Home Sweet Office

I never blogged about my Home Sweet Office article due to some technical issues here. But it is clear more and more lawyers are considering an office-based practice. I find it interesting that many of the success stories involve an established lawyers leaving the firm and "moving home," taking his/her existing clients and charging them a lower billing rate. Certainly it is easier for some lawyers to operate out of a home-based practice, such as a lawyer who only does appellate briefs and can met with clients in the trial lawyer's office when hired. Frankly I cannot imagine building a new family law practice, for example, out of a home unless it was part-time and limited. But I know some have done it.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Here's a shout out to Chuck Newton and his Ride the Third Wave Blog, where he has long championed the concept. You should visit his blog and I'm selecting it as my Website of the Week. (A even greater honor since I don't manage to do one every week.  :-)  )

Law Practice Today "Suddenly Solo" Issue: Great Resource for the New Lawyer as Well as Newly Solo Lawyer

Many lawyers are finding themselves in the position of opening a law practice due to circumstances that were not entirely voluntary. The July, 2009 edition of Law Practice Today has the theme Suddenly Solo and it is a great collection of articles and links to many online resources. This webzine is an incredible resource for new lawyers starting a practice as well. Let's spread the word about this resource. Blog it, Tweet it. Link to it. And, most importantly, take a few minutes to e-mail the link to any lawyer you know who may be in the process of starting up a small firm practice.

The link above is to the current issue of Law Practice Today. As we say in blogging jargon, here is the permalink: http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/archives/july09.shtml This should be good for years into the future if you want to add the link to a website. 

Between the articles and the linked resources contained in this issue, a lawyer can invest hours of reading, study and planning their future here.

I'll note that Allison Shields and I contributed 50 Web Resources for the Suddenly Solo Lawyer. It was great working with Allison.

This month's Digital Edge podcast features Sharon Nelson and me interviewing Ross Kodner on the topic of How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times. Look for a new book from the American Bar Association with that title coming very soon. 

But there are many other great articles. The volunteers of the editorial board of LPT have done a great job this month, as have my fellow contributors. Now it is time to do your part and spent a moment or two sharing the link with those you know.and encouraging them to pass it along.

(UPDATE: Fixed bad links. Sorry about that.)

Heading off to Oklahoma Bar Solo and Small Firm Conference

Lawyers from all across Oklahoma are heading out to the Oklahoma Bar's Solo and Small Firm Conference today. It is a great event with lots of fun and great CLE presentations. If you are not able to attend, you can read about the details here and see the complete list of programs (PDF) here. If you aren't from Oklahoma and don't have a solo and small firm conference in your state, you can use these links to start lobbying for one. We are happy to be hosting three "world class" CLE presenters in Irwin Karp, Ross Kodner and Nerino Petro. A good time will be had by all and our attendees will go home with some great information to put to use immediately. I hope my friends in Missouri enjoy their Solo and Small Firm Conference as well since it is being held at the same time.

GPSOLO Mag "Small" Issue is Big Hit

I meant to mention this earlier. The GPSolo Magazine for April/May 2009 has a theme of "small" and a lot of great material worth reading. From small marketing ideas to small town practice to representing small business, this issue certainly delivers. I deem it a big hit. Of particular note are two features: How the Little Stuff Can Get You in Big Trouble by Paula J. Frederick, deputy general counsel for the State Bar of Georgia, and Shake Big Savings from Small Practice Management Ideas by my friend and colleague, Reid Trautz of the Association of Immigration Lawyers of America. The Frederick article should be required reading in law school ethics classes as an entertaining, real world example of the slippery slopes a lawyer can encounter by not paying attention to details.

ABA's Economic Recovery Resources

Hat's off to the ABA for posting its Economic Recovery Resources page. This is especially timely as I was reading on a blog yesterday a claim that the ABA wasn't doing much to help lawyers in troubled times. It has features on job searching, career transitioning, professional development, stress management and more. Considering my area of interest, I urge you to check out the practice management section. There are links to many really good articles on practice management. It is like the greatest hits on practice management culled from several ABA publications. Regular readers of my blog have seen several of these. But whether you are experiencing the downturn directly or not, an hour spent reading these articles will give you a lot of great ideas to improve your practice.

Carolyn Elefant "Mindmaps" the Process of Starting a Law Firm

Carolyn Elefant has the best-known blog on starting a law practice at My Shingle. She has posted an interesting project where she uses mind-mapping software to create a diagram outlining the thoughts and processes of starting a law firm. It is likely that you will want to click on the logo in the bottom right hand corner of the diagram to launch it full-size in a new window.  If you haven't used this type of outline before, you can click on the + signs to expand and view the steps or thoughts. It is certainly an interesting approach which will appeal to the visually-oriented learner.

