Link: Build A Solo Practice, LLC: Free Blogs at Solo Practice University. Susan Cartier-Liebel is building a great resource for solo practitioners. Now, the University is giving away free blogs to registrants. If you don't already have a blog for your solo practice, check it out.
Link: Home Office Lawyer: A mobile lawyer is a paperless lawyer - Connected Lawyer. His love for Apple computers aside, occasionally Grant Griffiths says something interesting, and that I can agree with. This post is one of them. While I don't, as a solo, and a mobile lawyer, particularly need the site mentioned in the post, which scans paper mail and sends it electronically for a fee, I do use Efax extensively, which allows my secretary to scan mail and send it to me wherever I am. So I am a mobile, solo lawyer. How about you?
Link: Solosez.net - ABA's Solo Center.
Have you read all the books? Have you bought office furniture, installed a phone line, and subscribed to high speed Internet access? Are you sitting behind your desk, either at home or at an office outside the home, wondering what to do next? Solosez, and the ABA GP/Solo website are for you. Check out all the valuable resources provided; you CAN do it by yourself. Make the decision.
Link: Lawyers get firm boost on Web :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Brad Spirrison.
Solo and small firm lawyers don't spend a lot of money on advertising, and print advertising, of all kinds. is rapidly being supplanted by Internet ad buys. Web directories like FaceBook are more of a social phenomenon for now; however, this Chicago directory site may be the precursor for future lawyer advertising. While I believe in blogs and other free Internet resources are the best way for a solo to get out there, there is certainly a place for directory sites. The point here is that the Internet is the place to be.
Link: Build A Solo Practice, LLC: "Tip of the Week" - Update Your Contact List With One Click. Susan Cartier-Liebel just returned from the Solo Conference and highlights a little program that will make your solo life easier. GetAnagram mines contact information from electronic documents for easy entry into contact software. Thanks, Susan.
Link: Build A Solo Practice, LLC: Some Solos Gaining Global Exposure Through Second Life. Is Second Life a good place for a solo to get exposure? I have my doubts, some of which come from personal experience. I tried Second Life a year ago, and found it slow, difficult to navigate, and very difficult to build in. Many businesses are establishing presences in Second Life, but my impression was that I have enough time pressure and aggravation in my current life, and I don't really need a second set of problems. This technology isn't there yet, and I really think that blogs are the way to go right now.
Link: Web-Tones: All Wikis, all the time!. 
It is difficult for solos to play on the same field as biglaw, if they are spending all their available cash on high priced proprietary software. How to compete? There are many ways, and using the free tools on the Internet is one of them. Use open source software that does the same thing as the Microsoft or other expensive commercial software. Use Linux; there are free, competent, competing software packages for Linux with the same functionality as expensive commercial software. The only thing I can't find a comparable free version of is the document creation software that I use with Windows, and some State specific lawyer tools. That will change, as we all adopt free and open source software in our practices. Don't just compete - conquer.
Link: DocBuilder.com Incorporated (Powered by CubeCart). 
I recently received a comment to the LegalZoom.Com post. Online legal document preparation services are proliferating, and we can expect the number of such sites to increase. I am not sure how I feel about these sites, as the quality of the legal oversight is tough to measure, and every transaction, in my opinion, can benefit from one on one legal counseling. However, for sophisticated consumers or businessmen, these services can certainly reduce initial legal costs. I just don't think the solo lawyer, giving one on one legal advice, is in any danger from these sites. They will likely prove to be complementary to a lawyer's advice. Some lawyers might even benefit by merging their advice with referral to such sites.
Link: Home Office Lawyer: Recent Webinar on Blogging with Collaborative Attorneys. I am catching up on my fellow bloggers work, while recuperating at home from my hospital stay. I am thinking about writing an expose of hospital incompetence and such, but more on that later. I found this great post from Grant Griffiths today on his Webinar with fellow "collaborative" attorneys. It occurred to me that the difficulties in geography which have been plaguing our attempt to get a solo summit together might be somewhat helped by a Solo Webinar Summit. Grant, what do you think? Now that you have been to one, can you set it up?
Link: WorkSmart.net :: Industries :: Legal Services.
Zale Dowlen, one of our SoloLawyers to be, who will graduate from Law School this year, has been searching the Web for a hosted solution to case management. WorkSmart is his choice, and looks to be worth a look. It is web based, costs $11 a month per user, and has a legal services template available. I am still an Amicus guy, Zale, but to each his own. Let me know how you like it after you live with it a while.
Rick Georges
By Chuck Newton
Are you a terrorist or drug dealer on a really tight budget? I doubt it. But, you might be a solo attorney 
whose clients require some degree of privacy and confidentiality? Well, email encryption is what you need. For this Firefox has a FREE plug-in called freenigma,
that just might be right for you. Freenigma enables you to send and receive encrypted e-mail using
browser-based
e-mail services such as Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail. The
plug-in adds a toolbar that appears when you log in to the e-mail
service. Draft an e-mail then click the "encrypt" button in the toolbar
and then send your message. To decrypt your message, the recipient must
also have the plug-in and click "decrypt" on the toolbar. Encryption
and decryption occur within your browser.
