Baby Boomers are creating an "Exit Boom" as they prepare for the sale of their companies. Matt Hansen outlines strategies for the successful sale and/or transition of these businesses.
James Crosby, a San Diego civil litigator and trial attorney, moderates a free-flowing conversation covering technology, marketing, diversity and more.
Prepare for the substantial portion of self-represented litigants as your practice expands.
By Jan Maiden
In this new feature of San Diego Lawyer, Jan Maiden, former SDCBA Board member, recounts a situation in which a client threatened her license and how she addressed it.
By Carole J. Buckner
An attorney working as in-house counsel must have a solid understanding of the attorney-client privilege. The application of the attorney-client privilege may differ for in-house counsel in several ways that are important for the attorney to bear in mind.
By Christine Pangan
You’ve likely seen the hashtag, finding it funny, obnoxious, or even used it yourself. A quick survey of social media friends shows that #adulting or #adultingsohard has a range of definitions and uses, from “comically framing the drudgery of being a grown up” as a friend describes it, to referring to more challenging scenarios one faces as an adult such as caring for aging parents. A term mostly used by millennials, it can leave older generations scratching their heads wondering what is so difficult or noteworthy about an adult acting like an adult.
As traditional markers of adulthood are delayed well beyond 18 years old for many in their 20s to even 40s these days, “adulting” refers to behaving in an adult manner or doing activities associated with being a grown-up, with the element of perhaps not really wanting to or being proud of finally being able to do these things. Adulting includes being responsible (i.e. paying bills on time), having a career, buying a house or car, delaying instant gratification to achieve more mature goals, taking basic care of yourself and possibly others, and meeting typical “grown-up” obligations. In today’s legal world, what would #attorneyadulting look like?
Paying back student loans
For recent graduate Julie Houth, one marker of attorney adulthood is paying back student loans. “The transition from law student to lawyer can be a grueling journey because students must evolve from a student lifestyle to an adult lifestyle, like holding a 9 to 5 job and ultimately becoming a respectable professional in society,” Houth says. Many graduates of the past decade deferred their student loans for years after graduation due to difficulty in finding jobs or starting a practice that paid enough to make basic living expenses as well as repay loans. “Paying back student loans were probably delayed because millennials had other responsibilities like finishing up grad school and other bills like rent, food, and gas for their cars,” says Houth. Like the traditional adult financial responsibility of paying a mortgage, the ability to pay back student loans has become a form of “adulting” for many new attorneys.
Having an efficient, “grown-up” practice
Inefficient time management or the luxury of time-wasting seems to separate the less mature from the grown-ups. In the legal setting, there comes a time when many practitioners move from not having enough clients to finding it overwhelmingly challenging to keep track of everything going on with each client. As caseload increases, some new solos find that working from home or a coffee shop becomes increasingly difficult and would prefer (and can now afford) an actual office space. For sole practitioner Alara Chilton, “adulting” as an attorney includes examining your business systems and determining if you are implementing ones that are efficient. “For some attorneys, that may mean adding a law practice management system and/or an accounting system,” says Chilton. Other attorneys discover they need to hire someone to help rather than do everything themselves. But the business side is just one aspect of being a grown-up in the legal profession for Chilton who notes, “Adulting is not complete until you have become familiar with and are aware of your ethical obligations as an attorney.”
Meeting ethical obligations
Perhaps one of the least favorite parts of becoming an adult is no longer being able to do (or get away with doing) whatever you want due to adult obligations. As a law student or post-bar, you may have had some leeway, and working under attorney supervision were not expected to know all the rules. As an attorney, however, you now have ethical obligations. “For example, the new California Rules went into effect in November 2018 — in addition to rule revisions there are several new rules that also went into effect. Attorneys also have obligations under the State Bar Act,” Chilton says. “Ultimately, knowing your ethical obligations will result in a more rewarding and efficient practice, not to mention allow you the privilege of keeping your bar card.”
Being a responsible adult (lawyer)
Attorneys balance many duties to clients and the legal system that they may not have had previously. As one thoughtful attorney put it, “adulting” as an attorney includes keeping up to date with changes in laws and new precedent, zealously advocating for clients, maintaining client confidentiality, upholding one’s duty of candor to the tribunal, respecting all members of the legal profession, volunteering in the community and doing pro bono work, and adhering to ethical obligations under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. In a largely self-regulated profession, attorney adulting is more than just growing up and having a job to take care of yourself. It includes taking on the grave responsibility of upholding our legal system through being competent, ethical, and diligently promoting justice for all members of society.
