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

Each morning as @carolynelefant, I check in on Twitter for my dose of innovation-overload.   Twitter is always brimming with updates on great minds undertaking great change-the-world-or-the-legal-profession ventures and 140-character insights that inspire and offer new perspectives that I'd love to put to action if I only had the time.

As author of MyShingle, I straddle dual worlds - that of legal observers and innovators who write about reforming the profession and that of the independent practitioner with a day job, clients to serve and not enough time to reflect about changing the practice of law, let alone do it on a daily basis.  I must confess though that many days, serving clients, arguing cases or striving for excellence just doesn't hold a candle to the sexiness of being a thought-leader, a trend-setter or an innovator.

So that's why I found the above TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love (which I wasn't crazy about) so inspiring.  Gilbert is grappling with the thought that moving forward as a writer, she may never match the success of Eat, Pray, Love, a dehibilitating thought that makes it tough to get up in the morning.   But at the same time, Gilbert recognizes that she's a writer and she's incapable of giving up her life's work.   So Gilbert finds solace and inspiration in the power of just showing up to write every day, and if the gods of creativity show up as well, then it's an added bonus that are beside the point. (you can fast forward to the 15 min. mark for this).

Gilbert's words ring true for those of us who practice law, particularly solos.  Because what the best of solos do best is simply showing up, day after day, year after year.   By showing up, we can make a client's life a little less stressful.  We can change a judge's perspective or reverse an injustice.  We can keep a family in their home or help a client get a fresh start.  Most importantly, we keep the wheels of our judicial system turning by ensuring that access to justice isn't determined solely by access to huge amounts of money. 

So to my fellow solo and small firm colleagues, keep on showing up every day.  It may not seem important and it sure isn't trendy, but wow, how it matters.

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There's still time to register for the Pink Slips, Detours and OnRamps program at MyShingleforMomsDadsToo.com.  Also, if you are a blogger or member or member of the media and you'd like a free press pass, contact me at elefant@myshingle.com.

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I'm only just now getting around to commenting on this recent Notes from the Breadline post by Roxana St. Thomas at Above the Law on the drawbacks of solo practice.  Essentially, St. Thomas focuses on the tougher aspects of going solo, from the potential costs associated with office space to figuring out how to choose a practice area and having to come up with ways to market the practice.  Solo by Choice addresses all of those topics, as do a number of the commenters and I won't repeat those points here. 

Moreover, let's face it:  it's not lack of knowledge about dealing with these nuts-and-bolts practical issues that is standing between St. Thomas and a solo practice.  Rather, St. Thomas' perception of herself as unsuited for solo practice holds her back.  She writes:

I could play the part of solo practitioner/office manager for a short time, I do not believe that I could actually be those things. As Joan Cusack explained in Working Girl, "Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn't make me Madonna. Never will."

Like St. Thomas, many experts also believe that there's some kind of litmus test for a successful solo - certain personality traits or propensities that make someone naturally suited for solo practice or not.  As for me, I don't buy the concept that certain lawyers are inherently cut out for solo practice.  Instead, the very act of starting a practice profoundly changes us, so much so that we become the kind of lawyer we never dreamed we could be.

In my own case, when I started my firm I was a recluse.  I never ate lunch with co-workers, preferring the privacy of my closed office.  I chafed at the thought of company picnics and social activities where I'd be consigned to idle chit-chat and would never have taken the initiative to call someone up and invite them to lunch.  Frequently, I'd grow bored with work and have trouble following through and I was careless with my proofing.

Yet something about starting a firm changed me.  Instead of running from company or dreading social or networking activities, I embrace them.  I take pride in my work and serving clients in a way that I never felt when I worked for others.  I am a completely different person and lawyer (not to mention generally, a far happier one) than the one who reluctantly started a law firm 15 years ago for want of anything better.  And it's solo practice that changed me, not the other way around. 

Life changes us; it's a basic fact.  Some of us can't imagine ever being monogamous until we get married and then the thought of cheating never occurs to us again.  Or we can't ever see ourselves cleaning dirty diapers or joyfully waking up at night to feed the baby, but when the time comes, we do it.  We'd never write off a life experience because we think that we're not suited for it.  So why do we indulge those thoughts when it comes to our careers?

