Online Guide
This is the MyShingle original Online Guide, which has been a flagship resource at MyShingle since our launch in December 2002. The materials listed below are materials that were included in the site’s original Online Guide, and have been updated through 2008.
To view a more comprehensive guide to starting a practice and access our full range of resources, visit this page.
Older Materials (last update, 2008)
Creating a Law Practice
- Do You Have the Head and Heart to Hang Out?
- Plan for Big Success
- Now Where Do I Go –The Office: Malpractice, Locations, Supplies and Conflicts Issues
- To Market, To Market…Websites, Brochures and Other Ways to Sell Your Shingle
- Be Hands-On: Shaking Hands, Holding Hands, Avoiding Hand-Outs: Selecting and Managing Clients
- How to Get That “Jingle” in Your Shingle: Setting Fees, Collecting Bills
- Learn As You Go: Ideas for A Growing Practice
- New Trends for Shingles
- Tech for Shingles
Do You Have the Head and Heart to Hang Out?
- Humanmetrics.com Personality Test (Do you have a personality that will work as a solo?)
- Quick Myers-Briggs Personality Test (Personality Pathways.com)
- Questions that Must Be Asked When Forming A Firm Pat Yevics, MSBA (April 2003)
- Ten Questions for Lawyers to Ask Themselves When They are Considering Starting Their Own Practice, Alvah Parker, ExpertLaw.com (May 2004)
Plan Your Success
- Checklists for starting a new practice, South Carolina Bar Association
- Balancing Life & Practice: The Psychology of Time Management, Joni Johnston, Lexisone.com (February 2004)
- Fishing Where the Fish Are: Building a Practice With a Future (With Practice Profile Matrix)The Marcus Letter (2/03)
- Getting Started in Your Law Practice Micah Buchdal, Internet Marketing Attorney Site (6/02)
- “A Checklist for Opening or Moving Your Practice,” Ed Poll, ABA LPM Quarterly (6/02)
- List of 40 sample business plans from different industries (from bplans.com – you can try adapting a business plan from other service industries to a law firm)
Now Where Do I Go –The Office: Malpractice Insurance, Office Locations, Supplies and Conflicts Issues
Malpractice Insurance
- Materials for Purchasers of Professional Liability Insurance – ABA checklist, information on costs, etc…
Home Office
- “Is Practicing at Home for You?” Soho Law Office (soholawoffice.com)
- Suggested Equipment for a Home Law Office (from soholawoffice.com)
- “The Home Office Tax Deduction” (Nolo.com)
Start Up Costs and Formation Issues Office Tech
- Prepare for E Discovery in Four Easy Steps, Virginia Llewelyn, Law Practice Today (July 2004)
- 15 Technology Tips That You Can Use Today, Dennis Kennedy, Law Practice Today (July 2004)
- Putting PDF and Adobe Acrobat Into Your Toolbox, Dennis Kennedy, Law Practice Today (May 2004)
- Picking the Best Law Office Software, Jim Calloway, Oklahoma Bar Journal (October 2003)
- Tips for Computer Shopping for Solos Brian Harris, Legal Intelligencer (2/13/03) posted at law.com
- The Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Law Practice Ross Kodner (8/00) lawcommerce.com
To Market, To Market…Websites, B-cards and Other Ways to Sell Your Shingle
Marketing Ideas
- Nine Marketing Keys to Your Best Year Ever, Dustin A. Cole, Law Practice Today (June 2004)
- Dealing With the Press Wendy Leibowitz, WendyTech.com, (2/6/2003)
- Low Cost Marketing for Small Firms Doesn’t Have to Cost an Arm and a Leg, Kelly Fitzsimmons Maryl Hurley lawyersweekly, posted at lawyersreviews.com (dated @ 2000)
- “Nifty Fifty Law Marketing Tips” from the LouisvilleLaw.com (a list of ideas as well as links to other helpful marketing articles)
Website Issues
- Tracking Website Traffic to Improve Marketing, Michael Bowden, Lawyers Weekly (September 2003)
- Planning A Website With Punch, Bruce MacEwen, National Law Journal (4/10/03)
Be Hands-On: Shaking Hands, Holding Hands, Avoiding Hand-Outs: Attracting, Selecting & Managing Clients
- Four Steps to Building Great Client Relationships, Dustin A. Cole, Law Practice Today (July 2004)
- Ten Rules for Avoiding Disciplinary Complaints, Jay G. Foonberg, Law Practice Today (July 2004)
- Guidelines for Accepting Cases (from the Tennessee Bar Association)
- Termination Tactics: Firing A Client Without Getting Burned Erica Lehrere Goldman, Texas Lawyer 6/10/03
- Firing Clients, Norm Brodsky, Inc.com (July 2002)
- “Clients’ Bill of Rights” (Devils Advocate.com – a long list by a firm which monitors client bills for a living!)
