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Solo Trends

New Practice Area for Lawyers: Be A Privilege Shield

April 2, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

The ABA Journal reports on a new practice trend for lawyers: acting as  privilege shield. As hacker attacks increase, companies are turning to lawyers to assist with initial investigations. While presumably lawyers bring substantive knowledge to the table and can help companies assess potential liability, they offer an even more valuable benefit: privilege.  Many companies [...]

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ISBA Report on the Impact of Debt on the Legal Profession: Accurate Assessment or Unfair Assumptions About Solos?

March 21, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Via Scott Greenfield, I learned about this recent study by the Illinois State Bar Association on The Impact of Law School Debt on the Legal Profession. Whether or not one blames the debt crisis on law schools (for inflating employment results), the government (for essentially prohibiting discharge of student loans in bankruptcy except in very [...]

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Future of Law Friday: Marketing With Menus

March 8, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Buying legal services can be confusing. Sometimes – in cases where work is unpredictable, or facts are unknown, opaque information may be acceptable. But for work that is commodity in nature or more predictable, there’s no reason not to make prices available to consumers – if not on your website, then at least in materials [...]

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LegalForce: Forcing Law to Be Accessible

February 7, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

For me, the above LegalForce  brand concept — a scales of justice anthropomorphized — encapsulates all that excites me about the launch of the exciting new LegalForce business model conceived by lawyer/entrepreneur Raj Abhyanker that I attended last night in Palo Alto, California. For so long, images of the scales of justices have served as mindless [...]

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My Dispatch from the 2012 Futures Conference: Who’s Looking Out for Solos and Our Clients?

October 29, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Last week, I attended the COLPM’s Futures Conference 2012 here in Washington D.C.  to learn where the practice of law and the legal profession are heading.  For once, I got more than I bargained for as panel after panel of technology experts and thought-leaders and in-house counsel openly shared the problems with today’s law firms, [...]

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Why The Best Solo and Small Firm Lawyers Aren’t the Best Entrepreneurs

June 12, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

About a year ago, in response to then- Above the Law columnist  Jay Shepard, I asserted that wanting to run a business is NOT the most important characteristic for lawyers wanting to start their own practice.  I postulated that lawyers who hang a shingle for the excitement of running a business rather than a passion [...]

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What Solos Can Learn From Legal Zoom: Value of the Subscription Service

May 30, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Having been out of the country last week and on travel the week before,  I missed out on the legal blogging commentary  on the Legal Zoom IPO.  But while there’s been passing commentary from observers on how the IPO may impact solos, with the exception of Scott Greenfield (who’s kind of a solo  but not [...]

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Do Clients Want to Self-Schedule Appointments With Lawyers?

May 16, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Despite the proclaimed rise of the DIY-client, seems that many aren’t yet willing to self-schedule an appointment with an attorney.  At least, that’s been the experience thus far for several of the lawyers interviewed by the Wisconsin Bar Journal on their experiences with self-scheduling. One North Carolina lawyer, Kellie Mannette reported that while her practice is [...]

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Do You Want to Be Discovered or Found Online?

April 30, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Columbus discovered America. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Lana Turner , like other great movie stars of the day, was discovered drinking a coke at a soda fountain.  We all enjoy discovering that terrific little cafe on the backstreets of Brooklyn or Washington D.C. or London or wherever else we happen to be traveling. By contrast, [...]

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Solos at the Second [Circuit]: The Battle over the Constitutionality of NY Jud. Code Sec. 470 Continues

April 25, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m fast learning that lawyers’ can’t just act as advocates in defending rights or effecting change in the law; sometimes, we’ve got to play the role of litigant. As I’ve posted previously, I’m defending the First Amendment not as an attorney but as a defendant and client. And now, I’m an amicus along with a [...]

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