Operations

This article, Starting Over in the Big Pond (Richmond Business Journal, 6/28/06) reports on “the joys and tribulations of starting a small law firm” as told by former biglaw attorneys Greg Holland and Steven Setliff.  The pair describe some of the differences between biglaw practice and starting your own firm, from having to make decisions…

FREE Webinar on Business Competency for Lawyers I’ve mentioned Ed Poll, one of today’s preeminent law practice management experts and coaches, a number of times on MyShingle (most recently in a post about New York’s new proposed attorney advertising rules), and a number of his articles are included in our Online Guide to Creating a…

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY from MYSHINGLE! Ah, Indepedence Day, a solo’s favorite holiday.  After all, think of the parallels.  Just as England and King George taxed the colonists without allowing them a say in government and stifled individual speech and religion, so too, law firms dominate young lawyers, sapping their creativity and amassig huge profits on…

Dave Swanner has some great, defy-the-experts advice on starting a law firm.  The essence:  Don’t overplan, get a phone line and some business cards, and just do it.  Though Dave admits in his comments that this no frills approach may not work for everyone, particularly those with major financial commitments, he’s definitely on to something. …

Over at Legal Blogwatch, I posted here  about a recent analysis by Volokh guest blogger Andy Leipold, who found that criminal defendants stand a better chance of acquittal before a jury.  I thought that the study might help some of my readers who practice criminal law to make more informed decisions about a bench or…

At Law Firm Blogging, Nathan Burke offers this stand-out ad with the tagline “800 Pound Gorillas are great at getting your attention…but does that make them the right attorney for you?”  As Burke admits, the ad might be a bit “out there,” but the point is valid: just getting your name out there is not…

OK, as regular readers know, I’m not a huge fan of the ABA. So I didn’t feel badly to learn about this somewhat underpublicized announcement (6/23/06) about the ABA’s agreement to pay $185,000 for violating a 1996 antitrust consent decree.  From the  Department of Justice press release: The consent decree prohibited the ABA from misusing…

Though not every family law case ends up like this one, nonetheless, family law cases are often fraught with more emotion and problems than any other type of case.  Clients often come with misinformation about the process and unreasonable expectations about how much the case should cost. While trends such as collaborative lawyering may address…