How lawyers handle their billing has long been a topic of discussion in our field. Traditionally, it was a simple process. Record your time. Prepare invoices by listing all these billing entries multiplied by the lawyers’ hourly billing rates and adding expenses clients should pay. Send out the billing on the same day every month.
Client Selection: How to Red Flag High-Risk Clients (Including Relatives)
Some of the greatest decisions of your career may be ones that you don’t even remember. They involve clients who you decided not to represent that went on to make another lawyer’s life miserable for a while. Client selection is an important aspect of law firm management. For many lawyers, this involves a one-to-one consultation
Overcoming Trust Account Management Challenges
We recently did a Digital Edge podcast Overcoming Trust Account Management Challenges. 
Our guest was Paul Garibian, a fintech expert, entrepreneur, and current CEO of Nota. Nota provides financial services to lawyers including trust accounts with no services charges. We discussed common mistakes lawyers make with their trust accounts, the serious consequences of mismanaging
Protecting Your Clients When You Aren’t Able to Help
Lawyers often deal with the challenges that occur when people die without making a last will and testament. One result is sometimes intestacy laws distribute property differently than the deceased might have wanted. Additional expenses and legal fees are almost always a result.
Similar challenges and expenses can occur when a lawyer dies or becomes
Why should a solo or small firm prepare a budget?
Way back when I practiced law, few one- and two- lawyer offices prepared a budget in advance for the year. Their budget, and in many cases their “partnership” distribution formula, was the tried-and-true formula “you eat what you kill.” Had we questioned the lawyers about that omission, many would have responded that budgets weren’t 
important
Client Portals: A Must-Have Service for Today’s Law Firms
Recently Attorney at Work published my feature Client Portals: A Must-Have Service for Today’s Law Firms. After I covered this subject at virtual ABA TECHSHOW 2021, they reached out to me to write this feature. If you have not yet read it, I strongly encourage you to do so today. The benefits of providing
Essential Technology for Lawyers in the Post-Pandemic Era
Wide-ranging conversation with my friend Bob Ambrogi on the state of law office technology today.
Closing an Oklahoma Law Practice
Author’s Note: We have, unsurprisingly, heard from more lawyers than usual the previous year about closing a law practice. This post originally appeared as my Law PracticeTips 
column in the May, 2021 Oklahoma Bar Journal. It will be hosted on our new Closing Your Law Practice page on the OBA Management Assistance Program website, which
Podcast on Managing Your Law Firm Through Change
We enjoyed hosting Mary E. Vandenack,, Founder and Managing Member of Vandenack Weaver LLC, Omaha, Nebraska on the Digital Edge podcast. Her topic was Managing Your Law Firm Through Change. That is something all law firms have dealt with the past year..
But Mary has managed some
Securely Wiping Data from Your Computer, Phone or Tablet
Lawyers deal with confidential client information and we have a duty to secure that information. No matter who you are, you wouldn’t want to donate, give away or even discard a computer or phone with information still on the device. No one would want to transfer a computer or phone without making certain the personal