Handling trust accounts requires a specific skill set on the part of attorneys. Lawyers must maintain the safety of the accounts via careful accounting and oversight of banking safety. The lawyer is a fiduciary who must keep accurate accounting records ...

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No business, including a business of law, should begin without a plan. A plan is critical to give the business direction and keep it on track in terms of goals and finances. So, you’ve decided to create a plan. Now ...

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A new year is underway, and you’ve finally decided to do it. You’ve finally decided to create a business plan. You’ve assembled a planning group, and you’ve set a date to create the plan. This is great news, but you ...

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Empowering staff is a strategic way to make clients happy. The client who comes away with an answer, even if not from the mouth of the attorney, is generally far more satisfied than the one who could only leave a ...

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It might be a new business. It might be an old business with a new twist. It might even be the same old business with the same old twist (plans for the future do not always mean anticipating growth; in ...

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Big is not necessarily better. In fact, doing something special on a small scale is likely to bring big results. Wal-Mart is a good example. Of course, when you think of Wal-Mart, you think of something big. But Wal-Mart has ...

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Systems of payment have changed a lot over the years, and the trend is likely to continue. From cash/checks to credit cards, cellphone payments, Bitcoin payments, etc., the world of paying bills has expanded with each new technological advancement. Although ...

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In the current law firm world, everyone, lawyers and staff, is affected by the ongoing transformation in client expectations and legal service delivery. As the legal profession continues to contend with everything from layoffs to fee pressures, upheaval is the ...

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A recent opinion by the New Jersey State Bar’s Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics raises a major alarm bell for any lawyer who has trouble collecting money from a current client. The Committee’s Opinion 723, issued this past March, affirmed ...

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When lawyers enter legal practice, they understand that certain aspects of what they will be doing will change during their careers. There will be new laws and regulations to become familiar with, new court decisions from which to take emerging ...

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The question arises whether lawyers can effectively and ethically represent opposite types of clients — for example, insurance carriers and insurance coverage plaintiffs. The ABA’s Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7 addresses this. On the one hand, the rule sensibly says ...

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The legal profession has reached a point where upheaval is the “new normal.” Certainly large law firms are changing in response to recession, technology and client demands; those firms that don’t change quickly enough, like Dewey & LeBoeuf, are doomed ...

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