Ideas & Tips

Since women lawyers pull their own weight in the genre of solo and small firm blogs (along with me, there are my colleagues and friends, Susan Cartier Liebel and Inspired Solo’s Sheryl Schelin, I was surprised to learn that Few Women Choose to Practice Solo (NLJ 9/13/07). A recent study released by NALP revealed that…

Those of you who read MyShingle regularly may have noticed the dwindling number of posts over the past few months. No, the site is not coming to an end…even after blogging for almost five years, I still find that there’s plenty of new material to cover. But since I’m not a natural born writer, there’s…

Sorry for the silence here at My Shingle – I’ve been on a long awaited vacation this week (and here’s the proof!). I know that many bloggers often leave a stock of blog posts to auto-post while they’re away, but I prefer real time postings (anything else is too much like a newspaper article to…

Under the leadership of reasonably new ABA Journal editor Ed Abrams, the ABA has finally provided a really useful product with the newly launched, online ABA Journal. The site makes ABA Journal articles and legal news available, and also contains one of the best topical blawg directories that I’ve ever seen. I realize that the…

When it comes to building a law practice, I don’t like to use the word “rule,” because for every rule – e.g., “You must never work for free” or “You must commit to building a firm full time,” there are always plenty of exceptions. Still, based on others’ experience, you can glean certain guideposts or…

It’s something that all of us practicing lawyers dread: we file a case, and it’s lost or somehow misplaced at the court, resulting in a missed statute of limitations. So if you find yourself in this situation, do you (a) try to appeal the dismissal of the case, arguing that the clerk erred; (b) ‘fess…

I’m not sure how I overlooked this gem that Dan Hull of What About Clients which asks why are lawyers so shy when it comes to asking for work.  In Hull’s experience, his pitch to clients, which concludes with “we’d love to work with you.  How can I win or earn your business” typically wins…

I can’t add anything except a big “me too!” to Susan Cartier-Liebel’s exhaustive summary of the recent Ms. JD conference held at Yale Law School yesterday.  The conference gave me a chance to finally meet Susan and reconnect with Lisa Solomon, Brandy Karl and, briefly, Cathy Kirkman whom I’d met previously. [Update] Lisa Solomon has…