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Practice Management Assistance Pipe

The Practice Management Assistance Pipe is an aggregate of content from around the Web. Materials and links included in the Pipe are submitted by individuals not necessarily located in the District of Columbia. All postings are informational only and not intended as legal authority. Content does not necessarily reflect the policies of the D.C. Bar.

  • Untitled
    November 23, 2009
    At TECHSHOW 2009 I was pleased to work with web media guru Steve Matthews to present Supercharge Your Referrals with Technology, a seminar that focuses on successfully incorporating social media into your referral-based marketing efforts. Steve reminded me with this blog post that the paper that accompanied our seminar is now online at the TECHSHOW [...]
  • Suing a Client For Fees
    November 21, 2009
    You don’t need to visit the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis to know that Oregon has been hit hard by the recession. While modest job growth is expected over the next ten years, Oregon’s unemployment rate is stubbornly holding at 11.3%. How is the current economy affecting your firm? You’ve probably noticed it’s gotten tougher to collect [...]
  • Friday PMA Blog Roundup - 11/20/09
    Another great week's worth of posts from the law practice management advisors: Sheila Blackford blogged about billing and the billable hour, and added an additional post on delivering legal services online. Beverly Michaelis posted about electronic return receipts versus the traditional paper alternative. Stephen E Seckler, guest blogging on the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program blog, wrote about billing advantages for solo and small firms. Reid Trautz posted his much antici
  • Some Great Advice…
    November 20, 2009
    ♫ Every day I wander in negative disposition, as I’m bombarded by superlatives, realizing very well that I am not alone, introverted i look to tomorrow for salvation, but I’m thinking altruistically, and a wave of overwhelming doubt turns me to stone and I guess it struck a nerve…♫ Lyrics and music by Greg Graffin, recorded by Bad Religion. A fellow blogger Henrik [...]
  • Home Sweet Office
    November 20, 2009
    I never blogged about my Home Sweet Office article due to some technical issues here. But it is clear more and more lawyers are considering an office-based practice. I find it interesting that many of the success stories involve an...
  • Sites for Sore Eyes: Windows 7 Ready or Not?
    November 20, 2009
    In this month's edition of Sites for Sore Eyes, Windows 7 Ready or Not?, my co-author Courtney Kennaday and I explore a few sites to help you decide if Windows 7 is right for you, which version to buy and...
  • Virtually Yours – welcome to the new world of lawyering
    November 19, 2009
    The eLawyering Taskforce of the ABA Law Practice Management Section has a draft proposed set of guidelines for lawyers establishing virtual offices on the internet: Suggested Minimum Requirements for Law Firms Delivering Legal Services Online. The guidelines should prove useful for lawyers who wish to operate a web-based office, whether the lawyer has a [...]
  • Introducing ABA TechEZ: Tech-Savvy Savings for ABA Members
    The ABA has launched ABA TechEZ, www.abanet.org/techez, a directory of technology-related discounts for ABA members. Discounted products and services are divided into a wide range of categories including smartphones, encryption, website design, practice management, internet fax, online backup and much more. In addition, the directory links visitors to ABA resources such as articles, comparison charts, presentations, books and CLE to supply information on how to make smart technology purchasing d
  • Guest Post: The Solo and Small Firm Advantage: Leverage Your Alternative Billing Advantage When Big Firms Can't, or Won't
    We are fortunate to welcome Stephen E. Seckler, principal of Seckler Legal Consulting, as a guest blogger. Stephen is an attorney coach with twenty years experience in consulting with lawyers. (Stephen's full profile is available at his website.) Stephen maintains his own main blog, Counsel to Counsel (twice named to the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 List), as well as having established The Middle Office blog. Stephen will contribute his thoughts to the LOMAP Blog in the form of a series of posts cove
  • The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Success Now Available Through Amazon
    November 19, 2009
    We are pleased to note that The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Success: Essential Tips to Power Your Practice is now available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters (in Canada) and other book e-tailers. Although the book has been available via the ABA Webstore, it is now available for less than the ABA price and qualifies [...]
  • Free Case Research on Google Scholar
    November 19, 2009
    On November 17th, Google announced its latest offering: Google Scholar — a place where one can find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts, all for free.
