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Being a liaison between different practice areas is what the Law Practice Management Section is all about. Catherine Stock and Gabriela Cubeiro talk with section Chair Joy Murao about her mission to offer resources and education to lawyers in need of technology to suit modern legal practice. Joy highlights the Technology Demo Lab, which helps lawyers understand the problems they face in legal practice and discover new solutions. Learn more at: Law Practice Management and Technology - California Lawyers Association
Being a liaison between different practice areas is what the Law Practice Management Section is all about. Catherine Stock and Gabriela Cubeiro talk with section Chair Joy Murao about her mission to offer resources and education to lawyers in need of technology to suit modern legal practice. Joy highlights the Technology Demo Lab, which helps lawyers understand the problems they face in legal practice and discover new solutions. Learn more at: Law Practice Management and Technology - California Lawyers Association
This special spotlight episode of Behind the Lines: The Houston Lawyer Podcast corresponds with the Section Spotlight feature of The Houston Lawyer magazine. We are featuring the Houston Bar Association's (HBA) Law Practice Management Section in this episode. The spotlighted program is a hybrid (online and in person) CLE presentation provided by the section in March 2022. The CLE, entitled "The Best of the ABA Techshow 2022," was presented by Ruby Powers. The ABA Techshow is an event where lawyers, legal professionals, and technology experts convene once a year to share ideas, talk trends, and improve the legal profession. Ms. Powers attended the entire conference and spoke on two panels. Her presentation provides the key takeaways from the three-day event and highlights the useful tips that law practice managers can instantly put into place. Ms. Powers refers to some slides and websites in her presentation, and listeners can find those on the HBA's The Houston Lawyer webpage: www.hba.org/thehoustonlawyer. Note that because the podcast contains a recording of a live event, there is some unavoidable background noise. Ruby Powers is the owner and managing partner of Powers Law Group Immigration Law Firm in Houston. She is an active member of the HBA Law Practice Management Section, and she is on the Editorial Board of The Houston Lawyer magazine. "The Law Practice Management Section Provides information and resources to HBA members about building and managing law practices more effectively and successfully while maintaining the highest standards of the legal profession. CLE-approved programs focus on both fundamental principles and emerging trends related to building and enhancing client relationships; office management and supervisory issues; effective use of legal technology; billing and accounting practices; and professionalism." (Law Practice Management (hba.org)). John Meredith is the 2021-2022 Chair of the Section.Thanks to Ms. Powers, Mr. Meredity, and the Law Practice Management for sharing your program with Behind the Lines: The Houston Lawyer Podcast listeners. Listeners who are also HBA members are eligible for 45 minutes of Texas CLE credit. Visit Continuing Legal Education (hba.org) for more information.
To Thine Own Self Be True: Katy Goshtasbi of Puris Consulting and the former chair of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Division discusses the importance of a lawyer’s personal brand and how it can be so effective with clients and in the legal department, despite the vulnerabilities of such an approach. As the current Chair of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section on Diversity and Inclusion, she also discusses D&I as a journey not an initiative.Professional Womens' Money Miracles Branding Webinar Series: http://katygoshtasbi.securechkout.com/webinar-sign-upProfessional Women Branding Bootcamp: https://katy-goshtasbi.securechkout.com/womens-bootcamp
In this episode, I speak with Jared Correia, one of the pioneers in legal podcasting. Jared was a huge mentor to me when I was launching the Counsel to Counsel podcast back in 2018 and I’m very pleased to welcome such a seasoned veteran. As of 2019, over half the US population had listened to at least one podcast. In 2019 over 100 million people listened to at least one podcast every week. There are over 700,000 active podcasts and 29 million podcast episodes available. Clearly, the age of podcasting has arrived. But what is podcasting and how can you use it to market your legal services? What are the mechanics of producing a podcast and how does podcasting interrelate with other legal marketing tools? Jared Correia, a national expert on the subject, sat down with me to answer some of these questions. I met Jared over a decade ago when Jared was working for the Massachusetts Law Office Assistance Program and I was co-chair of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section. Jared Correia is the Founder and CEO of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, which offers subscription-based law firm business management consulting and technology services for solo and small law firms. Red Cave also works with legal institutions and legal-facing corporations to develop programming and content. A former practicing attorney, Jared has been advising lawyers and law firms for over a decade. He is a regular presenter at local, regional and national events, including ABA TECHSHOW. He regularly contributes to legal publications, including his column, ‘Managing,’ for Attorney at Work, and his ‘Law Practice Confidential’ advice column for Lawyerist. Jared is the author of the American Bar Association publication ‘Twitter in One Hour for Lawyers’. He is the host of the Legal Toolkit podcast on Legal Talk Network. Jared also teaches for Concord Law School, Suffolk University Law School and Solo Practice University. More recently, he co-founded Gideon, a company that offers chatbot software for law firms to help attorneys automatically qualify leads, book consults, route leads to the right lawyer or staff person, and create new client matters, 24/7/365.
