MyShingle : Solo and Small Law Firm Management and Marketing

For those who have been patiently waiting, Solo by Choice is finally back in stock here on Amazon.  Whether you're on the fence about solo practice or looking to incorporate 21st century trends like technology, outsourcing and alternative billing into your practice or trying to select a practice area, you'll find a wealth of information that you can reference over and over again.  If you've read the book, you're invited share your comments or criticism either on Amazon or in the comment section below.  And if you have any questions about the book - either for yourself or as a gift for a relative, spouse or friend, please feel free to contact me directly at elefant@myshingle.com.

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Much of the advice on learning new practice skills relates primarily to litigation oriented practices.  As I've discussed in Solo by Choice, a new solo or lawyer interested in trial work can spend a few days court-watching, accompany a more experienced lawyer to depositions or pick up a pro bono case which might entail representing a client a public benefits hearing or a collection action in court. 

But what about options for lawyers interested in acquiring hands on transactional experience?  Here are a few ideas.  Once again, pro bono programs are an option; here in the Washington D.C. area several clinics dealing with HIV or elderly clients offer training on drafting wills and trusts and opportunities to prepare these documents for clinic clients.   There are also pro bono organizations that promote economic and business development in low income communities; here, lawyers may learn how to incorporate non-profit corporations (a very useful skill) or other corporate documents. 

Many times, business networking groups will sponsor talks by lawyers on topics like top clauses to include in a contract.  Often, this advice is highly practical since it's geared towards business people - and therefore, these kinds of fora can prove more useful than say, a law school course or some CLEs.  Also, when you attend a session with other business people, you gain an added opportunity to look for business.

Finally, if you are a transactional lawyer or seeking to be one, Ken Adams' blog on contract drafting is indispensable.

Readers - if you have other tips on gaining hands on transactional experience, send your ideas below.

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One of the five "high impact" marketing practices that I discuss in Solo by Choice is non-traditional consultations, such as house calls or an after hours practice.  Not only are are non-traditional consults a way to stand out and accomodate your clients, but they're also compatible with many solos' business models.  Making house calls or site visits minimizes the need for a physical office, thus enabling you to work from home or in less expensive shared or virtual space.  And an after hours practice lets you keep a day job to keep revenue coming in as you get up to speed, or enables you to stay home with your children and work at a time when your spouse can watch them. 

I didn't give many examples of non-traditional consults in my book because I hadn't found many at the time.  So I was glad to see this blurb about James Perullo's Bay State Legal Services After Hour Law is open for business from 6-10 for convenience to clients.  Many of the lawyers affiliated with the venture, like Perullo, work during the day.  My guess is that these hours will bring in clients who didn't want to lose work time to schedule a daytime meeting with a lawyer.  Why aren't more lawyers developing and implementing other types of nontraditional consultation times.  If you are, let me know in the comments below.

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I'm still blushing after all of the compliments and good wishes from my fellow bloggers who linked to this article about my practice and my book, Solo by Choice.  And I won't deny that I enjoyed the attention (as well as the resulting book sales).  But I need to clarify --  I don't want to be the voice of solo practice because there's no such thing as a single voice of solo practice.   Instead, there are many voices - a veritable chorus  who write about or advise solo and small law firms.  Some champion the can-do entrepreneurial attitude of solos and celebrate our independent spirit, some  work to inspire others to make the leap, some had the vision to recognize that we solos are part of Alvin Toeffler's Third Wave, some dream of building their firm, some  help empower Second City start-up lawyers, some are known for their tech savvy, some want to change the way law is practiced and some have discovered that their entrepreneurial talents extended beyond starting a law firm.  Even Dennis Kennedy recognized all of us as a collective category unto ourselves.  And beyond those of us who render advise to other solo and small firm lawyers, lets not forget the hundreds of solos who blog about criminal law, family law, personal injury and a huge array of other topics and in doing so, help educate and current potential clients.

