Wednesday, July 27, 2011
We've Moved!!
Update your bookmarks and RSS feeds and join us at http://solocontendere.wordpress.com
Thursday, July 21, 2011
On the Road with Solo!
Garfinkle Seminars is proud to announce the following:
On July 25 and 26, Marc Garfinkle (author of $olo Contendere) will be providing professional skills and legal ethics training to U.S. Department of Homeland Security trial lawyers in Newark, NJ.
Stay tuned for more dates and more great tips from Solo!
On July 25 and 26, Marc Garfinkle (author of $olo Contendere) will be providing professional skills and legal ethics training to U.S. Department of Homeland Security trial lawyers in Newark, NJ.
On July 28 – Aug 1st we will be at the ACLEA convention where we will be exhibiting our programs and publications. We will be responding to email.
On August 25, we will be filming a webinar sponsored by Rocket CLE an innovative provider of online CLE to discuss "Three Low-Cost Ways to Grow Your Practice".
On September 26 and 27, we will be in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio respectively, sponsored by the Ohio State Bar Association. Our program is “Power Tools for Lawyers,” our popular interactive programs to improve lawyers’ ability to speak well in public and to think on their feet.
On October 15, we will be in St Louis and on October 29 in Kansas City, back by popular demand to headline the annual program, “Stepping Up and Stepping Out: The New Lawyer Experience.” This year the Missouri Young Lawyers Section has joined the Missouri State Bar CLE in sponsoring the statewide event.
Stay tuned for more dates and more great tips from Solo!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Going Solo (Canada Style)
Going Solo after law school is becoming more accessible to recent law graduates in America and abroad. In this article by Daryl Lynn Carlson, we get a peak at the experience of Canadian law graduates who decided to "go solo".
http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/Going-solo.html
http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/Going-solo.html
Thursday, July 14, 2011
ACLEA!
Garfinkle Seminars, LLC will be attending the 47th Annual ACLEA meeting in Boston, MA July 30-August 2, 2011 to network with other CLE professionals.
ACLEA is a fabulous organization, which brings together CLE professionals from around the world. The Annual meeting is an opportunity to learn more about providing top notch CLE programs as well as network with CLE providers and sponsors.
This year, we are looking forward to learning more about podcasting and e-books!
Our preparations are in full swing!
We will keep you updated!!
In the meantime, you can learn more about ACLEA here
ACLEA is a fabulous organization, which brings together CLE professionals from around the world. The Annual meeting is an opportunity to learn more about providing top notch CLE programs as well as network with CLE providers and sponsors.
This year, we are looking forward to learning more about podcasting and e-books!
Our preparations are in full swing!
We will keep you updated!!
In the meantime, you can learn more about ACLEA here
Monday, June 27, 2011
A Review From Marc Garfinkle, author of $olo Contendere: How to Go Directly from Law School into the Practice of Law-Without Getting a Job
I had to do this. I had to review my own book. Not just to give it five stars, mind you, but to explain where I think it falls within the literature devoted to lawyers who open small practices or go solo.
Gerald Singer's original book, "How to Go Directly...Without Missing a Meal" inspired me back in San Francisco in 1978 when, as a recent graduate of Hastings, I had hung out a shingle. In tribute, my book's sub-title echos Singer's title. (I'm not sure he sees the tribute). I gave away my copy of Singer 30 years ago and haven't needed to replace it. In the meantime, Jay Foonberg (a JD/CPA) and Carolyn Elefant (a phenomenon) had become gurus on the subject. I knew nothing of either of them until $olo Contendere was nearly completed. Fortunately, this book does not attempt to do what theirs do. They are exhaustive, detailed, and packed with information. My book is shorter, a quicker read, and crammed with caveats, short-cuts, insights and lessons from my past.
$olo Contendere earns five stars from me, because it achieves the goals that I set for it. It suggests a simple strategy for starting a law firm with almost no money down and with little risk of harm to either attorney or client. It does not offer the formula for success. Neither does it provide detailed analyses or prodigious resources. Others do that; my aforementioned colleagues, the state and local bar associations, the mentoring groups, the malpractice insurors and the internet offer astounding resources to lawyers who inquire. I refer the readers' substantive questions to them.