Trust me, even if you believe that you're not suited to start a law firm, you don't have to change and you shouldn't avoid solo practice because of it.  Instead, all you have to do is take the leap of faith and get started and down the road in six or eight months, you will very likely find that you're not just playing the role of a solo, but that you've really, truly become one.

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It must have been a slow news day for self-described upstart small law firm, Higbee Associates dba RecordGone.  What else could inspire the firm to issue this bizarre press release Press Release, trumpeting the firm's Alexa search engine ranking of 127,628 and boasting that the ranking outscores any of the top ten largest firms?  For starters, who uses large law firms as a metric of anything Internet or Web 2.0 related anyway?  Large law firms don't have much interest in SEO, so beating them on that scale doesn't mean much in my book. But more importantly, why should potential clients care one way or another whether a law firm that provides records expungement services has a high search engine ranking? 

The other drawback to boasting about SEO is that it invites investigation by intrepid bloggers like me.  I went to Alexa to check RecordGone's ranking, but confirmed that it is indeed around 127,628.  Then, I ran some organic searches on Google and found the following results for RecordGone:

Expunging criminal records (no top page listing on Google)

"expunge" and criminal records (#10 on first page of Google)

how can I expunge my criminal record (no top page Google listing)

criminal record expunge - (#2 top page of Google).

Since prospective clients will likely use all of the above search phrases, RecordGone's 50-50 track record for first page listings isn't much to boast about, in my view.

Fixating on and understanding SEO rankings and page traffic may be interesting, but in the end, it's results that count - the quality of the traffic generated, not sheer quantity.  RecordGone.com may have a pretty good Alexa ranking, but so what?  Based on my own non-scientific study, my guess is that the firm is missing out on a large chunk of potential traffic by "being gone" from the first page of Google in several plausible search engine scenarios.   

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As I've written plenty of times before, I'm not much of a fan of technology for technology's sake.  I'm both too busy and too clumsy to fool around with gizmos and gadgets that don't have an immediate, practical application to my law practice or my life.  So when I first learned about a site called Wordle.net, which converts a document or website into a word cloud during Jim Calloway's portion of "Sixty Sites in Sixty Minutes," I initially dismissed it as another gee-whiz kind of application without much practical use. 

But thoughts of Wordle resurfaced last week as I was preparing an eight minute presentation on regulatory developments in the marine renewables industry and challenges for the future.  Given that one agency governing offshore renewables issued a 400 page rulemaking back in July, while another agency already has a 100 page policy in place, the task seemed daunting.  And that's when I was reminded of Wordle.  After all, what better way to convey the essence of the regulations than by reducing them to word clouds?

Moreover, the Wordle process let me make a controversial point in a light hearted and seemingly objective manner.  Most of the marine renewables companies within my trade association believe that the regulatory process is onerous, protracted and suffocates new technologies, while many environmental groups argue that the permitting agencies give short shrift to environmental concerns.  My word clouds showed that the regulations do indeed focus prominently on environment and environmental issues, while minimizing consideration of technology and completely omitting any discussion of schedules or deadlines that might expedite the process.  Had I contended that the regulations were onerous without more, I'd have alienated the many environmental groups who participated in the conference.  But by making the point through the word cloud, I was able to show that at least in the short run, enviromental concerns are being adequately addressed and it's time to move forward.  Best of all, the word clouds were a huge hit with the audience.

As technology advances, we gain access to so many different tools to communicate and convey ideas.  No longer are we limited to sentences on a page or bullet points on a slide.  What in the world can lawyers do with Wordle?  Maybe nothing but waste time.  But if we lawyers don't take the time to stretch our imagination and consider how we can use new technology applications to advocate our position or collaborate with other lawyers or more effectively serve our clients, we'll be left standing behind in a very one-dimensional place.

