My Shingle

Flip It Good

May 1, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Today’s consumers are hungry for information, and as I’ve written before, an ebook generally fits the bill. Ebooks educate clients about their rights, while demonstrating your law firm’s expertise. Even if you’re an avid blogger, blogs aren’t exactly portable – so even compiling posts into a single document may buy you some added exposure. While [...]

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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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What Does Your Retainer Agreement Say About You?

April 19, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

I am still working my way through my review copy of Stephanie Kimbro’s new book, reviewed here by Richard Granat. There’s just too much information to breeze through and unlike many bloggers (not Richard, but others), I actually make a point of reading the books that I review. Still, one of the most useful parts [...]

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A Solo’s Thank You to Technology, and The Goal of Faster, Better and Cheaper

April 17, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Back when I started my law firm, one of my first “paying” matters was an appeal of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decision to the D.C. Circuit. I put the term “paying” in quotes because I only collected about $1500 for the matter; my former firm kept the $1000 retainer since I’d brought the [...]

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Hire Fiverr

April 17, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Right now, there’s a conversation on Solosez.net about favorite uses for Fiverr, a site that bills itself as “the world’s largest marketplace for small services, starting at $5. Turns out, many solos are using Fiverr, with good success, for blog banners, photo retouching and other small projects. I’ve also seen services for business card design, [...]

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Own Your Own Client Feeder System: Lessons of Trademarkia

April 12, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

In both the first, and now second edition of Solo by Choice , I recommend the solo option as a way to “own, not loan” one’s talents. Yet the choice between ownership versus loan-ership isn’t unique to law practice.  It’s also one that lawyers increasingly confront in an era of crowdsourcing, a practice which at its [...]

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MyShingle In Seattle at Avvocating

April 12, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

I’m excited to be speaking at Avvo’s upcoming Avvocating Conference in Seattle on May 3, reconnecting with friends who are also on the agenda and of course, meeting other solo and small firm lawyers. I’ll be talking about the ways that I’ve used online tools like blogging and social media to build my energy regulatory [...]

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The Single Secret to Solo Success: The Scrap Heap Strategy

April 10, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Call it the twitter-ization of going solo, but these days, I’m most often asked about the one thing that guarantees success as a solo. It’s an impossible question of course, since there isn’t any silver bullet — but if I had to settle on the one strategy common to successful solos across generations, regions and [...]

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Non-Lawyer Funding and Ownership…What Say You Solos?

April 9, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

Ever since Australia, and now the UK have opened the gates to non-lawyer membership of law firms, the question has been percolating here in the US about whether, and when it can happen here. Currently, the DC Bar, where I practice permits a limited degree of non-lawyer ownership, most likely to accommodate partnerships between law [...]

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