My Shingle

Ideas & Tips

Still An Uphill Battle In Getting Clients to Hire Solos, But There’s A Fix

June 24, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

At first blush, this letter to the editor criticizing the Duxbury school board for considering the possibility of replacing its current law firm with a one-person “cut rate” shop seems discouraging for most solos who compete with the big boys.  Among other things, the writer expresses concern about the solo’s cut rates, noting that “you [...]

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Continuing the Conversation on the YAWNing Solo

June 23, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

You know how it is with yawns, don’t you?  When one person yawns at you, it’s difficult to resist yawning back.  So now that my fellow solo-blogging colleague Susan Cartier Liebel has yawned, or more accurately, alerted us to the trend of “young and wealthy normals,” I’m compelled to yawn back (by the way, for [...]

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How to Get Transactional Training

April 13, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Much of the advice on learning new practice skills relates primarily to litigation oriented practices.  As I’ve discussed in Solo by Choice, a new solo or lawyer interested in trial work can spend a few days court-watching, accompany a more experienced lawyer to depositions or pick up a pro bono case which might entail representing [...]

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Reach Out And Make A Connection

December 16, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity offers a great tip, echoed by What About Clients: reconnect with your business network so that you can continue to nurture and reinforce the trusted relationships that produce not only business referrals, but personal fulfillment. Taking a page from Curt Rosengren, Herz recommends that you try speaking with someone personally [...]

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Using Law Students to Power Your Blog: Win-Win for Everyone

November 16, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

When it comes to ghostwriting law blogs, the majority view within the blawgosphere is “don’t.” (For the precedent on this, see these selected opinions at Death and Taxes; f/k/a; Georgia Bankruptcy Blog; Home Office Lawyer and Simple Justice). At the same time, we all recognize that content makes a blog valuable to readers. So what [...]

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Getting Along With Other Lawyers

November 7, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

John Day of Day On Torts offers some good tips on the proper way to memorialize conversations with other lawyers. Among other things, write objectively, repeat your understanding of the agreement accurately, and if you can’t remember what was discussed, admit it. Then, give your adversary a chance to make corrections. All of Day’s advice [...]

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Whatever You Call Yourself, Please Don’t Sign Your Pleadings This Way

November 2, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

It’s the perennial question for lawyers starting a law firm – what do you call yourself? As I wrote here over two years ago, Enrico Schaefer maintains that the term “solo” is inaccurate. And more recently, the topic has been discussed on Solosez. As for me, I’ve always regarded the term “solo” as a catch [...]

Read more Choosing a Law Firm Name 3 comments

Been on Vacation — and Off the Grid!

August 11, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Sorry for the silence here at My Shingle – I’ve been on a long awaited vacation this week (and here’s the proof!). I know that many bloggers often leave a stock of blog posts to auto-post while they’re away, but I prefer real time postings (anything else is too much like a newspaper article to [...]

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What Solos Can Learn From The Recent Obesity Study

July 26, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

As you’ve probably heard on the news by now, turns out that obesity isn’t exclusively hereditary; it’s also socially contagious (US News, 7/25/07). A recent study to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that if you’re close friends with people who are obese, you’re more likely to gain weight yourself either [...]

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Find Out If Someone is Really A Lawyer

May 18, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

These days, most bar associations make information about a lawyer’s bar membership publicly accessible, so that consumers can ensure that the lawyer they’ve retained is actually licensed to practice. But these bar data bases are important for lawyers. For example, perhaps you’re suspicious that your opposing counsel isn’t licensed in the court where he’s filed [...]

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