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.

And February was a fabulous month here at SPU and here are the classes that were taught – enjoy!

• Brian Herrington gave us Lesson Four, Putting It All Together, in Class Action Law.
• Beyond the Paralegal was the topic of Lesson 7 in Tina Hilton’s Class, A Solo’s Sidekick. Tina also had an intriguing post this month called An Alternative to Legal Ghostblogging?
• Gerry Oginski teaches about Google Caffeine-Why You Need To Know About It in his Creating Online Video class. Gerry also posted a class called The Power of Video this month.
• Gordon Firemark posted Lesson 9 in Entertainment Law. The class topic was Productivity, Time Management and Getting the Work Done.
• “What Value Does Your Brand Have?” is the question posed by James Chartrand in the most recent Pen and Perception session.
• In the Prosecuting and Defending (and avoiding) Legal Malpractice Claims classroom, Brooks Schuelke shared about Legal Malpractice Prevention: Checklists. There is also a follow up post for this class – don’t miss it!
• The very first lesson has been posted in Fixing Your Fees, Fixing Your Practice by Jay Shepherd. Jay shares some great background about his life as a lawyer and also what he hopes his class will provide for SPU students and those who want to improve their practice.
• Over at LawBiz Management Ed Poll posted a couple of great classes, focusing on Reviewing Your Operation and Practice Development.
• In the Marketing for Lawyers classroom Mark Merenda gives us Lesson 11, on the topic of Hiring.
• Adam Gee has posted Class 3, The Pre-Suit Negotiation for Motorcycle Cases, in Motorcycle Injury Law.
• The most recent class in Virtual Law Practice, from Stephanie Kimbro, discusses Insurance Coverage for the Virtual Law Office.
• Jonathan Ginsberg has posted Session 5 in his Creating A Social Security Disability Practice classroom, and he discusses Understanding How SSA Processes a Case.
• Over at Essentials of Family Law, John Harding has posted Class Eleven: Software, Hardware, and Other Fun Stuff.
• Craig Niedenthal has shared Class 11, Products Liability Litigation: Discovery, in the Introduction to Products Liability Litigation classroom.
• Lesson 6 of Introduction to Special Education Law by Jennifer Laviano addresses Discipline, Manifestation Determinations and “stay put”
• In Legal Blogging James Chartrand teaches about Finding Blog Post Ideas At the Perfect Time
• Paramjit Mahli has given us Lesson 6,  Measuring Return On Investment (ROI) in Public Relations, in her course Clash of The Titans – Lawyers and Journalists Can We Get Along?
• Negotiation Tips is the topic of Lesson 9 at James Reed’s Injury Law 101 course.
• In Class Eight of Productivity Bootcamp, Bill Jawitz discusses Knowing and Growing Yourself.

There were also numerous great discussions in the over 100 groups at SPU including great conversation on Legal Diversity issues, niche law practice, and more. We also introduced our newest group ‘Chat With A Reporter’ led by free-lance legal and financial reporter, Deb Cohen.

There is much going on at SPU.  Come on in and check it out!

Toby will teach about social media and networking for businesses at Solo Practice University™ in a series of Guest Lectures starting March 9th.

Toby Bloomberg is passionate about helping people (not companies) create initiatives that leverage the power of social media communications to build and nurture “digital corner grocery store relationships.” From 2004, when she chaired AMA’s first Hot Topic on social media/blogs, Toby has been speaking, teaching and consulting on the topic at conferences for organizations such as BlogHer, PRSA, BlogWorldExpo, M/A/R/C, Chick-Fil-A, CDC, Cox Communications, American Marketing Association and Purina .. and now Solo Practice University.

Her blog Diva Marketing was acknowledged by Forbes as one of the 20 Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs By Women and recently voted one of the 10 Best Social Media Blogs by the Social Media Examiner.