  • Google Scholar Legal Opinion and Journal Search, ABA LTRC Free Full-Text Law Review/Law Journal Search
    Google officially announced adding legal opinion and journal search features to Google Scholar this week, following the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center's announcement of the release of a free full-text online law review/law journal search engine created using Google Custom Search. What are some differences between the two search engines?   Google Scholar legal searches often return a large number of fee-based journal sites and cannot currently be limited to searching free sources only;
  • LexisNexis Sells HotDocs Software Business to UK Company
    November 17, 2009
    LexisNexis announced today that Capsoft of Scotland has purchased the HotDocs software business from LexisNexis. LexisNexis retains its Automated Forms group and will continue to provide HotDocs enabled forms including those found on its LexisONE website. Read the full press release after the break
  • Luddites in the Dust…
    November 17, 2009
    ♫ Dust in the Wind All we are is dust in the wind…♫ Lyrics and Music by Kerry Livgren, recorded by Kansas. I wish to say thanks to the Lawyers Weekly and Valerie Mutton for including me along with Jennifer Gray, Technology Integration Specialist at McInnes, Cooper in Halifax and Lawrence Pascoe, a lawyer in Ottawa, in [...]
  • Google Scholar Adds Legal Journals and Opinions
    November 17, 2009
    In a move with possible profound implications, Google Scholar has added a dedicated search for legal journals and court opinions. Check it out here. Apparently they have the entire Heinonline database included as I located a couple of articles I...
  • High Tech Toys for the Holidays and Other Holiday Gift Ideas
    November 17, 2009
    I cannot believe they are already playing Christmas music in the malls! But the change of season also brings two great online resources for ideas for gifts for lawyers (or just for yourself if you have been good.) Sharon Nelson...
  • Independent Contractors
    November 17, 2009
    A number of law firms choose to classify part-time employees as Independent Contractors because it’s easier than adding them to payroll, or dealing with tax deductions, workers compensation, and benefit decisions based on part-time or erratic hours of service. But what are the risks involved?
  • Billing: Starting With and Going Beyond the Billable Hour
    November 16, 2009
    One of the areas of greatest interest to lawyers starting their law practice is billing for legal services. Most lawyers determine a hourly rate for their services following the factors sets out in Oregon Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5 Fees, (b) …”Factors to be considered as guides in determining the reasonableness of a fee [...]
  • Electronic Receipts: Legally Sufficient in Oregon?
    November 16, 2009
    Preparing return receipt certified mailings is a hassle. It’s time consuming, costly, not exactly sustainable, and often guaranteed to make your staff tear their hair out. Enter the green alternative: the electronic return receipt. Earlier this year, Washington state paved the way for use of electronic return receipt delivery with HB 1426. The bill provides: “Whenever a [...]
  • The 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers
    The Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers is back for the fifth year with all new and unique gift ideas for lawyers and law firms. I’ve been gathering ideas from many sources, ripping pages from catalogs and magazines, talking to lawyers, combing through e-mails from PR types, bookmarking websites, and then whittling them down to the best, thoughtful, fun and practical gifts for even the hardest-to-please attorney. I still don’t make a dime nor get free products, but I do get the satisfaction of knowin
  • A Couple of Updates..
    November 16, 2009
    ♫ It takes two, baby, It takes two…♫ Music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman. Of course you can access past issues on their website as well as sign up for their newsletter by email. A couple of updates: One: OnPoint Legal Research’s Take Five Newsletter is now up for November, summarizing the 5 [...]
  • Be Careful! Twitter Phishing Catches Lawyers, Too
    Twitter, the well known microblogging/social media tool, has become popular with lawyers over the past year. It's used to build professional networks, to share ideas and articles, to expand conference experiences, and according to some, it's even used to find clients. But Twitter's casual atmosphere and relative ease-of-use has led to dangerous (if inevitable) phenomena: Twitter phishing and Twitter spam. According to a recent MSNBC.com article, the current Twitter scams begin with phishing: inn
  • Free Full-text Online Law Review/Law Journal Search Engine
     The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center has created a free full-text online law review/law journal search engine that searches the free full-text of over 300 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories hosting academic papers and related publications such as Congressional Research Service reports.   The search engine, created using Google Custom Search, is designed to make it easier for people to find substantive legal analysis available on the Internet. Coverage m
  • The Busy Lawyer's Guide to Success Now Available on Amazon
    I am pleased to announce that The Busy Lawyer's Guide to Success: Essential Tips to Power Your Practice is now available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters (in Canada) and other book e-tailers. Although the book has been available via the ABA Webstore, it is now available for less than the ABA price and qualifies for free shipping from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.Dan Pinnington and I wrote The Busy Lawyer's Guide to Success to be a compact and practical idea book to help lawyers efficien
  • The Ethics of Social Media
    November 13, 2009
    In her column, A Word of Caution: Social Media for Lawyers, Oregon State Bar Deputy General Counsel Helen Hierschbiel shares six cardinal rules for lawyers using social media. The advice is spot-on. If you or your clients are using Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, or any other social networking site, be sure you understand the ethical implications [...]