Launching your own law practice can be both exhilarating and terrifying. For lawyers who are accustomed to the structure of a law firm and a steady paycheck, hanging a shingle means saying goodbye to security. Leaving a large firm means that there is no one between you and the client. You need to figure out how to advise your clients without the help of partners who are just down the hall. You also need to develop your own infrastructure. At the same time, leaving a law firm also means having tremendous flexibility and a chance to really build something of your own. But it is not for everyone. In this episode, I am joined by Matt Yospin. Matt is an IP attorney who graduated from law school in 2009 at the end of the Great Recession, not a great time to be starting a legal career. But Matt was one of the lucky ones. While the economy was reeling, he was still able to start practice at one of the top law firms in Boston. He stayed with the firm a little over two years. Eventually, there was not enough work to keep him busy and he was laid off. Since that time, Matt has been building a successful law practice of his own. Matt is a patent and intellectual property attorney who has been in solo practice since 2012. He began his career at the Boston firm Bingham McCutchen (which has since been acquired by Morgan Lewis & Bockius). Prior to law school, he ran his own computer software consulting business. Matt works with businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, government agencies and inventors on a range of intellectual property and transactional work. He speaks regularly at bar association events and events for other professional groups, publishes a blog on developments in IP, writes on technology and practice management for others’ blogs, and co-hosts a TV show on issues in the news from a legal perspective. He enjoys working with entrepreneurs and creative people, helping them to build or grow a business, to protect their ideas and inventions with IP and business strategies that make sense for them. He also is on the Boards of two local non-profits. Matt is very effective at marketing and his ability to keep his visibility high in the bar is one of the reasons I invited Matt to be a guest this week. What I mean is that not only does Matt really understand marketing, but his own marketing efforts kept Matt on my radar when I was thinking about a good solo to invite on as a guest. Additional Resources to Help You Build a Solo Practice For practice management and mentoring, find other solos in your area and ask them for help. Matt Yospin is happy to field your questions. Find him at www.yospinlaw.com , 617-340-9295, or email him via his Contact Me form. If you are in Massachusetts and looking for some general support around starting a law practice, try the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program (a free resource). Most states have similar organizations. Check with your state bar association or board of bar overseers. In Massachusetts, join the Solo and Small Firm Section of the Boston Bar Association or the Law Practice Management Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association. Most state bar associations have similar committees where you can meet other solos who are happy to share their experience (and possibly referrals). Jared Correia of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting writes and speaks frequently on law practice management and technology. He also does a great podcast called the Legal Toolkit. Jared offers low cost consulting services that are targeted at solo and small firms looking for help with law office technology and general law practice management systems. He is a fountain of knowledge on the full range of issues that you need to consider in going solo. Hanging Your Shingle, offered periodically by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, is a great program which you can purchase for replay. MCLE has also published a book by the same name. I originally set this program up 20 years ago and happy to see that it is still alive and well. Starting Out Solo is an organization to consider (particularly if you are in Massachusetts). For Information on Law Office Hardware and Law Office Ergonomics consider Matt Yospin's article in Law Technology Today Get a multi-function laser printer, so you can photocopy and scan books. Matt Yospin recommends a dedicated two-sided fast scanner; most attorneys like the Fujitsu ScanSnap line. You can get great scanner software for your phone or tablet, too. Matt Yospin recommends Readdle’s Scanner Pro. Matt suggests you consider practice management software, to tie together your contacts, calendar, tasks, project flow, and notes. There are many attorney-specific platforms, or you could make your own system work. Matt likes Daylite but there are also Clio, Rocket Matter, MyCase, Practice Panther, Smokeball, and too many more to name. Every attorney (and everyone else) should use a password manager. Matt likes 1Password. I use LastPass. Matt recommends using some keystroke expansion or macro software (to save a lot of time typing.) He wrote about this category of software here. Matt uses TextExpander, and there are many others. Local and remote backups, with encryption, are a must. If you hire someone, be sure they are doing this for you. If you prefer DIY, consider FileVault and Time Machine (on a Mac), and services like Dropbox, Box, and Boxcryptor (and there are many others).
