A service of the ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division
Practice Area Newsletter
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Spring 2009
Vol. 5, No. 3 |
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Free Teleconferences
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Dear Division Member:
Below is the third issue of Law Trends for
the 2008–09 bar year. As always, the editors believe
this is a very exciting issue, and I am very happy to
present it to you. As with prior issues, this enewsletter
includes articles, checklists, and other valuable practice
information and practical tips, from our substantive
practice and other areas in the General
Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division. This issue
continues to include articles dealing with practice management
and issues affecting each solo and small firm attorney
in these troubled times. It presents several articles
dealing with managing your time in the practice of law.
In this issue, we are continuing to present articles
about books recently released. One of those books, principally
authored by Lisa Runquist, a solo practitioner, is a
book concerning representing religious organizations,
and is published by the ABA Section of Business Law.
If you practice in this area, please take a look at the
article and, if you find it valuable, click through to
purchase the book. The other, written by Ronald Slusky
and published by our Division,
is a lawyer’s
guide to patent law. I also recommend you take a look
at this article and, if you find it valuable, consider
clicking through and purchasing the book. Also in this
issue, the editors have continued to present articles
that are of interest to lawyers with solo and small-firm
lifestyles who are managing their practices. We are very
pleased to add this new area to Law
Trends, and we will be publishing articles quarterly
in this area. Lastly, there are many articles authored
by young lawyers. Those articles give many tips and other
ideas on how to manage your practice, get new clients,
and budget your time.
We hope you agree that with each issue, Law
Trends continues to provide meaningful articles
for each of you. We trust that this issue, like the others,
will be helpful to you in your daily practice. I encourage
you to take just a few moments to read the list of articles
below. Of course, the issue is yours to download and
keep as a reference for the future. And, as in the past,
you can either download specific articles, or you may
download the entire newsletter by clicking the PDF link.
There are many Division members integrally involved
in putting this enewsletter together. Their hard work
and dedication are certainly present. I thank them for
producing this issue for the Division.
I hope each of you enjoys this issue of Law Trends.
The publication will continue quarterly, and we hope
you continue to find it a source of valuable information.
If you are interested in either writing an article or
participating in the production of the newsletter, please
contact Jim Schwartz at attyjls@aol.com.
I thank him for his work and dedication.
Best regards,
Robert A. Zupkus
Chair, General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division
The economy continues to affect each of us, many of
us in not so pleasant ways. Several large law firms have
announced significant layoffs or hiring deferments.
Less in the news, but nonetheless present, is the “hurting” by
solos and small firm attorneys because of fewer new clients,
a reduction in the amount of work in their practice
areas, and a reduction in the amount of money coming
in. As with the prior issue, I have included several
articles in the practice management section on time management
issues, ways to network to increase new clients, and
other issues that affect each of us. I hope these articles
will be helpful to you, to help identify some problems
we all share, some potential ways to avoid them, and
some ways to correct and cope with them. They are also
a message to say that you are not alone in these troubled
times and that many of us share the exact same problems.
Please let me know if there are other things that I can
do or other kinds of articles that you would like to
see, and I will do my best to include them. I also recommend
Brian Annino's article on networking. In there,
Brian gives you instructions on how to sign up for Facebook
and Twitter as well as presenting the value to you in
doing both. Thanks
Brian.
In addition, I am introducing two books to you. One
of those books is written by a solo, Lisa Runquist, and
is being published by the ABA Section of Business Law.
The book is entitled Guide to
Representing Religious Organizations and is quite
a remarkable book on the subject. I found it quite valuable,
and hope you do as well. If you like Lisa’s article
and feel the book would be valuable, please click on
the link to the book and purchase it. The other book,
published by GPSolo, is entitled Invention Analysis
and Claiming: A Patent Lawyers Guide. Authored by
Ronald D. Slusky, this book will be quite helpful to
anyone either registering a patent, or prosecuting or
defending a claim. I recommend these articles to you. In
the future, I plan to publish excerpts from both
books. If you find this beneficial, use the
click through to purchase it.
I look forward to hearing from you with any other thoughts
or ideas. I hope all of you are well and that you enjoy
reading this issue as much as I had putting it together.
Best to all of you,
Jim Schwartz
Editor
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GP|Solo
Division Chair Robert A. Zupkus
Practice
Area Division Director Elio F. Martinez
Law
Trends & News Editor James Schwartz
Assistant Editors John Carr, Travis Cushman, Noah Davis, Henry DeWoskin, Jennifer Hilsabeck, Linda Holder, Kathleen Hopkins, Charles Lamb, Jay Ray, Randi Whitehead, Arnettia Wright
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