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I'm getting ready for my upcoming conference, but couldn't resist posting about this article that describes the trend of minority owned firms partnering up with larger firms to help meet diversity requirements.  It's a trend that I mentioned in my book Solo by Choice, so I was interested to learn that the trend has since gained more traction.

Seems to me that this set up could work quite well for small minority or female owned firms.  They could serve as front-bidders on projects, then sub-contract the work out to larger firm partners (as an aside, I don't mean to imply that a minority or woman owned firm isn't capable of handling the substantive work.  But once in a while, why not get rich off of some one else's labor and manage the project instead of toiling on it?  Sounds like a good idea to this woman-owned law firm!)  

This kind of "partnering-up model" is very cutting edge indeed; how refreshing to see large firms thinking out of the box, even if it took cooperation with smaller, minority owned firms to get them there.  The partnering up concept is consistent with the lawyer-to-lawyer collaboration model that Jordan Furlong describes at Law21 and it requires the types of project management skills that Richard Susskind emphasizes in The End of Lawyers? In fact,  since the issuance of my book, I've been researching this subject and will be providing more information in a couple of weeks when I upgrade MyShingle.  

In the meantime, do you have any experience serving as a woman or minority owned partner to another firm or business?  Share your experience below.

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This is one of those "collection posts" - with a couple of different topics.

First, I came across a bunch of FREE tools for start-ups at Ladies Who Launch.  Though the tools are geared towards start-up companies generally, as opposed to law firms, there are plenty of forms and templates here, from business templates to non-disclosures, that can help you in your firm or if you represent small businesses.  Even better, there's a link to this FREE start up assistance - including a customized startup schedule, a dedicated consultant and support in setting up your marketing program.  Not sure if the program would apply to start-up law firms, but I don't see why not.  Another program I've blogged about before, SCORE has also provided guidance to lawyers starting firms, even though geared towards all businesses generally.

Next up, I wanted to let you know that I've got a new post up at Legal Marketing Blawg, on guarding your online reputation in the Internet Age.

Finally, another reminder about my upcoming workship in DC on April 30, 2009 with Julie Tower Pierce entitled Pink Slips, Detours and OnRamps.  For more information and registration, visit My Shingle For Moms, Dads Too.com.  Would love to see you there!

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Not sure how many of you remember the T.V. Show, That Girl, featuring Marlo Thomas as a small town gal trying to make it big as an actress in New York.  Truth be told, I never much liked the few reruns that I saw (I'm too young to remember the originals), but the concept of being a stand out - of being that girl, or that something always appealed to me.

Years later, I find myself referencing "That Girl" as I try to convey the significance of finding - or better yet, creating a niche, which is defined as a distinct segment of a market.  For starters, niches offer a way to follow your passion, as described in this recent, excellent article by Ann Macauley, Discover and Market Your Niche, which identifies wine law, video law and international art law as three niche practices in Canada.  Niches seem narrow, yet they run deep, often requiring mastery of a cross-section of legal issues. 

Niches also make it easier, not to mention more enjoyable to target your marketing efforts.   Indeed, blogs are virtually a tailor-made marketing tool for niches, because you can set up a blog on a discrete topic in a matter of minutes.

But more than anything else, niches put some pizazz into your practice; they make you memorable.  In short, they make you That [fill in the blank] lawyer.  The best example I can give relates to a David Kaufman, colleague and friend of mine, not to mention a first-rate litigator here in the DC area who specializes in Business Brawls, the knock-down, no-holds-bar disputes that arise out of business deals gone sour.  A few times a year, I'll wind up at a local solo lunch with David, where he introduces himself with the tag line "I do business brawls."  Months later, if I run into folks from the lunch and mention David or refer his services, the response is always "Oh yeah, Kaufman - he's that business brawls guy."

That's what I mean by being that lawyer.  David Kaufman is THAT business brawls lawyer, just like Lisa Solomon is THAT legal research and writing lawyer and Kelly Erb is THAT tax girl lawyer and Chuck Newton is THAT Stay Violation and Third Wave lawyer and Tom Goldstein is still, forever THAT ambulance chasing, Supreme Court lawyer...the list goes on.  As for me, well by day I'm THAT ocean energy lawyer (and of course, THAT MyShingle blogger).

