Smartphone Shootout – Which Is Best For You?

Big-firm-lawyers with BlackBerrys are so common that the image this phrase conjures up is almost a cliché. And many solo practitioners have been quick to adopt the stylish iPhone, so that they can keep on top of calls and email with a minimum of assistance from staff. After all, solos don’t have to build group consensus and often don’t have IT issues that firms with more than one lawyer have to contend with when deciding on the right smartphone.

If you’ve been sitting on the fence, wanting to upgrade and trying to decide which smartphone, and which network, will best serve your firm’s needs, this 4-way comparison review of the top four contenders (iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid and Pre) from InfoWorld will help you make up your mind. There’s also a side article which provides a visual tour of the new Motorola Droid.

When It’s Time to Say “So Long…”

From time to time I get calls from lawyers who are looking for information on shuttering their practices.  Sometimes it’s for happy reasons, like appointment or election to a judgeship or a long-awaited retirement.  Other times it involves a family relocation and, sometimes, small firms just don’t gain the traction they need to keep on keeping on, so  the principals decide it’s time to move on to something else.  Here are some thing to think about should you decide to close your practice.

1. Consult with your tax advisor to discuss your plans and develop a strategy which will minimize your taxes in the event that you transfer assets to another lawyer or firm.
2. If you are a solo practitioner, call the Office of General Counsel for an informal opinion on any plans you may have to transfer files or assets to another lawyer or firm. Although the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the ethics rules of several states now allow the sale of a law practice, the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct do not.  Make sure that any plans you have for referrals of ongoing cases meet the requirements of the rules.
3. Once you have formed your plan and know your timeline, discuss your plans with your staff so that they will know what to expect.  The more you can tell them about how much longer you will need their services and whether you can offer them a severance package and otherwise assist them in finding other jobs, the more likely they will be to stick with you to the end if you need them.
4. Review your malpractice policy and contact your malpractice carrier to determine whether you need “tail” coverage.  Purchase any necessary coverage.
5. Review all open files and separate them into three categories: (a) Cases in which the client would be prejudiced if you were to withdraw; (b) Cases with short statutes of limitation; (c) Everything else.  Then, either work through the matter, assist the client to find another attorney, or return the file to the client with appropriate instructions to ensure that the client doesn’t miss the statute of limitations or other deadlines, as is appropriate.
6. Review all of your closed files and segregate any retained original documents or physical property such as wills, deeds, contracts, or evidence.  Send a letter to all former clients telling them that you are closing your practice, informing them how they can contact you in the future, and offering their files to them.  Give them a specific method to obtain the file and a time by which to do so, and notify them that if they fail to obtain their file that it will be destroyed in accordance with your file destruction procedure.  Let them know how much longer you will retain the file if they fail to pick it up, and tell them that it will be destroyed after that date.  Be sure to document all returns and destructions.  See Formal Opinion RO-93-10 for more information.
7. Perform a complete audit of your trust account and return all client or third party funds to the appropriate person or entity.  This includes resolving any outstanding, uncleared checks.
8. Diary your calendar to file all end of the year reports such as 1099 filings, tax returns, etc.
9. Review your lease and take the steps necessary to terminate it early, if allowed.
10. If you have leased any office equipment, review these leases and take the steps necessary to terminate them early, if allowed.
11. Check the status of all quarterly, withholding, or other tax payments due, and make any unpaid payments.
12. Send a letter to the judges and clerks in the counties in which you practice, notifying them that you are closing your practice.  If you are on any appointment lists, ask that your name be removed or, if you will continue to accept occasional pro bono cases, let them know that.
13. Send letters to all vendors with whom you have done business, canceling all subscriptions.  Pay your account in full at this time, if possible, and specifically notify them not to send you any further updates, books, or supplies.
14. File the appropriate forwarding instructions with the Post Office to make sure that mail sent to your office address is forwarded to your post office box or, if you don’t have one, to your home address.  Forwarding orders are good for six months, so diary the expiration date and make sure that you renew the forwarding order for an additional six months.  If you have an office post office box, plan to keep it for at least one year after you close your practice.
15. If the service is available in your area, when you cancel your phone service reserve your telephone number and have it directed to a voice mail box.  This is much cheaper than the monthly rate for a business line, and will allow you to retrieve your messages and return phone calls.  Plan to keep this service for at least a year after your close your practice.  If this service is not available, try to have your calls directed to another number or consider retaining one line with voice mail for six months to one year after you close the practice.
16. Make up cards with your name, forwarding address and phone number, and leave them with your office neighbors and, if possible, the new tenants of your space so that they can help former clients find you if necessary.
17. Consider giving any office furnishings or equipment which you cannot sell to charity and take a deduction.  Remember that confidentiality must be maintained at all times, so consider removing hard drives from computers if you are not confident that all client information has been deleted and cannot be recovered.
18. At the end of the fiscal year when you receive your municipal business license renewal form notify the licensing authority of the date on which you closed your practice.
19. Notify all professional organizations and associations of which you are a member of the closing of your office and your contact information.
20. Notify the Alabama State Bar and the Administrative Office of Courts of the closing of your practice and of your new address, and diary your calendar to file your CLE report for your final year of practice.   This report must be filed by January 31 of each year if you held a regular license to practice at any time between October 1st and December 31st of the previous year and were not a new admittee.
21. When time comes for your license renewal, if you do not wish to renew as a Special Member, notify the State Bar in writing that you wish to be voluntarily inactive so that you will not be classed as “not in good standing” due to non-payment of dues.  Maintaining a special membership is a good idea if you think you might ever wish to practice law in Alabama again.  At the present time there are no remedial CLE or testing requirements to re-activate your license, but that could change at any time.