So where do I fit into all of this?  For me, my end goal is and always has been about serving clients and improving the legal profession.  True, I write (both here and in my book) about marketing a law firm and  making money, about how solo practice can help biglaw attorneys can find career satisfaction and how starting a firm can help with worklife balance.  But the reason that I want to help lawyers find worklife balance or career satisfaction or success is so that we can retain talent in the profession.  And in turn, those talented lawyers will use their skills and passion to serve clients zealously and offer an alternative to biglaw practice.  As a result, we can improve the quality of the profession and expand meaningful access to our justice system.  That' s also the reason that I spotlight the positive accomplishments of solo lawyers.  Of course, I hope to give solos deserved recognition and inspire others to consider this path.  But more importantly, by focusing on the good that solos and small firm do (rather than the ethical foibles that the mainstream press is all to eager to highlight), I want to improve the stature of solos so that judges won't disregard our clients' positions simply because hey're not represented by a hotshot, blue chip firm. 

In the five and a half years that I've blogged at MyShingle, I've seen some attitudes about solo practice change, but very, very slowly - and sometimes, not even noticeably.   One voice won't change much at all, but with a village of voices, we stand a chance.

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Here's a quick update on my book, Solo by Choice.  First, a huge public thank you to all of the bloggers and writers for online publications who have reviewed the book and helped get the word out to others.  I realize that reviewing a 300 page book is a daunting task, so I'm grateful to those who actually took it on.   I simply can't imagine releasing a niche book these days without seeking coverage in the blogs. 

This month, my book has gotten some coverage in the legal trade press.  Thomas Adcock had a nice piece about my book in the New York Law Journal, from the angle on why unhappy biglaw associates might want to consider starting a firm even in recessionary times.  And Debra Bruno's piece in this week's Washington Legal Times discusses my book from the perspective of how starting a law firm can help lawyers find work life balance.  There's also some information about
my own practice.

I continue to try to add more information about my book - either updates or materials left on the cutting room floor in the Author's Cut/Pocket Part section.  I'll be adding some new material soon.  If you've read the book and still have questions, please send them to me and I'll include a response as an update to that section.

Finally, I'm happy to report that Solo by Choice is once again available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.  But you can always buy the book directly from the publisher at Decision Books.com - same day shipping and no shipping charges. 

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Last Friday's New York Law Journal carried this story (subscription req'd.) about me and my book Solo by Choice.  The story apparently contributed to an increase in book sales, so once again, Solo by Choice is not currently available on Amazon (that's of this morning, 3/11/08).  However, you can always purchase the book for the $45 cover price (no shipping) from my publisher Decision Books.  The direct link to purchase is here.

If you do buy the book, I am always happy to receive feedback - positive or negative.  Since I feature both Author's Cuts (written material that didn't make it into the book) and Pocket Parts (book supplements) here, I'd be happy to amplify topics where there's a need for more information or write about issues that I didn't discuss in the book.  I'm fast learning that even after a book goes to press and comes out in print, it's forever a work in progress.

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When I sat down to write Solo by Choice, the context mattered most.  One of the my goals in starting MyShingle was to discuss solo pratice not so much as a category of law practice unto itself , but rather to view the role of, and opportunities for, solo and small firm practitioners in the broader legal profession.  The Epilogue to my book describes my view of this context, and how it's changing but here is the much more extensive version.   I'd be interested in hearing your feedback:

When I started law school  back in 1985, most of my classmates were headed to  Biglaw, where they could look forward to a coveted partnership after seven years of hard labor.   But the Wall Street crash of 1987 changed all that. Summer associate programs were cancelled, and students who had lined up jobs suddenly found themselves out of work.   When the economy recovered, those same classmates did find positions at large firms. But by then, the seven-year partnership track had stretched to nine years ... even 11. Soon after, the country suffered another economic blow ... a recession ... and some of the most talented or hardworking of my peers were unceremoniously downsized or informed they were “not fit” for the partnership track. Again, the economy rebounded, and again firms scrambled to hire attorneys, this time to handle a glut of IPO work, only to dump most of the new-hires in the dot.com bust of the early 2000's. And, so it goes, as novelist Kurt Vonnegut used to say.
   
In less than 20 years, what had been a fairly smooth path to partnership had become rocky and uncertain. But it’s just one of the many factors responsible for the new and growing popularity of law firm start-ups. 

