Online Guide

This is the MyShingle original Online Guide, which has been a flagship resource at MyShingle since our launch in December 2002. The materials listed below are materials that were included in the site’s original Online Guide, and have been updated through 2008.

To view a more comprehensive guide to starting a practice and access our full range of resources, visit this page.

Older Materials (last update, 2008)

  1. Creating a Law Practice
  2. Books
  3. Manuals & Forms

Creating a Law Practice

Do You Have the Head and Heart to Hang Out?

Plan Your Success

Now Where Do I Go –The Office: Malpractice Insurance, Office Locations, Supplies and Conflicts Issues

Malpractice Insurance

Home Office

Start Up Costs and Formation Issues Office Tech

To Market, To Market…Websites, B-cards and Other Ways to Sell Your Shingle

Marketing Ideas

Website Issues

Be Hands-On: Shaking Hands, Holding Hands, Avoiding Hand-Outs: Attracting, Selecting & Managing Clients

How to Get That “Jingle” in Your Shingle: Setting Fees, Collecting Bills

Learn As You Go: Ideas for Tending Yourself and Growing Your Practice

New Ideas & Trends for Shingles

Tech for Shingles

We can’t duplicate the wealth of tech resources for solos and small firms already on line – articles and product reviews and discussion groups. So here’s a quick list of sites where you can go to get your tech questions answered.

Books

On-line guides are great, but sometimes there’s nothing like a hard copy to read before bed. And buying books through the links below (at Amazon.com) helps support My Shingle.com. Here’s our book list for shingles beginning with the indispensable Foonberg tome. Later on, we hope to add a section for book reviews and discussions.

Manuals & Forms

Manuals

The following are on-line manuals on how to start a law firm compiled by various state bar associations. Although state specific to some extent, all contain piles of information useful for starting a practice in any jurisdiction.

  1. Mississippi Bar Assocation’s Handbook on Starting a Law Firm(by YLD – 100 page downloadable manual)

Amazing Forms!

Client retention, fee agreements, forms for office procedure and more — you will find it all right HERE! If it’s from another jurisdiction, adapt it to your own but check your jurisdiction’s ethics rules on fee agreements, engagement/retainer letters and billing to make sure that your agreement complies.

  1. Oklahoma Bar Association Sample forms (these forms are for opening cases in different areas – civil, criminal, probate)