One of my big goals for 2010 was to adjust my role as a commentator on the state of the practice of law and become more of a change agent dedicated to helping fix it. Today I'm taking a first step in that direction by joining the faculty of the pioneering Solo Practice University. If you're not familiar with SPU you should head on over and check it out. Under the leadership of legal-education trailblazer Susan Cartier Liebel (who also blogs at the ABA Blawg 100 site Build A Solo Practice @ SPU), Solo Practice University picks up where law school left off. One of the most common complaints about legal education is its weakness in providing practical education about how to actually be a lawyer. SPU's got it covered.
What really convinced me to join the faculty was ... well ... the faculty itself. Check them out here. This is a phenomenal collection of big thinkers in the world of legal practice. Students (both active practitioners and current law-school students) have access to these big minds and can start learning how to improve their own practices right away.
I'm teaching a course called "Fixing Your Fees, Fixing Your Practice." In it, I'll be doling out practical advice on how to abandon the billable hour and replace it with open prices. If this change is going to happen, it's going to happen first with the solo and small-firm lawyers. And in my new role as an SPU faculty member, I'm going to help make that happen. So check out all the things you can be learning. Then enroll and start getting the real-world secrets about running your practice that you never got in law school.
Here's a short video (2:38) on the real reasons I've joined this great faculty: