New Orleans Solos, One Year Later

A year ago, Hurricane Katrina reminded all of us solos of the somber side of solo practice; how everything we’ve worked to build can be wiped out in an instant.  Sad to say, a year later, some solos are still struggling to get back on their feet, as reported in  Uneasy Times for Lawyers in…

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You Get the Clients You Market For

Via Ernie the Attorney comes this link to a provocative You Tube ad by Florida divorce attorney Steve Miller (posted at Denise Howell’s new fun blog).  After insulting paralegals, overpriced downtown lawyers and court clerks, Miller invites clients who want to escape “the hellhole they call a marriage” to visit his website, pay up and…

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New Year

Today was my daughters’ first day of school, full of anticipation and excitement.  As for me, I’ll be resuming my longer work days now that they don’t return home until after 4.

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What Makes A Fee Unreasonable?

Many lawyers (with this notable exception) believe that the 1/3 contingency fee is reasonable and that any fee agreed to between a willing client and an attorney is also reasonable.  But in this recent story, Attorney’s 9/11 Fee Called “Shocking, Unconscionable” (law.com 8/28/06), lawyer Tom Troiano had a valid retainer agreement that provided for 1/3…

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Real Sisters In Law

Sisters don’t have to marry a pair of brothers to become sisters in law to each other.  As this article, Sisters in law:  Siblings Keep legal matters all in the family (Arizona Business Gazette 8/24/06), sisters Hope Kirsch and Lori Kirsch-Goodwin became sisters in law (or sisters at law)  when they decided to hang out…

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Small Is The New Big and Chat With Seth Godin

I haven’t yet read Seth Godin’s new book, Small Is the New Big, though of course, I linked to Godin’s article of the same name  when it came out.  Next week, Type Pad will release the August 22 chat with Godin via Podcast.  If any readers participated, I’d love to hear the scoop in the…

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Great Advertising for Small Firms

If you want to sell a small business on using your small firm instead of a large, impersonal firm, I can think of no better marketing than this post from Ed Wesemann who describes, bluntly, what small clients really mean to big firms.

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You Can Take It [Biglaw Practice] With You

Many large firm lawyers think that if they hang a shingle. they’ll have to throw away their biglaw specialities, like securities regulation or merger practice and trade it in for more general practice fare, like family law or criminal practice.  But at least one solo attorney, Walter James, of the newly created Environmental Crimes Blog…

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