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Why Don’t Law Schools Invest In Law Firm Start Ups?

June 12, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Last weekend, I attended my 25th law school reunion up at Cornell Law School.  Considering that the Class of 1988 was Cornell’s centennial graduating class and that the silver anniversary is fairly significant, the turnout wasn’t great.  Out of a class of 175 students, only 19 of us showed up – a figure that’s even [...]

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Prenda, the Law Firm Pretenda — and Lessons for the Future of Law

April 16, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Alas poor  Prenda – it coulda been a contenda in the future of law.  Instead, Prenda now faces its likely demise inside a California federal district court room for questionable tactics in connection with hundreds of copyright lawsuits. Once upon a time, Prenda Law — one of the largest copyright trolling operations – had all of [...]

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Office Debate Follow Up: Sustainable Solos, Sustainable Families

April 12, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

This post is a quick follow up to Would You Rent Office Space for $500 or Less? which has generated some useful feedback from other solos weighing in with personal experiences and opinions.  While you should read the comments directly, they generally fall into the following clusters of viewpoints: 1. Don’t start a firm unless [...]

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Would You Rent Office Space If It Only Cost $500/Month – And What Can We Do To Make That Happen?

April 10, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

[Note - this is a long read, and it's about much more than the home vs. office debate but rather, the importance of affordable office space to the sustainability of solos and long term access to justice] Fishtown Lawyer Jordan Rushie makes some strong arguments in favor of renting office space when starting a firm. [...]

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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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Counsel of Counsel Relationships: Avoid Conflicts

March 19, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Nature abhors a vacuum, so the saying goes.  So it’s not surprising that with big law’s demise,  we’re seeing every flavor of alternative structure evolve, from upscale contract lawyer services  to remained law firms,  some  that rely entirely on outsourced workers  to meet client needs to groups of lawyers who operate separately but hold themselves [...]

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The End of GoogleReader: A Sign of Blogging’s Decline and Lessons for Lawyers

March 14, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

As you’ve probably heard, yesterday, Google announced that it’s retiring Google Reader, a free service for consolidating and reading RSS feeds on July 1, 2013.  Launched in 2005, Google Reader has a loyal following but with user rates declining, the Reader, along with many other products, will now fall victim to another round of spring [...]

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A Lead Generating Website Gone Too Far

March 12, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Update, 3/12/13 (3 pm) Solosez member and contract lawyer Lisa Solomon posted about this on her Facebook page and Richard Komaiko, Attorney Fee’s founder is feeling the heat. The emerging dialogue should serve as a warning to future law-preneurs you don’t go beta when people’s careers and livelihood (even lawyers) are on the line. About [...]

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Reinvent Law: Solos Lost in the Transition

March 11, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

I did not attend ReinventLaw, but would have liked to. With four matters pending in various stages at the D.C. Circuit and my daughters in the height of school activities, traveling cross country even for a day wasn’t in the cards this time. So I settled for tracking the conference via the #reinventlaw hashtag feed [...]

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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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