Inspiration & Encouragement

This article, Lawyer by Day, Fashion Designer by Night, Skirts the Issue, Portland Press Herald (5/8/05) reports on Maine attorney Margaret Minister O’Keefe, a law firm partner who represents local artists and designers by day and has created her own fashion label by night.  O’Keefe had always sewed but started up again when her first…

Solo practice keeps a lawyer so hopping, what with networking lunches, new client consultations, sending out bills and studying up on new areas of law that it’s hard to believe in those early years that it can ever turn dull or boring.  But it does.  And if that’s how you’re feeling about your practice now,…

Any lawyer who’s been in practice more than a week has been there, on the losing side.  It may be losing  a massive multi-million dollar trial or simply being bested by an opponent in a heated negotiation.  But while getting clobbered is never enjoyable, we’ve got to get back up and ready ourselves for more. …

What you may want to know upfront is that this article, Fatherhood by a New Formula, Sandra Boodman, Washington Post (1/18/05) isn’t really about small firm attorneys.  Rather, it’s more about a growing trend of gay men who are becoming dads using egg donors and a gestational surrogate.  But in the course of reading the…

One of the things that I love most about running MyShingle and writing my column for Small Firm Business is that it’s put me in touch with dozens of readers – law students and practicing attorneys – who aspire to start a practice.  As much as I enjoy the stability of my practice now, there…

If you’re dreaming of a solo practice, get busy making it happen!  That’s the crux of my latest Small Firm Business column entitled Make 2005 the Year You Start Your Firm.  (by the way, my last two pieces have been heavily edited.  Not sure whether I like the changes or not – so let me…