Law Practice Management CLE

Do you friend, tweet, connect, or blog with colleagues, friends, clients, and others? If so, have you installed an automatic mental pause button before posting on social media? Are you now wondering about where and why to find said pause button? Well, you have come to the right course because we will explore the answers to these questions and more as we journey to uncover the impact of social media upon the practice of law. After a bit of historical context, the course will reveal why today’s lawyer must be imbued with social media savvy in order to effectively represent clients, market a law practice, and avoid ethical landmines that endanger a lawyer’s license to practice law.

Reopening physical workspaces will require both employers and employees to confront new realities and to address both physical and operational changes required by the lingering effects of Covid-19 on the workplace. This program will offer a guideline for assisting both employers and employees to navigate the new post-Covid-19 workplace.

When you decide to “hang out your shingle” and start a solo practice, you are an entrepreneur, just like someone starting a tech company or other new venture, and you face many of the same business, legal and tax challenges that entrepreneurs face. It’s a regulated business, of course, and you must operate your practice ethically and professionally, but it’s a business nonetheless. It’s impossible to commit malpractice or an ethical violation if you don’t have any clients. In part one of this fast-paced, two part presentation, hosted by a leading legal author, columnist and media personality who has operated a solo law practice out of his home for the past 25 years, you will learn the basics of starting and running a successful law practice.

Opening your own law firm? Congratulations! You are officially an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur you will face many challenges and you must operate your practice ethically and professionally. The law is a profession, but it is also a business and to maximize your chances of success you must have a plan. In the conclusion of this exciting two part presentation, hosted by a leading legal author, columnist and media personality who has operated a solo law practice out of his home for the past 25 years, you will learn best practices for dealing with clients and making sure your operations are profitable at all times.

Have you ever felt frustrated by technology? Or, have you ever wondered how to be more productive? Often, you can get more done in less time if you improve your workflow, and if you learn how to use technology more efficiently. Many lawyers and staff struggle with these concepts, in large part because they were never trained how to do the programs their offices rely on. This program, based on presenter Dan Siegel’s popular book, How to Do More in Less Time, demonstrates practical, easy-to-use and implement ways for attorneys and busy professionals to use technology to be more effective – doing so in less time than through traditional methods. The program will explain how to customize and take better advantage of the technology already in use in law offices.

Lawyers generate tons of paper. Receiving, reviewing, producing, sharing, filing, and retrieving paper documents has a huge cost to a practice, whether it is a solo or small firm, a large firm, a corporate legal department, or a government or public interest office. Fortunately, lawyers can save time and money by transitioning to a paperless office. In fact, during the pandemic, lawyers quickly realized that if their offices were not digitized – that is, every document scanned and available for viewing online – they were not able to function. This course will take users through the basics of becoming paperless and highlight the benefits of a digitized workflow. You’ve put it off for years. It’s time to learn how reducing the amount of paper in your practice will increase your productivity.

e-Discovery has exploded onto the scene of commercial litigation. From its rudimentary beginnings around the start of the 21st Century, it has now become a major component of such litigation. Some have even dubbed it “The Tail that Wags the Dog in Complex Commercial Litigation.” In this Introduction to e-Discovery, attorneys learn e-Discovery from both the vendor’s and the litigator’s perspective. Participants will analyze several cases in which courts have admonished, sanctioned, or ruled harshly against attorneys who have been nonchalant about preserving, collecting, reviewing, or producing e-Discovery.

Solo and small firm attorneys often face the familiar challenge of handling work demands during peak times. How can a small firm continue to offer excellent client service when there are only so many hours in the day? Small firms often look outside to contract attorneys, co-counsel, or refer work out in order to ensure client needs are met. This program will discuss the ethical considerations involved when working with contract attorneys, co-counsel relationships, and referral relationships.

New client and wondering how to handle the fee arrangement? Retainer? Contingency arrangement? What’s a lawyer to do to ensure reasonable, collectable fees? Driving business is a necessary part of the practice of law and the legal ethics rules of the road are an essential part of the roadmap. This course, presented by Jan Jacobowitz, will explore the fundamental categories of fees, reasonableness standards, methods of fee collection, trust account issues, and more.

