Announcing Six Weeks ’til Solo Practice - Begins Nov. 18

What if you could get your law firm up in running in six weeks? Though perhaps not optimal, in this economy, you may not have a choice. Or perhaps you’ve been planning for months, but are suffering from “analysis paralysis” and need a good jump start to move forward.

If that’s the case, Six Weeks ’til Solo Practice is the course for you. In this fast paced, supercharged program, we’ll take you from paper to practice in six weeks, so that you can ring in the new year as a partner in your own law firm. Each week, we’ll cover some of the topics and tasks that you need to accomplish to get your firm off the ground - from evaluating a corporate structure, setting up trust accounts, setting up credit card payment (or determining if it’s ethical in your jurisdiction) to drafting a form retainer and office policies, setting fees, role playing your first client communications, picking practice areas, learning online marketing techniques on the cheap and much, much more.

Best of all, even though you’re starting a firm, you won’t be going it alone. Instead, you’ll be partnering with classmates on some assignments, trading and sharing information (through various collaborative tools) and form career-long bonds with other lawyers who are going through the same experience you are.

Here’s a view of the syllabus and tentative schedule:

Nov 18 - Week 1: Envisioning Your Practice - A discussion of why you want to go solo, overcoming fears and challenges. We’ll also begin to envision where you want your practice to go, what your mission statement is, and use this material to form a plan or course of action.

Nov 25 - Week 2: The Set Up Home Office, Virtual Office or Rental - finding space; evaluating existing technology and tech needs; phone service and voice mail options, Corporate Structure, Trust accounts, Credit Cards, malpractice insurance

Dec 2- Week 3: Retainer Letters and Office Policies, Fee Setting, Client Intake & Calls We’ll devise ways to make your intake process more efficient, while at the same time, help you weed out problem clients and guard yourself against non-payment.

Dec. 9 - Week 4: Practice Area Selection Investigation and Building Niche v. General Practice, FAQs, Domain Names and Trends/Market Analysis

Dec. 16 - Week 5: Marketing Madness ODevelop and implement a marketing strategy, overview of social networking, directories, blogging and concept of ROI.

Dec. 29 - Week 6: Wrap Up and Putting It Into Your PracticeOpen questions, role playing and quick cash ideas to get revenue rolling in.

Between classes, there’ll be homework assignments - in essence, you’ll be putting each week’s lessons into practice (I’ll try to provide enough flexibility for some to work ahead if a particular topic isn’t of any interest). You’ll also receive forms and templates each week to help the process along, and I’ll provide feedback on writtne material that I receive, and I’ll encourage students to work together to critique each others’ work. More information about the course will follow in a second post.

The fee for the court is $375 and a copy of my book, Solo by Choice is included. I realize that you have many options to choose from in getting your firm off the ground - this one is specifically for lawyers who are ready to hit the ground running now, and it’s taught by me, a practicing lawyer who lives the realities of running a firm each day, and who’s been tracking industry trends and writing about starting a firm for six years. In fact, I am so sure that this course will get you moving on the right road to starting your practice that I am willing to offer a full refund if you do not receive substantial value from the course.

You can register at this link. Please register now to receive updates on the class and allow me to gauge interest level. You will be invoiced for the course in early November. Important note: The course is contingent upon enrollment of at least 8 students, with a limit of a dozen (I may run a second course simultaneously depending upon demand). I will also be scheduling another course to begin in January 2009, after the new year. Please email me at carolyn.elefant@gmail.com with further questions.

Take action now so that come January 1, you’re captain of your own ship, instead of standing on shore, wishing that you’d made 2009 the year you started your law practice.

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