..........A NEW SCHOOL FOR PRACTICING ATTORNEYS -SOLO PRACTICE UNIVERSITY
........law practice for practicing lawyers
....... A unique new place for lawyers, built by lawyers
While I am sure many of you are saying to yourselves right about now, " What? More School? Is this Lady Crazy? Who wants more school? Not a lawyer, right. Certainly not a recent law school grad who has just endured the grueling , & physical & emotional draining of the Bar Examination"
Think about it, think back to Law School. Unless it has changed considerably since I was in school, Law school teaches old case law, logic,& how to one day hopefully solve legal problems. In a nut Shell Law School is designed to reprogram you. Reprogram how we think & how we write.
How many of you had a professor in law school who said this: "I want you to forget everything you have learned up till now about how you learn and I want you to completely forget how you were taught to write?"
You know the Prof., the one who said that , did so just after he said " LOOK TO YOUR LEFT, NOW LOOK TO YOUR RIGHT. GOOD, GET A GOOD LOOK, BECAUSE CHANCES ARE YOU WILL NEVER SEE THESE PEOPLE AGAIN, NOT AFTER THE FIRST SEMESTER, BECAUSE TWO OF YOU WILL NOT BE HERE." And we all knew what he meant. Two out of every three were expected to flunk out, not make the cut. I am sure this was designed to scare the hell out of us. Me, I was already scared to death.
I was the very first Sacrifice in Prof. Rooney's Property class, meaning that on the very first day of class, I was the lucky chic called upon by the Prof. Those of you who attended a law school that used the Socratic method of teaching can surely understand the humility I was put through for over 25 minutes as I stood in the class and answered questions about some Year 1800 case; the facts, the issue, the courts holding. Did I agree with it? If I did then you could bet the teacher did not and vice verse. No canned briefs of caw notes allowed in this class.
Professor Rooney was very bright. He never missed a chance to remind us the he graduated number 2 from his Harvard Law School class; Ralph Nader was number one.
Here I am some 25 years later. I can still spit off the definition of the "Rule against perpetuates" I still cannot tell you what that definition means. I can however tell you this:
There was not one single class in law school that taught us how to actually be a lawyer, certainly not a trial lawyer; not how to go out and get clients or how to keep them happy. In a nut shell again, Law School does not teach us how to be a good lawyer. Our skills and technique are unique to each of us and they are developed over years of practice, yes that is right, PRACTICE. PRACTICING LAW.
You cannot learn it from a lecture. You have to learn it from hands on experience. It is trial and error and the more you do something, anything, the better you get at it.
The one thing I did not have when I first started practicing law, but that we all have the opportunity to take advantage of now is the benefit and wisdom of some of the very best, the elite , the creme de la creme, the instructors at the newly launched Solo Practice University. SPU does not just benefit new law school graduates; it offers a wealth of experience and knowledge to those of us who have left the comfort of the corporate world, of the mega Law Firms, of the Government guaranteed pay Check, to do what many of us have only dreamed of- to open our own firm, to hang our shingle, to work for ourselves, to FLY SOLO.
A NEW SCHOOL FOR PRACTICING ATTORNEYS
SOLO PRACTICE UNIVERSITY OR JUST PLAIN SPU. YEP, I GO TO SPU AND I LOVE IT.
I have been following Consultant, Susan Cartier Liebel on line for as long as I have been following Blogs.. Admittedly I am a late bloomer when it comes to Legal Blogging or "Blawging", but once I started, it did not take long for me to catch the BIOG FEVER. I owe this to Susan. Her excellent Blog "BUlLD A SOLO PRACTICE was (is) my inspiration. It was (is) also the very first place on the Internet that I turn to for help, advice, information, ideas, suggestions, and links to other great Blogs now that I have my own wings; now that I left my cushy paycheck job to Hang my Shingle and Fly Solo.
Thanks to Susan and now to SPU I am soaring my wings and enjoying my flight~~~~which is after all, what it is all about.
My all time favorite legal blog and probably what keeps me tap tap tapping away on the computer board and chip, chip, chipping away at my private practice belongs to Susan Liebel Cartier, She kept me inspired as I learned (still learning) to blog and as I quenched my endless thirst for knowledge.
I am pleased to announce that my long (but well worth it) wait for Susan Cartier's launching of the web based educational community and networking community forum for lawyers and law students is well under way and it is a big hit.
Susan Cartier Liebel founder of Solo Practice University has launched us into the future of legal practice. SPU is the new highway for the practice of law for solo practitioners. So if life is a highway and SPU is the new highway: Get your motor running, get out on the highway....
I have enrolled as a student and I could not be more pleased or impressed with the on line program, the faculty, the available courses and the community groups.
Susan and co-founder Dave Carson said it best " This is a unique community for lawyers built by lawyers, because well, we kinda 'get' solo lawyers"
To read more about Susan or to get hooked on her informative and interesting blog, please visit her @ http://www.buildasolopractice.soloparacticeuniversity.com
There are far too many excellent and reputable staff members for me to name them all in this post. I do however, feel compelled to mention a couple of the elite. I am sure I will have more to add and comment on once I get busy with my courses and get to know my instructors.