Being THAT lawyer doesn't have to consume your entire practice.  Ocean renewables account for maybe 15 percent of my revenues, but it also gets me attention in more conventional, bread-and-butter energy matters.  But being THAT ocean energy lawyer makes me stand out from all the other lock-step cookie-cutter energy regulatory attorneys. 

So why not give it a try, and think about what kind of THAT lawyer you want to be.  And if you're already THAT lawyer, post a comment and let us know what kind of THAT lawyer you are

Note:  By the way, for the next three days, I am seriously going to be slipping into THAT ocean energy lawyer mode from Wednesday forward as my trade association hosts our second annual Global Marine Renewable Conference here in Washington D.C.  Expect light postings through the week.

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On April 30, 2009, I'll be teaming up with Julie Tower-Pierce, a fellow D.C. area lawyer and author of Staying At Home, Staying in the Law  for a four hour workshop entitled PinkSlips, Detours & OnRamps where we'll be sharing advice and inspiration on ways to recharge and reinvent your legal career.   There are a couple of on-ramping programs already out there, but many are incredibly pricey (this one for example costs $2500!), plus they're more focused on job re-entry, which may not be a possibility in this climate.  We'll be discussing the myriad of options available in the 21st century and showing how to leverage these tools:

Here's the full program description.  Go to Myshingleformomsdadstoo.com to register ($150 regular; $125 early bird)

Thursday, April 30, 2009
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Busboys & Poets
1025 K Street NW (5th & K), DC
(202) 387-7638

Presented by: Carolyn Elefant, Esq., author of Solo By Choice and the blog MyShingle Julie Tower-Pierce, Esq., author of Staying at Home Staying in the Law: A Guide to Remaining Active in the Legal Profession While Pursuing Your Dreams and the blog, Darling Hill.

A can’t miss event for lawyers who are:

• laid off or between jobs
• on a career detour
• "former/ex/recovering" lawyers contemplating re-entry
• (too!) busy raising a family or “staying at home”
• dreaming about hanging their own shingle
• feeling stuck in the law
• looking to connect with other “offramp” lawyers
• wanting to invigorate their careers or reinventing their practices
• doubting whether work/life balance exists or hoping to find balance
• law students planning for the future
• can't find work in today's legal economy

Program Schedule:

10:00 a.m. Registration
10:15 a.m. Welcome & Opening Remarks: State of the Law Address, Carolyn Elefant
10:30 a.m. Getting Back to the Law or Keeping Your Foot in the Law, Julie Tower-Pierce

Topics covered:

• What off-ramped lawyers need to do to stay marketable while on a career detour or between jobs, whether or not they plan to return to the law in the near future
• Reentry strategies for reconnecting to the law after a career detour
• Strategies for getting your legal groove back
• Strategies for building your brand
• Simple, effective job search strategies
• Finding and creating flexible work (e.g., jobshares, part-time work)

11:45 a.m. Hanging a Shingle on Your Own Terms: The Flexibility of Going Solo

Topics covered:

• Using Technology and Social Networks to restart, recharge, and reinvent your career
• Why a part-time or “slash” practice can be desirable and doable
• Launch 101 – inexpensive and easy strategies to get a practice up and running

1:00 p.m. Hands-On Workshop: Social Networks and Technology 101 & Networking

Why attend the Pinkslips, Detours & OnRamps Event:

• Connect with local lawyers who know what you’re going through (e.g., “mommy guilt”, work/life balance issues, career stress)
• Build and enhance your legal network
• Discover how to build your own brand and enhance marketability
• Learn strategies for creating the work/life balance you dream about
• Find out strategies for finding flexible, meaningful part-time work and how to go solo flexibly
• Familiarize yourself with the latest Web 2.0 technologies for time management, road warrior’ing and building professional and personal connections.
• Discover how to best use your time “between” jobs
• A “no excuse” event: casual attire, bring your baby
• Convenient and affordable alternative to the costs of alternative on-ramp or coaching programs

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Most of us are curious to learn how much solos earn, yet few solos are willing to publicly share. So here's a huge hat tip to Peter Olson of Solo in Chicago for posting his monthly financials for 2009.   Because Peter's so disciplined with expenses, he manages to keep virtually everything he kills. 

