Last week I was a guest on the Lawyer2Lawyer podcast. Here's their description: "As law firms slowly climb out of this recession, have their legal practice management skills changed? Lawyer2Lawyer co-host and attorney J. Craig Williams welcomes Rudy Bazelmans, Regional Director of Expense Reduction Analysts and
Jim Calloway, Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association's Management
Starting a law practice
Great Free Trust Accounting and Legal Ethics Information from Minnesota
By Jim Calloway on
Setting up a lawyer's trust accounting procedures in Quickbooks is certainly doable. But if you are not an accounting whiz, you might be worried you missed something. There are other tools like GnuCash (free) or Microsoft Office Accounting 2006 or 2007. Earler this year, the Minnesota Bar Association announced the release of its Trust Accounting Guides that have…
Your Future as a Lawyer
By Jim Calloway on
Thinking about your future can bring forth many emotions, especially if the future looks challenging and uncertain. That's why it may be easy for time-challenged lawyers to avoid the exercise. If you are going to retire in the next few years, skip this blog post. Otherwise, invest thirty minutes this week reading the articles I…
Jay Shepherd’s Rules for a Successful Law Practice
By Jim Calloway on
After 13 years of running his law practice, Jay Shepherd is taking his career in another direction.
You will find the rules for success in his blog post Small Firms, Big Lawyers: Reflections on Thirteen Years to be very valuable. He has 13 rules for his thirteen years. The first 12 rules are great and the…
Supercharge Your Law Practice
By Jim Calloway on
During my almost fourteen years with the Oklahoma Bar Association as the practice management advisor, I have planned or helped to plan quite a few CLE programs, including our OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference. (This year's Solo & Small Firm Conference will be held June 9-11, 2011.) But today I want to…
Deep Thoughts on the Future of Law Practice
By Jim Calloway on
There was a great symposium in recent days on the future of law practice. Didn't you get your invitation? Well, that is because it just happened online without apparent advance planning or coordination. While I was attending my son's high school basketball banquet last night, Jordan Furlong was writing the blog post I intended to write about…
Great CLE in The Big Easy
By Jim Calloway on
Later this week I'll be heading south to New Orleans for the Louisiana Bar's 4th Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference. Here's the schedule of programming. I think it is beneficial for small firm lawyers to review schedules for these conferences and see what the hot topics are, even if you cannot attend. I've…
Portrait of a Little Big Firm
By Jim Calloway on
Many of you are familiar with my friend, Ernie the Attorney, because of his well-known blog. But this week he posted a lengthy piece about his law firm called Little Big Firm. This should be required reading for every recent law school graduate contemplating opening a law practice because for many of them this may…
Lawyers, Miles Traveled and the IRS
By Jim Calloway on
The IRS has announced that the mileage rate for 2011 is 51 cents per mile for business miles driven. This is a slight increase over 50 cents last year and perhaps not as easy to calculate in your head.
Your law practice tip today is that you should get a mileage log book now …
OBA’s Opening Your Law Practice Program
By Jim Calloway on
I'll be spending the day tomorrow speaking to impressionable young lawyers, along with some more experienced lawyers. The Oklahoma Bar Association is putting on our free program Opening Your Law Practice in Tulsa, with the Oklahoma City session scheduled next week. We do one program in the spring and these two in the fall. (We renamed our New…