Operations

(updated, 7 am 6/7/11 to change a few points) As I mentioned a few weeks back, I’m one of the 81 defendants who’s been sued by Joseph Rakofsky. The post that won me an admission ticket to the front lines of this lawsuit tracked a theme common to 45 other posts I’ve written: what not…

Should solo and small firm lawyers refer cases for a fee…or refrain?  It’s question largely unique to solos.  After all, when lawyers at a firm bring in business that is assigned to or handled by others, they typically receive an origination fee and may continue to collect a percentage of revenue subsequently generated by that…

In Part I of this post, I highlighted the kind of unsavory freelance assignment that even struggling solo and small firm lawyers should pass right by. In this second part, I’ll describe some of the red flags that should tip you off to a scam-job. Is the assignment posted on Craigslist or an online freelance…

According to this recent New York Times article on easing out the older generation of lawyers, the shelf life of a solo practitioner is 70 or 80 years old compared to 60 or 65 at big law. Even so, who wants to linger on past their prime like the party guest who wouldn’t leave?  I…

Recently, I’ve been receiving daily emails like this one: Hi Carolyn, My name is Mary and I’m a writer for (http:[omitted]. I’ve been following your blog lately, and because we write on similar topics, I thought you’d be interested in a recent article we published, “20 Alternative Jobs For Law School Grads”. If you think…

This recent post from the Harvard Business Review bemoans the loss of the executive assistant in the lower ranks at most companies, a phenomenon resulting from technologic advancements like voicemail and email and pressure to cut costs. However, as the article points out: At very senior levels, the return on investment from a skilled assistant…

Ordinarily, I agree with much of what Seth Godin writes. But in this post discussing the difference between a lawyer’s hard work and long work,Seth Godin gets it wrong. Godin writes: Long work is what the lawyer who bills 14 hours a day filling in forms does. Hard work is what the insightful litigator does…

Over the past few years, I’ve transitioned my practice from the billable hour to flat fees. For me, the flat fee works because most of the matters that I handle are, if not entirely predictable, then easily divided into discrete segments, each of which can each be assigned a set price. Though I can’t tell…