Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Self-employed lawyers rely heavily on their ability to propel their businesses forward — more so than lawyers employed by others or partners of large firms. Fail to keep the engines going and your practice will close. Too much propulsion, ...

In my last column, I discussed how you can relocate to another state without sitting for another bar exam. One question that naturally stems from that discussion is what to do if you make a mistake in your relocation, and you fail to do ...

The idea of a “tribe” is powerful. Who would not feel connected in a group of people tied together by common values, traditions or goals? Tribes have two distinct yet equally important roles to play in your law practice — particularly if you are ...

We’ve all heard the adage that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. When it comes to attorney discipline matters, there are certainly times when this is true. However, there are also many times when a lawyer is perfectly ...

It seems that every solo lawyer I meet has a list of things they would like to be doing better in their practice. Sometimes the motivating factor is business growth, sometimes it’s efficiency. At the heart of many “to do” items, though, is ...

Unhappy clients often choose to file ethics complaints against their poor-performing lawyers. What leads to their unhappiness? It may come as a surprise, but most ethics complaints are not about incompetence. Instead, most complaints revolve ...

Well-meaning lawyers who struggle to balance their personal checking account may think the safest way to protect their client trust account is to find a knowledgeable bookkeeper or CPA to take charge of it. In practice, though, this can add up ...