My Shingle

Gaining Competence

Even the Best Lawyers Have Bad Days – But They Know How To Cover When They Do

December 10, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Perhaps the greatest fear that I hear from most shinglers-to-be is the fear making mistakes.  For example, many lawyers contemplating solo practice, whether fresh out of school or after a tenure at biglaw, have never argued a motion, filed a complaint or taken a deposition (sometimes they’ve never even observed others doing it).  They’re afraid [...]

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Why Solo Practice is Like A Box of Chocolates

March 22, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

What I love most about solo practice is that, to quote Forrest Gump, it’s like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get.  And as this article, Big Case for Fledgling Lawyer, Don Thompson, AP (3/19/06) bears out, you just might get the case of your life eighteen months out [...]

Read more Criminal Law, Practice & Policy 0 comments

Why Do Lawyers Have to Be Forced to Take CLE?

January 24, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

This article, Attorneys’ education is an ongoing process (Business Journal of Phoenix, 1/23/06) reports on Continuing Legal Education (CLE) in Arizona, which has been a required since 1989.  The article talks about the importance of CLE and the bar’s flexibility in allowing the requirements satisfied through a variety of differently priced options.  But I’d have [...]

Read more Ethics & Malpractice Issues 10 comments

Has Another Degree Helped Your Practice?

October 3, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

Most of us have read about folks from other professions, ranging from school teacher to police officer to doctor, who’ve gone to law school and started practicing law.  But this article, Bridging the Legal gap for Nurses (10/2/05) got me to thinking about whether this path can work in reverse, i.e., would it make sense [...]

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Fabulous Resource from the Texas YLA

February 28, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

Kudos to the Texas Young Lawyers Association for this innovative project, tenminutementor.com, an online library of video presentations on topics like substantive law (mostly Texas, but some, like the talk on Ten Tips for Federal Court, can apply more broadly), ethics, building a firm and personal development.  Here’s the Press Release (2/28/05) that further describes [...]

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