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Biglaw to Solo

Is It Really Sayonara to Biglaw This Time?…

March 26, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

It’s been at least eight years and counting since I first started documenting the Biglaw to Small Law trend. Seven years of preaching over and over and over again, about the benefits that solo and small firms can bring to big firm clients, from lower costs to fewer conflicts to more personalized service to superior quality [...]

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It’s Never Too Late to Start a Solo Practice

February 15, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Solo practice isn’t just for the young or the new attorney. Many seasoned veterans who’ve spent their entire career at a government position or a large law firm secretly harbor dreams about starting their own practice. Others who have devoted their career to a firm now find themselves out on the street with few options except [...]

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Big Law to Your Law Teleconference and Ebook Available

December 16, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

The 50 minute recording of last night’s Big law to Your law teleseminar (unfortunately aborted due to problems ony end) is available here Big Law to Your Law Recording. The accompanying slide deck is here  and the 40 page ebook (compilation of blog posts) is here. I realized after trying to squeeze everything into a [...]

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Unleash Your Inner Scholar: Why Solos Should Write A Law Review Article

December 12, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Seems that ATL Editor David Lat is concealing a dirty little secret underneath his robes.  As you know, by day, David toils as a mild-mannered blogger exposing the secrets of, and dishing out biting commentary on AmLaw 100 firms.  But after hours, he busts out his secret inner scholar and transforms into a veritable Volokh, [...]

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Free Teleseminar December 15: From Big Law to Your Law, 3 Years Later

December 8, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Three years ago, before the bottom fell out of big law, I offered one of my most successful free teleseminars ever, From Big Law to Your Law. Back at the end of 2008, most folks thought that the downturn (just 1742 layoffs) was just another market correction of the variety we’d seen in the early [...]

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Solo Snags A Client from Biglaw Firm Willing to Work for Free

October 13, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

It’s always inspiring to learn about a  solo who snags a plum client in a well-publicized case.   But the accomplishment is even sweeter when the solo beats out a major law firm that – get this – was willing to work for free. Though this kind of scenario doesn’t occur as frequently as many [...]

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Why It Matters That Solos Aren’t the Main Event

September 20, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

Bruce Macewen’s blog Adam Smith, Esq. is to big law practice what this blog, on its best days, aspires to be for solos and small firms.  Always substantive, always skeptical (one of a minority of credible law practice management types who didn’t unquestioningly embrace Richard Susskind) and always spot-on (read his series on business models [...]

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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 documenting the [...]

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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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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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