Operations

Opening a law firm by choice or by circumstance offers a chance at a fresh start.  However, it’s all too easy to tarnish that bright, shiny new beginning with a nasty ending at your former position.   That is what appears to have happened with Jim Driscoll’s departure from St. Louis law firm Brown & Crouppen,…

Got grit?  You do if you’re making a go of it as a solo.  As much as many of the law practice gurus tell you that earning gobs of money as a solo is easy as pie (particularly if you’re using their thousand dollar "recipes"), the truth is that success comes from doggedness, a bit…

One of my blogging buddies, Jay Fleischman of Legal Practice Pro is hosting a Free Teleseminar on Protecting Your Reputation Online.  And another blogging friend, defamation law expert Adrianos Facchetti will be participating in the call, offering advice on the legal issues related to online reputation management.  For details on sign up, visit here. I’ve…

This month’s issue of Law Practice Today reprints my chapter, Being Solo Does Not Mean Being Lonely from the ABA’s book, Flying Solo.  I wrote the chapter roughly five years ago and therefore, it’s a bit dated since it preceded social media.  Still, my argument that lawyers needed be isolated as solos remains valid.  Finally,…

Even if for the sake of argument, you accept the proposition that biglaw is better than small law, the question is: how much better.  Is an $850/hr partner at a mega firm really $500/hr better than his or her solo or small firm counterpart?  Naturally, we solo and small firm lawyers would say no, but…

From Biglaw to Yourlaw – Yesterday, one of my solo colleagues Mitchell Matorin was profiled in the Wall Street Journal as asomewhat timely example of a large firm lawyer who has found success in solo practice.  The story mentioned MyShingle and has been driving some traffic to this site, so I wanted to highlight some…

Not all lawyers who start their own firm experience wild success.  This month’s American Lawyer focuses on three who did not.  I don’t take issue with the story’s spin because I believe that it’s important to impress the challenges of starting a practice.  Too many of the new crop of opportunist start-a-firm gurus blithely gloss…

Via Illinois solo Peter Olson’s blog, Solo In Chicago, I came across this post on fee agreement essentials which Olson extracted from an Illinois State Bar Association newsletter.  Since my readers frequently ask about fee agreements, I was initially excited to discover a new resource.  But my delight soon turned to horror when I read the…