Solo by Choice: How to Start a Law Firm and Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be. Carolyn has co-authored the ABA Publication “Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier” and “The Legal ClauseIt: Plug & Play Engagement Agreements and Power Pacts for Small Law Firms” Carolyn has been listed as an Energy and Environmental Super Lawyer for Washington D.C. since 2012 (the only small firm lawyer on a list of AmLaw 200 firms), was named an ABA Legal Rebel (2010), a Fastcase 50 Innovator (2011) and an ABA Woman of Legal Tech (2014) and appeared on the Daily Show in 2014 to discuss law firm business models. In 2019, Carolyn delivered a talk at the prestigious 2CivilityConference entitled Killing Solo Softly: How Regulations Disadvantage Solo & Small Firm Lawyers. Carolyn is also co-creator of the LawyerMomOwnerSummit, featured here in the DC Bar magazine.
In her day job, Carolyn owns the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant, a national practice founded in 1993 that fights climate change through representation of renewable energy companies and sustainability entrepreneurs on permitting and IP and defends communities and landowners across the country impacted by pipeline infrastructure and eminent domain in federal district and appellate courts where Carolyn has argued cases of constitutional import. Carolyn also founded and served as legislative counsel for the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition from 2005-2014, a 55-member national trade association responsible for early commercialization of offshore renewables in the United States.