This course is designed to give guidance to lawyers on various issues under the umbrella of technology law. In every aspect of a lawyer’s career, technology plays a role. Technology is so important to today’s lawyer that state bar associations are starting to add a technology element to required CLEs. This course provides a summary of issues related to counseling clients in content of technology-related contracts, document retention policies, and e-discovery issues should litigation ensue.

The practice of law has a big problem: women and BIPOC lawyer attrition. Studies show that the mental health of women and BIPOC lawyers suffers more and they leave the profession faster than others. But late nights and unpredictable hours are symptoms of mismanagement, not inherent in legal work. In this course, Dr. Carminati will discuss the Livable Law Method she created to guide legal organizations toward implementing agile project management techniques. With this method, managers can learn to equalize workflow, improve transparency, and decrease needless stress. Most importantly, they can improve outcomes for women and BIPOC lawyers in their organizations.

The retainer agreement is an often neglected tool to meet our ethical obligations to our clients while simultaneously managing and reducing professional risks inherent in the practice of law. The retainer agreement touches on virtually every kind of private practice and directly addresses the two greatest sources of professional risk to attorneys – ethical obligations and legal duties to clients. This course explores the basics of the retainer agreement along with corresponding ethical considerations in the context of every day professional risks lawyers face through a review of the ABA’s model rules, sample retainers and ethics opinions. The “living” retainer agreement as a risk management device and best practice tool, including an overview of paralleling ethical considerations will be explored, along with how to develop a firm-wide retainer agreement plan.

I once heard that the legal profession is like a pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie. As lawyers, the more work that you get done, the more pie, or work, that you are assigned. If young lawyers do not learn how to manage their time and case load effectively, this can be a source of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm throughout their entire careers. This presentation discusses what time management is, why lawyers should care about time management and discusses various methods and techniques lawyers can use to get organized. This course will discuss why multi-tasking is not effective, why procrastination seems so satisfying in the moment, and how to break the habit loops that can keep lawyers stuck. By the end of this presentation, the participants will have several tools to utilize to become more productive and manage their legal practice and lives more effectively.

This course is designed to expand on various issues under the umbrella of technology law. In every aspect of a lawyer’s career, technology plays a role. Technology is so important to today’s lawyer that state Bars are starting to add a technology element to required CLEs. This course provides a summary of issues related to e-discovery issues should litigation ensue and addresses attorney duties in regards to data security.

It’s not easy being a lawyer. Attorneys face rigid deadlines, packed calendars, and long hours. Clients are often stubborn and unforgiving, demanding 110% of your attention and expecting five-star work at 2-star prices. As attorneys are only human, even the most skilled and seasoned will inevitably, to some degree, make a mistake. A mistake may damage your case, and might also threaten your relationship with a client or even your position at a firm. But failing respond appropriately to a mistake will jeopardize your license and your career. During this course, we will consider an attorney’s duties related to error disclosure, what exactly those duties require, and why it’s important to take these duties seriously.

Given the rise in more employees working remotely, constant changes in technology, increases in data breaches, and the rise in more frequent employee turnover, knowing how to safeguard your law practice - both internally and externally - has become increasingly important. Lawyers also tend to me immersed in the practice of law and not in the practice of protecting valuable data - not just client data - but the lawyer's own work product and intellectual property. It is more critical now then ever to know how to safeguard such valuable assets.

The stars have all aligned. You have an attorney position to fill, and have found the perfect candidate with the right credentials, experience and book of business, who clears the initial conflicts checks (review of clients and matters on which the attorney is/was actively working). The attorney, looking for more interesting and meaningful work, better opportunities for advancement, and more money, has accepted your offer and is ready to start work. Your firm knows the value of having screening mechanisms in place, but even with all the “T”s crossed and “I”s dotted, the potential for a conflict of interest may arise. How can your firm implement an effective conflicts of interest screen and have some comfort in its effectiveness if and when the time comes to defend against a disqualification motion? During this course, we will consider how to build, implement and regulate effective screens for lateral hires.

