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Solo Out of Law School

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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Are Solos in Debt At Disciplinary Risk?

January 18, 2011 by Carolyn Elefant

Last week, Above the Law’s Elie Mystal posted about a frighteningly out-of-touch Ohio Supreme Court decision which held that a recent law school graduate lacked the character, fitness and moral qualifications to take the bar exam. Was the applicant a killer, drug addict or wife-beater? Nope. Just a 34-year old dad and former self-supporting stockbroker [...]

Read more Ethics & Malpractice Issues 8 comments

Solo Incubator Launches At UMKC

November 2, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

Back in June, I had the privilege of speaking at the Missouri Bar’s excellent Solo and Small Firm Conference.  In addition to the practicing lawyers in attendance – many who were eight or ten time repeat attendees, the event was also populated by a swarm of yellow-shirted students, who as it turned out, were participating [...]

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The Defense for Starting A Criminal Law Practice Out of Law School

August 13, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

I’ll admit that I’ve always had mixed feelings on the question of whether to solo straight out of law school. As I explained in this early post, from my perspective, it made sense for new grads with no work history and with significant student loan debt to take a paying job if only for a [...]

Read more Criminal Law, Practice & Policy 14 comments

Lindsay Lohan: Dream or Nightmare Client for Newbie Solo?

July 9, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

So here’s a practice management issue that law school doesn’t teach: You’re a newbie solo who passed the bar nine months ago and opened a law firm right afterwards.  Suddenly, the phone rings:  it’s a Hollywood superstar on the line, she’s  looking for a criminal defense lawyer to represent her and she’s picked you!  Trouble [...]

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Newbie Solos and the Importance of Being Nerdy

June 11, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Over at Legal Blogwatch, I posted about how shingler Kiwi Camara of Camara Sibley, not yet 25 years old and just five years out of law school is giving the RIAA a run for its money in the high profile copyright infringement re-trial of Jammie Thomas.  Thomas’ first lawyer, Brian Toder won a new trial [...]

Read more Celebrating Solos 0 comments

If I solo out of school, do I pick the cheaper law school?

January 28, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Q:  I’m only applying to law school now, but I am hoping to open up my own general practice as soon as I graduate.  Here is my situation:  I am fairly sure that I will be admitted to a law school in the city where I am intent on living and opening my firm (School [...]

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Loan Forgiveness – Why Not For Solos?

November 27, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

This article, Debt Relief May Be In Sight for Lawyers (Chicago Sun Times 11/27/06) reports on the status of legislation proposed by Senator Dick Durbin back in 2003, that would grant student loan relief to public sector lawyers in the criminal justice system.  From the article: The average young lawyer from a private law school [...]

Read more Legal Profession Trends 30 comments

Ivy League Solos

November 12, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Whether you like Harvard Law School or not, you have to agree that virtually every HLS graduate can write their own ticket to whatever job they want.  So it’s gratifying to see that with so many career options, young HLS grads are still choosing solo practice, as reported in this article from the HLS Bulletin, [...]

Read more Legal Profession Trends 3 comments

More Proof of the Solo Zeitgeist

February 6, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

First Washington D.C., now the Pennsylvania legal press are reporting on the increasing trend of Young Attorneys Who Go Solo (Hope Cantwell, The Legal Intelligencer February 6, 2006).  No more comment, except read and be inspired, again.

Read more Solo Out of Law School 0 comments

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