Toby is an acknowledged leader in the social media marketing industry and has been profiled in several books on the subject including Naked Conversations, Now Is Gone, Twitterville and The Digital Handshake. She has been quoted in BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, MSNBC, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Her media credits include articles about marketing and social media published in Marketing News, Portland Business Journal, Impact (India publication), L’actualite Alimentaire (Canada publication), WEMagazine, RevenueToday and Atlanta Business-to-Business. She has been quoted about social media marketing in various publications including INC magazine, BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Entrepreneur.com, MSNBC and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

She serves on the boards of the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, the social media communities Savvy Auntie, Field Trips With Sue and Divine Caroline; as well as the non-profit organization Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia.

She was an adjunct professor at Goizueta School of Business at Emory University where she taught an innovative course on management consulting.. She holds a degree from Emerson College and has performed post-baccalaureate studies in marketing and management at Emory University.

She is a Yankee from Boston living in the South with her YouTube “rock star” Westie pup Max, who occasionally finds his way into Diva Marketing.

Syllabus – Building Client Relationships With Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing : not so new

• Corner grocery store relationships
• The Godfather was wrong .. business is personal
• It’s not about technology .. it’s about the people
• Technology is just a vehicle that helps build bridges across geography, time and culture
• Helps you tell the stories of your brand/company

Social media is built on a culture

• Social media was never meant for business
• Only marketing strategy where culture MUST be taken into consideration before strategy is built
  • Understand the culture of the ‘villages’ you visit
• Honesty, transparency, authenticity, passion
  • How do you define transparency? Is it different for each social media platform? Is total transparency the cost of entrée for lawyers?
  • Can you be authentic while being a steward of the brand?
  • Can there be shades of gray with transparency and authenticity?
  • Does it fall into an “ethics” conversation?

Why social media is the new darling of (some) marketers

• Finding & Deciding
  • Internet changed how people find information
  • Social media added people’s opinions
  • Even if you choose not to play your clients or prospective clients might be …

A New Value Proposition

• Marketing with the 4 Ps
• Client centered marketing with SILVA
  • Better fit for services
  • Takes advantage of new ways of communication
  • Takes into consideration building partnerships and relationships
    • Product – Solution
    • Promotion – Information
    • Price – Value
    • Place – Access

The Gorilla in the room ..or why firms are fearful

• Lack of internal resources/time
• Lack of knowledge/expertise
• Not convinced about the value/ROI
• Lack of clear guidelines/policies
• Lack of awareness of social media within company
• Lack of budget
• Social media not appropriate for company/brand
• Fear negative reaction from customers/clients
• Lack of global reach/scale
• Lack of appropriate agency partner
• Not wanting to hear answers to the questions you never asked

The Secret of Building a Social Media Strategy

• There is no secret.
• Traditional marketing still applies
  • Identify a niche – social media and niche marketing go together like PB & J
  • Understand and identify : who (they are) what (they do online) where (they hang out) how (they want to interact with you)
  • Determine objective and set goals

I finally figured out my problem: I was trying too hard to develop a social networking strategy instead of incorporating social networking into my marketing strategy.

~Brendan Hurley Goodwill of Greater Washington

Tactics

• Listening – to the raw unfiltered voices of your clients
  • Tsunami of data point .. can be overwhelming
  • Part of an integrated customer insights/research strategy
  • Determine What to listen for
  • Determine Who to listen
    • How will you define influencers
• Participating
  • How will you engage?
  • With whom?
  • Guidelines
  • How can you be a brand steward and still be authentic
• Tools
  • Critical to understand the benefits, limitations and risks
  • Top B-2-B Social Media
    • Blogs
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Communities – industry/niche specific
  • How to build digital relationships
  • Blogger relations – would it work for an attorney?