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In this latest installment of my Author's Cut/Pocket Part series, I'm going to address two of the questions about the book that I've been frequently asked this month:

1.  Why did you call the book Solo by Choice, particularly when so many people don't voluntarily choose solo practice?

When I started the writing process, my publisher cautioned that choosing a book title would prove a difficult task, and he was right.  I originally had a concept for a title, but that was back when my topic was much narrower than the final product.   More than two years into the writing process, my publisher proposed Solo by Choice, a title that immediately fit.   That's because I believe that irrespective of our circumstances, all of us lawyers always have a choice.  Some of us embrace solo practice joyfully and affirmatively.  Some of us come to solo practice as a last resort - an act of desperation or a last shot effort to get our money's worth out of a law degree.  Some of us start a firm to get back into the law after staying home for a decade with children so that we can raise them and actually see them.  But in any of one these scenarios, we all have a choice other than solo practice:  we can leave the law entirely, we can stay employed in a job that offers financial security but doesn't feed our soul, we can work part time.  Those of us who eventually become solos make a choice to stay in the law and to use our law degree to serve clients, make money or leave a legacy behind.  No matter what route took us here, ultimately, we stay because we are  solos by choice.

As my book moved towards completion, I realized that Solo by Choice was apt for another reason as well.  Because in virtually every aspect of the book - from deciding why to start a solo practice, to figuring out where to locate an office or what practice areas to pick or how to bill clients or market the firm - I don't offer definitive answers (except in very narrow, no-brainer cases such as "don't violate ethics rules").  I give examples of what I've done or what other solos have done, but ultimately, my book gives readers a discussion of available choices.  And that's because I've always believed that there is no right way to start a solo practice; for every rule, there are dozens and dozens of exceptions.  As I've always said, there are as many ways to start a solo practice as there are solos themselves.  What works for a gregarious young lawyer in a rural town may not apply to a shy older woman returning to the work force after twenty years of absense, and vice versa.  What works for an Ivy League grad with a biglaw corporate practice probably won't help a second career lawyer with a social worker background who hopes to start a collaborative family law practice, and vice versa.  Sure, some general principles apply, but the nitty gritty decisions are case specific.  Some don't care for books that discuss options; they'd prefer a list of "do this, do that and you'll succeed."  For me, however, making the choices and picking the ideas that work for me represents the most exciting and challenging part of the solo journey, and one that I wouldn't want to replace with a one dimensional check list.

2.  Where can I buy the book now?  A couple of glitches in the distribution process slowed the process of getting the book to Amazon - and when it finally arrived, apparently, it was already oversubscribed.  Another order is being shipped over right now.  However, the book is also (sometimes) available on BarnesandNoble.com and the NALP.org bookstore.  However, the best and quickest way to order now is to contact my publisher, Mark Jaroslaw by email at info@decisionbooks.com.  Or send me an email directly at elefant@myshingle.com.  I apologize for these problems but they will be smoothed out in another two weeks.

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Like most of my solo and small firm colleagues,  I'm a fan of online networking, i.e., building meaningful and trusted relationships through listserves, Linkedin.com and Facebook.com and blogs.  Not only do these online tools help us find clients or share our knowlege and expertise with others and improve the quality of the profession at large, but they also mitigate against sense of isolation that many solos otherwise experience. 

For those who don't use online networking tools, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has an instructive post on how to get started.  Jantsch writes that ultimately, online networking isn't all that different from conventional networking - only the tools have changed.

Jantsch's advice is terrific, but I think he overlooks one important point:  ultimately, to get the most out of online networking, you need to take it off grid.  I've built many, many close relationships online blogging, listserves and email correspondence.  But in every case and without exception, what's always solidified the relationship and made it click is a personal  rather than virtual connection.  Maybe it's an in-person meeting, but even a phone call does the trick.  Hearing the sound of a voice or a laugh, seeing a smile or shaking a hand satisfies a human curiousity and conveys the kind of information that no amount of bandwidth is broad enough to carry.  And in person meetings or phone calls not only smooth a tense online relationships characterized by vigorous disagreement, but actually make them bloom --  because the personal interaction somehow makes us realize that because of our passion, we have more in common than our online discourse (and even namecalling) might suggest.  That's not to minimize the value of building relationships online - that process lays the groundwork for personal interaction and helps us to screen out those whom we'd like to meet.  But at the end of the day, an online relationship will eventually falter without a dose of human contact.  

