Solo Practice University® » Scholarships

The Proud To Be Solo Grand Prize Winner Is….

Susan Cartier Liebel — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:00:11 +0000

Tracie C. Robinson of New York City!!

All faculty acknowledged the entrants in the Proud To Be Solo Scholarship Contest were incredible and every single one worthy. But when the final votes were tallied, Tracie brought home the most votes in a nail-biter finish.

Tracie C. Robinson is a May, 2008 graduate of George Washington University Law School who passed the July, 2008 New York bar exam. She then immediately began her 1 year clerkship in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Upon completion, she moved back to New York City to ‘pursue her dream of opening a solo practice.’

Why Solo?

There are two main reasons Tracie chose to go solo. The first is
she always wanted to be a lawyer and she always wanted to be an entrepreneur. She believes going solo is the best combination because it is one of the most rewarding.

“Being a lawyer is a noble profession. When you work for yourself (as a lawyer), there’s just no reward which can compare.”

The second reason solo practice is for her:

I’m impatient. I didn’t want to wait three years for someone to trust me enough to allow me to interact with my first client. I really just wanted to jump in…

Goals

Tracie’s goal is to establish herself as ‘the leading intellectual property litigator in New York City for copyright/trademark cases.’ As a dancer herself, and with connections to the performing artist community, she wants to be the ‘go to person’ for other performing artists who want to secure their intellectual property rights.

Give Back

A big part of Tracie’s mission is being an active part of the legal community, devoting a percentage of her practice to pro bono work and contributing to the community at large.

Steps Taken

Tracie already shares a small office in Tribeca with another solo, steps from several court houses with the Empire State Building shining in the distance.

She has already taken on several cases (both paid and unpaid) and is reading everything she can get her hands on to further her education. She wants to ensure she doesn’t make any ethical missteps. She is also a self-professed Continuing Legal Education junkie who can’t wait to have 24/7 access to Solo Practice University’s more than 400 classes.

Already showing her wisdom she laughs,

I’m Proud To Be Solo…. but not too proud to seek out all the help I can get!

Congratulations, Tracie! Welcome to Solo Practice University!

Click here to see the more than $12,000 she has won in cash, services and products to help her create and build her solo practice!

And if you would like to learn more about Solo Practice University, the #1 web-based educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students who go solo, check us out here.

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

‘Proud to Be Solo’ ~ All About Helping You

Susan Cartier Liebel — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:23:34 +0000

UPDATE: This contest is closed. Winner to be announced 5/11/10

UPDATE 3/16/10: Due to overwhelming demand, ‘Proud to Be Solo’ scholarship contest is now open to ALL lawyers who have passed the bar, are in good standing, and have a solo practice or verifiably are in the process of opening their solo practice.

It’s All About Helping You.

One year ago this week, Solo Practice University opened its doors, just for you.

You, who dreamed of opening your very own solo practice.

You, who knew that law school hadn’t given you the practical knowledge you needed on how to run a solo practice.

You, who refused to buy into the status quo, who shunned the notion that you should be working 80-hour weeks under someone else, for their benefit and profit.

You, who believed you could do better.

You, who needed just a little support to help you make your solo practice become reality.

You, who were probably told that you would have to work for someone else for years in order to gain this knowledge yourself – and even then, there were no guarantees. There was no support.

We decided you deserved that knowledge and support without having to sacrifice years of your life and your independence, and that’s why we structured Solo Practice University around those gaps in your education.

We’ve been amazed by the response Solo Practice University generated, both from its students and members of faculty. In the time leading up to our launch and in the year that followed, we’ve been graced with wisdom from countless lawyers and entrepreneurs willing to share their knowledge to provide you with what you need to build your own solo practice.

You came. You soaked up that knowledge. And bit by bit, you’re building those solo practices that everyone told you weren’t possible, were just dreams.

We’re honored you trusted us with this dream of yours. We’re thrilled that so many educators are here at Solo Practice University, willing to offer their support and their expertise.

And today, on our anniversary, we’d like to give something back.

Knocking Down the Biggest Hurdle to Your Solo Practice ~ Money

We know that one of the biggest challenges you face in opening your own solo practice is funding. Sometimes the gap between what you need and and what you can afford is wide and deep.

It’s enough to frustrate anyone trying to get a good practice up and running. It costs money to:

Take classes to get the practical knowledge law school doesn’t provide.
Get design, programming, copy, and hosting for a website.
Buy practice management software.
Buy books that go into depth on your greatest concerns for solo practice.
Hire consultants to help you through the rough patches
Learn to utilize social media
Create professional video
Get published
Outsource your administrative work so you can focus on bigger tasks
Take CLE classes

All of this on top of staggering educational loans is often enough to make even the most determined of you despair at ever seeing your dream of a solo practice realized.

We opened Solo Practice University one year ago to help you get past some of the biggest educational roadblocks to your solo practice.

Today, on our anniversary, we’re knocking down some of the other financial roadblocks as well.

‘Proud to be Solo’ Scholarship Contest

We’re giving away 18 prizes with a total combined value of approximately $12,000 to help eliminate some of the financial hurdles standing between you and your dream of your own solo practice.