Another author of one of my favorite blogs, Arnie Hertz, author of "Legal Sanity" has joined SPU faculty and is teaching a course called "Legal Sanity Career Strategies: Work Smart Live Free"
To read more about Arnie Hertz or to just join is the heated debate on whether a solo should find a niche and stick to or spread their wings thin and practice the kitchen sink approach to law, you will find his blog interesting and a pleasure to read. Please visit http://www.legalsanity.com
And another notable author, Jay Foonberg, author of the Best Seller, " How to Start and build a Law Practice" THE BOOK as many of us solos refer to it, and often referred to as the 'Bible for new solos" has joined the SPU faculty. He is teaching more than one course so I will just comment on the course I am currently enrolled in. Let me just add that I live by this mans books. I am never without my torn, worn, written it, highlighted book "how to start and build a law practice. If you do not already own this book and you want to succeed in your own law practice, go to www.foonberglaw.comor you can make your puchase from the American Bar Association, where members get quite a big discount at www.abanet.orgwherever you go, just go and buy a new copy of this book. It is worth the extra few bucks to purchase it new. You will want to earmark your own spots and you will need all the white space to take your own notes, It is well worth the cost and it is a resourse book that you will actually use and use ona regular if not daily basis.
Foonberg is teaching as his first course "Client Relations 101: teaching lawyers how to improve client relations" This course is based on his "Nine Steps to a Successful Law Practice" Now, who among us cannot use a course or a refresher course in client relations? Think about it? first of all what is the number one reason clients make complaints about theirr attorneys the the disciplinary committee? Yes, You guessed it. Lawyers not having enough contact with theirr clients or the contact not providing the clients with sufficient information about the status of ther case. Of course none of us want t be reported to the bar, but that is putting the cart before the horse. Before we can have a client Rupert us, we have to know how to go out there and get clients. Without clients, we do not have a law practice. This Course will not only help layers learn how to get clients, but how to make them happy, keep them coming back and better yet, get our clients to refer us more clients. Of course while learning how to keep our clients happy we will simultaneously be covering our behinds and avoiding those dreaded bar complaints.
For more information about Jay Foonberg or to order one of his many best selling books, or to order the books he has available at the American Bars association, please visit Jay's website.
www.foonberglaw.com
Find out for yourself what SPU is all about, what all the hoop-lah is. Read what students have to say: Like, Glenn a current student writes
"You have injected new enthusiasm into my veins" I love that one. Glenn would do well writing novels, he certainly has a way with words that grab us and hook us from the start.
"...SPU is like a Giant Candy Store..." ~~Karen Holmes
I could go on & on, but this is one place you have to visit and witness for yourself; to appreciate all that it has to offer.
The originality alone is remarkable and there is nothing else like this.
LAW PRACTICE FOR PRACTICING LAWYERS...WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT
THE JURY IS BACK, THE VERDICT IS IN, IT I UNANIMOUS: SOLO PRACTICE UNIVERSITY IS A HIT AND WITH THE TOPNOTCH FACULTY AND THE COMMUNITY GROUPS, I BELIEVE IT IS THE REAL DEAL AND THIS LAW SCHOOL IS HERE TO STAY.
SUSAN CARTIER LIEBEL & DAVE CARSON HAVE PROVEN BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT THAT LAWYERS ARE NOT ALL SHARKS AND A GREAT NUMBER OF US WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HELPING CLIENTS AND DOING IT WELL AND A GREAT NUMBER OF EXPERIENCED AND SEASONED LAWYERS HAVE VOLUNTEERED A VAST MAJORITY OF THEIR TIME TO MAKE THE TRANSITION TO SOLO PRACTICE SMOOTH FOR THE LAWYERS AND BENEFICIAL FOR THE CLIENTS.
I do believe SPU, just may be the answer to save us from the tiresome, overused and worn out lawyer jokes. So those of you who just have to poke fun at professionals, it is time to start refreshing your memory with your used car salesmen jokes. Our profession, our noble profession just moved up several notches. We are a people serving group, a problem solving group. And as you can see we have pulled together for the greater good of the the lawyers and the public.
I am delighted to be on my own in private practice. I began my solo practice just two years ago. I can only imagine the heights to which i will fly with he help of SPU. If only they had been around when i first hung my shingle, i would probably be soaring so high I would be with the eagles, or as my darling paralegal loves to refer to herself and our law firm, the legal beagleand the paralegal-eagles.
I am flying solo and i could not be more content. I am now in the unique position of offering my clients all of the outside and above the call of duty help and counseling that they want, need and deserve. Something I was always prevented from doing when I worked for big conglomerates. the big guys never had time for the people. When we as lawyers, get too big for our britches that we cannot spare extra time and go that one step further for a client, well, then, we kinda don 'get' what the practice of law is all about.
My new creed: Let me never forget that I took an oath to work in profession designed to serve the people and their needs. If I ever forget that and begin to act like a fat-cat big-shot attorney, someone e-mail me this post and knock my ass down a notch or two or more....
I do believe, however that as long as I stay connected to SPU, the values, moral, and ethics of the greatest lawyers around will forever remain with me and as a part of my soul.
Thank you Susan for the opportunity to fly solo and......to soar...... fly high.....
For more information on Solo Practice University, the faculty, the available courses, the mission, the purpose, the tuition, enrollment policy, take minute now, do not put it off until tomorrow and look into this true wave of our future,
Check out "LAW PRACTICE FOR PRACTICING LAWYERS'
go to www.solopracticeuniversity.comyou will not be disappointed, there truly is something available and helpful to all attorneys and staff.
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