Week of June 29th -

Ronald Baker The Solo Law Firm of the Future

Richard Granat - Unbundled Legal Services

Ed Poll - Law Firm Management

Mark Merenda - Smart Marketing

D. Todd Smith - Appellate Practice & Procedure

James Reed - Personal Injury 101

Craig Niedenthal - Products Liability

James Chartrand - Copywriting & Branding

Gordon Firemark - Entertainment Law

Richard Maseles - Legal Research

Stephanie Kimbro - Virtual Law Office Technology

Richard Litvin - Bar Preparation

Week of July 6th -

Patti Spencer - Trusts & Estates

Linsey Krolik - Outsourced General Counsel

Nicole Black - Web 2.0 Technology to Organize Your Personal Life & Work Life

Theresa Erickson - Adoption & Reproductive Technology Law

Jay Fleischman - Bankrutpcy

Jonathan Ginsberg - Social Security & Disability Law

James Chartrand - Copywriting & Branding

John Harding - Family Law

This is a tentative schedule and subject to additions and deletions.

If you haven’t done so already, you may want to check out Solo Practice University.  We are always adding new faculty, great students and the exchange of information, sharing and learning with like-minded individuals is priceless.

For more information on Solo Practice University click here.

Bill Jawitz teaches attorneys how to build satisfying practices, and how to run successful firms. He will teach a course called “Productivity Bootcamp: Time Management for Lawyers” at Solo Practice University™.

Bill Jawitz teaches attorneys how to build satisfying practices, and how to run successful firms. His program, SuccessTrack ESQ, provides a comprehensive system for rapidly building expertise in the areas of business development, productivity, personnel, finance, and leadership. Bill works exclusively with lawyers and law firms and has taught over 800 practitioners in the past 6 years ranging from solos and small firms throughout the country to the in-house legal departments at large public companies and federal agencies.

A frequent CLE presenter and In-House trainer, Bill presents seminars on topics such as:

• Productivity Boot Camp: Time Management for Attorneys
• Marketing for Attorneys: Best Practices in Client Development
• Law Office Staffing: Recruiting, Training, and Keeping a Championship Staff
• Emotional Intelligence: The Secret Law Firm Management Ingredient
• Marketing Your Practice Online: Tapping the Potential and Avoiding the Pitfalls
• Doing Well by Doing Good: Delivering Extra Value to Clients
• Mastering the Eight SuccessTrack Fundamentals for Law Firm Owners

He is a member of the ABA Law Practice Management and Solo/Small Firm sections, and the Society for Human Resource Management. He’s also on the board of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Speaker’s Association, and he’s a regular contributor to TheCompleteLawyer.com.

Bill holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University in Technology and Communications, and a BA from Quinnipiac University in Mass Media.

Prior to starting his firm in 2002, Bill was a highly regarded educator specializing in media studies. He is the author of the nation’s top-selling textbook on media literacy, Understanding Mass Media. Bill founded and ran Connecticut’s first public charter school (The Odyssey Community School, Manchester, CT) and served as the founding Technology Coach at The Learning Corridor in Hartford, CT.

Bill is an active guitarist and vocalist and performs a range of material from Cole Porter to John Lennon. He’s also a C-SPAN junkie. He and his family live on Long Island Sound, in Milford, CT.

Syllabus

Session 1

Introduction: The Myths and Truths about Productivity and Time Management

• 1. Values, beliefs, and behaviors
  2. The role of time management in the context of your practice
  3. Your practice as a business
  4. Involving your staff
  5. Metrics and tracking your progress

Session 2

The Path to Productivity

• 1. Capture tasks
  2. Isolate planning time
  3. Organize your information
  4. Schedule blocks of time
  5. Delegate/supervise
  6. Streamline procedures
  7. Apply standards and enforce boundaries

Session 3

“To-do Lists” That Work

• 1. The “Five Buckets” system of capturing and organizing what needs to get done
     1. Production (i.e., legal work)
     2. Production Supervision
     3. Administration
     4. Business Development
     5. Personal

Session 4

Prioritizing What to Work on When

• 1. Urgent vs. important tasks
  2. The 80/20 Rule
  3. Criteria for choosing what to do on a given day
     1. External deadlines
     2. Speed to revenue and/or completion
     3. Removal of impediments
     4. Most satisfying
     5. Best leveraging of resources
     6. Best future potential
     7. Best building of capacity