The prizes include (almost) everything you could need including cash, a scholarship to Solo Practice University, CLIO practice management software, personal consulting with our founder Susan Cartier Liebel, a complete website/blog design package from Smart Marketing, professional copy from Men with Pens, a full year of unlimited online CLE from Lawline.com, membership to the SGC Legal PR Network, and so much more.

For a full list of prizes, check out the ‘Proud to Be Solo’ Scholarship Contest page.

The ‘Proud To Be Solo’ Scholarship Contest is open to any lawyer who passed the bar and who is in good standing. You must be a legal resident of the United States and either currently operate a solo practice or be verifiably in the process of opening one. For more particulars, check out the Rules and Regulations page.

Entries will be accepted from 12:01 a.m. EDT March 15th until midnight EDT on April 19, 2010.

Enter Now

Good luck to all of you. We’re proud to have been a part of helping you build thriving solo practices for the last year, and we hope to continue to give you the practical education, expertise you need – and extra boosts like our contest prizes – for many years to come.

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

100 Lifetime Scholarships Awarded To SPU Within Three Weeks!

Susan Cartier Liebel — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:40:21 +0000

This is SO exciting and immensely gratifying.

David and I wanted to start building the Solo Practice University™ community by awarding 100 free scholarships to current law students who have expressed a sincere interest in going solo. It was fairly easy to find them because Solo Practice University E-zine™ has more than 1000 active subscribers and over 200 of those subscribers identified themselves as students. By broadcasting our message through the e-zine to the ‘students’ it was easy to hand out a significant number of the scholarships.

Then we brought our offer to the 800 subscribers of the Solo Practice University™ blog because, again, you as a subscriber have expressed sincere enthusiasm for the mission of Solo Practice University™ . Finally, the offer was announced to my loyal Build A Solo Practice, LLC™ subscribers.

Within three weeks 100 Lifetime Scholarships to SPU have been awarded!

By providing these scholarships we are reinforcing that our mission at Solo Practice University™ is truly about helping those lawyers who want to succeed in creating and growing their own solo legal practice. By granting these scholarships we are helping the recipients overcome many of the traditional hurdles encountered by providing outstanding education, community and support.

The scholarships were handed out to students across all law school tiers, states and countries. The majority went to students currently enrolled in U.S. law schools. However, we have scholarship students in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Africa, China, India and Canada. Their stories are the same. There is no support in law school for those who wish to go solo and what we are providing is ‘sorely needed.’ And as many said, ‘Solo Practice University™ is filling a void’.

For those who have applied for scholarship, we will be notifying you shortly. Please make sure you put susan (at) solopracticeuniversity.com in your approved e-mail so you are sure to receive the good news as well as further instructions. And please make sure you sign up to receive the e-mail updates from Solo Practice University™ or subscribe to the RSS if you haven’t done so already.

We would also like to acknowledge those who just graduated and took the bar exam. We received your requests asking if you were eligible given you are caught in limbo between taking the bar and waiting on results. It was a tough decision but we had to draw the line at ‘currently in law school.’ Know that we are keeping you in mind when figuring out our program offerings. So stay tuned.

Again, thank you to all who applied. Your enthusiasm for what we are trying to create just makes us work that much harder to bring you an amazing experience

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

Current Law Students Eligible for Lifetime Scholarships at SPU

Susan Cartier Liebel — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:56:23 +0000

On August 20th we broadcast a special message to subscribers of our Solo Practice University™ E-zine who identified themselves as ‘students’:

Perks of Being A Law Student (And Subscribed To This E-zine)

There are some perks to being a law student!

When you subscribed to this e-zine, you identified your status as that of a ‘student’. And I am all about helping law students.

If you have been following our progress at Solo Practice University™ then you know we are building a revolutionary new web-based educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students.

Here comes the perk. We need you to help us private beta test the site. And as a thank you for helping us to private beta test the site, you will be able to enroll at Solo Practice University™ tuition-free….for as long as you remain a practicing lawyer.

We haven’t announced to the general public yet that Solo Practice University™ will be an extremely high value, low tuition membership site, but we’re pretty confident most readers have already figured this out

But that won’t be an issue for those who help us private beta test because they will be on ‘full’ scholarship for being the earliest adopters.

So, if you have a genuine interest in going solo, please send me a confidential e-mail at susan (at) solopracticeuniversity.com confirming:

your law school status;
your law school;
whether you remain sincerely interested in going solo;
why going solo is your chosen route for practicing your profession;
how you think Solo Practice University™ can help you achieve your goals;
your personal e-mail address AND your school e-mail address (both required).

We will make available 100 scholarships to current law students.
This means you will be starting your 1L, 2L or 3L (or 4L if you are part time) year at law school in September 2008.

If you know of others who may want to participate, please let them know this opportunity exists and to send me an e-mail at susan (at) solopracticeuniversity.com with the requested information.

We have 37 24 10 scholarships left (as of 12:00 p.m. 8/31)

If you a current law student, or someone you know is, and are sincerely interested in going solo and would benefit from a lifetime scholarship to Solo Practice University™, please send me an e-mail answering all the questions asked in the e-zine and listed above…. as soon as possible. We are limiting our lifetime scholarships to 100. The next round of private beta testing will begin shortly.

Yours truly,
Susan

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel