CBA Practicelink Smalll and Solo Firms

Today
Today

A new way of looking at legal partnerships

  • November 23, 2017
  • James Careless

Big city, big firm; small town small practice. And never that twain shall meet. Except … sometimes it can make sense to unite the resources and expertise of the big firm with the smaller firm’s access to and knowledge of particular communities into a beautiful marriage of convenience. We look at how it might be done.

Working for free? Tips for reducing non-billable hours

  • July 26, 2017
  • James Careless

When you’re paying yourself, it’s easy to feel like any time of the working day not spent actively making money is time spent robbing your own wallet. That can be good motivation but also a vicious cycle, if start trying to save billable hours by cutting non-paying activities you actually need to do. We have some tips for finding balance.

How to deal with practice disruptions

  • July 26, 2017
  • Ann Macaulay

When you’re running your own law firm, you have to plan for both the known knowns and the unknown unknowns. That is, it pays to have a plan in place for both the practice disruptions you can see coming – pregnancy, vacation – and those you can’t.

Growing your niche practice

  • March 29, 2017
  • Julie Sobowale

Can you have a niche practice in a small market? Elizabeth Wozniak, an immigration lawyer in Nova Scotia, says yes you can. Find what you love, build your expertise, do your due diligence – and don’t listen to the people who tell you that you can’t.

Searching smarter: How to get around Google

  • November 16, 2016
  • Kirsten J. Smith

You type a few words into a Google search bar and within seconds you have more results than you could make it through in a day. Easy-peasy, right? Well, yes, except for that needle in a haystack thing. As always, the experts have tips for focusing your search that can save you some time – and a hundred thousand or so result pages. Professional research Kirsten Smith shares some of the secrets of the pros.

Tips for dealing with self-represented litigants

  • November 16, 2016
  • Carolynne Burkholder- James

Just as there are a number of reasons for people to appear in court without legal representation, there are a number of ways to deal with the self-represented litigant to protect your client’s interests – and your own. Carolynne Burkholder-James has more.

Doing smarter research

  • July 29, 2016
  • Kirsten J. Smith

After years of law school you can probably research cases and dig into legal databases like a pro. But how do you do on the more general kind of background research you often need for cases? Do you know how to gauge the accuracy of a Wikipedia entry? Kirsten J. Smith offers up some tips for doing smarter research.

Small business fundamentals for lawyers: What you need to know

  • July 29, 2016
  • James Careless

When stripped away to the bare business essentials, law firms are surprisingly like the corner store: they have to at least try to give clients what they want at a decent price, or those clients will go elsewhere. The problem is that most people don’t go into law because they have great business sense. James Careless reviews some fundamentals of business for lawyers.

Stand and deliver: Communicating with confidence

  • March 17, 2016

Lawyers from small firms and sole practitioners aren’t likely to ever have to face arenas full of adoring fans, but their need to always be on the lookout for, and make their firms attractive to, new clients means there’s no time to be a shrinking violet.