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Solo Practice Trends

Big Ways for Small Firms to Grow Now

March 11, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

A few weeks back, I posted about several innovative business models that might work for small law firms.  Along those lines, yesterday’s online issue of  Time Magazine offers eight quick and decidedly twenty-first century tricks to grow a business in a down economy.  I’ve focused on two below. Outsource: Outsourcing is a theme that I’ve [...]

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A Look Ahead to 2010: Your Client as Your New Partner

January 4, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

Many of my blogging colleagues have been trendspotting for 2010 these past two weeks (see the list of posts at the end).  I’m fashionably late, so instead of chiming in with a list, I’ll focus on one trend which is already getting some discussion: 2010 as the year of the client. In the coming decade, [...]

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True Solos Have True Grit, But Law School Rewards the Ephemeral

August 21, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Got grit?  You do if you’re making a go of it as a solo.  As much as many of the law practice gurus tell you that earning gobs of money as a solo is easy as pie (particularly if you’re using their thousand dollar "recipes"), the truth is that success comes from doggedness, a bit [...]

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New York Bar Asks What Solos Want and Tries to Deliver

June 30, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Not sure how I missed this when it first issued, but via Leonard Sienko of the NYSBA General Practice Blog, I learned about the New York State Bar Association’s Solo and Small Firm Report, issued June 18, 2009.  I approached the report with some trepidation, fearful that like many others of its kind, it would [...]

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Going Solo Means Never Having to Say You Were Fired

May 15, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

A few weeks back, a reader, discouraged after having failed the bar exam yet again, asked whether he should give up on his dream of starting his own practice.  Of the advice that I offered, what resonated most with the reader was my reminder that no matter how many times he passed the bar, once [...]

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Be THAT Lawyer!

April 13, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Not sure how many of you remember the T.V. Show, That Girl, featuring Marlo Thomas as a small town gal trying to make it big as an actress in New York.  Truth be told, I never much liked the few reruns that I saw (I’m too young to remember the originals), but the concept of [...]

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How Much A Solo and A Blogger Earn

April 6, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Most of us are curious to learn how much solos earn, yet few solos are willing to publicly share. So here’s a huge hat tip to Peter Olson of Solo in Chicago for posting his monthly financials for 2009.   Because Peter’s so disciplined with expenses, he manages to keep virtually everything he kills. Interestingly, it [...]

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How Should We Lawyers Treat the “Ones Who Don’t Know What to Ask?”

April 1, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

With next week’s arrival of Passover, I’m reminded of my favorite readings from the Seder, The Parable of the Four Sons, each of whom asks a question that represents the many levels on which the story of Passover may be understood.  First there’s the wise son (as the oldest of four sisters, that passage always [...]

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Richard Susskind & The End of Lawyers: What It Means for Solos

March 24, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

By now, you’ve probably read some of the press or blog reviews about Richard Susskind’s recent book, The End of Lawyers.  So you’re probably familiar with Susskind’s main premise that disruptive technologies which routinize or automate certain legal tasks will erode the need for traditional legal services or displace them entirely.  Susskind anticipates that clients [...]

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Comparing the Cost of SaaS LPM Tools to Conventional: The Metrics That Matter

March 4, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

So, how many of you maintain a law library in your practice?  You know, the digests and volumes of caselaw and annotated statutory codes with the annual pocket parts that always slip out and of course, those loose-leaf reporters where you need to unscrew the metal binder clasp with a coin, then fumble around to [...]

Read more Law Practice Management 12 comments

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