Christine I. Pangan is a lead attorney at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and Co-Editor of San Diego Lawyer Magazine.
By Bill Kammer
This column asks more questions than provides specific answers. The recent power outage in downtown San Diego reminds us all of the hazards inherent in our dependence upon computers, the internet and the cloud. Not long ago, most lawyers had personal control over the devices and systems they used, and stored their client and critical information locally. If they had backups of that information, those backups and disaster recovery tapes were also stored locally. If we learned anything from the impact of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, your backups best not be local and should be in another time zone.
Law office devices and systems have changed dramatically since 2005. Those devices now include mobile phones and tablets in addition to our previous desktop and laptop computers. We may also have virtual assistants such as Ruby Receptionist, store critical information “in the cloud” and use cloud-based software (SaaS) such as Office 365. This dramatically changed environment suggests a need for a timely re-examination of our preservation and recovery procedures before we incur power loss, internet outages or natural disasters.
Consider first an unexpected and sustained power loss such as the recent one in San Diego. (Naturally it happened on a Friday when attorneys were cranking out last-minute filings.) Unless you are fortunate enough to have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), all of your systems will go down and your work-in-progress may be lost. You may lose access to your phone; you will lose access to your desktop and your Wi-Fi network; and you might lose access to the internet. Your internet service provider (ISP) will probably have battery-powered backups in place, but a local power loss will take down your cable modem and your router. If your practice depends upon internet access, consider a small investment in a battery-powered backup power source that could keep your cable modem and router online so you can facilitate immediate disaster recovery.
Some will remember the world of WordPerfect, a lawyer favorite. But law offices have gradually switched to Microsoft Office in the years since. In 2005, those with the Office software suite probably had installed it on every computer in the office. Access to Office has evolved over the years, and more and more clients and law offices are now using Office 365. In fact, Microsoft now reports there are 155 million monthly active users. Software as a service has many advantages for lawyers but also presents several challenges. Our offices may now depend entirely on access to this internet-based software, and the software at times might become unavailable. Whether it’s Office 365 or some other cloud-based software, you can always use downdetector.com to determine whether there are problems at Microsoft. (You may have been one of those affected by a five-hour outage on Nov. 19, 2018: https://istheservicedown.com/problems/office-365/history.)
By George Brewster Jr.
Civility. In the practice of law, we know — we SHOULD know — what that means. What it entails, and the consequences for any uncivil behavior.
But do we behave civilly in real life?
Should we apply our rules of professional conduct to our private associations/encounters?
The San Diego County Bar Association has an Attorney Code of Conduct. Just altering the words a bit (say, duties owed to your neighbor rather than to the court, etc.), here are some rules of conduct that might be useful for our personal contacts and maybe even impersonal (i.e. social media) discussions:
Neighbors should always be courteous and respectful to each other.
Neighbors should always be candid with each other.
Neighbors should attempt to resolve, by agreement, their differences relating to neighborhood matters.
Treat neighbors who hold adverse opinions with common courtesy, good attitude, good manners, fairness and due consideration.
When asking a neighbor about an issue, proceed as though a judicial officer were present.
Neighbors should not arbitrarily or unreasonably withhold consent to a just and reasonable request for cooperation or accommodation.
Do not attribute to a neighbor a position not clearly taken by that neighbor.
Neighbors should conduct themselves so that they may conclude each matter with a handshake.
I can’t say that our national discourse is any worse than it was when the camps supporting Jefferson or Adams went after each other. But what is greatly different is that the uncivil commentary goes viral in an instant.
Lawyers are leaders in the community. We have the training to argue points without calling people names. Let us lead by example.
Just my humble opinion. Please don’t unfriend me on Facebook.
George Brewster Jr. is a retired attorney after 35 years of practice, including JAG, private practice and the last 30 with the County of San Diego, Office of County Counsel
By Christine I. Pangan
As a new year of networking begins and the plethora of holiday events fade, we take a look at new contacts. How do you reconnect or stay connected? The easiest way can be social media, but in an era of impersonal quick-swiping and auto-response buttons, you could lose a potentially great connection due to lack of social media care.
By Richard A. Huver
Is the lid off the policy? That question has undoubtedly been asked by plaintiff and defense lawyers alike. Whether an insurance company has a duty to accept a policy limits demand is generally an individualized question dependent on many factors, including the timing of the demand, the information available on both liability and damages, and the likelihood of a verdict in excess of the policy limits. Evaluating how these factors apply to a demand made during the claim process or litigation is one thing. But what happens if the policy limits demand is made incident to or during a mediation?