ABA TECHSHOW Discounts, Plus Best of TECHSHOW

It’s time to start thinking about making plans to attend ABA TECHSHOW 2010.  For those who are not familiar with it, TECHSHOW is the ABA Law Practice Management Section’s annual two and a half day CLE program and vendor expo centered around practice management and the use of technology in the practice of law.   ABA TECHSHOW 2010 will be March 25-27 at the Hilton Chicago, and Alabama State Bar members receive a $150 discount off the regular registration price.  Check the ads in upcoming issues of The Alabama Lawyer and The Addendum for the discount code, or give us a call at the Practice Management Assistance Program for more information.

In order to help those who have never attended before know just what a great value this CLE program and expo is, the ABA TECHSHOW Blog reports this morning that it will be posting a Best of TECHSHOW paper and slide show each week from now until the show, free for download.  The first installment, which is supposed to be available soon, will be Email Archiving:  So What’s Wrong With Saving Everything? originally presented by Peg Duncan and R. Jason Barron at ABA TECHSHOW 2009.

Add the ABA TECHSHOW Blog to your regular daily reading and don’t miss out on these extremely useful papers which will help you save time and improve the way you practice law.  And don’t forget to put ABA TECHSHOW 2010 on your calendar now!

 

A Tale of Two Emails or I Don’t Talk to Strangers

I received two email messages recently. Each was from someone I did not know. Both posed a single, easy-to-answer question, but it’s amazing how different my reaction was to each.

The first contained nothing but the question and the sender’s name and city. The question challenged something that I had written in an article in Law Practice Magazine. I was surprised at how visceral and angry my reaction was. It wasn’t that the person questioned what I had written. Normally, I would be delighted to discuss an article and hear someone else’s point of view, but the sender didn’t lead up to the question by telling me who she was or why she was interested in the issue. Her email didn’t contain a signature and her email address didn’t give me any indication of where she worked or why she might be trying to pin me down in writing (OK, email) to a particular position on the issue in question.

The second email was also from a stranger, but the sender had given a little more thought to posing her question. She started out by telling me who she was, where she worked, and why she was contacting me. She then posed her request, and ended her email with a signature that included her company’s name, a street address and phone number, and a link to her company’s website, where I could verify who she was. Needless to say, I was much more receptive to responding to her request for information.

We’re all busy, and email can help us accomplish many more things in a single day that phone calls and letters, but it can backfire on you if you don’t take a few steps to help the person receiving the message. Here’s what you can do to make sure your email messages are answered promptly:

• If the recipient doesn’t know you, or if you’ve met only once and may not remember you, introduce yourself.
• State your question or requiest simply, but provide enough background information for the recipient to understand what you want and why you want it.
• Use a professional-sounding email address that identifies you or your law pratice.
• Remember that a brief email can come across as rude if not thoughtfully worded. Use complete sentences and proof-read your message before you hit Send.
• End your message with a signature that includes your full name and the name of your firm. If you have a website, provide a link.
• Include your phone number in your signauture. Often, you’ll get a much faster, and more complete, answer if you provide the recipient with the option of responding immediately by phone.

Windows 7 Arrives. Should You Invite It In?

Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest operating system, went on sale today. While people are not lining up around the block to purchase a copy, many lawyers may be wondering whether it would be worth their time, money and trouble to upgrade from XP or Vista. Like most questions raised in the law office, it depends.

I’ve spent the morning reading multiple articles and reviews, and the concensus seems to be that Windows 7 is beautiful, has a some great new features, and is a huge improvement over Vista.  If Vista is your current operating system – go for it!  The install is reported to be relatively easy and there is lots of information on how to handle the transition.  But, if you are currently using XP, unless your computer has lots of memory and a very fast processor, you’ll be better off to wait until you purchase a new PC to take advantage of Windows 7’s improvements (although there are 7 days of deals available on the new operating system and hardware).  For one thing, you cannot simply upgrade from XP to Windows 7.  You will need to perform what’s called a clean install – removing all your data and programs from your hard drive, installing the new operating system, and then moving everything back.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve got better things to do today.

If you’re interested in learning more about Windows 7 and whether it’s right for you now, Windows Secrets has a good short article on The Pros and Cons of Switching to Windows 7.   PC World’s Windows 7 Review lays out what’s new and what it can do for you. David Pogue covers some of the neat new features in his New York Times Personal Tech column Windows 7 Keeps the Good, Tries to Fix Flaws.  And PC Magazine has a good article on whether Windows 7 is right for your business.

