My Shingle : MyShingle : Solo and Small Law Firm Management and Marketing

With so many large firms moving towards a "one stop shopping model," what can a small firm r solo with a more specialized focus do to compete?  You could try to become a jack of all trades, but in expanding your capabilities, you may compromise quality.  Or, you could take the approach of the Birmingham, AL law firms described in this  Business Journal story (9/25/06) and join forces to compete without formally merging.  From the article, here's a description of the arrangement:

Goodrich Law Firm LLC, Cunningham Firm LLC and Hahn Law Firm PC announced Monday the formation of Red Mountain Law, a network that will provide expertise through the individual firms in a broader range of legal services. Areas such as wills, trusts and estates and probate will be handled primarily by the Hahn Law Firm. Commercial and residential real estate and loan closings will be assigned to attorneys at the Cunningham Firm. Work involving securities law will be overseen by the Goodrich Law Firm.

Is there a strategic alliance that you can form to expand your business opportunities?                             

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On most of the listserves that I'm on, new lawyers ask questions about how a particular marketing technique has worked for another attorney.  And while it's great to learn from what others have done and take approaches that have been successful, sometimes, you need to go out on a limb and do something completely revolutionary.  That's what some of the lawyers in this article by Ari Kaplan, How to Stand Out from the Crowd (Small Firm Business 9/21/06) have done or tried to do.

 You'll probably recognize some of the ideas in Kaplan's article, such as creating a website or blog to market a niche practice.  Other strategies, however, have been used less, such as Kathleen Hopkins' idea of branding her firm the Real Property Law Group rather than using individual names, advertising yourself as "your lawyer friend indeed," as does Steven Goldstein, a New York criminal defense attorney or arranging  panel discussions on hot topics that may draw  hundreds of participants, as does Stacey Gray, a  business attorney in New York and occassional court TV commentator.

So don't feel that you always have to reinvent the wheel, but at the same time, think about trying what's never been done before.  You have nothing to lose, except your anonymity.

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One of the keys to successful marketing is to find yourself a place which hasn't been saturated by lawyers.  Thus far, MySpace is one of those spaces and as Kevin O'Keefe of Lex Blog reports, that's why it's been a successful marketing spot for 28 year old lawyer Anicia Ogonsky, otherwise known as legallyblondepa.  In fact, since Ogonsky set up her MySpace site, she's been interviewed on the radio, been the subject of this article in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and had ten responses to an online client intake form.  What's more, at sites like MySpace, Ogonsky can market her blondeness, her youth and enthusiasm - which brand her and set her apart from what she calls "the scary lawyers in dark suits."

MySpace won't work for everyone.  But perhaps it's sufficiently out there that it will set you apart from the competition.

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Most of us know that it can take several months for a marketing connection to pan out.  This is a post about one that was 14 years in the making.  I write this story not to discourage those of you who need your leads to pop now, but rather to make the point that solo practice is one long connected journey and you never know whether or when the seeds you scatter today will finally bear fruit.  Read on for details....

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Like rock and roll, legal work is full of power and passion.  It is about people and their stories, even when we represent businesses, as Justice Louis Brandeis powerfully reminded us.  We help peple find justice, dignity, truth, riches or maybe just a little relief.

Do you agree that your work is full of power and passion?

The above quoteand the accompanying question is one of the thought provoking topics from the teaching DVD, Lawyers Rock, based on the scholarship of Rusell Pearce and discussed further in this post at Legal Ethics Forum.  And it seemed fitting to post on September 11, a day that reminded us of terrible perils of, but also the transformative possibility of power and passion. 

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Leave it to the bar associations to put the kibbosh on creativity.  Take the case of Morris Gould, an enterprising lawyer who came up with a niche practice of offering New York counsel to Florida residents with New York legal matters, as described in this article, Federal Court Grounds Snowbird Law Practice (ABA e-report, 9/1/06).  Problem is, Gould, who resides in Florida and is barred in New York, is not a member of the Florida bar.  Thus, the bar prohibited him from advertising his New York services as unauthorized practice of law.  The bar also claimed that the ads were deceptive because they gave the impression that Gould was licensed in Florida which he is not.

In this day and age, where people are transient and we can email documents to destinations 500 miles away more easily than we can carry them across the street, isn't it time for the bars to reexamine the archaic rules on multi-jurisdictional practice?  Why must a person be a member of the bar in the state where he or she lives?

The bar's rules on multi jurisdictional practice cause far more harm than good.  In Gould's situation, he would have served clients physically located in Florida who had legal problems in New York.  The only alternative to Gould's service would be for these clients to (a) find a lawyer licensed in Florida and NY or (b) hire an attorney in New York and either travel 1000 miles for face to face meetings or deal with them by phone.  Gould's proposed niche makes sense and would have made life easier for this group of clients.
Too bad the bar didn't see it the same way.

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One of my favorite blogging buddies, David Giacalone, on a partial blogging hiatus as f/k/a, has resurfaced again with a new proposed blog,  shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress.  As the name reflects, shlep will provide commentary on and resources for pro se litigation.  From the introductory post:

Self-Help Law deserves its own weblog.  It is too important a right for consumers, a vital movement, and a growing virtual and realworld reality, to be outside the spotlight of the blogosphere and the weblogger community. (See Movement/ Shmovement below, plus our About page)  Indeed, if weblogs are even half as important in the world of legal services as everybody* says, it may be malpractice for consumer advocates, proponents of universal access to justice, law-and-technology gurus, or law firm management mavens to start the day without seeking a weblog dose of pro se and self-help news and punditry.

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