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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Get Your Hand Out of My Pocket!

There have been several recent news reports of municipal and county court clerks here in Alabama embezzeling fees and fines that they handled in the course of their work.  Theft in the workplace goes on all the time, but it’s likely gotten worse as a result of the recession.  And it’s not just confined to [...]

How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times

The final version of a new book just landed on my desk this morning. How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times by Sharon Nelson, Jim Calloway and Ross Kodner is a must-read for any lawyer who has seen his or her business decline during the recession or, even worse, lost a job. But more [...]

When You Go To Heaven Redux

A few days ago I linked to Courtney Kenneday’s post on what happens when a solo practitioner or small firm lawyer unexpectedly dies or becomes disabled without a plan. What I failed to include in my post is that there is a resource from the ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division to [...]

When You Go to Heaven…

…will your practice go to Hell? That’s the question that my friend Courtney Kennaday with the South Carolina Bar asks in a recent post complete with pictures of what can happen when a solo practitioner dies without a plan in place to handle unexpected death or disability. The post links to an article [...]

Time Management for the Professional Procrastinator

When I last posted to this blog back in March as I got busier and busier with the then- rapidly-approaching ABA TECHSHOW® 2009, I never dreamed that all of April, May and June, and most of July, would fly by before I’d get around to writing another post, so procrastination seems as fitting a topic [...]

ABA TECHSHOW: An Affordable Investment – Particularly in a Down Economy

I have to disclose right up front that I might be just a little bit biased since I’m chairing this year’s ABA TECHSHOW, presented by the ABA Law Practice Management Section (April 2-4), but even if I weren’t, I’d still feel this is one of the best CLE investments any lawyer can make given the [...]

When You Go to Heaven, Will Your Practice Go to Hell?

None of us likes to think about death and dying, even those of us who do wills and estate planning. But every lawyer should – especially those in solo practice and very small firms – because unexpected death or disability could really put your clients’ matters in jeopardy if you haven’t created a plan [...]