This CLE program will cover the principal legal ethics rules implicated by lawyers’ social media use. In particular, we will cover the ethics rules governing confidentiality, trial publicity, and attorney advertising and solicitation— Model Rules 1.6, 3.6, 7.1 and 7.3— and how those rules interact with lawyers’ social media use. The second half of the presentation will detail the investigative uses of social media, including how Model Rules 4.2, 3.5, and 8.4 govern contact with represented persons, researching jurors, and impeaching witnesses.

Networking and client outreach are key at many points in a legal career, from strengthening current client relationships to getting jobs to building your professional community. Yet many lawyers shy away from networking or worry about running afoul of ethical rules when talking to prospective clients. This CLE addresses key professional rules lawyers should follow when engaging in practice management activities and walks participants through the creation of a personalized plan designed to help them communicate with current and prospective clients in an effective and ethical way.

Being a lawyer inevitably means experiencing a lot of stress. Stress is impossible to avoid, but it is not impossible to manage. You can learn how to handle stress for your own sake, the sake of your loved ones, and for your own career satisfaction and success. During this seminar, Cheyne Scott shares various techniques for addressing seven common stress points most lawyers share. As a litigation partner, Ms. Scott is walking in your shoes everyday. As a Certified Life Coach, she will show you to a different path for handling the stresses of practice so you can find balance amid chaos and uncertainty, and take personal satisfaction in work that you do.

Interacting online as a lawyer is a minefield of potential ethics violations. What ethics opinions are there that provide guidance for day-to-day activities? This course will review ethics opinions from the ABA and state bars around the country that address issues of blogging, selling legal informational recordings, engaging in social media, responding to negative online reviews, how to handle inadvertent email communications, and whether you can accept virtual currency as payment of legal fees.

With legal practice reforms enabling law firms to build their tech stacks and scale their services, coupled with the accelerating rate of innovation, now more than ever, embracing technology is necessary for legal practitioners to stay afloat in the era of digitalization. This 1-hour long CLE will explore how technology is the reshaping of key elements of the law firm business model and what lawyers can do to future-proof their practices and mitigate the problems that most firms and practitioners face today.

Selling or transferring a company can be a once in a lifetime event and understanding the value of the company when transferring it can be a difficult challenge. This course will focus on how to value a company and how to successfully transfer the company and capture its value while minimizing the tax liability and the estate planning that follows. Roman Basi will teach participants the methods used in valuations, succession planning, estate planning, and much more.

Many legal consumers are only familiar with traditional, full-scope legal representation. However, this is not practical or affordable for many, and perhaps even most, Americans. This leads many to decide to “go it alone” and represent themselves. However, some representation is almost always better than no representation at all. Offering flexible representation, also called unbundled, limited scope, or à la carte services, allows you to connect with legal consumers who may otherwise feel priced out of the legal market. During this hour long seminar, we will address what precisely “unbundled” and limited scope services are (and are not) and what benefits can be achieved not only to the consumer but also to you as an attorney in offering these options. We will also provide you with resources, from the relevant ethical rules to tips on how to identify appropriate candidates for unbundled or limited scope services.

This presentation will cover what you need to know about outsourcing, how to use it, and how to avoid malpractice traps.We also cover other services regularly outsourced by firms, as well as the financial benefits of outsourcing, so that attorneys can stay focused on their cases. By attending this presentation, you'll learn how the ABAand State Bar Associations have applied ethical rules in the context of outsourcing legal services and support.

Mismanaging an IOLTA account is one of the primary reasons that attorneys find themselves in disciplinary hot water, and misconduct, even if “innocent,” can lead to discipline, including loss of the ability to practice. In many cases, the attorney involved has never been trained how to handle a trust account, and does not know the best practices for handling one. In this program, attendees will learn about the relevant Rules of Professional Conduct, particularly Rule 1.15, and best practices for handling client and other funds in their IOLTA accounts.

