user guide

The Cost of Starting a Solo Law Practice (and Keeping It Going for at Least a Year)

February 26, 2008

When it comes to starting a small business, a law practice is one of the least-expensive options. A computer and a clear space on the kitchen table are about all you need. Well, almost. There are a few other things. In this article, I will lay out what you need to start up a solo [...]

Read the full article →

Online marketing 101: websites and advertising online (part 2 of 3)

February 21, 2008

Okay, so you are comfortable with online privacy issues, you have spent some time on Wikipedia and Google learning about the “geek stuff,” and now you want to get going and market your law firm online. Obviously, you want to start with square one: a website. And a website is the logical next step in [...]

Read the full article →

Online marketing 101: privacy and technical know-how (part 1 of 3)

February 5, 2008

By now, most attorneys are at least thinking about marketing their practice online, if not doing it in some fashion already. But “online marketing” is a concept so vague it is completely unhelpful. Online marketing encompasses everything from websites to social networking sites to chat rooms. Much online marketing is similar to offline marketing, but [...]

Read the full article →

My timekeeping and accounting solution

September 20, 2007

My wife commented yesterday that it has been a long time since she heard me complaining about my timekeeping and accounting software. It’s true. I hadn’t realized how much less frustration I have since I ditched Time Matters and Billing Matters Plus for good. Instead, I am using a combination of spreadsheets and simple but [...]

Read the full article →

Top 5 free, open source applications for lawyers

August 21, 2007

Free is better, and open source is superior. There are fantastic free and open source alternatives to the software lawyers use every day. Here are my top 5 most valuable free applications for lawyers:
1. OpenOffice.org
Office 2007 is pretty, but from a user perspective, it is an upgrade hardly worth the pricetag. Plus, Microsoft’s rejection of [...]

Read the full article →

Mission: portable law office

May 10, 2007

I am going to be taking my first vacation since going solo this Friday, and I’m a bit nervous. About my cases, that is. Since I have no support staff, if something comes up (despite my careful preparation), there isn’t anyone who can pick up the slack. So I need to be able to check [...]

Read the full article →

CLE – links

April 4, 2007

If you got here from the CLE earlier today, I promised I would post the links to software, hardware, and services mentioned during the CLE. Here they are, after the jump.
Also, here is a previous post, “Learning to use your file system.” I touched briefly on this in the CLE, but 90% of what case [...]

Read the full article →

My del.icio.us bookmarks

March 22, 2007

In addition to this blog, if you are looking to add some useful links to your bookmarks, I usually tag particularly useful links and add them to my del.icio.us page. If you aren’t hip with the latest Web 2.0, del.icio.us is a bookmark-sharing website. I like to use it to store useful links that I [...]

Read the full article →

What is the point of technology?

January 26, 2007

Unless you have a Gizmodo-esque fetish for gadgets and gizmos, you may wonder why you need to get tech’d up. And you do.
Efficiency. The practice of law is changing, especially for solo and small firm practioners. The large-overhead model law office, with a receptionist, legal secretary or paralegal, a lot of paper, and dictation/transcription equipment [...]

Read the full article →