Session 5

Reducing Time Wasters, Distractions and Interruptions

• 1. Sources of interruptions
     1. Self imposed
     2. Technology
     3. Other people
  2. Cost of interruptions
  3. Reducing interruptions
  4. Case/client selection

Session 6

Setting Behavioral Standards for Yourself and Enforcing Boundaries for Others

• 1. Punctuality
  2. Do Not Disturb Time
  3. Saying No
  4. Procrastination
  5. Planning Time

Session 7

The Secret Ingredient to Productivity: Focused Planning Time

• 1. Weekly planning
  2. Daily planning
     1. Reviewing your buckets
     2. Reviewing your calendar for the day and next day
     3. Selecting 3 must-do’s from your buckets
     4. Estimating task time accurately
     5. Scheduling time on your calendar for those must-do’s

Session 8

Using Your Daily Calendar to Keep You on Track

• 1. Using a “time map”
  2. Scheduling time for specific tasks
  3. Building in “communications time” for making/responding to calls and email
  4. Incorporating travel and court time
  5. Building in buffers and down-time
  6. Training your staff to honor your calendar

Session 9

Effective Delegation

• 1. Overcoming barriers to delegation
  2. Choosing what to delegate
  3. Specificity of work product, time and follow-up
  4. Meeting regularly with delegatee for training and review

Session 10

Organizing Information

• 1. The cost of disorganization in time, dollars, and stress
  2. Desk and furniture
  3. Paper
  4. Email
  5. Digital files
  6. Practice and document management software
  7. The role of your assistant in staying organized

Session 11

Streamlining Procedures

• 1. Applying the 80/20 rule to improve the most common functions in your office
  2. Involving staff in identifying procedures to be improved
  3. Documenting improved procedures
  4. Production-specific improvements
  5. Admin-specific improvements
  6. Business development- specific improvements

Session 12

Time-Saving Tech Tools and Tips

• 1. Roboform
  2. Anagram
  3. SnagIt
  4. X1
  5. Voice recognition
  6. Wireless headsets

Richard Litvin has been involved in helping graduates pass the Bar Exam for over 20 years. He will teach a bar preparation course at Solo Practice University™.

Professor Richard Litvin has been involved in helping graduates pass the Bar Exam for over 20 years. He founded Litvin’s Bar Tutorial in 1987, and Litvin’s Supplemental Bar Course in 1994. At Solo Practice University, Litvin plans to offer (1) a bar exam blog, (2) some video bar exam classes, (3) essay writing classes for first and second year law students, and (4) a blog exploring ideas for a law school “specializing” in preparing students for Solo and Small Practice.

Litvin’s Bar Tutorial was designed for and offered to students who were retaking the bar. His success with these students (based on extensive individual feedback on both MBE and Essays) attracted students from as far away as Alaska, California, Mississippi, and New Mexico, as well as every state in the Northeast. They came to CT, studied, and returned (mostly) to pass their state bars.

Litvin used his experience with repeaters to design and offer a course (not for credit) at Quinnipiac University School of Law, where he was a tenured Associate Professor. Litvin’s Supplemental Bar Course was provided by QU as a Supplement to BarBri for first time bar takers. Each year, students who attended Litvin’s supplemental classes as well as BarBri passed various state bars at over 95%. This course was offered on videotape by a number of other schools scattered around the U.S. with similar success for attendees.

Litvin has produced an original series of bar tutorial videos (soon to be on DVD) which provide 6-7 classes on each of the MBE subjects, covering both MBE and Essay formats. Litvin is also interested in designing a brick and mortar law school, from the ground up, “specializing” in educating students for Solo and General Practice.

Litvin has a B.A. from Dickinson College (1967), a J.D. from Temple (1975) and an LL.M. from Yale (1976). He clerked for Federal District Court Judge Edward Becker (1977), taught at Whittier Law School from 1977-1980, and at Quinnipiac University (and its predecessor) from 1980 to 2008. Although “retired” from Quinnipiac, he continues to offer his bar class to students at QU, as well as at Western New England School of Law, and Chapman University School of Law.