Lawyers and staff are drowning in email, and many feel helpless when trying to get it under control. While communicating with clients via email may be quick and easy, there are ethical pitfalls that can cause problems for unwary lawyers. This program will cover how to efficiently store and organize email and attachments, successfully deal with high email volume, and communicate ethically and effectively with clients.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the workplace for lawyers and law firms. The pandemic brought the workforce to a halt in early 2020. Suddenly, law firms, among other businesses, were required to implement technology that allowed attorneys and support staff to work remotely. Two years later, many lawyers have returned to the office and members of the judiciary have returned to the courthouses. However, some have remained at home or enjoyed a hybrid work environment. The impact on our clients, firm culture, firm finances, and our collective mental health will be long lasting.

Although lawyers do not receive formal training on how to assess capacity, they make capacity judgments on a regular basis. Lawyers should be familiar with the signs of “diminished capacity” that may be apparent when meeting with a client and how to address such a situation. Lawyers must be aware of the ethical guidelines for assessing capacity as well as the standards of capacity for specific legal transactions under state statutes and case law.

You’ve identified a great client, but now you need make sure that you’re properly establishing that attorney-client relationship. You’ve withdrawn from a case, but now you need to make sure the client understands that your representation has ended. As with any relationship, knowing how to establish the parameters of an attorney-client relationship, and how to successfully terminate that relationship, is key. Participants in this course will gain an understanding of the importance of successfully establishing an attorney-client relationship, and how to address the end of that relationship.

Internet based technologies, such as email, document management software, teleconferencing, and ediscovery, for all their upsides, are in fact making it harder to do diligent lawyering. This course analyzes how technology has changed the way lawyers work and even think, and how some basic rules of evidence can no longer be followed. Due to professional pressures we are forced into technologies we don’t need and forced to practice in sloppy ways where mistakes are more likely. We are increasingly surrounded by “dark matter”, case file materials or relevant evidence which cannot be accessed and which we may not even know exists. Strange as it might seem much of our time now is waiting for software to execute, time which we cannot devote to other matters. The presentation ends with simple suggestions on how to get the digital beast under control.

In this one hour course, attorney Charles “Chuck” Dalziel, will take a deep dive into the current statutes and recent decisions that affect access to various types of court records. We will discuss how the U.S. Constitution and various federal statutes extend to the right to access court records depending on they type of case you are dealing with, including the limitations on using and obtaining juvenile court records. This course will also provide an overview on how to obtain court records and review relevant caselaw in this area.

Whether you are a seasoned attorney, or just starting out, networking and growing your book of business is crucial in the private practice of law. In this presentation, we will discuss strategies for developing, growing, and utilizing a network of professionals while ensuring compliance with ethics rules. We will also discuss how to turn that network into trusted referral partners. We will discuss how to network to grow that book and avoid ethical lapses.

"Self-care without team care is futile." This is the starting point of this talk. Many people have described the practice of law as toxic, but that toxicity is also how we feel we "have to get things done." What if you could change that? As a partner, law firm manager, or managing attorney, you can. Over the course of an hour, you will be introduced to agile project management techniques that you can implement, immediately, as well as principles and approaches to change the way you see firm management. We will cover the three pillars of the Livable Law legal project management method: tasks, time, and things. You will be able to implement scrum meetings, task lists, efficient calendaring, and document organization.

This talk should change your life. No small feat, but that's the goal. This program will help you understand where your sense of "overwhelm" is coming from, how the practice of the law makes it inevitable, and what you can do about it. The practice of law is toxic, but that toxicity is related to how we feel we have to "get things done." What if you could change that? As a solo or an associate, there are only so many resources around you, but understanding how to create new tools, how to shift your law practice paradigm, and how to protect yourself are key to avoiding burn out (or recognizing that you are burning out, and doing something about it). You will be introduced to some agile project management techniques that you can implement immediately, as well as principles and approaches to change the way you see the practice of law. We will also cover the three pillars of the Livable Law legal project management method: tasks, time, and things.