2008 Summer Reading List: Solo by Choice

We are definitely into the 2008 summer reading season now and so I am going to feature some great summer reading materials over the next few weeks--all in the law practice arena.

I can almost hear some of you chuckling now. Reading about law practice ideas in your summer recreation time probably sounds very unappealing. I'd agree for the most part, but for the solo or small firm lawyer or the lawyer who is seriously contemplating a move in that direction, I will suggest one book that you might consider dropping in the beach bag (next to the trashy novel or thriller, of course!) The book is Solo by Choice by Carolyn Elefant and it may contain more great advice, inspiration and common sense per page than any other book a small firm lawyer can locate. At three hundred pages, you will find that you actually can read it from beginning to end. The $45 price is affordable to even the most cash-strapped beginning lawyer.

In fact, I have to confess that I've been negligent in not mentioning this book, which came out near the first of the year, before now. Many of you should know Carolyn Elefant from her ground-breaking blog, My Shingle, with its numerous resources for small firm lawyers. If you have looked at Carolyn's blog output, you know that she could easily pen a 300, 500 or 1000 page book entirely on her own. But Carolyn made the decision to include many other voices and opinions in the book, from familiar experts to practicing lawyers from across the country. This makes Solo by Choice a very rich and easy-to-read information source indeed.

I could say more. But in the months that this book has been available, it has received detailed reviews from Inspired Solo Sheryl Sisk Schelin,  Scott Greenfield of Simple Justice and, quite recently, from Al Nye the Lawyer Guy. The reviews are all raves. If you are considering a jump to solo practice, buy this book. If you are a solo or small firm lawyer and could use ideas, inspiration or affirmation, buy this book. If you are very thrifty, then buy this book from Amazon instead of the official site linked above. Just buy it. Congratulations, Carolyn. We appreciate the hard work that led to Solo by Choice.

2nd Annual GPSSF National Solo and Small Firm Conference a Success

Last week's 2nd Annual GPSSF National Solo and Small Firm Conference in Philadelphia was a success by any measure.  We had over 230 registered attendees and a large percentage of them were members of the Solosez community from all across the country. Marion J. Browning-Baker, an attorney from Stuttgart, Germany won the "farthest travel to attend" award. On behalf of my conference co-chairs, Ross Kodner and Deborah Matthews, I want to thank everyone who helped us organize, encouraged us, presented at or attended the NSSF conference. It is not yet finalized, but looks like next year's conference will be in Santa Fe, N.M.

I note reviews of the conference from Allison Shield at her Legal Ease Blog and Susan Cartier Liebel at her Build A Solo Practice blog.

2007 GPSSF National Solo and Small Firm Conference

I've got a presentation this morning for the statewide Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma Conference and then I rush to the airport to catch a flight to the 2007 ABA GPSSF National Solo and Small Firm Conference in Philadelphia. This conference looks to be a great success, with attendance approaching perhaps 200 solo and small firm lawyers. You can check the conference website for more information. I understand that there are still a few places available for walk-ins to attend.

It has been my great pleasure to once again co-chair this conference. My co-chairs Ross Kodner and Deborah Matthews are so pleased that the time for the conference has arrived. We are going to host many attendees who participate in Solosez. They will be enjoying the conference and meeting each other for the first time. Remember this event the next time someone tells you that the American Bar Association doesn't do anything for solo and small firm lawyers.

From Business Boot Camp to The New Lawyer Experience

The American Bar Association publication Your ABA recently highlighted a program that had me as one of the panelists at ABA Annual Meeting. Read this nice article about our Business Boot Camp for Lawyers. We had a nice audience and my co-panelists were great.

In Oklahoma, it is time for lawyers who are either in the process of opening or thinking about opening a private law practice to register for The New Lawyer Experience. This free program will be held September 28, 2007 at the Tulsa County Bar Center and October 2, 2007 at the Oklahoma Bar Center. Oklahoma lawyers can see the schedule and get more details online here. We'll cover a lot of the basics that you may not have learned in law school, but we'll also have some cutting edges concepts to discuss.

While we schedule this program to take place a few days after the admittance ceremony for new lawyers, we always have a good number of experienced lawyers who are either changing careers or just updating/refreshing their information. I hope to see many of you who follow this blog at the program. However, you don't have to be an Oklahoma lawyer to benefit from this program in one way. Our Starting a Law Practice Web Directory has lots of information for you to read and review.