Years ago, I put together a presentation called “The Client-Centered Law Practice.” It focused on the irony that while law firms focused on serving clients and appropriately addressing their legal needs, clients sometimes had an impression that differed from that. To those (hopefully few) clients, it seemed that the law firm was busily engaged doing
Law Firm Management
Can Lawyers Legally and Ethically Record Conversations with Clients Using Artificial Intelligence – and Should They?
Technology advances change many things. A few decades ago, most lawyers would likely have rejected the idea that it would ever be a good idea to record a conversation between an attorney and a client. There would have been numerous philosophical objections and practical
objections, including the cost to transcribe the recordings. Many readers, no…
Passwords Are a Major Annoyance of the Digital Age. How to Cope.
“Lawyers have hated passwords since passwords first made their appearance,” some of my colleagues recently wrote. So true.
Emerging AI tools mean it is easier to crack passwords. So, the standard advice for strong passwords is now at least 15 characters, with requirements of upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers, symbols and maybe a drop…
ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence and the Lawyer
In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT. ChatGPT, along with other artificial intelligence (AI) tools, has dominated the conversation about cutting-edge technology and legal technology tools during 2023. The reactions have ranged from “the most entertaining thing on the internet” to an incredible new tool that will change society in a positive way to a corporate…
The Ethics of Office Sharing Arrangements
Office Sharing Arrangements with Other Lawyers was the subject of American Bar Association Formal Opinion 507, released July 12, 2023.
The opinion “addresses some minimum ethical requirements and suggested practices arising in the office sharing context, particularly in the areas of confidentiality, conflicts of interest, supervision, and communications concerning a lawyer’s services.” It notes that…
Law Firm Staff Hiring Procedures. More Complicated Than They Used To Be
Suppose next week begins with one of your top paralegals or legal secretaries giving you two weeks’ notice. Maybe they are moving to another location or another local law firm. But now you have an opening to fill.
The first response is not about filling the position. First, you must determine if there are any…
Thoughts on Availability Retainers and Subscription Legal Services After ABA Formal Opinion 505
Prepaid legal fees and refundability of those fees was the subject of American Bar Association Formal Opinion 505. Yesterday I did a blog post about that and noted it tracked the opinion of the Oklahoma Supreme Court released in Oklahoma Bar Association v Weigel, 2014 OK 4 (2014).
This is probably a…
Retainers, Advances or Deposits? ABA Ethics Panel Says the Label Doesn’t Matter Because All Must be Held in Trust
Prepaid legal fees and refundability of those fees was the subject of American Bar Association Formal Opinion 505. The recently released opinion states that under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, a fee paid to a lawyer in advance for services to be rendered in the future must be placed in a client trust…
Law Firm Staff Hiring Procedures. Something Else More Complicated Than It Used To Be.
Suppose next week begins with one of your top paralegals or legal secretaries giving you two weeks’ notice. Maybe they are moving to another location or another local law firm. But now you have an opening to fill.
The first response is not about filling the position. First, you must determine if there are any…
Legal Service Productization for Lawyers
Law practice is a service, not a product, right? Decades ago that would have been universally considered to be correct by practicing lawyers.
Today, however, many believe that some legal services may be better delivered as legal products. The latest episode of the Digital Edge …