Return on Social Capital

• ROI – Success Measures
  • New value proposition. Only your company can determine
    • What is the value of the perceived “halo” effect about your company/brand from the “influencer?”
    • What is the value of longevity of social media in any type of medium (text, audio, video)?
    • What is the value of the community that the “influencer” brings to you through links and extended commentary?
  • What do you measure?
  • How do you measure it?
  • Leaning counts

• Gordon Firemark presented “Managing the Client Relationship”  – another jampacked Entertainment Law Class.
• “Part 2 of Filing the Complaint” (Class 10) was posted in Craig Niedenthal’s class – Introduction to Products Liability Litigation.
• James Chartrand gave us “How to Write a Powerful Home Page for Your Website”, “Is Your Website Copy Comforting?” and “What Do Your Potential Clients Remember About You?” in the  Pen and Perception classroom.
• John Harding’s Essentials of Family Law class educated students with “Information on Using Experts”
• Class 2 of Motorcycle Law was posted by Adam Gee: “Investigating Motorcycle Collisions”
• A good question is posed by Stephanie Kimbro in her most recent post at Virtual Law Practice: “The Competency Factor – Is Online Enough”?
• Chris Hill shares “A Bit More Marketing” in his popular ” Construction Practice 101″
• Lesson 5 of Special Education Law, entitled “LRE: The Least Restrictive Environment Provision of the IDEA” is up thanks to Jennifer Laviano
• Gerry Oginski has shared multiple interesting topics in the “Creating Online Video for Attorneys” classroom, including “What Lighting Equipment Do I Use?”, “Video Content-What To Talk About” and “AMBIENT SOUND-Listen In”
• Mark Merenda wants you to “Network Like The Godfather’ in Lesson 10 of Marketing for Lawyers
• In the LawBiz Management classroom you can watch Ed Poll’s three newest classes called “Cellphones”, “The Business Model”, or “Client Security Fund”. You can also listen in to the recorded live coaching call in “Coach’s Corner”  with Karen Holman. Ed coaches a new student on Law Practice Management issues every month.
• At Legal Blogging, James Chartrand discussed “How to Deal with Negative Blog Comments”
• Part three of Lesson Three of “Nonprofits and the Law” by Sonia Jarvis is up and she teaches you  “Strategies for Developing Clients”
• Bill Jawitz posted class seven in his Productivity Bootcamp: “Setting and Managing Expectations”
• A “Recap of How to Be a Buyers Attorney and Sellers Attorney” is up at The Basics of a Real Estate Transaction class courtesy of the always hard working Stefanie Devery
• Ron Baker hosted his third live teleseminar on “Value Pricing”  on Monday, January 18th, and the recording is now available at The Solo Practice of the Future classroom.
• The very first lesson 1, “Business Formats” has been posted by Trippe Fried in the Business Law classroom.
• Theresa Erickson taught a class on “Step-Parent Adoptions” in Creating a Niche Practice in Reproductive Law
• Over at Creating A Social Security Disability Practice, Jonathan Ginsberg held Session 10: “What to Expect at Your First Social Security Disability Hearing”
• Jay Fleischman put up Lesson 15, “Redemption” in the Consumer Bankruptcy Law course
• DUI Trials is Lesson 7 from Trial Techniques faculty Greg Yaghmai

As always, upon enrollment you have immediate access to all previous classes 24/7.  Not a student? Enroll now.

With more than 550 members in our community (and growing), Solo Practice University™ is the #1 web-based educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students who are

Proud To Be Solo.

A well respected lawyer in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Keith Anderson fell into an 11 year pattern of tears, insomnia, and self withdrawal after the death of his father in 1992. Keith suffered a breakdown and was diagnosed with depression in 2003. Confined to his bed for three months, Keith rarely left the house for another two years. Through the support of the Nova Scotia Law Society and his family, he began his journey of recovery during 3 ½ years of therapy. Today, Keith is a champion for mental health, sharing his story in various print and online publications for the legal profession and as a guest speaker at mental health conferences.  This is a story of hope.

Talking Points

• A Healthy Mind, A Healthy Practice
• Life in a Small Firm
• Depression comes to Town
• What is Depression
• Lawyers and Depression
• Lawyers’ Assistance Programs
• Staying Healthy

This guest lecture teleseminar is open to our students within Solo Practice University and will be posted for our fans on Facebook shortly after the live seminar. It’s free.  (Make sure you are logged in or set up a Facebook account.)

