Trust account problems are one of the top reasons lawyers are disciplined in the U.S. Certainly there are attorneys whose trust accounting activities are egregious—even criminal. But this doesn't account for all of the problems. Far too often, ...

The most important ABA Model Rule governing professional conduct in the area of legal marketing is Rule 7.1, which covers communications concerning a lawyer's services. All states have adopted this rule, worded exactly the same or very close to ...

The legal profession constantly struggles to set advertising policies that strike the balance between consumer protection and access to justice. What are the boundaries we impose on ourselves to make certain that people are not subject to ...

Tell the truth. You’re always on the lookout for a few really good marketing ideas. We all are. Even the world’s busiest lawyers are interested in the possibility of new (better!) clients. Because it is just so hard to go out looking for ...

Many firms use cloud computing services for remote access to data, email filtering, contacts and calendars, system backups and other hosted IT functions. In particular, lawyers are finding that cloud transfer and storage services (like Box, ...

Recently, New York became the first state to require that law students perform 50 hours of pro bono work before they can be admitted to the bar. Plenty of bloggers have already chimed in on whether this is a good or bad idea. There’s little that ...

While some people are “lawyering up,” lawyers are labeling up. Advertisements, as well as brochures and emails, often seem to be screaming out at even the most sophisticated audience: “Lawyer Advertisement!” “Advertising Material!” “This is an ...

One of the benefits of being a lawyer with a laptop, tablet or smartphone is that you really can work anywhere with access to Wi-Fi and your files. But the question of security must be addressed. How can you protect yourself and your clients ...

Some lawyers are all a-Twitter about the cloud, but you’ve actually been sending client data into the cloud for years. Email is merely information transmitted via the cloud—and all lawyers routinely send confidential messages and attachments via ...

The cloud offers lawyers unparalleled software-as-a-service (SaaS) resources to manage their practices, organize documents and communicate with clients—but it can also blur the bright-line ethics rules. To safeguard the integrity of files in the ...