Solo Contendere

10. May 2012

For solos, a solid business plan may be key to a sound practice

For a solo attorney who has all she can do to just successfully manage her caseload, developing and following a business plan might seem like an empty exercise. But for virtually any solo or small-firm lawyer, a business plan is a document that can be an invaluable guide to how your practice should and will grow.

4. May 2012

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For small firms, sanctions pack big punch

The increasing use of attorney sanctions changes the dynamic of litigation.

5. April 2012

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Competing on price? You need to do more

In order to establish a solo or small-firm practice, you need a law license. That’s not exactly going to come as a galloping shock to anyone, but it’s the corollary statement that has been a plague to full-time solos. What else do you need? Nothing.

30. March 2012

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Groups band together to help solos

Growing ranks of solo practitioners underscore the need for resources.

8. March 2012

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Used properly, social media outlets can help drum up new clients

In many quarters, it’s taken as an article of faith that any business can benefit or even prosper from a presence on such social media outlets as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Is that true for solo law practitioners? It can be, but as with any marketing device, only when it’s used properly.

2. March 2012

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Lessons from the Wu-Tang Clan School of Law

It was a collaboration designed around the theory that a group of solo artists working together could do more than any of them could individually. They were the Federalist Society of hip-hop, and solo attorneys can learn a lot from them.

10. February 2012

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Keep covered

Lawyers with a solo practice have enough expenses to worry about: rent, utilities, bar and other association fees, maybe even an assistant’s salary. An expense some don’t spend much time thinking about but probably should? Insurance.

3. February 2012

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MLK, Arab Spring and landing a client

For all the ways the Internet has helped level the playing field between large and small law firms, there is still a fundamental disconnect about what the Internet does and does not do.

20. January 2012

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Size Matters

Should a small firm practitioner make less than anyone else for the same (or better) work? Possibly.

13. January 2012

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Heresy: Using Outlook as a to-do list

One lawyer's thoughts about using email as a to do list.

6. January 2012

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Transition to a solo practice can be tricky but rewarding

For an attorney, working in a firm or corporate setting can have a lot of perks: a steady stream of work, a consistent paycheck, the everyday company of colleagues. But some lawyers find that their temperament and work style fit better in a solo practice.

2. January 2012

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Some resolutions that could pay off

What did you resolve this time last year? Most people make the same New Year’s resolutions every year, and if (as the Supreme Court says) corporations are people, then your business ought to be making New Year’s resolutions as well.

30. December 2011

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Litigation by Montage

The problem with the (admittedly appealing) idea litigating by montage is that clients have no idea how long it really does take to prepare a case.

7. December 2011

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Book Review: The E-Myth Attorney: Why Most Legal Practices Don’t Work and What to Do About It

Buy it, read it and have your law partner do the same. Have someone in your office become the “e-myth person,” the one who asks every day if the goals are being met.