If you wish to speak with Keith, he will gladly talk to you and has generously provided his e-mail to be contacted.  You can reach him at: kna1960 (at) eastlink (dot) ca

Jack Newton is Co-founder and President of Clio, a leading provider of web-based practice management software. Jack holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Alberta, and has over 10 years of experience building start-ups and web applications. Jack holds three software-related patents in the United States and EU. He has also spoken at CLE seminars on how practice management systems can be used to help a lawyer practice ethically and competently. Jack has also written and spoken on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in general, and specifically on the ethics, privacy, and security issues relating to the use of SaaS in the legal market.

Teleseminar Topics

• What is cloud computing / Software-as-a-Service?
• What does cloud computing mean for lawyers?
• What are some of the benefits (and some of the disadvantages) of “the cloud”?
• What are the ethical implications of using Software-as-a-Service? Is it OK with my Bar?
• What questions about security and privacy should you be asking a prospective SaaS provider?
• How should you evaluate the costs of SaaS versus traditional desktop software?
• How can you protect yourself against worst-case scenarios?

This guest lecture teleseminar is open to our students within Solo Practice University and will be posted for our fans on Facebook shortly after the live seminar. It’s free.  (Make sure you are logged in or set up a Facebook account.)

Jay Shepherd runs Shepherd Law Group, the Boston employer law firm that completely replaced the billable hour with fixed pricing. He will teach a course called “Fixing Your Fees, Fixing Your Practice” at Solo Practice University™.

Jay has been protecting employers in and out of court for 16 years, and he’s defeated some of the largest law firms in the country. He’s nationally known for his expertise in noncompete lawsuits and related business-employment litigation. Jay has defended employers large and small in discrimination cases in state and federal courts. He has taught seminars to thousands of employees, managers, and other lawyers on employment-law topics from sexual harassment to wage litigation. Law & Politics magazine has called him one of the “Top 100 lawyers in New England.”

Jay writes two award-winning blogs. The Client Revolution, which the ABA Journal named to its “Blawg 100” list of the one hundred best law bogs, is dedicated to killing the billable the hour and bringing value to the practice of law. His employer blog, Gruntled Employees, focuses on teaching employers how to have easier workplaces. Human Resource Executive magazine named it “Best HR Law Site.”

Jay graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Boston College Law School. He’s admitted in Massachusetts and in the federal courts including the U.S. Supreme Court. He currently serves as the management-side chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section.

Jay’s married to an employment lawyer at another Boston firm and has two young daughters (who are not employment lawyers). Jay’s written a 700-page draft of a legal thriller, which someday he may have time to finish editing. You know, in his spare time.

Syllabus

Course objective

To show solo and small-firm lawyers how they can improve their practices by trashing the billable hour and learning how to properly price their services, giving them an advantage over their competitors and allowing them to dramatically increase the value of the services they provide to their clients.

Who should attend

Any lawyer who is interested in abandoning the billable hour but doesn’t know how to actually go about doing it. This course is for lawyers who want real-world-tested nuts-and-bolts knowledge rather than fancy theory and lip service. While employment lawyers will find it most useful, since many of the examples come from Jay’s employment-litigation practice, almost any solo or small-firm lawyer will take away lessons that he or she can apply to any kind of practice.

Course outline

• Why hourly billing is bad for your clients … and for you
• Understanding value, costs, profit, and price
• Why I hate the term “alternative billing”
• Exposing the impostors — the false alternatives
• Why you need to have a zero-tolerance policy for timesheets
• How to set your prices
• Whether to look at old bills
• Why you shouldn’t reverse engineer hourly rates
• About menus and commodity pricing
• Figuring out what the market will bear, and where your place in the market lies
• Why it helps to have a pricing committee
• Drawing up the fixed-price agreement
• Avoiding scope creep
• Handling change orders, and when not to use them
• Shifting risk away from the client
• When to set the price
• Pricing mistakes: how to fix some, and how to live with others
• Ethical issues
• How to price employment litgation
• How to price transactional work
• How to price advice work
• What about fixed prices outside of employment law?

Trippe S. Fried is the CEO and General Counsel of In House Legal in Nashville, Tennessee. He will teach a course about business law at Solo Practice University™.