This book is different. It remembers where I bumped my nose and where the quicksand hides. It remembers lessons I learned as an ethics investigator, and later, as ethics chair. It tells why to avoid having the only known copy of a document or to turn down a case because two other lawyers have touched it already. It warns against deep discounts to friends and family, and it claims that you can build a practice through the use of "thank you" notes. It shows how easy it is to become an expert and how to develop an ethnic or niche clientele. It stresses, "Put it in writing!" It says, "Practice with civility." Above all, it says: "If you really want to practice law, if you really want to represent clients of your own and have a specialty of your own choosing, you can do it."
The May 2011 edition of The Wisconsin Lawyer magazine featured a review of $olo Contendere by Farheen M. Ansari, who went solo one year out,and was a disciple of both Foonberg and Elefant. She wrote:
"What I liked most about Solo Contendere is Garfinkle's positive attitude and the confidence he conveys.
Before learning how to do this in Chapter 2, the reader is first told "you can afford to go solo" in Chapter 1. There are more pep talks than in other solo practice guides I have read, probably because this book is specifically tailored to attorneys who have not practiced before at all. It is so important to have confidence when starting out, even if you have to fake it at times. The book's "yes, you can" theme is especially timely for law students who have graduated recently. For many lawyers, going solo was not something to which they aspired but became a necessity when they could not find jobs... And if this career path does not work out, keep in mind the last chapter's title: "Worst-Case Scenario: Parlay Your Solo Practice into a Real Job."
Ms. Ansari "gets" $olo Contendere. I hope you, dear reader, get it, too.
Gerald Singer's original book, "How to Go Directly...Without Missing a Meal" inspired me back in San Francisco in 1978 when, as a recent graduate of Hastings, I had hung out a shingle. In tribute, my book's sub-title echos Singer's title. (I'm not sure he sees the tribute). I gave away my copy of Singer 30 years ago and haven't needed to replace it. In the meantime, Jay Foonberg (a JD/CPA) and Carolyn Elefant (a phenomenon) had become gurus on the subject. I knew nothing of either of them until $olo Contendere was nearly completed. Fortunately, this book does not attempt to do what theirs do. They are exhaustive, detailed, and packed with information. My book is shorter, a quicker read, and crammed with caveats, short-cuts, insights and lessons from my past.
$olo Contendere earns five stars from me, because it achieves the goals that I set for it. It suggests a simple strategy for starting a law firm with almost no money down and with little risk of harm to either attorney or client. It does not offer the formula for success. Neither does it provide detailed analyses or prodigious resources. Others do that; my aforementioned colleagues, the state and local bar associations, the mentoring groups, the malpractice insurors and the internet offer astounding resources to lawyers who inquire. I refer the readers' substantive questions to them.
This book is different. It remembers where I bumped my nose and where the quicksand hides. It remembers lessons I learned as an ethics investigator, and later, as ethics chair. It tells why to avoid having the only known copy of a document or to turn down a case because two other lawyers have touched it already. It warns against deep discounts to friends and family, and it claims that you can build a practice through the use of "thank you" notes. It shows how easy it is to become an expert and how to develop an ethnic or niche clientele. It stresses, "Put it in writing!" It says, "Practice with civility." Above all, it says: "If you really want to practice law, if you really want to represent clients of your own and have a specialty of your own choosing, you can do it."
The May 2011 edition of The Wisconsin Lawyer magazine featured a review of $olo Contendere by Farheen M. Ansari, who went solo one year out,and was a disciple of both Foonberg and Elefant. She wrote:
"What I liked most about Solo Contendere is Garfinkle's positive attitude and the confidence he conveys.
Before learning how to do this in Chapter 2, the reader is first told "you can afford to go solo" in Chapter 1. There are more pep talks than in other solo practice guides I have read, probably because this book is specifically tailored to attorneys who have not practiced before at all. It is so important to have confidence when starting out, even if you have to fake it at times. The book's "yes, you can" theme is especially timely for law students who have graduated recently. For many lawyers, going solo was not something to which they aspired but became a necessity when they could not find jobs... And if this career path does not work out, keep in mind the last chapter's title: "Worst-Case Scenario: Parlay Your Solo Practice into a Real Job."
Ms. Ansari "gets" $olo Contendere. I hope you, dear reader, get it, too.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Going Solo after Law School?
Great article by Anika Anand for Law School grads going solo after law school!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43442917/ns/business-personal_finance/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43442917/ns/business-personal_finance/
Monday, June 20, 2011
$olo Tip of the Day
“Conflicts of interest are like poisonous snakes. We know to avoid them at all costs, but we know only vaguely what they look like.” - $olo Contendere
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