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

It's 2:30 am on the morning of World Oceans Day, as I sit here drowning in a sea of submissions for Blawg Review #215.  Buoy, I'm in trouble, with a sinking feeling about all I have yet to do.  But before I sail into the heart of this post, let me share with you why I accepted Ed.'s invitation to host this particular issue of Blawg Review.

Today, June 8 marks the first official World Oceans Day, which has been unofficially celebrated since 2009 when the concept was first propsed by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero.  The United Nations' World Ocean Day Resolution explains that "The official designation of World Oceans Day is an opportunity to raise global awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans."  

But what's the connection between MyShingle -- a blog that inspires solos, small firms and aspiring solos -- and Oceans Day?  Well, for those of you who don't know me outside of my life as a splashy, celebrity blogger, turns out that I actually have a rather pedestrian day job paddling along as a practicing lawyer.  One of my areas of expertise is marine renewable energy development, a specialization that I developed as a baby solo because no one else was doing it (fittingly, that's called a Blue Ocean Strategy - the process of identifying uncontested market space so that competition is irrelevant).

Having blogged about marine renewables for nearly six years, I know that the marine terrain  offer all kinds of swell puns that could help me structure Blawg Review #215.  (Can you count how many I've floated already?)  So without further ado, let's plunge in and explore the treasures of this week's blogosphere.

Continue Reading...

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Having blogged for over five years now, I've amassed a considerable body of archives, both here and here (pre 11/2004).  But does anyone read archives?  With so much currently available information, do blog readers ever re-visit the past?

I don't want my older posts to fall into obscurity, so please let me know (1) whether you read archives and (2) in what situations you tend to read them.  Also, let me know how you use blog archives - do you use the search tools at a blog to locate past posts of interest or sit down and read through past posts by topic or date?  Please post your results  in the comment section below -- and I'll try to do a follow up on this issue.  And if you've already written about this topic, send me the link!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (7)
• Trackbacks

Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity offers a great tip, echoed by What About Clients: reconnect with your business network so that you can continue to nurture and reinforce the trusted relationships that produce not only business referrals, but personal fulfillment. Taking a page from Curt Rosengren, Herz recommends that you try speaking with someone personally whom you know via email or the Internet, but haven't actually spoken with. Why don't you give it try?

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Many of us who decide to start a law firm do so to gain autonmy and take charge of our careers; to "own, not loan" our talent. So it's no wonder that so many solo and small firm lawyers have an affinity towards blogging, which is just as empowering as starting a law firm. For example, over at my Legal Blogwatch beat, I wrote about how blogging offers an antidote to depression by giving lawyers a voice:

For lawyers who aren't necessarily clinically depressed (which is a serious illness requiring medical intervention and professional help), but feeling angst or lingering malaise, one possible antidote (and by far, not the only one) is... blogging. Whereas law practice enslaves lawyers, blogging empowers, giving lawyers a unique voice in a world where they usually serve as a mouthpiece for others, giving them control over a domain, even if it's just a tiny little piece of the Internet. Most importantly, blogging builds connections and conversation with others, and eradicates the sense of loneliness and isolation that serve as a breeding ground for depression.

And already, one commenter has agreed that blogging helped him to recover from a low point in his career.

But blogging goes beyond personal empowerment; it can create huge, life changing opportunities. In her comments to a post at Simple Justice, Sui Generis blogger, Nicole Black attributes her most recent credential as a Thomson-West book author to her blog.

But here's one of the most exciting ways that blogs can change a life. Back in July, at my Renewables Offshore blog, I posted about William Kamkwamba, a twenty year old who blogged about his experience of building a windmill for his remote village in Malawi, and as a result, helped find funding for his education. His blog was featured as a Typepad Blog of the Day and more recently, Kamkwamba was featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.

If you think these results can't happen to you, think again. As I've written before, some of the greatest opportunities for solos to soar happen by sheer, serendipitous accident - and if you blog, you just may find, some accidental success waiting to happen.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks