My Shingle

MyShingle Solo

Happy July 4 – Free yourself to go solo!

July 4, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

I’ve been blogging long enough to know that readership trends way down on holidays, so instead of new material today, here are two previously run July 4 pieces to enjoy.  Happy Fourth of July – and if you haven’t already, make this year that you declare your independence! Declaration of Independence: The World’s Most Successful [...]

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Does It Make Your Heart Sing? A Litmus Test for Law Firm Decisions

June 28, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

My first permanent office, a sublet space in a marble-column-ed Class B building down the street from the White House,  was hardly the fanciest in Washington D.C., particularly back in the mid-’90s when big law firm partners still tried to impress clients with mahogany conference room tables and ginormous corner offices.  Furnished with cast-offs from [...]

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Why The Best Solo and Small Firm Lawyers Aren’t the Best Entrepreneurs

June 12, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

About a year ago, in response to then- Above the Law columnist  Jay Shepard, I asserted that wanting to run a business is NOT the most important characteristic for lawyers wanting to start their own practice.  I postulated that lawyers who hang a shingle for the excitement of running a business rather than a passion [...]

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Solo Sends His Secretary to Law School

June 5, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Every time I hear that solos have to be entrepreneurs, I cringe.  Yes, we all know that solos won’t stay in business if they work for free or spend thousands of dollars that they don’t have on marketing or websites or branding — but understanding these realities doesn’t require business skills so much as common [...]

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Happy Birthday to Me

May 31, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Exactly a half-life ago when I turned 24, I spent my first — and until now– my only birthday away from home. Though I’d spent four years away in college, then three in law school, because an end-of-May-birthday falls between the end of school and start of a summer job or internship or travel, it [...]

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Judge Easterbrook Slights Solos – But Solos Also Spite Themselves

May 18, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Just like comedian Rodney Dangerfield, seems that solo and small lawyers just can’t get no respect from the federal courts. Only the slight to solos by federal judges is no laughing matter not just for us solo and small firm appellate lawyers but more importantly, for our clients. The latest round of elitism and reduced [...]

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My Avvo Talk: 6 Start-Up Tech Trends That Start-Up Lawyers Need to Connect With Clients

May 10, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Six Start-Up Technology Trends That Start Up Lawyers Can Use View more presentations from Carolyn Elefant. I’ve uploaded my slide deck from my talk at Avvocating Avvo presentation (with some glitches in the translation) – and you can see my slides (hopefully in better format) and those by the other speakers at Avvo’s Lawyer-nomics Blog. [...]

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Who you calling unethical, Warren Boroson? Please stop picking on solo lawyers!

May 8, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

In an era of  lawyer bashing,NJ Columnist Warren Boroson’s piece Why Every Middle Class Family Needs a Lawyer  could have been an important educational reminder why lawyers still matter.  And while in truth, Boroson’s article makes that case, Boroson does a far greater disservice by advising readers to “avoid solo practitioners” when hiring lawyers. Boroson’s [...]

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Late Nights With Maury [Maurice Sendak]

May 8, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Today’s NYT Obituary pays tribute to Maurice Sendak as the children’s author who “wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche.” Maybe so from a critical perspective, but not for those of us who listened [...]

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Avvocating Conference: A Great Event & A Class Act

May 7, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Last week, I spoke at Avvocating 2012 (my deck will go up tomorrow; also, full disclosure- Avvo paid my travel to the conference) Much to my own surprise, I’d have to rank it as one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. Yes, Avvocating was a marketing conference and didn’t pretend to be anything other [...]

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