Solo Contendere

We've Moved!!

2011-07-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

Update your bookmarks and RSS feeds and join us at http://solocontendere.wordpress.com

On the Road with Solo!

2011-07-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

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.

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!

Going Solo (Canada Style)

2011-07-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

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

ACLEA!

2011-07-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

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

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

2011-06-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Going Solo after Law School?

2011-06-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

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/

$olo Tip of the Day

2011-06-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

“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

Tip from $olo Contendere

2011-06-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

“While you must have confidence in your own judgment and ability, do not underestimate the vastness of the law, the complexity of practice, or the fallibility of your own judgment.”

Going Solo Tip

2011-06-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking of going solo, check out your state, county and local bar associations. Many have committees devoted to small and solo practices.

Check them out!

Listen Live!

2011-05-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Marc Garfinkle, author of Solo Contendere: How to Go Directly from Law School into the Practice of Law - Without Getting a Job, will be discussing How to Start and Build a Solo or Small Firm Practice on Law You Should Know, hosted by Kenneth J. Landau, Esq. on 90.3 FM or www.itunes.ncc.edu.

Part I

Monday June 6 at 4 p.m.

Tuesday June 7 at 12 noon

Sunday June 12 at 7 a.m.

Part II

Monday June 13 at 4 p.m.

Tuesday June 14 at 12 noon

Sunday June 19 at 7 a.m.

Listen live on 90.3 FM WHPC or live voicestream at www.ncc.edu/whpc or download free from www.itunes.ncc.edu for this entertaining and informative program!

Wisconsin Lawyer Magazine

2011-05-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

The Wisconsin Lawyer Magazine book reviewer loves $olo Contendere!

Check out the full review here.

Interview with Marc D. Garfinkle, Esq., author of $olo Contendere: How to Go Directly from Law School into the Practice of Law - Without Getting a Job

2011-05-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

Marc Garfinkle, Esq., is a solo practitioner in Maplewood, NJ. Marc is an award winning speaker and adjunct professor of Persuasion and Advocacy at Seton Hall Law School. He often speaks to new lawyers about going solo right out of law school. These bridging the gap seminars draw from his book $olo Contendere: How to Go Directly from Law School into the Practice of Law – Without Getting a Job. We sat down with Marc to discuss his new book.

Q: Marc, what led you to write $olo Contendere?

A: As adjunct faculty at Seton Hall Law, I began to see more and more of our best qualified students who were unable to find jobs or whose job offers had been put on “hold.” Even those that could find work in other fields could not earn what they needed to pay back their education loans. They had increasing despair and bitterness about their choice of careers. I wanted to tell them that if they REALLY want to be lawyers, they can be. I wanted to give them encouragement and a new perspective. I had gone solo in San Francisco in 1978, then moved east and hung out a shingle in New Jersey (??!@@$?, you say?) in 1982. I learned so many lessons that new solos need to know. I know that lawyers don’t need jobs. We need clients. I know that cream rises to the top. I know that honest lawyers can still get ahead. I know that they can make it. And they don’t need to have a boss; albeit, they need guidance and insurance.

Q: When you were graduated from U.C. Hastings College of Law in 1978, you didn’t have a job offer from a firm. What made you decide to take the leap and start off as a solo practitioner?

A: I began law school thinking that someday I’d like to write. I never had a great passion for office work. I had already worked as a deck hand on a barge, as a paid lecturer, as a door-to-door salesman, a house-painter, and a private investigator. I would have thrown myself out of the window or cussed out a senior partner if I had taken a job in a downtown office full of lawyers. Phi Beta Kappa notwithstanding, I was in the very middle of my class at Hastings, but employable in the then-market. I just didn’t want to have to wear a suit, unless I was going to court or a funeral.

I had a great education and I loved the law. I knew it would offer me topics to write about. Then, for thirty years, I was so busy practicing, I forgot to write. Now, oddly, and unpredictably, I wind up writing about the lessons I’ve learned during the career I’ve had.

Q: What was the best advice you were given when you were starting out?

A: Send a thank you every time someone refers you a client, and staple papers at a 45 degree angle so it doesn’t tear the papers over time. Do people still know what staples are?

Q: What do you wish someone had told you when you began your solo practice.

