Beginning today, Attorney at Work is introducing a monthly “practice tools” edition of our regular Friday Five—five great ways to use a new product (or five reasons you should or should not) … or five ways to squeeze more productivity out of familiar tools … you get the idea. Today, Ruth Carter—Arizona lawyer and our “Nothing But the Ruth” columnist—kicks it off with five neat ways to use Google+ Hangouts. …
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A busy travel schedule can be good for business development. Ruth Carter tells how she does it in today’s installment of  “Connect the Dots: A Lawyer’s Guide to Networking.”

Looking over my calendar from 2015, I noticed that I spent 28 days on the road speaking at conferences and doing The Undeniable Tour. My travels took me all over the West Coast and to Las Vegas, Cleveland, New York and even London. One benefit of traveling is I get to meet and see people in person who I’d otherwise get to connect with only online. READ THE REST … Read The Rest

Nothing But the Ruth! Every law firm has a trust account and an operating bank account and allows clients to pay with a check or cash. But in this day, many clients don’t have paper checks and most of my clients assume that credit card payments are the norm. They are confused that we don’t have a credit card machine at our front desk.

There are many options to consider when deciding if you’ll accept credit cards. I researched credit card payment options for lawyers in 2012. My awesome editors at Attorney at Work asked for an update. … Read The Rest

Recently the lawyers in my new firm decided to be more active on social media, particularly in blogging and on a Facebook page. The partners are looking to me for guidance on how to build their online presence, and I, in turn, am looking to them for guidance on what the firm’s persona is.

I know how we are when we interact within the four walls of our office — but what aspects of the firm do we want to highlight in our online presence? … READ THE REST … Read The Rest

As 2012 draws to a close, we’re celebrating Attorney at Work’s second year of delivering “one really good idea every day”—every working day, that is. To make sure you get your daily fix during the Christmas and New Year’s hiatus, we are bringing back some of our most popular posts. Today, we revisit Ruth Carter’s particularly timely post on working a crowd (or not).

I’ll admit it—networking is one of my least favorite parts of my job. I wish everyone just knew who I was, thought I was fabulous and that my phone was ringing off the hook with more business than I can handle. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. So every week I attend two to four networking meals and happy hours. Casual chit-chat with strangers over mini appetizers is not my idea of a fun evening. … READ MORE … Read The Rest

In a previous post, How Much Does It Cost to Start a New Solo Firm?, Ruth Carter, Carolyn Elefant, Stephanie Kimbro, Debbie Foster, Donna Seyle & Greg Siskind told us how much they think it would cost a new lawyer to start up a solo practice today … from scratch. Manhattan litigator John H. Snyder recently left large-firm practice to do just that—and he fields plenty of questions from peers on this particular topic. So we were particularly interested in what he advises … … Read The Rest

I shocked my contacts at the beginning of the year when I announced that I joined another law firm. (I know, I never thought it would happen either.) I am now of counsel at an IP boutique firm called Venjuris in Phoenix. I still have Carter Law Firm, though, for professional speaking and writing purposes.

Shifting from solo life to a multi-lawyer firm has been quite a change. … READ THE REST … Read The Rest

Ah, spring is in the air! The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping and I have just received annual invoices from the two business organizations to which I belong. Between the two, I just paid about $500 for the opportunity to list my firm as a member organization and attend their events to shake hands and exchange cards with strangers.

As a solo firm owner, about half of my job is networking. Like many lawyers, I’m constantly talking to people — in-person and virtually — in the hopes that I will be top-of-mind when they need legal advice. As I’ve said here before, networking is a process, not an event, and you have to keep showing up to build the relationships that will eventually turn into business.

To renew or not renew? … READ MORE
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Katy Goshtasbi provides an excellent yet simple definition of a personal brand: It’s what people say about you behind your back. Essentially, it’s your reputation.

As people have become more active on social media, though, the idea of a personal brand has expanded. Before social media, I suspect your reputation was largely based on what your professional peers thought of you in the workplace. Now, however, people share their activities and thoughts outside the workplace with pretty much everyone. This forces us to be more mindful about how our personal posts could affect our professional reputation.

Recently, a law school asked me to speak about how to build a personal brand. … READ MORE
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