Month: June 2018

Categories : Law Practice Management

Bartering for Business

On By sdcountybar

From haircuts to paintings, how and what I bartered for my legal services

By Elizabeth Blust

In the opening scene of the movie“To Kill a Mockingbird” — and in a later scene in the book by Harper Lee — client Walter Cunningham brings a bag of hickory nuts to lawyer Atticus Finch as payment for the latter’s help with the former’s entailment. Now that I am a lawyer myself, I understand not only what entailment is (and why, as young Scout Finch commiserates with Mr. Cunningham later, “entailments are bad” and take “a long time sometimes”, Ch. 15), but also the value of accepting barter as a means of payment for legal services. Read More

Categories : Current Topics

What Attorneys Need to Know About the Drager 5000

On By sdcountybar

By Eric Ganci

Police have a new addition to try and fight the war on impaired driving: the Drager 5000. This device swabs the person’s mouth/cheek area to screen saliva for non-alcoholic intoxicating substances, including amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs. This test is given before arrest, and acts as a field sobriety test. For attorneys who may provide guidance on this new device, there are a few important things to note, both scientifically and legally: Read More

Categories : Legal Ethics

Simple Competence: Surprisingly Complex

On By sdcountybar

By David Carr 

One of most fundamental ethical rules is that lawyers must be competent in the provision of legal services.  It is the very first substantive rule in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules) and the very first rule in the new California Rules of Professional Conduct (Rule 1.1) that become effective on November 1, 2018. Read More

Categories : Wisdom1 Comment

Three Ways To Improve Your ​Speaking

On By sdcountybar

How to improve your speaking in and out of the courtroom from a lawyer comedian

By Ken Turek

Americans are more afraid of public speaking than death. To Jerry Seinfeld that means if we go to a funeral we’d rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. I have walked off stage to a thundering ovation and have been booed off by a swearing mob. Using the same material! I’ve also had jurors tearfully cheer me after a verdict and had other times I’ve heard crickets. How can we do our best? Or at least improve our chances the boos will be polite? Here are three items to consider. Read More

Categories : Technology

4 Tips for Securing Mobile Devices

On By sdcountybar

By Adriana Linares

In today’s world, it’s common, if not downright expected that you and your support staff use mobile devices to timely communicate with clients and access firm documents and resources. While this may be great for productivity and reacting to client needs while away from the office, the influx of laptops, tablets and mobile phones in the workplace can pose a significant risk to a firm’s data if they are lost or stolen. On top of that, California, like most other states, has breach notification laws that require all business entities (yes, law firms included) to report breaches that may have lead to the unauthorized access of “personally identifiable information” of 500+ California residents (if your practice is multi-jurisdictional you’ll have to comply with those state laws too). Read More

Categories : Legal Ethics

Non-Legal Services: Ethical Rules and Compliance

On By sdcountybar

By Robert Bryson

Young lawyers are always looking for ways to increase their revenue. Most of us would like to rely solely on retaining clients but, as anyone with a small practice knows, there are spurts of intense work followed by lulls that can last weeks. Lawyers have a variety of skills that translate into other industries. For example, writing. Something I did to fill the gaps was online marketing and SEO through online content. There are three situations in which lawyers may provide non-legal services: Read More

Categories : Law+TechTags :

Video TechTip: Outlook (PC) Convert an Email to an Appointment

On By alinares

Often emails contain information (conference details, directions, notes) that are better suited on your calendar. Instead of creating a new appointment and retyping or copying and pasting information from an email, you can drag and drop an email onto the Calendar icon in the navigation pane. Outlook will convert the subject and body of the email to an appointment that you can update or edit with full details. Read More