Legal Talk Network producer Laurence Colletti interviews Debbie Foster, a technology consultant for lawyers, about the practice management track at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago. Foster discusses using technology to make regular processes for your law firm that eliminate waste and mistakes. Debbie Foster is the managing partner of Affinity Consulting Group’s Tampa Bay office and is an active member of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section.
There are numerous sources in the legal world claiming that lawyers need to work on building and growing their networks in order to gain referrals. But with hundreds of connections, how is a solo lawyer able to build and develop proper relationships with everyone? Maybe lawyers should be thinking about the quality of their connections rather than the quantity. What should a solo or small firm attorney do to build a good referral network? In this episode of New Solo, Adriana Linares interviews family law practitioner Lee Rosen about forming strategic partnerships and setting up a basic referral network. Rosen actually rejects both of those phrases and explains that he thinks of an effective referral network as a collection of close friends who provide value to each other in multiple ways. Lawyers should build relationships with around twenty other lawyers and people in different professions who have the opportunity to provide referrals. Also, he says, you need to LIKE these people, because they will be your friends for the rest of your practice. Once you have found the right twenty connections, use things like social media to maintain these relationships. At the end of the podcast, Rosen explains three important takeaways for solo lawyers: be interested in the other people, be deliberate and calculating when you choose connections, and pick up the phone and start calling people today. He believes this form of networking will grow your practice and make you happy. Lee Rosen has practiced family law for more than 20 years, with four offices in Raleigh, Charlotte, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He served as the Law Practice Management editor of the ABA Family Advocate for more than a decade and received the ABA James Kean Award for excellence in elawyering. He also served as chair of the Law Practice Management Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. He's a frequent speaker, often sought out by media as a source of family law insight and commentary and the publisher of DivorceDiscourse.com, a widely popular daily advice blog about law firm marketing, management, and finances. Special thanks to our sponsor, Solo Practice University.
We have seen flat fees being used by some family lawyers, mediators and Certified Divorce Financial Analysts. These professionals remain to be the minority. While the marketing benefits of the flat fees approach is little bit more certain, most professionals are concerned about how to make it work and what might some of the downside be. This month's TeleSeminar is an exploration of the advantages of charging flat fees rather than billing hours. Our guest speaker, Lee Rosen, has employed fixed fees exclusively in his 10-attorney practice for more than a decade. He will explain how, in his view, the hourly billing model doesn't work anymore for family lawyers. It drives practices in directions that make for unhappy lawyers and unhappy clients and that there's got to be a better way. His approach has evolved into to a win-win arrangement for his firm, his lawyers and his clients. In this teleseminar, Rosen will: 1. Explain the rationale for flat fees, 2. Provide practical insight into how he makes it work, 3. Tell the story of how his transition to fixed fees nearly put him out of business, and 4. Explain the practical economics of running a practice without the burden of keeping time records. About Our Guest Speaker – Lee Rosen, Family Law Attorney Lee began his legal career in 1987 and is the founder of the Rosen Law Firm. As Rosen's Chief Executive Officer, Lee oversees strategic planning, staff development and fiscal management. Never idle, he has served as a Council member of the North Carolina Bar Association Family Law Section and Law Practice Management Section, as chairperson of several committees of the American Bar Association, and as editor of Family Forum, a publication of the North Carolina Bar Association. As if that weren't enough, he serves as a member of the editorial board of the Family Advocate, the largest circulation family law publication in the country, and he is a legal advisor to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, which included working on the Model Code on Domestic Violence.