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New Marketing Ideas

There is Nothing Wrong With Trying, Failing and Being Honest About It.

January 20, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

So, a lawyer walks on to Groupon, offers a $99 will, scores some coverage in the ABA Journal, sells 53 of the $99 will packages (with Groupon taking a 50 percent cut) and generates 150 calls and emails from other lawyers who are interested as well as some “uncharitable” commentary.  Now, he’s decided against using [...]

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End of Year Idea Exchange: A $10.77 Marketing Tip

December 22, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

This past year, I spent quite a bit of time in crowded hearing rooms and conference auditoriums filled with suits, ipads, smartphones and laptops – but few electrical outlets. To recharge a device, you’d have to wait for an outlet to open up. And even if that happened, there was no guarantee that the outlet [...]

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Unleash Your Inner Scholar: Why Solos Should Write A Law Review Article

December 12, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Seems that ATL Editor David Lat is concealing a dirty little secret underneath his robes.  As you know, by day, David toils as a mild-mannered blogger exposing the secrets of, and dishing out biting commentary on AmLaw 100 firms.  But after hours, he busts out his secret inner scholar and transforms into a veritable Volokh, [...]

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FREE Recording – Cold Calls for Lawyers!

November 28, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

As my regular readers may know, I’m one of the few lawyers who actively recommends cold calling as a tool for finding overflow work and referrals or simply setting up introductory meetings or lunch dates with attorneys and other professionals within the community. I’ve written two pieces about cold calling, Pick Up the Phone and [...]

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How Grunt Work Can Get You Grand Work

September 27, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Conventional wisdom recommends that lawyers involve themselves in organizations like bar or trade associations — either by joining the groups or offering to speak at events — to demonstrate legal and leadership skills and build relationships with colleagues and potential clients through regular contact. Trouble is that this advice is easier said than done. Most [...]

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Lessons from Crowdsourced Advice for a Struggling Solo

September 26, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Ten days ago, in an effort to reply quickly to a struggling solo who’d contacted me for advice, I reached out to readers to crowdsource a response. The post touched off 40 comments, some offering sound advice to a solo in these circumstances, others not so much. The comments also spawned several sub-discussions on what’s [...]

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Crowdsourcing Advice for a Struggling Solo

September 16, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

[Update 9/23--Readers - thank you for your response.  We've collected an enormous amount of information, some very helpful, some of it obvious and some of it (diving in full force to cases by copying pleadings stood out to me as inadvisable and potential career killer but there are others). I've got to read through everything [...]

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Diving for Lawyers

July 26, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m a big fan of DIY networking groups. Not that there’s anything wrong with bar associations or business networking groups, but when you start your own association, you can tailor it to your interests. In fact, if you’re interested in how to set up a group yourself, you can check out the materials up over [...]

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Three Lessons for Small Firms from Small Farms

June 27, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

This New York Times article, Small US Farms Find Profit in Tourism does triple duty as an analogue for a law firm niche practice , business model and marketing idea. The Times reports on the trend of farmers creating additional streams of revenue in the form of bed-and-breakfasts, horse-rides and corn mazes to supplement their [...]

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Is $160,000 For A Solo Out of Law School Realistic or Rare?

June 24, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

This past week, this refreshingly upbeat MSNBC piece, Law Grads Going Solo and Loving It (BTW, congrats to my fellow blogging colleagues, Susan Cartier-Liebel at Solo Practice University and Aaron Street at Lawyerist for the mainstream mention) has been receiving tons of buzz in the form of tweets and social media pass-arounds but very little [...]

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