Welcome to SoloSez®, brought to you by the American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm & General Practice Division.
First, some basics about how SoloSez® operates:
Join SoloSez®
Visit: https://mail.abanet.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=SOLOSEZ
Subscription Settings Note: If you are asked for a password and you don't know it, simply click on Settings, then click on Get a new listserv password and you can choose a new password for your subscribing e-mail address. This password's only function is to allow you to view your SoloSez preferences and the archives — if necessary, you can get a new one every time you visit this page! So don't worry if you forget...
Commands
Posting address:
[email protected]
To receive SoloSez® in a digest format:
Send a message to [email protected] which says
SET SOLOSEZ DIGEST
For more information about American Bar Association Discussion Lists, see the ABA Policy and Procedures Handbook (Greenbook).
Purpose and Character of the List
SoloSez® (pronounced "solo-says") is a forum for lawyers who are practicing alone or in a small firm setting, particularly those in firms of five or fewer lawyers. As a cyber-water cooler, SoloSez® offers an opportunity for practitioners to pose questions, offer advice, and share information. Discussion group participants determine the topics for discussion. For more information see About SoloSez®.
SoloSez® is a monitored but unmoderated list. This means that list members are expected to self-police and responsibly participate. Here are some simple rules which reflect the list's culture and expectations:
1. Only messages emanating from a subscribed address will be automatically distributed to the list. If you're subscribed as [email protected], posts from an alternate address such as [email protected] will not be automatically distributed to the list. If you have multiple addresses, consider subscribing from each, setting all but one to NOMAIL.
2. Introduce yourself by stating your name, place of practice, and something interesting about your practice and your life. Your introduction doesn't have to resemble a resume or c.v. -- even a simple comment about your pet and hobbies is enough to "put a face" on your e-mail address.
3. List traffic frequently may exceed 150 messages each day. Be prepared to delete freely. Better yet, use filters to send SoloSez® messages to subfolder of your inbox. Consider using a separate e-mail address just for SoloSez® mail.
4. Be extremely judicious in your use of the "reply to all" button. If you are replying with a message that just says “thanks for the information,” a request to receive a copy of what someone has offered to share, or simply to agree with someone (such as “me, too”), do not reply to the entire group. Instead, send your response directly to the e-mail address of the person who posted the message.
5. Attachments, including business cards, are prohibited. Messages containing any kind of attachment will not be distributed to the list.
6. Use the "subject line" to concisely identify the message topic for your also-busy colleagues. Designate posts about lutefisk, linoleum or non-legal topics by adding OFF-TOPIC or WC ("Water Cooler") to the subject line. Feel free to create other tags such as LPM, LIT, or TAX to help other list subscribers sort out their SoloSez® mail.
7. Abbreviate original messages when one is posting a reply. Use <snip> to identify where unnecessary words were deleted. Do not post an entire e-mail only to add a short response.
8. SoloSez® operates much like a very large law firm, where conversations about members' personal lives and public events take place just as much as serious discussion about the practice of law. Frequently, there is a great deal of noise, but the noisiest partners are frequently those who deliver the quickest answers to compelling legal questions. We can continue to share aspects of our private lives and the isolation, frustration and joys of solo and small firm practice without resorting to antics better reserved for fraternity parties and very private gatherings.
9. A document repository is maintained at https://tinyurl.com/solosezdocs by E. Seth Combs, [email protected]. The document repository is not maintained by the ABA, and the ABA accepts no responsibility for the documents on file at Google Drive.
10. Occasionally, list members have questions which they would like to post to SoloSez® but for reasons of privacy prefer anonymity. The list manager may post those questions on behalf of list members.
11. Subscribers should post no more than five messages per day. When that threshold has been met, the message will not be processed, and it should be reposted after midnight. For this reason, subscribers should consider before posting whether a message should be distributed to the entire list or made privately.
12. SoloSez® is intended for lawyers in solo and small firm practice, although its participants may include retired lawyers, lawyers practicing in collateral fields, law students, legal educators, paralegals, legal assistants, law office administrators, law librarians, consultants, and those with an interest in the law. Those subscribers who are currently not admitted to practice in good standing in any jurisdiction, e.g., nonlawyers, law students, disbarred, suspended and ineligible to practice law in their state (this does not apply to lawyers who have retired in good standing), shall disclose their status in their introductions and in each post. Failure to disclose status or misrepresentation of status may result in removal from the list.
13. Remember that all listserve exchanges become property of the American Bar Association. Remember that all listserve exchanges potentially can be read by anyone.