Interestingly, it was these financial disclosures at the Consumerism Commentary that inspired Peter's posts - and the Consumerism data gives some insight into the revenues that a successful blog can generate.

Data on solo earnings is notoriously sparse.  Solos are a disparate group so it's virtually impossible to aggregate meaningful data.  Still, it's a question that many solos to be want answered.  So  if you're aware of any other sources on solo earnings (or want to volunteer your own!), feel free to post below.

Additional resources: Department of Labor data on all lawyer earnings, Indiana solo salary data at Empirical Legal Studies Blog, survey on NY solo salaries (2004).

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I have a blogging-based press pass for the ABA Legal Tech Show so I'm compelled to post a dispatch.  So far, I'm enjoying this conference even better than last year.  For starters, I'm not a speaker so I can enjoy, not to mention wear comfortable clothes.  Second, after spending the past few weeks reading about the down economy and more layoffs, I'm thriving on the positive, optimistic buzz that pervades this conference.  Lots of talk about new business models and ways of practicing business, from virtual law offices to using social media to build brand to collaboration.  Nothing that I haven't posted on here before, but what's exciting is to hear it in the context of a mainstream conference.

And yet, even as the speakers discuss these options, there's always one big "but" that butts in:  our archaic, protectionist ethics rules that hinder innovation.  To be sure, some rules take on more importance.  For example, right now, I'm listening to a panelist speak about protecting client information and confidences online, which is imperative to preserving the attorney-client relationship and protecting lawyers against malpractice liability.  But what about residence requirements which simply don't make sense in a virtual world?  Or the crazy quilt of often conflicting state bar regulations, some of which allow on-line testimonials or don't require pre-approval of law firm websites while others do.  So what's a lawyer who practices in several different jurisdictions?  If a lawyer is licensed in a permissive jurisdiction that allows testimonials and restrictive one which doesn't, his inability to post testimonials can put him at a disadvantage in the more permissive jurisdiction where competitors may  be posting testimonials.   The adverse impact of ethics rules to the flow of commerce and competition has never been more obvious.  And yet, the panelists are content to say "that's the way it is" instead of "this is how it ought to be.

So here's my message to the ABA.  Thanks for embracing technology and looking ahead.  But be aware that it's enough to present us with a sampling of Kool-Aid.  You need to take steps to make sure that our respective bar associations actually let us drink.

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With next week's arrival of Passover, I'm reminded of my favorite readings from the Seder, The Parable of the Four Sons, each of whom asks a question that represents the many levels on which the story of Passover may be understood.  First there's the wise son (as the oldest of four sisters, that passage always fell to me!) who asks a scholarly question about the testimonials and statutes that govern the holiday.  Up next, comes the wicked son who wants to know why the Jews' experience as slaves has any bearing on him.  He's considered wicked because he excludes himself from the experience, challenging the ritual instead of embracing it.  The simple son simply asks what - what is all of this?  And finally there's the last son (fittingly, my baby sister) who "does not even know how to ask." 

There are lots of interpretations of the Parable of the Four Sons, but easily, each son could represent a faction of the legal profession and more specifically, solo practice.  We have our wise sons - those lawyers who study and research on their own, then ask sophisticated questions about every aspect of practice, from how a particular legal procedure might work to applicable ethics rules to building relationships with other lawyers to understanding how to market and brand a law practice so that it's productive and sustainable.  There's the wicked sons (and here I mean this most endearingly)  - those who challenge and question conventional wisdom, contending that some aspect - be it marketing or other top down expectations don't apply to them.  I believe that the wicked son wants to learn, he just learns by challenging rather than absorbing.  We have plenty of simple sons, of course - the many readers who post on Solosez or email me asking "help - what do I do to start a law firm?"

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