How to Get That “Jingle” in Your Shingle: Setting Fees, Collecting Bills
- Cash Flow: Ten Tips to Keep it Moving, Ed Poll, Law Practice Today (August 2004)
- Getting Paid: Is There a Light at the Bottom of the Stack of Bills?, Wendy Leibowitz, WendyTech.com/ABA LPM Magazine (May 2004)
- Raising Your Rates: When and How to Do It, Law Practice Today, Edward Poll (November 2003)
- “Eight Steps to Follow When Estimating Legal Fees” John Toothman, Devils Advocate.com (1987)
- Client Friendly Retention Agreement (John Toothman, Devil’s Advocate.com – a detailed fee agreement by a lawyer who challenges them)
- “Billing: Considering Alternatives that Work and Those That Don’t “John Toothman, Devils Advocate, (1994)
Learn As You Go: Ideas for Tending Yourself and Growing Your Practice
- A Rose by any Other Name:Characteristics of an Efficient Practice, Pat Yevics, ABA Law Practice Today (April 2004)
- “Keys to success in Small Law Firm Practice” Ward Bower, Law Practice Today (February 2004)
New Ideas & Trends for Shingles
- Mentoring: Its Time Has Come – Again, Dan Pinnington, Law Practice Today (August 2004)
- Getting Legal Work and Fees From Other Lawyers, Jay G. Foonberg, Law Practice Today (May 2004)
- Building Rapport in a Coaching Relationship, Jerome Shore, Law Practice Today (June 2004)
- Miles to Go Before We Sleep, Wendy Leibowitz, WendyTech.com/ABA LPM Magazine (March 2004)
- Going Solo: Seasoned Lawyers Practicing Alone for the First Time, Leigh Jones, NY Law Journal (5/17/2004)
- For Busy Solos, Partnering Not the Only Option, Werner S. Lewin, Small Firm Business (6/28/2004)
- Contract Lawyers: Hired Guns, Alexei Oreskovic, The Recorder (6/18/2003)
- Can We Survive? Solo & Small Firm Practitioners Face New Challenges, Edward Poll, ABA Law Practice Today (March 2004)
- Want A Mentor? Find and Develop Your Own, Steven Bennett, New York Law Journal (3/25/03)
- Some Law Firms Are Making Housecalls, George Strawley, AP Lexisone (April 2003)
- Do You Need A Career Coach?Diane Cole, New York Times (added 2/25/03)
- Law School Consortium (collaborative program with several law schools and solo practitioners to give solos mentoring and support their representation of low income clients)
- “Strategies for Successful Operation of a Law Practice in an Urban Environment” Slide Presentation Lauffer, B. (11/01)
- Issues Facing Second Career Lawyers Steven Bennett, New York Law Journal (Jan 2, 2003)
Tech for Shingles
We can’t duplicate the wealth of tech resources for solos and small firms already on line – articles and product reviews and discussion groups. So here’s a quick list of sites where you can go to get your tech questions answered.
- ABA Lawtech (searchable archives)
Books
On-line guides are great, but sometimes there’s nothing like a hard copy to read before bed. And buying books through the links below (at Amazon.com) helps support My Shingle.com. Here’s our book list for shingles beginning with the indispensable Foonberg tome. Later on, we hope to add a section for book reviews and discussions.
- How to Start and Build a Law Practice:… Jay Foonberg (written with the kind of “can do” attitude that a true solo’s gotta have, Foonberg’s book will convince you that you can succeed at solo practice, even though not all of his ideas may work for you)
- How to get and keep good clients Jay Foonberg
- Flying Solo: A Survival Guide for the… Joel Bennett (editor)
Manuals & Forms
Manuals
The following are on-line manuals on how to start a law firm compiled by various state bar associations. Although state specific to some extent, all contain piles of information useful for starting a practice in any jurisdiction.
- Mississippi Bar Assocation’s Handbook on Starting a Law Firm(by YLD – 100 page downloadable manual)
Amazing Forms!
Client retention, fee agreements, forms for office procedure and more — you will find it all right HERE! If it’s from another jurisdiction, adapt it to your own but check your jurisdiction’s ethics rules on fee agreements, engagement/retainer letters and billing to make sure that your agreement complies.
- Oklahoma Bar Association Sample forms (these forms are for opening cases in different areas – civil, criminal, probate)