My Shingle

Outsourcing & Hiring

Why Not Outsource Innovation to Solo and Small Firms?

October 28, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m still fascinated by the concept of  outsourcing innovation that I referenced in passing in this post from earlier today.  According to this Business Week article, countries like India and China paying American corporations to develop products, or put another way, they are outsourcing innovation. So I got to thinking…why couldn’t large law firms outsource [...]

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Your Partner in Life and Law

September 29, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Update – a reader tipped me off to this letter from Bruce Allen’s Marketing Catalyst that seeks a spouse’s buy in when a professional signs up for Allen’s services.  Actually, I think one of the hardest things for a spouse to understand is that new solos need to invest much of their extra in business [...]

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Legal Writing Expert Lisa Solomon Opines on ABA Opinion on Outsourcing

September 1, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Last week, I posted about a recently released ABA Opinion 08-451 on the ethics of outsourcing.  At the time of the post, I didn’t have the opinion and griped that the ABA would issue a decision of such potential consequence and fail to make it publicly available.  In the absence of the decision, I relied [...]

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Failing To Make Opinion Available on Outsourcing Is Just So ABA

August 26, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Perusing five years of archives, I realized that it’s been a while since I’ve bashed the American Bar Association for policies like legitimatizing firm-created obstacles for retiring lawyers to start their own practices or picking on solo and small firm lawyers in the disciplinary process or simply taking a negative view of solos.  I suppose that [...]

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More Resources on Virtual Assistants

June 18, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

For solo and small firm lawyers interested in virtual assistants (see this earlier post), here are two additional resources: A  four part series about using virtual assistants is up at Home Office Warrior.  The series is written from the perspective of a VA. And for the perspective of someone hiring a VA, check out this [...]

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If You Just Started a Law Firm, Hire A Summer Associate

May 15, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

OK, so I realize that my headline sounds crazy.   After all, you just started a law firm four or six or eight months ago.  You’re barely covering your expenses, you still have no idea what you’re doing, you’ve chosen – by design or necessity – to work from home so you don’t have an office [...]

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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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Interested in Being A Legal Research and Writing Contract Attorney? Look No Further….

October 22, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of sharing the podium with national legal research and writing contract attorney expert, Lisa Solomon, where we presented a program on contract lawyering from the persepective of both the hiring attorney and the contract attorney. The hour long program, which is now available for purchase here, discusses these [...]

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If you had 20 hours of law student time this summer, how would you spend it? And if you’re a law student, what would make you want to take a job with a solo?

April 23, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

This is a two part post, for my fellow shinglers, and also for law students. To my colleagues, first: Imagine that you had twenty hours of reliable law student assistance for the summer…how would you use it? Would you have the students help stock your blog with materials, like at SCOTUS Blog? Ask them to [...]

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Outsourcing: It’s Not Just for Biglaw

October 15, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

As I’ve posted once before, solos and small firms have as much to benefit from outsourcing as  large firms.  Yet, I still know many solos who file their own papers at the court instead of using a messenger service or spend time on administrative tasks they dislike instead of bringing someone in who can do [...]

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