A Useful Book, and Masterful Legal Marketing, Too

I am frequently asked by new lawyers for a list of books that I think they should acquire as they set up their practices. A new book, the Alabama Appellate Practice Guide by Ed R. Haden, Chair of Balch & Bingham, LLC’s Appellate Focus Team, came across my desk this week, and I’ve added it to my list, for a couple of very different reasons.

First, although my appellate practice experience is limited to three cases a very, very long time ago, it looks like a pretty good and useful book to me.  As the book’s foreword states, it is intended to provide a basic, “how-to” guide to appellate practice (other than domestic relations and criminal matters), and it does this with step-by-step insturctions for preserving and presenting error. Chapter 1, Preserving the Record, includes a Preservation of Error Checklist which begins with the complaint and moves all the way through post trial motions and creating the appellate record, outlining the potential pitfalls and providing the controlling cases, as well as additional jurisprudential rules of appellate procedure.  There are also chapters on review of final and interlocutory orders and advisory opinions and certified questions; when, where and how to appeal; staying judgments; creating the record and briefing and arguing; petitions for cert; and appellate mediation.  All in all, it looks like a very valuable resource which brings together a lot of law with the sort of unwritten knowledge that is often gained only through a lifetime of mistakes or near-misses.

The other reason I’m adding the book to my list is because, in addition to being a concise and useful book for those who are not already well-schooled in the minutia of appellate practice, it is a masterful piece of client development work.  Written with corporate counsel and chief legal officers, as well as his fellow lawyers, in mind, the author begins each chapter with an In-house Counsel  Tip and ends the book with a chapter on why it’s important to involve an appellate lawyer from the beginning of the litigation process in extremely important cases.  Then, the chapter provides information on the particular skills and expertise of each of the members of the Balch & Bingham Appellate Focus Team.  If you’re looking for ways to ethically illustrate to clients why your law firm can add value, this book is a very nice example of how to go about it.

The book was published by Balch & Bingham, LLP, and copies are available for $25 by calling (205) 251-8100 or (334) 834-6500.  ISBN:  0-933339-24-0.

FTC Blogger Swag Disclaimer:  The Alabama State Bar received a free review copy of this book and, by chance, it ended up on my desk.

PMA Tip of the Week

G.M. Filisko has written a well organized compilation of 70 Sizzling & Lawyer Friendly Apps for the October issue of the ABA Journal Magazine. This article has the applications organized into six categories that make searching for a solution easy. The sections Word Up, Research and Reference, Productivity, Accessibility, Task Management, Maps, and Fun and Games contain applications for a wide variety of mobile devices as well as Windows and MAC computers. Cost for these apps ranges from pricy to free.

Suddenly Solo? There’s Help Available!

Many lawyers, particularly recent law school graduates, are finding themselves preparing to hang a shingle as the economic downturn has resulted in law firm layoffs and deferrals of new hires. Fortunately, there are some good resources out there for those who are thinking about starting their own practices, or have already taken the plunge.

On the local scene, Cumberland School of Law Continuing Legal Education and Career Services are presenting a series of Beginning Your Law Practice seminars. The three programs will cover Establishing a Practice, Beginning a Wills, Estates and Probate Practice, and Developing Your Practice: Opportunities in District Court. The seminar is open to any lawyer who is interested, and registration is waived for members of Cumberland’s Class of 2009. Click here for complete program descriptions, dates, locations and registration information.

Here at the Alabama State Bar, we are continuing to work with the Alabama chapters of the Association of Legal Administrators to provide our lawyers admitted less than six years with one-on-one counseling on issues relating to practice management. Check out this previous post for more information on our ALA Referral Program.

We also have information on our website for lawyers who are dealing with hard economic times, including thinking of starting a practice.

Finally, Law Practice Today, the ABA LPM Section’s webzine, had a great issue entitled Suddenly Solo recently, with lots of advice for those who are starting or working to improve a new practice.

Smooth Sailing at 38,000 Feet

I’m posting this from Delta Flight 62 on my way home from Denver and induction into the College of Law Practice Management. It was a great weekend, with fantastic CLE and the company of some of the best minds in the law practice management field.

There’s been news lately about several airlines adopting inflight wifi service, and I’m taking the opportunity to check it out with a free trial from GoGo Inflight Internet. It’s amazing: as fast or faster than the wired connection in my hotel room, and my VPN worked, too.

Like all good things, as more people move to adopt it, it may slow down, but for now if you have a reasonably long flight and it’s available, in my opinion it’s a bargain.

Best Bet Laptops: Now That’s Sweet!

One of the quetions I get frequently is which laptop is best.  Well, of course, it depends on your needs.  With that in mind, I’d like to pass along this link, which I got from Wayne Hughes, the Alabama State Bar’s IT Director,  to a recent article at CIO.com entitled Laptop Sweet Spot:  12 Winners That Cost $650 or Less.  What more can I say?