Trippe S. Fried is the CEO and General Counsel of InHouse Legal, a Nashville-based practice that provides general and corporate counsel services to businesses of all kinds throughout the United States. He graduated with a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University in 1993 and a J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1996. Trippe had a general practice in Nashville from 1996 until 2006, when he started In House Legal.

Representative clients come from myriad industries including finance, health care, entertainment, human resources, and technology. They range in size from sole proprietorship to international, publicly-traded corporations. IHL is working to open its Washington, D.C. office in 2010.
Trippe has been published in several law reviews including Transactions and the DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal. He also hosted his own radio show on issues of interest to small business owners.

When he isn’t working, Trippe can be found at home with his wife, Sara, and 14-month old son, or, from time to time, on the basketball court, re-living his glory years when he played NBA basketball (that’s Nashville Bar Association, of course).

Trippe maintains a blog here.

Syllabus – Business Law

1. Entity Selection
   • Why create an entity?
     • Tax issues
     • Limited liability issues
     • Avoid unseen partnership liabilities
   • Which entity to select?
     • S-corp vs. LLC
     • C-corp – not always disadvantageous from a tax perspective
     • General Partnerships – best avoided
2. Entity Types
   • Corporations
     • S corporations
     • C corporations
     • Closely held corporations (e.g. under Maryland law)
     • Professional corporations
   • Partnerships
     • General Partnerships
     • Limited Partnerships
     • Limited Liability Partnerships
   • Limited Liability Companies
   • Sole Proprietorships
3. Entity Creation
   • Initiating documents
     • Articles of Organization
     • Charter
   • Management documents
     • Bylaws
     • Operating Agreement
     • Statutory defaults
   • Tax documents
     • EIN
     • IRS 2553
     • Other IRS forms
   • Other important documents
     • Organizational meeting minutes
     • Incorporator’s resignation
     • Stock certificates/indicia of ownership
     • Buy/Sell Agreements
     • Miscellaneous
4. Corporate Governance
   • Ownerships
     • Corporate shareholders
     • Partners
       • General
       • Limited
     • LLC members
   • First tier governance
     • Directors
     • General Partners
     • Managers/Directors/Governors/Members(LLC)
   • Second tier governance
     • Officers
     • Managers
   • Incorporator/Promoter liability
5. Corporate Finance
   • Bank Financing
   • Government Financing
   • Small Business Financing
   • Minority Owner Business Financing
6. Securities Basics
   • Registration requirements
   • 1933 & 1934 Securities Acts – prohibitions on sale
   • Stock legends
   • Blue sky laws
7. Multijurisdictional Operations
   • Risks for attorneys associated with MJP
   • Foreign corporate registration
   • Personal jurisdiction issues
   • Forum selection clauses
   • Risk assessment and management for businesses
8. Intellectual Property
   • Trade secrets
   • Confidentiality and non-competition provisions
   • Copyrights
   • Trademarks
   • Patents
9. Employment
   • At will employment – public policy limits on termination for cause
   • Federal civil rights law – Title VII
   • State human rights laws – counterpart to Title VII
   • OSHA and state counterparts
   • FLSA and state counterparts
   • Worker’s compensation
   • RIF legislation
   • Whistleblower protections – federal and state
   • Employment contracts
10. Dissolution & Termination
    • Winding up
      • State filing requirements
      • Tax issues
      • Choice – continue business or terminate
      • Allocation of losses and profits
      • Allocation of corporate property
    • Termination
      • State filing requirements
11. Bankruptcy
    • Filing options
      • Chapter 7
      • Chapter 11
      • Chapter 13
    • Chapter 7
      • Liquidation proceeding
      • When is Chapter 7 preferred?
      • Overview of the filing process and procedures
    • Chapter 11
      • Reorganization proceeding
      • When is Chapter 11 preferred
      • Overview of the filing process and procedures

He’s also a Senior Consultant with Stem Legal and principal of its Media Strategy consulting service. Finally, he’s also an award-winning blogger who chronicles the extraordinary changes underway in the practice of law at Law21: Dispatches from a Legal Profession on the Brink.

