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Pro Bono

Community Involvement As A Marketing Tool

September 13, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant
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The following is a guest post by Noble McIntyre of McIntyre Law in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Let’s be honest. That title sounds cynical at best, opportunistic at worst. But hear me out. Getting involved with your community can be one of the best ways to market your firm, not just because of the business you’ll [...]

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An Open Thank You to Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Bell

August 15, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant
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It came in the mail, sometime in July 2008; an innocuous slim envelope bearing the return address of Maryland’s highest court buried in a heaping pile of junk.  I’d just paid my bar dues for the year and satisfied my pro bono and IOLTA reporting requirements, so I nearly tossed the letter, expecting that it [...]

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Guest Post, New York Bankruptcy Lawyer Jay Fleischman

October 28, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant
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Editor’s Note:  In honor of National Pro Bono Week, I’m pleased to host a guest post from Jay Fleischman, a  New York bankruptcy lawyer and owner of Legal Practice Pro, on why pro bono service represents a win-win for solos and the legal profession. If you’re a solo then you’re likely stretched pretty thin already. [...]

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Veterans’ Issues As A Practice Area

May 26, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
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A few years back, I highlighted a small firm specializing in veterans’ issues.  Now, four years later demand for legal services for veterans remains high.  Fortunately, for solos considering veterans rights and benefits as a practice area, there are multiple opportunities for first rate, hands on training. Today, the Maryland Daily Record discusses the HPRP [...]

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Free Foreclosure Training for Maryland Attorneys/Why Pro Bono Is A Win-Win

July 10, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant
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UPDATE:  The relatively new blog, Nextlex notes these FREE PLI webinar resources on foreclosure law and predatory lending. In both my book and on this blog, I’ve written that pro bono training programs offer one of the cheapest and most effective ways to get up to speed on matters that you might handle in your [...]

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Do Something You Stink At…And Become A Better Lawyer

May 13, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant
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Yesterday, I spent a beautiful Saturday outdoors, helping to build a house with Habitat for Humanity as part of an Energy Bar Association pro bono service project. I have to admit that I didn’t seek this project out: my decision to participate was a spur of the moment response to an email that came through [...]

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How Doing Good Can Help You Do Well

April 12, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant
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Many solos who’d like to perform more pro bono work can’t do so for lack of time.  So why not multi-task, and make pro bono work part of your marketing activities portfolio?  Consider the example of lawyers profiled in this article, Creating a nonprofit helps others – and doesn’t hurt business either (ABA Journal, April [...]

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Attention: RFP FOR PRO BONO SERVICE BY SMALL LAW FIRM. Honestly, do you think a large firm would respond?

February 24, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant
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Imagine that your law firm issues the following Request for Proposals: Busy solo practitioner seeking large firm to partner on pro bono matters for small, walk in clients with no funds to retain an attorney at full rates.  Firm must turn these clients down in the absence of pro bono support.  Matters include messy family [...]

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To the Bars: Don’t Make Me Part of Your PR Scam With Mandatory Pro Bono Reporting

June 21, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant
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Evan Schaeffer posts here that the Illinois Bar is the latest bar to implement a mandatory pro bono reporting requirement whereby lawyers must report pro bono activity annually to the bar.  According to Schaeffer, “the Illinois Supreme Court hopes that the new reporting requirement will serve as a reminder that pro-bono work is important. In [...]

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Please Don’t Call This Pro Bono

April 30, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant
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Why is it that when small firm attorneys represent court appointed indigents at rates equivalent to one third of market that the work is not classified as “pro bono,” but when a large firm takes a bath on fees for representing the former governor of Illinois, an ABA committee chair recognizes that as pro bono? [...]

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