  • There’s Apps for Those, Too: The iPhone is Not the Only Well-App-Ointed Smart Phone
    I’d like to thank Sudbay Motors of Gloucester for providing wireless internet in their waiting room, so that I could research and draft part of this blog while I waited for a small repair to be made on my gallant Jeep Commander (I love this car) this Valentine’s Day, er, I mean . . . Veteran’s Day. Jeeps being originally military vehicles, this seemed highly appropriate. Sudbay, I should say, has a really sweet waiting room, otherwise, as well, as it features leather couches and chairs and a sta
  • Smartphone Shootout – Which Is Best For You?
    November 12, 2009
    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 [...]
  • Peace of Mind from Blackberry
    November 12, 2009
    BlackBerrys have a special security feature that will send out an emergency notification if you type in a password under duress.
  • Judge Rules FTC Cannot Make Lawyers Comply With Identity Theft Laws
    November 12, 2009
    The new Red Flags Rules which went into effect on November 1, 2009 were supposed to apply to lawyers, according to the FTC. Just two days ahead of the deadline, a federal judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted lawyers a reprieve.
  • Trusts And Estates Practitioners Need To Be Aware Of Family Law Act
    November 10, 2009
    Cross posted at Slaw.ca There is a fantastic article by John Harvey at page 12 in the October 26 issue of Law Times. (Sorry I can’t give you a public link – unfortunately it is locked up for Law Times subscribers – They can access it in the Law Times Digital Edition here. While written for [...]
  • Open sesame!
    November 10, 2009
    Open multiple files and file types at one time. Whenever you start a dialog box to navigate to and select files, you always have the option of selecting multiple files to perform the same operation on. Hold down the Control Key and click the files you want to see. Move the cursor over one of [...]
  • LSUC Residential Real Estate Transactions Practice Guidelines and Title Insurance
    November 9, 2009
    The Residential Real Estate Transactions Practice Guidelines, adopted by the Law Society of Upper Canada in January, 2007 (the “Practice Guidelines”), provide guidance to lawyers in residential practice in a world where title insurance has become the norm. The Law Society of Upper Canada Real Estate Checklist (first adopted in the 1980s and revised [...]
  • Should You Be Charging Flat Fees?
    November 9, 2009
    A recent Business Journal post suggests that the number of clients requesting flat fee arrangements in Oregon has doubled in the past year. Why would clients prefer a flat fee? Certainty – the client knows up front exactly what your services will cost. Budgeting – if the client knows what it’s going to cost, he or she can [...]
  • A New Portal…
    November 6, 2009
    ♫ Feel in my heart the start of something new…♫ Lyrics and music by: Matthew Gerrard & Robbie Nevil, from High School Musical. The BC Courthouse Library Society is launching their new website today (http://www.courthouselibrary.ca/cms/) which should be ‘live’ shortly (the old site is still there as this is posted). The new site certainly fulfills their Strategic [...]
  • Verizon's Droid: Not Ready for Primetime?
    The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg tries to love the new Motorola Droid, but his integrity shines through his prose and he is really letting readers know the new phone is not ready to take on the iPhone. But is Walter's review written with an eye to the future of all Android phones? I'm guessing he has also read the Computerworld article about Android OS phones from Google surpassing the Apple iPhone in worldwide sales in 2014. What you say? Yep, according to the article, Gartner is forca
  • Time in a Bottleneck: Online Scheduling Tools Make Meetings Happen
    Getting a large number of people together for a meeting is like herding cats into a bathtub. When you’re talking busy cats . . . I mean, people . . . it’s even worse. Grease those cats. Now, give those greased cats business suits and a knowledge of how to exploit loopholes. Lawyers are some of the busiest cats around. Grease ‘em, but don’t teach ‘em how to drive. But, whether you’re trying to organize colleagues, clients and/or related professionals, it’s pretty clear, and pretty quickly, that e
  • Form Of Order In Applications To Prove A Lost Will Under Ontario Rule 75.02
    November 4, 2009
    Cross-posted on the SLAW blog (www.slaw.ca) As part of a brief endorsement dated November 3, 2009 in RE: IN THE ESTATE OF Evelyn O’Reilly, et. al., Justice D. M. Brown of the Superior Court Of Justice–Ontario provided some useful direction on the form and content of an order in applications to prove a lost will under [...]
  • Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
    November 4, 2009
    The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) goes into effect on November 21, 2009. You will need to replace your federal employment rights poster(s) at your office in order to remain in compliance.
  • When It’s Time to Say “So Long…”
    November 4, 2009
    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 [...]
  • Lawyer/Client Communication Errors Are The Biggest Cause Of Malpractice Claims
    November 3, 2009
    For my first real post to AvoidAClaim, I want to focus on the biggest cause of malpractice claims: lawyer/client communication-related errors. Over the last eleven years, by cost and count, more than one-third of LAWPRO claims involved this type of error – almost $25 million or close to 8,200 claims. The adjacent pie chart shows the [...]
  • The Importance of Planning
    November 3, 2009
    I spoke at the The Oregon Minority Lawyers Association (OMLA) and the Multnomah Bar Association (MBA) Hanging Out Your Shingle yesterday with two successful Portland, Oregon solo practitioners, Ken Mitchell-Phillips of Mitchell Phillips Law PC and John Kodachi of John A. Kodachi, PC. Our panel was moderated by Anastasia Yu Meisner, Guyer Meisner, Attorneys, [...]
  • Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Third Party E-Mail
    November 3, 2009
    Excerpt from New York Court Scores Over Oregon In Recent Email Privacy Opinions by Jennifer Granick Last week, two new district court opinions took opposing views on the question of whether the Fourth Amendment protects stored email. One of the cases easily adopted the prevailing view that the Constitution protects electronic communications, while the other ignored [...]
  • Lawyer to Lawyer
    November 2, 2009
    Occasionally I get calls from lawyers, both new and not so new, with a legal question. Fortunately for me (and them) I can give them the same answer every time. Use the Lawyer-to-Lawyer Directory. It’s part of the Lawyers Desk Book every year. It’s a list of lawyers who have experience in a practice area [...]
  • That’s a Wicked Google-y!: Refine Your Googling with Search Operators and Latent Functionality
    I’ve written previously here at the blog about some of the nifty applications and programs that the folks over at Google have introduced. Not that I ever really get into web stuff, but I have been generally impressed with Google. My like affair began when I made two almost concurrent moves: I stopped searching in Yahoo! and went to Google, and I switched my email over from Hotmail (Hotmail used to be good, but the new Hotmail (Windows Live) really, really, really . . . really sucks) to GMail. I
  • The Future of Lawyers?
    October 29, 2009
    ♫ I’ve seen the future, baby: it is murder. Things are going to slide …♫ Lyrics, music and recorded by Leonard Cohen. I had the pleasure of attending The Futures conference in Denver CO recently that was part of the College of Law Practice Management’s Annual General Meeting. Several themes were developed during that conference, some of which took some [...]
  • ABA TECHSHOW Discounts, Plus Best of TECHSHOW
    October 28, 2009
    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 [...]
  • Evernote for Lawyers and Law Practice Today
    Folks who follow me on Twitter (@erikmazzone) know that I love Evernote. They also know I drink too much coffee and hate Notre Dame and the Red Sox. But I digress. If you are curious about Evernote - what it is and how you might use it - I wrote an article in the October issue of Law Practice Today that is a short primer on Evernote. Check it out and see if you can use Evernote in your office or at home.  
  • Stay Closer to Clients - 4 Tips for Better Email Newsletters
    I have a love-hate thing with email newsletters. On the one hand, I am consititutionally incapable of refraining from signing up for an email newsletter from any business I patronize. Erik see sign up list. Erik sign up. On the other, I occassionally stare at my overstuffed Gmail inbox with the intense desire to nuke the entire thing. While I will sign up for newsletters with reckless abandon, simply making it into my inbox is no guarantee that I will actually read the thing. In fact, I delete m
  • Getting Control of Email Glut on a Monday Morning/Afternoon
    October 26, 2009
    Had a -first-thing-Monday-morning appointment in Portland, Oregon. Rain-swollen streets made me look forward to getting into my dry office in Tigard. Until I fired up my computer and saw 399 unread emails waiting for me. Email glut on gray Monday morning is especially dreary. I know that a big chunck of [...]