Litvin has presented his work on the bar at numerous conferences sponsored by the ABA and by AALS (for law professors and bar examiners) throughout the US. He also has been a guest speaker for the National Black Law Students Association. From 1994 until the present Litvin has devoted himself to his students by providing them with academic support and direction. Litvin acknowledges his greatest resource is his students who guide and inspire him regularly. One of his greatest resources is Susan Cartier Liebel, founder of this site, who turned him on to the beauty of Solo Practice.

Syllabus

• Introduction to Bar Exam. What to expect. How to prepare.
• Torts: Overview
• Contracts-Sales: Overview
• Evidence
• Property
• Crim Law & Procedure
• Constitutional Law
• Bar Essay Writing

Ronald J. Baker is an author and speaker with the mission, “To, once and for all, bury the billable hour and timesheets in the professions.” He will teach a course called “The Solo Practice of the Future” at Solo Practice University™.

Ronald J. Baker started his accounting career in 1984 with KPMG Peat Marwick’s Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to teaching Value Pricing and much more to professionals around the world.

He is the author of five best-selling books, including: The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services; Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value; Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators; and Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth.

Ron has toured the world, spreading his Value Pricing message to over 90,000 professionals. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession, named on Accounting Today’s 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession, and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation.

He graduated in 1984 from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University, Cato University, and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business course: Pricing: Strategy and Tactics. He is a member of the Professional Pricing Society and presently resides in Petaluma, California.

Course Syllabus: The Solo Practice of the Future (PDF)

Sonia R. Jarvis is an accomplished scholar whose research and teaching focus on race, public policy, and the media. She will teach a course called “Nonprofits and the Law: Start Up Basics” at Solo Practice University™.

Sonia is currently a Distinguished Lecturer and the Director of the Baruch College Center on Equality, Pluralism and Policy at the School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, City University of New York. She first joined Baruch College as the Lillie & Nathan Ackerman Visiting Distinguished Associate Professor of Equality and Justice in America responsible for teaching and developing programs to engender a thoughtful dialogue on issues of race, equal justice and ethnicity. A graduate of Stanford University (with B.A. degrees in Political Science and Psychology) and Yale Law School (J.D. degree), Sonia is an accomplished scholar whose research and teaching focus on race, public policy, and the media.

Sonia has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors including her solo private law practice in Washington, DC that focuses on civil and human rights, nonprofit organizations and small minority businesses. Her litigation and counsel experience has encompassed corporate clients, civil rights leaders, music and media executives, and pro bono cases. Additionally, she has provided leadership on policy and governance issues to a number of non-profit organizations in various roles as manager, general counsel, and board member, including the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation, Inc., where she served as its Executive Director as well as her past positions a Senior Consultant to the President’s Initiative on Race during the Clinton Administration, and as past president of the Black Women’s Agenda. She is a frequent commentator on public issues and has been interviewed by almost every major media outlet in the country, such as National Public Radio, the Washington Post, and CNN. She is currently engaged in research and writing about the interaction of race, media and politics, and the urgent problem of lack of access to higher education by minorities, low income families and immigrant youth.

I logged in yesterday to SPU and I want to tell you that it has brought new excitement to my willingness to practice law. The information that is available on this site is outstanding! Not only have you provided a great web site, but you have injected new enthusiasm into my veins. - Glenn Cook

“SPU is like a giant toy store, and I’m like a little kid – simply thrilled to be here. Although I know I can do this (go solo right out of school), it can, at times seem like a daunting task. SPU is so empowering, I don’t know why I even continue to surf job listings anymore. It’s not like there’s anyone I want to work for other than the clients that I will develop a marketing plan (with help from SPU) to identify.”- Karen Holman

At SPU, I have the support I need to create just such a practice – from branding to blogging, to home-office technology, to running a paperless office, to balancing work and family life, to in-depth substantive training and more. Unlike the competitive tenor of law school, I greatly appreciate that everyone at SPU – from the founders to the phenomenal instructors to the students – is invested in seeing everyone else succeed. Perhaps most importantly for me, at SPU I have all of this in a flexible format that allows me to learn at my own pace and on my own schedule (and with a chickenpox-covered, sleeping toddler on my lap, as is the case tonight). - Amy Martell

Paramjit Mahli is a public relations professional. She will teach a course called “Clash of the Titans: Can Lawyers and Journalists get Along?” at Solo Practice University™.

