My Shingle

Even In An Online Age, Bar and Professional Associations Are More Relevant To Marketing Than We’d Like to Admit

April 25, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Longtime readers of this blog know that I have a love-hate (or more accurately, a friend/frenemy) relationship with bar and professional associations.  To be clear, my beef isn’t about the services provided to solos: in the past decade since I’ve started this blog, the bars have stepped up – and I’ve watched as the initially [...]

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Iron Tech Lawyer Competition – Report

April 18, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

I left the office on Wednesday afternoon to attend the Iron Tech Lawyer competition at Georgetown Law School.  I must confess that after six months of white noise about disruption, rethinking and access to justice as a way to access venture capital, I didn’t have high hopes for the students’ projects, which employ NeotaLogic (a [...]

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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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Tax Day: A Reminder of The Ups and Downs of Solo Practice

April 15, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

With 2012 taxes now complete, I’ve officially marked the last action of the worst year of my practice in a half-decade. While I won’t discuss everything that went wrong, the problem is pretty obvious: more money out, less money in.  In my case, an office upgrade and more personnel took a bit of a toll [...]

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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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The Problem With Dropbox Isn’t Security and The Limits of ABA Techshow

April 8, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

When it comes to technology, lawyers are no different from the general public — gravitating towards the free and easy, no-brainer products like gmail or dropbox. Yet often, these tools aren’t necessarily optimal security-wise for serving clients.  But rather than scold or deride lawyers who use these tools, most of the speakers at this past [...]

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Future of ABA Tech Show: Can We Take Tech Out of Context?

April 5, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

This year, I came to ABA Techshow intending to cover the latest and greatest tech tools and trends for MyShingle. I walked the exhibit hall yesterday, dutifully sitting through demo after demo of ipad deposition tools along with dozens of cloud-based practice management tools and portals until my brain went cloudy with all of it. [...]

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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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Lawyers Going Mobile Faster Than Ever

March 29, 2013 by Carolyn Elefant

Sometime in the wake of 9-11, when the Blackberry was the focus of so many stories, I asked several of my solo colleagues whether they thought they’d ever use one in their practice. At the time, Blackberrys were becoming standard for large firm and and corporate employees, but they hadn’t made their way down the [...]

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