So tomorrow before you head home for the weekend, why not pick up the phone and calling an online friend or colleague, with no other motive than simply to say hello or invite them to share a cup of coffee?  Taking that relationship off line will ensure that you keep it on course.

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If you haven't seen them already, the blogosphere reviews of Solo by Choice are starting to come in.  Also, as promised, here's the first "Author's Cut," i.e., material that didn't make the book.  This excerpt was my original prologue, the piece that got me started after weeks of writer's block.  It's entitled My Solo Epiphany and it describes that "aha moment," two years into my law practice, when I first fully appreciated the rewards of solo practice.

October 1995:   As the clock ticks towards midnight, I’m still in my office, hunched over my keyboard, pounding out a reply brief that’s due at the D.C. Circuit tomorrow.  Waiting for my document to print, I catch a glimpse of my disheveled reflection in the darkened window behind my computer.  I know that at this moment, dozens of other young attorneys like myself are spending the night just as I am, toiling away on a brief or a memo or research assignment, maybe even taking a break to stare out of their own darkened windows.  Indeed, I’ve spent countless other nights like this one in law firms across this city but tonight’s different.

My document’s done now, so I grab it off the printer, eyeball each page and sign my name with a flourish on the signature line.  I admire my lone signature and savor the satisfaction of a finished job.  I already know this brief’s a winner, even though it’s only the second one I’ve written entirely on my own, even though it’s not been reviewed and marked up by ten other lawyers, even though I haven’t yet seen the judges nodding sympathetically as I make my argument before the court, even though it will be months before I learn that the court will issue a resounding ruling in my client’s favor and order my opponent to pay $65,000 in attorneys fees.  It’s after 1 a.m. when I leave my office to drop the brief at Kinko’s for copying, around the same time that my exhausted peers are dialing up car service.  Yet, tonight I’m as energized as when I arrived in my office this morning.  Although like my colleagues, I’ve spent the past eighteen hours at the law office, I produced this brief for my client, for my law firm, for me - and at the end of the day, that’s what has made all of the difference.

If you're interested, you can view the decision here.

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Here's a video trailer that I created for my upcoming book, Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be. It's a proof of concept in learning how to use my iMac software. Unfortunately, I'm still learning how to use the editing tools, so the transitions aren't entirely smooth and there's a very, very long dead space at the end, because I couldn't figure out how to cut the audio clip. But I'd spent so much time on the video, that I decided to put it out here in beta, and solicit advice from readers on how to fix some of these problems. So please send your input below.

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It's not going to be available until January 7, 2008, but you can preorder and get some more details here. In the meantime, this is how it looks!

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I realize that these days, alternative billing is all the rage - and I too am a proponent of alternatives to the billable hour. Still, there are times when you have to resort to the billable hour, either at the insistence of a client, or under some of the guidelines for submitting a fee petition to the court.

So if you're billing by the hour, what should your invoice look like? When I started my own practice, I had the benefit of knowing what a sample invoice looked like, having reviewed many of the outgoing bills at my former firm. Since then, I've seen many other invoices: as a contract attorney for a federal agency (a part time position that I held in the early years of my practice), my responsibilities included evauating and ruling on fee petitions submitted by lawyers on behalf of clients who prevailed in litigation against the agency. And I've come across other fee petitions in researching caselaw for fee petitions that I've submitted on behalf of my own clients (which favorable results, I'm happy to report).

So while invoices are second nature to me, I realized that some lawyers, either those starting a practice from government, or those straight out of law school may not know what an invoice looks like. And because I believe that the best examples are those straight from real life, rather than create a "pretend invoice," I'm presenting a copy of this Fee Petition, one of several submitted by the attorney representing the defendant in Capitol Records v. Foster, who was sued for allegedly downloading copyrighted materials. Ultimately, in this decision, the court granted $68,685.23 of the $105,680.7 total amount sought. While recovering only sixty percent of a bill doesn't seem like much of a victory, chances are that the individual defendant in this matter could not have afforded more than a fraction of that bill. Plus, the court noted in its decision that once it had decided preliminarily to grant attorneys' fees, the defendants' activity stepped up considerably, thereby suggesting that some of the work may have been performed to run up the bill since the record company would be paying.

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