Faculty Announcement – Kimberly Alderman
Kimberly Alderman will be teaching Freelance Lawyering 101 at Solo Practice University®
Kimberly Alderman is an attorney and cultural property law scholar. She currently practices law in Taos, New Mexico, and is the author of the Cultural Property & Archaeology Law Blog. She is on the Board of Editors for the State Bar of New Mexico and the Steering Committee for the ABA's Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee. Kimberly has built up a freelance business that serves as a tidy supplement to other forms of income. Her freelance business has enabled her to move from St. Croix to Alaska to New Mexico, while maintaining professional continuity. It has also allowed her to focus on her niche of cultural property law in a way that working a traditional firm job would not have likely allowed.
Syllabus – Freelance Lawyering 101
How to Build and Run a Freelance Lawyering Business
This course is for lawyers who want to work for other lawyers on a temporary, freelance basis. The benefits of this kind of arrangement are numerous: you can keep a flexible schedule, you can run a business with little to no overhead, and you can take as little or as much work as you want. There is, however, a shroud of mystery around how freelance operations work. Freelance Lawyering provides practical advice on building and running a freelance lawyering business. Topics covered include rate-setting, billing methods, ethical considerations, client relations, overcoming stigmas, and keeping yourself marketable.
Taught in six 1-hour classes.
Class 1: Risks and Rewards
Objective: To give an accurate picture of freelance lawyering, and to allow potential freelancers to judge whether this is something they want to do before putting time and resources into trying.
Class 2: Getting Started
Objectives: To give course participants details on what tools are and are not essential to begin freelance lawyering, and to provide information and resources to enable participants to move forward in starting a freelance lawyering business.
Class 3: Services
Objectives: To give course participants information about what kinds of services they might wish to provide, to explain how the process can or should work, and to provide resources that enable them to provide services successfully.
Class 4: Finances & Billing
Objectives: To give course participants details on dealing with payment issues (billing systems, receiving payments, non-paying clients) and managing the finances of a freelance lawyering business.
Class 5: Legal & Ethical Concerns
Objectives: To address legal and ethical concerns in freelance lawyering and will give course participants a roadmap as to how to address these concerns.
Class 6: Getting and Keeping Attorney Clients
Objectives: To give course participants the requisite knowledge to market freelance services, manage an online presence, maximize client satisfaction, and maintain work/life balance.
About the Author
Solo Practice University® is now partnering with progressive law schools that realize a significant percentage of their students will practice as independent professionals and have made the commitment to help them achieve their goals.
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