Law Practice Management CLE
Quimbee's law practice management continuing legal education (CLE) courses deliver the content lawyers need with engaging videos that are fun to watch.
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Quimbee Law Practice Management CLE Online
If you're looking for a simple, engaging way to learn about law practice management and fulfill your continuing legal education (CLE) requirements, look no further than Quimbee CLE online.
All Quimbee CLE online courses are built from the ground up by our world-class team of attorneys and designers. Our goal is to create a product that will not only help you meet your CLE requirements but will actually be enjoyable. Sign up for a Quimbee CLE course today!
An Overview of Law Practice Management
For all of their training and education, many lawyers are woefully unprepared for running a business. And law firms can be incredibly complex businesses. Firms can consist of a single attorney or thousands of attorneys; in addition, firms must employ support staff such as paralegals, legal assistants, and secretaries, among others.
Lawyers often struggle to balance the responsibilities of helping clients with those of managing the business of their firm. The ABA Law Practice Division is one organization that works to help lawyers better understand the business of legal practice. In addition to their client obligations, lawyers who manage their own firms must know about marketing, technology, finance, and more.
Who Should Take CLE Courses in Law Practice Management?
Because lawyers receive little (or no) formal training in practice management, any minute spent learning how to run a practice is likely to be highly beneficial. For solo practitioners or lawyers at small firms, good practice management can make or break a firm’s success. And for non-attorney practice managers, learning new tips and tools is key to running a more effective firm. At just $49 per credit hour, there's no more economical way to improve your practice management than with a Quimbee CLE course.
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LinkedIn and Twitter and Blogs, Oh My! Social Media's Impact on Ethics in the Practice of Law
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.
COVID-19: Issues for Reopening Physical Workspaces and Returning Employees to the Office
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.
Starting and Managing a Solo Law Practice: Business, Legal and Ethical Issues, Part I
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.
Starting and Managing a Solo Law Practice: Business, Legal and Ethical Issues, Part II
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.
Doing More in Less Time For Lawyers
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.
Making a Paperless Workflow Work
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.
An Introduction to e-Discovery - Sanctions Await the Nonchalant
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.
Conducting Workplace Investigations for Better Businesses
This module provides an overview of the skills needed to conduct thorough, effective, and actionable workplace investigations. Participants will learn how to sift through a variety of material using best practices and clearly present results that businesses rely on when making important decisions. The basic questions an investigator might have will be addressed: what constitutes a complaint, when to investigate, who should investigate, and how to investigate. It also addresses issues of confidentiality, provides tools to better determine witness credibility, and underscores the necessity of unpacking one’s own biases prior to undertaking an investigation. This CLE will benefit in-house and general counsel, third-party attorneys who regularly conduct investigations, HR personnel, and anyone else involved in determining who did what at work.
Collaborating with Outside Attorneys as a Solo or Small Firm: Ethical and Practical Considerations
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.
Attorney Fees: The Legal Ethics Rules of the Road
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.
Current Issues in Technology
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.
Introduction to the Livable Law Method: Using Legal Project Management to Prevent Women and BIPOC Attorneys From Walking Out the Door
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.
Retainer Agreements As Best Practice: Risk Management Tools And Ethical Considerations
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.
Time Management for Lawyers
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.
Current Issues in Technology Part II
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.
The Ethics of Errors
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.
Ethically Safeguarding Your Practice
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.
Lateral Moves and MRPC 1.10
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.
Social Media and Legal Ethics: Attorney Advertising and The Investigative Uses of Social Media
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.
Navigating Attorney Ethics While Networking and Building a Book of Business
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.
7 Challenges & Solutions: Stress Management and Mindfulness for Lawyers
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.
Ethics for Virtual Lawyering
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.
Legal Tech 101
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.
It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye! Business Valuation, Business Succession, and Estate Planning
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.
Expand Your Practice and Earnings Through Unbundled or Limited Scope Legal Services
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.
The Ethics of Outsourcing
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.
IOLTA 101: Ethically Handling Your Trust Account To Avoid Disciplinary Concerns
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.
Email Communications for Lawyers: Strategies and Ethics
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.
Impact of COVID-19 on Law Practice Management
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.
The Ethics of Dealing with Capacity and Mental Health Issues in the Practice of Law
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.
Do's and Don'ts of Establishing an Attorney-Client Relationship: Engagement Agreements and Disengagement Letters
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.
How the Internet Is Making Lawyering Worse and How to Be a Good Lawyer in Spite of It
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.
Accessing Court Records - New Rules & Case Updates
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.
The Do's and Don'ts of Networking for Lawyers: Growing Your Book of Business Ethically
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.
LinkedIn and Twitter and Blogs, Oh My! Social Media's Impact on Ethics in the Practice of Law
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.
COVID-19: Issues for Reopening Physical Workspaces and Returning Employees to the Office
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.
Starting and Managing a Solo Law Practice: Business, Legal and Ethical Issues, Part I
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.
Starting and Managing a Solo Law Practice: Business, Legal and Ethical Issues, Part II
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.