This one hour presentation will help lawyers regain control of their email inboxes and enhance their communication practices to adhere with ethical standards through the utilization of available technologies. We will discuss various legal ethical standards that apply to controlling your email inbox, while discussing ways to organize and sort your inbox. This course will also provide demonstrations of different software programs for both intra-office and client communications.

Professor Tim Chinaris, former Ethics Director of the Florida Bar, will explore how attorneys may find themselves facing ethical problems unknowingly and how to avoid these ethical traps. This course will discuss various ethics-related “technology traps” when getting, communicating with, and representing clients. The course will also analyze the various technological developments that are affecting the legal profession, including AI and technology-driven legal help websites.

Social media is an ever-growing area that affects the practice of law, through attorney advertising, social networking, evidence collection, and monitoring. According to the Rules of Professional Conduct, attorneys must stay knowledgeable about anything that affects the practice of law, including social media. This course will touch on some of the basics of social media through various platforms. This course will also discuss the applicable rules of professional conduct that can be violated if attorneys are not careful regarding activity online. This course will address real-life case scenarios and examples of “what not to do”.

This course reviews the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct regarding conflicts of interest from a law firm risk management perspective. Various sources of conflicts-based risk will be explored and best practices/defenses will be examined. Logistical realities and actionable steps to better protect law firms and lawyers will be discussed.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is has unquestionably penetrated into the practice of law. In today’s hands-on course, attorneys will experience a detailed demonstration of what AI can do and how its use can be relevant to the practice of law. While AI can function as an aid to attorneys, there are limitations to AI that must be recognized. This course will help attorneys understand how to carefully use AI in their practice.

Every law firm, whether large or small, uses technology. That technology ranges from word-processing, to calendaring, to client billing software, to litigation support. In the last few years, there have been numerous instances where law firm operations have been impacted by technology failures, including hacking. In this presentation, we will focus on understanding relevant ethical obligations to lawyers, reasons why law firms are being targeted, and how to mitigate cybersecurity risks to your law firm.

Proficiency when using Microsoft Word is vital to the legal practitioner. In this practical program, attorneys will learn fundamental tips and tricks for Microsoft Word on Mac computers. This course will aim to provide instruction for attorneys on time saving practices in their everyday tasks. We will analyze the customization of the Word ribbon/toolbar, including how to create new custom tabs and ribbons for efficiency, as well as review styles, page numbers, and section breaks. This course will also provide an overview of how attorneys can use Word to build out tables of content and tables of authorities for legal documents.

This course will take a deep dive into various legal technology used in law firms today, specifically addressing the efficiency of such technology, the ethical implications created by using this technology, and compliance considerations when managing data. We will also discuss legal analytics to address how and why law firms use them. This course will also provide practical considerations for using technology tools to establish law firm processes and review best practices for attorneys when working virtually.

This course examines the ethical and practical issues arising when a client appears to be in a state of diminished capacity, and it provides counsel with methods for detecting an impairment and with focused analysis of the relevant Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The updated terms of Rule 1.14, entitled “Client with Diminished Capacity,” will be explored, with special attention given to the integration of key tenets of the Model Rules governing client communications, confidentiality, conflicts of interest and termination of representation into Rule 1.14.

Have you ever considered what advice you wish you had known when you were a new lawyer? This program is based on attorney Lewis Grimm of Jones Day’s consideration of this question. This course will provide practical considerations for new attorneys and helpful reminders for experienced practitioners in areas such as dealing with opposing counsel, advising clients, staying aware of your own mental and physical health, and understanding how to thoughtfully shape your own career.

Online legal products being built in all areas of law. The possibilities are limitless. In this enlightening course, Dorna Moini will address the current state of online legal services and how the traditional attorney-client relationship is shifting with the use of online services.

This course is designed to enhance awareness and understanding of neurodiversity and non-apparent disabilities in the workplace. Recognizing that diversity and inclusion are essential components of a thriving legal practice, this course provides legal professionals with insights, tools, and strategies to create an inclusive environment for individuals with non-apparent disabilities.