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Biglaw Practice and Issues

Biglaw to Yourlaw: A Trend, But Nothing New

August 25, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

Earlier this month, both Slate and Crains New York carried articles describing the recent trend of biglaw attorneys starting their own practices. Summarizing these articles, an Above the Law post called the biglaw to yourlaw move a “new trend.”
Not. Well, not if you’re a regular reader of this blog, anyway. I’ve been [...]

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Why Biglaw Billing Is Like Brown M&M’s

July 1, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

In the context of $201 million in legal fees,  a superfluous $1600 charge — for a fancy dinner and reading a newspaper article — is chump change, something that wouldn’t have registered a blip on the client’s radar screen but for this New York Post article.  Yet while the monetary value of the $1600 charge [...]

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Can Outsourcing Innovation Make Biglaw Firms Heros?

May 12, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

I’ve been enthralled by the concept of large firms outsourcing innovation to small fry ever since I first posted about the topic in 2008.  As I describe (very rapidly!) in myIgniteLaw presentation, outsourcing innovation is a win-win for both sides of the bar:  the big firm gets the benefit of a new practice area at a [...]

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Newbie Lawyers Sidelined in NALP-Biglaw Smackdown

February 18, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

I’ve never been a fan of NALP, the National Association of Legal Professionals.  So far as I’ve been able to tell, the organization focuses almost exclusively on supporting law school career offices in helping students get jobs at biglaw and promoting diversity within biglaw’s ranks.  Even NALP’s public interest initiatives are aimed not at helping [...]

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Boutique Practice: Leaving the Land of Loss Leaders

February 4, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

The twenty-first century version of loss leaders, big-law style, is nothing more than old fashioned price cutting wars, observes Toby Brown at Three Geeks and a Law Blog.  A loss leader refers to a pricing strategy whereby a product is advertised below cost to lure customers in the hopes of selling them more profitable, big [...]

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Biglaw to Yourlaw: A Recipe for Success

January 4, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

Peter Chaffetz and David Lindsey, founders and partners at newly formed boutique Chaffetz Lindsey could have simply hopped into another big firm life boat after their former firm, Clifford Chance hit stormy weather last year.  Instead, they took another course: they launched a boutique that is thriving even as the economy struggles to recover.  This [...]

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The Page Between Biglaw and Solo Practice, Between Life and Death

November 12, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Even though I reside in Bethesda, Maryland and practice appellate law in Washington D.C. just like appellate lawyer Mark Levy,  the former Kilpatrick Stockton attorney who took his life after his firm downsized, our paths never crossed.   As a biglaw attorney and a small fry in a highly stratified town like Washington D.C., lawyers like [...]

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Where’s the Value Add in Big Firms?

August 11, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Even if for the sake of argument, you accept the proposition that biglaw is better than small law, the question is: how much better.  Is an $850/hr partner at a mega firm really $500/hr better than his or her solo or small firm counterpart?  Naturally, we solo and small firm lawyers would say no, but [...]

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For WSJ Readers – Resources on Starting a Law Firm

August 8, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

From Biglaw to Yourlaw –
Yesterday, one of my solo colleagues Mitchell Matorin was profiled in the Wall Street Journal as asomewhat timely example of a large firm lawyer who has found success in solo practice.  The story mentioned MyShingle and has been driving some traffic to this site, so I wanted to highlight some [...]

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Why Does the Trade Press Focus on Biglaw Attorneys Turned Solo Who Don’t Succeed?

August 5, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Not all lawyers who start their own firm experience wild success.  This month’s American Lawyer focuses on three who did not.  I don’t take issue with the story’s spin because I believe that it’s important to impress the challenges of starting a practice.  Too many of the new crop of opportunist start-a-firm gurus blithely gloss [...]

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