  • A Tale of Two Emails or I Don’t Talk to Strangers
    October 26, 2009
    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 [...]
  • Preach What You Practice: LOMAP Debuts New Podcast, "The UnBillable Hour"
    Back in July (which seems like it was just yesterday, given our being recently hit with a heat wave two days following a snowstorm--the Spirit works in mysterious ways, does he not), Rodney wrote here at the blog about the importance of listening to podcasts. Taking not wanting to be hypocritical to the extreme, Rodney has decided that just listening to podcasts is not good enough for him. Oh, no. He must, instead, host his own podcast. The man is just insatiable.In wanting to practice what he p
  • Windows 7 Arrives. Should You Invite It In?
    October 22, 2009
    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 [...]
  • Outlook contacts
    October 21, 2009
    If you’re like me, you have created multiple folders under your main address book in Outlook. I store my personal contacts in the default Contacts address book, which I can access from my Windows Mobile device. However, I created additional folders for groups of other contacts by going to Contacts and choosing File – New [...]
  • Read Out Loud
    October 20, 2009
    Adobe Acrobat Standard and Professional versions will read PDF files to you! This feature is called Read Out Loud and it is easy to use. Using the feature is a two-step process. First the feature is activated; next you command it to read. To use the feature open a PDF: 1. Click on View>Activate Read Out [...]
  • Read Out Loud - 10/19/09
    October 20, 2009
    Adobe Acrobat Standard will read PDF files to you! This feature is called Read Out Loud and it is easy to use.
  • Carolyn Elefant Takes a Final Bow at Legal Blog Watch
    After 1,680 blog posts at Legal Blog Watch, Carolyn Elefant has decided to take a well-deserved break from the daily grind of blogging. Blogging consistently is not easy, but Carolyn and her blog partner Bob Ambrogi have not only done it consistently, but have achieved consistent excellence in the information they provide to the legal profession. Bob will be continuing the tradition with a new blogging partner, but I want to say "thank you" to Carolyn for being one of the first and one of the be
  • In Defense of Multi-tasking, or How I Justify Driving and Texting
        Not really. It's hard to text at 80mph. Kidding. Sort of. But that's between me and my traffic attorney. (Thanks, Timothy!) Recently, multitasking - that darling of 80's productivity - has gotten a bad rap. It turns out that multittasking makes it harder for your brain to focus or switch between complicated tasks. (Tip: avoid complicated tasks; works like the dickens!) Here's the thing about these studies, though. They all treat multitasking as if it is some kind of weird street p
  • Niche Marketing for the Small Law Firm
      Sometimes you learn something brand new. Other times you find a new way to look at something old. The other day I was at a meeting (no surprise there; Bar Association life includes a LOT of meetings...) of the NCBA Law Practice Management Section Council. Our new section chair is my friend Lee Rosen of Divorce Discourse; Lee is fairly well known in our state as an innovative law firm managing partner with an outside the box approach to, well, just about everything. So I knew this section
  • Is There a Time Bomb in your LinkedIn Profile?
    I got an interesting email the other day. It was from a North Carolina lawyer asking me my opinion about a facet of LinkedIn profiles. The question was (paraphrasing): do you think social networking profiles that ask users to list their "specialties" could yield potential violations of Rule 7.4 of the Rules for Professional Conduct? He was asking about LinkedIn in particular, so I decided to take another look at the profile. LinkedIn profiles feature a field called "specialties." Here is a scre
  • How to Succeed in the Practice of Law When You Are “Suddenly Solo”
    July 15, 2009
    The latest issue of Law Practice Today (www.lawpracticetoday.org), the ABA Law Practice Management’s webzine was published today. This blockbuster issue has all sorts of great articles for the “suddenly solo” lawyer. This is new lawyer starting out as a solo because they didn’t get a job at a firm, or someone leaving a firm [...]
  • Eight Time-Saving, Productivity-Enhancing Management Tips for Busy Bar Leaders
    July 13, 2009
    I recently had the opportunity to address the incoming national and chapter leadership of the American Immigration Lawyers Association at the annual meeting in Las Vegas. It was a great event, and I want to salute the hard work of these lawyers who, in addition to having busy law practices, help our profession through their [...]
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