In This Issue’s Section News:

Save the Date: Midyear Meeting 2004

ABA GPSolo Section Chair William Hogan invites you to join us in San Antonio, Texas, for the 2004 Midyear Meeting, February 5–8, 2004.

Section meeting highlights for Friday, February 6th, include specialized CLE for solo and small firm practitioners, our prestigious Military Law Luncheon, numerous leadership committee meetings, and a Dinner and Texas Two-Step Dance at Sunset Station cosponsored with the Young Lawyers Division.

To register online please visit http://www.abanet.org/midyear/2004/home.html. The deadline for advance registration is January 9th, 2004.

More information on our Section’s activities at Midyear will be posted to our website, www.abanet.org/genpractice, in the coming weeks so please check back with us soon!

2003 Fall Meeting Picture Gallery Now Online!

Check out how much fun was had by all at our Fall Meeting!
Go to: http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/gallery/03fall/index.htm

Hot Off the Presses . . .
Letters for Lawyers NEW!
Essential Communications for Clients, Prospects, and Others
2nd Edition
Thomas E. Kane

Save time and simplify your office routine! Frequent, effective written communication is vital to the successful practice of law. In today's legal industry, clients expect their lawyers to be responsive, efficient, and cost conscious. Communication with clients has never been more important. The new second edition of this publication will help ease the task of communicating with clients, prospects and others. This book contains numerous communication tools, including: business letters, announcement cards, invitations, survey forms, response cards, press releases, and thank-you notes. Also for added convenience all letters are included on CD-Rom.

Regular price $80.00; General Practice Solo & Small Firm Division Member $65.00
Product Code 5150290
ISBN: 1-59031-267-8
Order Now!

Looking For A Little Credit? CLE Credit That Is!
2003 Annual Meeting CLE Programs Now Available Online Through WestLegalEdCenter
Not able to make Solo Day or the Annual Meeting this past year? No problem! All GPSolo Section CLE programs are now available to you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from the convenience of your home or office computer. The 2003 Solo and Small Firm Day: 99 Tips to Being an Effective Lawyer topics include

Other programs available from the Annual Meeting are: Best Practice for Real Lawyers, Business Bankruptcy for the Rest of Us, Environmental Risks and the Small Firm Client, and the Arthur Miller/Helen Thomas program- Media’s Coverage of the Law: What’s Good, What’s Bad and What’s Downright Ugly.

Don’t forget, Section members get an additional discount off WestLegalEdCenter programs! To find out more or to begin ordering these programs visit: http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/westlegaledcenter/home.html

Section Sponsored ABA Connection in January
January 21st: Ethics: Who Is the Client?
On January 21, 2004, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, the ABA Connection is presenting a one-hour teleconference titled, "Ethics: Who is the Client?" The answer to that question often may be obvious, but the many situations in which it’s not so clear just what the attorney-client relationship raise serious ethics issues. This teleconference will focus on how to apply ethics guidelines in some key areas: dealing with prospective clients; the corporate setting; the three-way relationship between insurance companies, their insured and defense counsel; and government lawyers. The program is sponsored by the ABA Journal, Membership and Marketing, and the Center for CLE. Continuing Legal Education Credit has been applied for in states that accept the teleconference format. To register, call the ABA at 1-800/285-2221 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern weekdays, beginning Monday, December 22, 2003, or register online by Friday, January 16th at www.abanet.org/cle/connection.html. If you are unable to participate in the live teleconference, the program is available, at no cost, for one month, on the ABA CLE Web Site at http://www.abanet.org/cle/connection.html. Tapes of the program are available to ABA members for $50.00 two weeks after the program. To order a tape call the ABA Service Center at 1-800-285-2221.

Diversity Fellows Program
The Section’s Diversity Fellows Program is designed to promote ethnic diversity within the Section, recruit members of color, and provide leadership development opportunities within the Section for members of color.

Three lawyers of color are appointed to funded fellowship positions within the Section for one full bar year. Upon completion of successful active participation in the first scholarship year, these participants will then be appointed to regularly funded positions within the Section the following bar year, giving consideration to the Section’s existing needs and the participants’ preferences based upon first-year participation.

The Section’s 2003–04 Diversity Fellows are Captain William E. Brown of Forest Park, GA; Olu Stevens of Louisville, KY; and Edd Vasquez of Washington, D.C. Congrats to our newest Fellows!

If you are interested in applying to become a Diversity Fellow for the 2004–2005 bar year, please contact our Section Director, Alexa Giacomini, at 312/988-5636 or keep checking our website at www.abanet.org/genpractice where an application will be available shortly.

Staff Update
Our Section is now fully staffed! Welcome Doug Knapp (312/988-5641; knappd2@staff.abanet.org), our new part-time Technology Coordinator, and Marianne Kaplan (312/988-5674; kaplanm@staff.abanet.org), our new part-time Member Services Manager.

Last But Not Least . . .
A quick shout out to all of our corporate sponsors who made the 2003 GPSolo Section Fall Meeting & Midwest Solo and Small Firm Success Conference such a success…..

Thank You!!!!!
Thomson West
CaseSoft
Prolegia
Alumni Group/ PCLaw
The Iowa State Bar Association
Lawyers Weekly
Lindquist & Vennum PLLP

---