Paramjit Mahli has worked in both journalism and PR for nearly 20 years, with experience working within news outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Financial Post, CNN, CNNfn, and The Journal of Commerce. Clients have included Ron K Shelp, author of “Fallen Giant, The Story of Hank Greenberg and AIG” and numerous small law firms and financial services firms throughout North America.

Ms. Mahli is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, ABA, Bronte Society in UK, and is frequent contributor to American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today and New Jersey Law Journal. She is also sought out frequently by the media in both US and UK, and regularly gives Continuing Legal Education Credit on media.

SCG Legal PR Network was created by Paramjit L. Mahli and the team at The Sun Communication Group, which specializes in PR for small and midsized law firms. SCG Legal PR Network was in development for three years before its founder, Paramjit Mahli, launched the service.

She also authors the blog Profiting with Public Relations.

If you are currently subscribed to Build A Solo Practice, we will transfer over the feed so no need to subscribe, again.  If you’d like to subscribe to this blog just click on the RSS button to the right

If I see a threads of major interest within SPU or you have specific questions which would benefit from a lengthy answer, I’m happy to incorporate them in my posts under ‘You Ask…I Answer.”

Also, Build A Solo Practice developed quite a reputation for two categories, “Passed the Bar - Hung A Shingle” and “Going Solo; Confessions & Inspirations”.  If you would like to guest post at anytime, let me know and I would be happy to showcase your experiences.

A few rules:  Passed the Bar - Hung A Shingle requires you have hung a shingle within 18 months of graduation;  “Going Solo; Confessions & Inspirations” requires you have gone solo more than 18 months after passing the bar.  Both should be written from the perspective of your individual experiences, not a puff or promotional piece or even a ‘how to’. The goal of the post is for you to be open and honest and real about your journey going solo.

If you are interested, let me know with a private message.

Anyway, you’ll see construction on this site over the next weeks but I was anxious to lay the foundations for my new home now and let the world know I’m still blogging!

T. Deon Warner is a transactional lawyer providing mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation and corporate legal services in Houston, Texas. He will teach a course on “Building a Successful Solo Mergers & Acquisitions Practice” at Solo Practice University™.

Deon has more than twenty five years experience in corporate law, including general securities law, initial public offerings, secondary registrations and roll up transactions, public and private mergers and acquisitions, and he also works closely with community development corporations in their development projects and financings. His client’s range from fortune 100 corporations to small family owned businesses and community development corporations. Deon began his career with Andrews & Kurth LLP where he was employed for eleven years in the corporate securities section, with the last five years, from 1992 to 1997, as a Partner at the firm. During his tenure at Andrews & Kurth, Deon was appointed by the Governor of Texas to the Texas State Securities Board, served one full term from 1991-1997 and served as chairman of the board from 1995 to 1997. Deon began his solo practice in 1997. He is a member of the Colorado and Texas bars, as well as a member of various state and local bar associations.

Deon has a BA in Economics from the University of Colorado (Boulder) and a Law Degree from Howard University School of Law. At Howard, he was a member of the Editorial Board and Book Review Editor of the Howard Law Journal and graduated 19th in his class. Deon was a law clerk in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas for the Honorable Gabrielle Kirk McDonald – 1984-86. He has published and lectured for state and local bar associations and for several local Universities on various legal topics, including securities law, buying and selling businesses, corporate law and legal ethics.

Deon has been active in many civic and community organizations in Houston, Harris County, Texas including, serving as president of the Houston Lawyers Association (HLA), president of Easy Risers Toastmasters Club, two terms as co-chair of the Texas Minority Counsel Program of the State Bar of Texas (TMCP) and a lead participant in the Houston Habitat for Humanity’s Settegast Project 2008. He also participated with and served on committees or boards with HLA, TMCP, The United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, the Houston Area Urban League, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Houston, Inc., National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – Houston Chapter, American Bar Association, National Bar Association, the Adopt a School Committee and Advancement of Minorities in the Legal Profession Committee of the Houston Bar Association.

Deon currently is a member of One Hundred Black Men – Houston Chapter, a board member of Neighborhood Recovery Community Development Corporation, and a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Colorado Bar Association, the Houston Bar Association, the Houston Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association.

To learn more about Deon, visit his law firm website.

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