A: It probably doesn’t matter; I probably wouldn’t have listened. In large measure, people don’t seem to learn from other people’s mistakes. We seem to learn only from our own. In a profession that is also a career, it is important to learn from the missteps of others. It would untrue for me to say that the information in my book is about how I built my practice. It would be truer to say that it’s about how I’d do it the next time.

Q: What do you love most about being a solo practitioner?

A: It changes. Once, it was leaving at noon to take the kids sleigh-riding. Later it became the four-day weekends at a friend’s lake house. It’s having clients, not just files, as so many lawyers do. It’s being able to charge whatever reasonable fee I want, or to turn down a client because I didn’t care for the person. It’s about me getting out of a sticky potential conflict without a partner telling me why I should hang in there. It’s all good.

Q: Do you think law students graduating now, in 2011, can start their legal career as solo practitioners?

A: No doubt. Not all will succeed, of course. Not all will like it. But, despite the economy and even with minimal seed money, most lawyers can develop a plan, carve out a niche and scratch up enough work. It may mean working for other lawyers or even keeping another job on the side, at first. There will unquestionably be long hours. They will spend as much time working on their practices as they spend working on their cases. But, in the end, they will have something they don’t have now, and which no one can ever take from them – experience.

Q: What kind of challenges does a new attorney face as a solo practitioner?

A: The financial challenges aside, new attorneys face all the challenges of being a professional and those of being a business owner. They usually have little experience as either and so, the challenge is to remember that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Understand how complex the law is, how unambiguous your ethical mandate is and how fallible your judgment can be, and you will meet the challenges handily.

Q: What advice would you give a new attorney that wants to “go solo”?

A: Don’t be discouraged by well-meaning friends and family who are skeptics and nay-sayers. Even when the people who care most about you are questioning your sanity, your ability, or both, keep your eye on the ball.

Don’t charge less because you have less experience, charge MORE. After all, you’re going to spend time getting to the level of knowledge and comfort that you’ll need. Price fairly, but don’t sell yourself short.

Unless it will harm your client, you should always extend a courtesy to your adversary, such as agreeing to an extension of time or to an adjournment. Don’t let your client call this shot.

When speaking with to another lawyer who may wish to hire you per diem, approach her as an equal. You are not employer/employee; you are both professionals and your services meet her needs.

Send thank you notes to everyone who treats you well.

Keep your trust account and business accounts in separate banks. That way, you’ll probably never screw up a deposit, and you will establish contacts with two sets of bankers.

Don’t be afraid to ask “stupid questions” of other lawyers. It’s better to admit ignorance to a colleague than to demonstrate it to a client!

Don’t take any case that two other lawyers have handled before you.

Read the ethics rules from time to time. We sometimes forget what’s in there.

Carry malpractice insurance so you can sleep at night.

Enjoy the ride, counsel. It should be fun. Make it so.

Q: The Ohio State Bar and the Missouri State Bar both have purchased the right to publish $olo Contendere. Oregon is offering a copy to all lawyers attending their summer program about opening an office. Why do the bar associations like your book so much?

A: They like it for the same reason that I like it: it gives simple advice that is almost universally true. They also like it because the strongest threads in book are themes that are high on state bar agendas:

1. Inexperienced lawyers should always have mentors.

2. Practice ethically and with civility.

3. Practice Defensively

Some state bars and some law schools seem reluctant to embrace the idea of going solo right out of the box. They won’t endorse programs or hire speakers that encourage inexperienced lawyers to go hang out a shingle. More states are recognizing that there really are many neophyte practitioners out there scouring the countryside for clients, and who may be dangers to themselves, their clients and to the profession. They offer mandatory “new Lawyer” CLE, and mentoring groups and on-line help and advice. The book is just another source of good advice for new lawyers hoping to make it on their own. $olo Contendere says, “If you are going to try to do this, here are a few things you should know.”

Marc’s book, $olo Contendere: How to Go Directly from Law School into the Practice of Law – Without Getting a Job, is available through amazon.com. We also have a signed copy to give away to a randomly-selected commenter! Let us know what you think of this article and you could win a signed copy of $olo Contendere!

Welcome!

2011-05-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Solo Contendere!

Please check back often for tips, tricks and practical advice to go directly from law school into the practice of law without getting a job!