14. Failure to heed the rules below may result in sanctions.
a. Do not insult, berate, or personally attack other list members. Jokes which are prurient in nature, offensive or contain profanity shall not be posted. Do not send inflammatory messages or messages containing personal invective. Profanity, vulgarity, or derogatory, defamatory, abusive, threatening, offensive, and illegal remarks are inappropriate. Do not post to SoloSez® any message, data, information, text or other material ("Content") that is unlawful, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, harassing, harmful, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive or otherwise injurious to third parties. Do not impersonate any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity or interfere with other users of this listserve.
b. SoloSez® is not the place for discussion of partisan politics, world politics, terrorism, and war. No political or Covid-19 editorials, articles or links may be posted to SoloSez® unless related directly to legislation or a specific legal topic. Requests by the list managers or a designee to take any topic off-list shall be deemed to terminate that thread.
c. Commercial solicitations are prohibited on ABA listserves. SoloSez® shall not be used to advertise products or services unless such product or service is specifically sponsored by the ABA or by the Division. Commercial solicitations include, without limitation, messages offering or seeking any kind of business relationship, soliciting contributions, membership or subscription to any resource not offered by the Division. Posting of materials such as newsletters and related content, generated by a law firm, company or other entity is strongly discouraged.
d. Do not distribute through SoloSez® any content such as, petitions for signatures, other solicitations of listserve users, promotional materials, chain letters or letters relating to pyramid schemes, advertising or solicitations for funds, political campaigning, mass mailings, any form of unsolicited commercial or promotional email ("spam") or an offering of lawful or fraudulent goods, services, schemes or promotions.
e. Do not post personal email or posts made to other mailing lists or fora to SoloSez® without the express permission of the original e-mail’s author.
f. Do not discuss fees for any legal services or any information that might be construed fixing, a boycott, an illegal restriction of free trade or any other antitrust violation. There should be no mention of one's hourly billing rate, gross fees for a task or project or another specific information relating to the pricing of legal services. This is not to say that all discussion of pricing or how one computes their fees using overhead and variables that differ with each individual is forbidden, but no dollar amounts should be mentioned in this regard.
15. The list manager reserves the right to impose sanctions, which include moderating a subscriber’s posts, suspension of posting privileges, and removal from the list for violation of list rules. Violators will be publicly warned.
16. Any requests regarding administrative tasks such as being added or removed from a list should be made to the appropriate area, not the list itself. Visit About SoloSez® for information on how to address administrative tasks.
17. The ABA only provides the facilities for the SoloSez® listserve and no approval or endorsement by the ABA of any messages posted on SoloSez® should be implied therefrom. The ABA does not review the background of any member of this listserve, nor does it determine whether an attorney is in good standing in any jurisdiction.
18. And now for the legal stuff:
By subscribing to the SoloSez® listserve, users agree to the terms and conditions contained in these guidelines. These guidelines may be modified from time to time and such modifications shall be effective upon their posting to SoloSez®.
Users of SoloSez® may be held individually liable for any communications they send through the listserve, including but not limited to defamatory, discriminatory, antitrust, anti-competitive, false or unauthorized information.
Users of SoloSez® also must comply with all state and federal copyright, trademark and patent laws and regulations. By posting material on this listserve, the posting party warrants and represents that it owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. Do not post information that is not original unless it meets the ‘fair use’ guidelines of copyright law, or unless the user has received permission to reproduce such information from the original source. If there is any question as to whether a particular transmission contains information in violation of federal copyright law, the user should not post that information to this listserve.
By using this listserve, users agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless, the Division and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and parent from and against all loss, claims, demands, causes of action, liabilities, expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees and costs arising from any claim arising out of or resulting from in whole or part any breach of these guidelines by the user or any omission or act taken by the user. In no event will the Division be responsible to the users for any indirect, consequential, special or punitive damages or losses users may incur in connection with this listserve or any of the data or other materials transmitted through or residing on this listserve, even if the Division has been advised of the possibility of such damage or loss.
THE DIVISION ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE OPINIONS AND/OR INFORMATION POSTED ON OR THROUGH THIS LISTSERVE.
The Division may, but does not assume the obligation to, monitor discussions taking place through any of its listserves. The Division reserves the right, but does not assume the obligation, to investigate any violation of these guidelines. The Division may remove any user from any or all Division listserves for violation of these guidelines.
List Managers
The list managers are Kimberly Kocian, GPSolo Division Director, and Steve Wildi, GPSolo Division Program Associate.