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Mistakes/What NOT To Do

Solos at the Second [Circuit]: The Battle over the Constitutionality of NY Jud. Code Sec. 470 Continues

April 25, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m fast learning that lawyers’ can’t just act as advocates in defending rights or effecting change in the law; sometimes, we’ve got to play the role of litigant. As I’ve posted previously, I’m defending the First Amendment not as an attorney but as a defendant and client. And now, I’m an amicus along with a [...]

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Take My Advice: Look Before You Advise

March 27, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

A lawyer’s advice may be his stock in trade, to quote a famous solo, Abraham Lincoln. But today, the reverse is apparently true: “legaladvice” is nothing more than a trade name (and a generic one at best) for aspiring lawyerpreneurs to stock up on.At least, that seems to be the view held by two lawyer-preneurs [...]

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Can a Law Firm Be a B-Corporation?

March 5, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

For new lawyers in search of a practice area, social entrepreneurship is all the rage. For those unfamiliar with the term, social entrepreneurship is the business of using business to focus on and solve social problems rather than simply generating shareholder profits. Social entrepreneurship is an evolving body of the law, requiring knowledge of both [...]

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Advice on Giving Legal Advice

February 23, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

When does educational marketing cross the line into legal advice? In an era of increased consumer hunger for information online and the rise of crowdsourced advice sites, understanding what types of communications constitute legal advice is a critical matter — and one which Brian Tannebaum addresses at My Law License. Brian’s post has also generated [...]

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Third Verse, Same as the First – Outsourcing Marketing = Outsourcing Ethics

February 8, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Eric Turkewitz said it first, years ago, and still, no one’s listening. Most recently, a fairly new South Carolina attorney disobeyed the legal profession’s equivalent of the law of gravity, outsourcing marketing = outsourcing ethics. And just as ignoring the gravity or pretending that it doesn’t exist will send anyone but a fantasy character tumbling, [...]

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An Attorney Listing Site to Avoid If You Want To Avoid Ethics Problems

September 22, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Sometimes, a new concept emerges that’s never been done before because no one ever thought of it. That’s called innovation. But other times, there’s reason that the new concept hasn’t been done before: because it’s a downright stupid idea. Unfortunately, many lawyers can’t tell the difference between innovation and idiocy, which is the only explanation [...]

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Don’t Moonlight

July 20, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Because of my work with lawyer/author Julie Tower-Pierce on The Part Time Shingle, I’m often asked by aspiring solos about whether they should start a practice while working for a law firm. My answer never varies. Unless you disclose and receive permission from a law firm employer to start your own side practice, DON’T! From [...]

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Musings from the Other End of the Pleading

June 21, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

For the past month, ever since I learned that I’d been named as a defendant in Rakofsky v. the Internet, I’ve been getting acclimated to life on the other end of the pleading. In my seventeen years as a solo, I’ve inhabited a comfortable spot on the signature line. I still get a thrill at [...]

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Practice Tips, Courtesy of Rakofsky v. The Internet

June 7, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

(updated, 7 am 6/7/11 to change a few points) As I mentioned a few weeks back, I’m one of the 81 defendants who’s been sued by Joseph Rakofsky. The post that won me an admission ticket to the front lines of this lawsuit tracked a theme common to 45 other posts I’ve written: what not [...]

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Avoiding S**tlaw Jobs

May 31, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

In Part I of this post, I highlighted the kind of unsavory freelance assignment that even struggling solo and small firm lawyers should pass right by. In this second part, I’ll describe some of the red flags that should tip you off to a scam-job. Is the assignment posted on Craigslist or an online freelance [...]

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