After graduating from Queen’s University Faculty of Law in 1993, Jordan articled with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in 1994 before beginning a career in legal journalism. He spent more than a dozen years leading three top Canadian legal periodicals: he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Bar Association’s flagship magazine National for a full decade (1999-2009), during which time it earned eight awards for journalistic excellence. He also founded and served as Executive Editor of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s CCCA Magazine (2007-2009), and he held the position of Managing Editor with The Lawyers Weekly newspaper (1997-1998).

Jordan is an Honorary Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, he served as editor of its 2006 Innovaction e-zine on innovation in law practice, and he currently chairs the College’s InnovAction Awards, which recognize and reward creativity and innovation in legal services delivery. He’s also a regular columnist with Slaw, writing on the future of law practice. He has spoken about the challenges facing the legal profession at numerous conferences, and his written work has been published in a wide variety of periodicals aimed at both lawyers and clients. You can find him on LinkedIn and Twitter, and he lives in Ottawa, Canada, with his wife and two children.

Teleseminar Topics

1. Why the billable hour’s not dead — just irrelevant.
2. Why process and systematization will change how legal work is done.
3. Why ‘access to justice’ no longer has to mean ‘access to a lawyer’. Will we see the demise of “Unauthorized Practice of Law” restrictions?
4. How and why client collaboration will impact your practice.
5. Are we finally ready for preventive lawyering, becoming full time holistic legal health professionals?
6. How will the introduction of Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia and China (BRIIC) into the global legal marketplace effect you and your practice?
7. Why solos and small firms are the long-term future of the practice of law.
8. Why law schools won’t change, but legal education will.

If you are not currently enrolled at Solo Practice University but would like to have access to this special lecture, log in to  Facebook (or create an account) and become a fan here

Deborah L. Cohen has worked as a business journalist since receiving a Masters from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1996. She will teach you how to work with a reporter from the reporter’s perspective.

In a live teleseminar,  December 15th, 12:00 noon EST/9:00 am PST, Deborah will discuss how to work with a reporter from the reporter’s perspective. This is an excellent complement to Paramjit Mahli’s Clash of the Titans class taught at Solo Practice University

Before choosing to become an independent writer in 2007, she most recently worked as an editor on the national business desk at Reuters in Chicago, where she focused on stories about the automotive, health-care and manufacturing industries. As a fast rewrite editor with a sharp eye for detail, Deborah helped to shape breaking news and features that were read by media and financial clients around the world. When former Canadian publishing mogul Conrad Black was on trial for fraud, seniors editors depended on her to coordinate the coverage from the federal court.

In her prior posts as a correspondent for Reuters, Crain’s Chicago Business and Bloomberg News, she covered a wide range of financial news, delivering everything from breaking stories on corporate earnings and product recalls to trend stories, features and profiles of corporations and their top management.

Her stories about McDonald’s, Cisco Systems and other large public companies appeared regularly in major U.S. and international newspapers.

Her coverage of restaurant and food companies frequently overlapped into the areas of general interest and science, with extensive coverage about consumer health trends, the U.S. obesity crisis and mad cow disease.

A 2008 story Deborah wrote for Indianapolis Monthly about Indy’s penchant for chain dining recently won an SPJ award for best lifestyle feature in a magazine. The story was also a 2009 finalist for the National City & Regional Magazine Association awards. In 2003, she was also a finalist for the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism.

From 2005 through 2009, she served as an officer and board member of the Chicago Headline Club, the nation’s largest chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Deborah is well known in the legal community for her insightful articles on the legal profession and is a frequent contributor to the ABA Journal. You can read more about Deborah here.

Topics to be discussed:

1. Ways to Build Credibility and Get Exposure to Reporters

2. Importance of Building Trusting Relationships With Reporters -

Becoming  a Reliable Source

3. Speaking the Reporter’s Language – Terms You Must Be Familiar With

4. Prepping Before the Interview

5. The Actual Interview

If you are not quite ready to enroll at Solo Practice University, become a fan of Solo Practice University on Facebook. We will be posting this exclusive interview for our fans, also!  You can become a fan here.