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Biglaw to Solo

What With Biglaw Layoffs and Rate Hikes, 2008 Will Be A Banner Year for Solos

November 28, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Two factors are conspiring to make 2008 a break out year for starting a law firm. Factor 1: rapidly weakening credit and financial markets are causing law firms like McKee Nelson to offer voluntary severance packages to associates and leading other firms Thacher Profitt to give notice of impending layoffs. Factor 2: rapidly increasing hourly [...]

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Hey, McKee Nelson Associates – There’ll Never Be A Better Opportunity Than Now to Start Your Own Law Firm

November 13, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Thanks to a lemon of a credit market, associates at McKee Nelsonhave the opportunity to make a huge vat of life-changing lemonade. Above the Law’s David Lat is reporting here that NY/DC based McKee Nelson, in an effort to avoid economically-induced, forced associate layoffs, is offering associates two options: (1) a full bonus, plus four [...]

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Don’t Just Step Off the Partnership Track; Bypass It Entirely

October 3, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m not sure whether any of you remember the TV show LA Law . Sometime in the second or third season, the firm’s young associate, Abby, was told that she wasn’t partnership material so she left to start her own criminal defense practice. A year or so later, Abby had established her reputation as a [...]

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The Other Side of Solo Practice

July 6, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

It’s difficult to fully respond to an article like this one, The Snark: Flying solothat discusses the drawbacks of solo practice because I can’t decide whether the author is trying to be funny or is truly pathetic, and pathetically uninformed. Basically, the article is intended to discourage unhappy associates from making the mistake of starting [...]

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Should We Rescue Biglaw, Part II?

June 19, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

A while back, I posed the question whether women at large firms have some kind of duty to rescue biglaw and save it from becoming the exclusive domain of white men. Well, here’s an article, Women Leaven which suggests that many women aren’t doing that. Instead, they’re leaving law firms in droves for greener pastures, [...]

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Another large firm lawyer goes solo – and it’s all about the [lower] rates

March 16, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

One of the unintended consquences of the expansion of large law firms is that this trend may drive more lawyers to start their own firms. Think about it – though large firms hope that increased size will foster economies of scale and result in savings, there’s still a whole lot of overhead involved in running [...]

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Women Not Just Leaving Biglaw for Babies, But For More Opportunity

February 8, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Susan Cartier Liebel posts about how Gen Y women are saying no to biglaw because it doesn’t afford the kind of work life balance they demand.  I’ve posted on and written about this theme before, as well.  But what I don’t think I’ve emphasized sufficiently is that for women, starting a firm isn’t just a [...]

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Biglaw Associates Find Happiness in Solo Practice

February 2, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Via Stephanie West Allen, I learned about this article, Who Says Being A Lawyer Has to Suck? from a recent issue of San Francisco Magazine.  The article describes how Gen Y lawyers are making “lawyering something that doesn’t bore everyone to death at a party?”  And guess how they’re doing it?   By starting their own [...]

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Are Solos Helping Women At Law Firms?

November 5, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

The impact of solo and small firm practice is far reaching, so much so that in my view, it’s helping women attorneys succeed at biglaw.  Don’t believe it?  Consider these two stories that ran in today’s news.  The first, Deciding to Go It Alone, (San Fernando Valley Business 11/4/06) reports on how more and more, [...]

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You Can Take It [Biglaw Practice] With You

August 16, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Many large firm lawyers think that if they hang a shingle. they’ll have to throw away their biglaw specialities, like securities regulation or merger practice and trade it in for more general practice fare, like family law or criminal practice.  But at least one solo attorney, Walter James, of the newly created Environmental Crimes Blog [...]

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