Jim Calloway

Website:https://www.lawpracticetipsblog.com/
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Jim Calloway

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One of the challenges in building or maintaining a law practice is the need to continually develop new clients and/or engagements. Direct face-to-face solicitation of individual clients is still a prohibited activity for most lawyers. Law firm marketing is now often handled in part by a professional at larger law firms, but associates soon learn that they had better develop their own book of business if they want to make partner. And for the medium-sized…
One of our best Digital Edge podcasts of 2018 was The Cloudy Ethics of Cloud Computing with Lucian I. Pera. Lucian is a partner with Adams and Reese, LLP and writes the Ethics column for ABA’s Law Practice Magazine. He was named the youngest member of the ABA Ethics 2000 Commission, was ABA Treasurer for 2011-2014 and served on the ABA Board of Governors. We have co-presented on the intersection of legal ethics…
Long ago when I practiced consumer bankruptcy law, I used to think about the precise meaning of tools of the trade. Oklahoma opted out of the federal bankruptcy exemptions and we use the state statutory exemptions instead. One of the exemptions was “Implements of husbandry necessary to farm the homestead and tools, apparatus and books used in any trade or profession of such person or a dependent of such person” with a limit as to…
The Big Ideas issue of the ABA Law Practice Magazine is one of my favorite publications of the year and the latest on (July/August 2019) is now online and free for you to read. This year the theme is automation. Heidi S. Alexander, Director of Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, provides practical advice on adding automation with simple tools you may already have or which are easy to obtain. Many of these tools can…
Some lawyers were concerned when the Model Rules of Professional Conduct were changed to include a comment that competence as a lawyer included an appreciation of “the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.” Now 31 states have adopted some version of this language in comment 8 to Rule 1.1, according to legal technology journalist Robert Ambrogi who maintains regularly updated information about the comment adoption on his blog. Many of the legal technology…
You may not have heard of something called the Data-Driven Ethics Initiative. The organizers say it is an initiative to gather and use data to completely overhaul and improve the Rules of Professional Conduct to better benefit the public. Skeptics say it is an effort primarily funded by online legal tech companies with goals that are more tied to their business development plans than reform. The organizers say on their website that they have law…
Right before our Oklahoma Bar Association Solo & Small Firm Conference kicks off, the OBA announces six new practice management member benefits. (June 6, 2018) Six new member benefits to help Oklahoma lawyers better manage their practices have been announced by the Oklahoma Bar Association. Members who sign up for new subscriptions will receive discounts to Clio, CosmoLex, MyCase, PracticePanther, Rocket Matter or Zola Suite, all cloud-based practice management services for law firms. “Supporting Oklahoma…
ABA TECHSHOW was held March 8 – 10, 2018. So the column, A Brief Recap of ABA TECHSHOW 2018, by me and OBA PMA Darla Jackson is not exactly “hot news.” Such is the result of print publication deadlines sometimes. But only a few of the previous TECHSHOW 2018 reviews mentioned the interesting relationship between TECHSHOW exhibitor Logikcull and the Ramones or provided you with the Electronic Discovery Reference Model chart. And I know…
It has been Collaboration Week for lawyers. It’s not like the ABA or Congress designated it as such, but that still seems to be the case. The “week” actually started last Friday when Attorney At Work published Tech Tips: Collaborating Well With Others. The post noted: For this edition of Friday Tech Tips, we asked the practice management technology experts: “What’s your best tech tip for collaborating well with others?” Here’s good advice from…
Keeping the customer satisfied should be an important of every business today. This includes law firms, even though we refer to our customers as clients. My column in the Oklahoma Bar Journal, Keeping the Customer Satisfied, outlines some ideas to do just that. One of the first rules is to not do things that aggravate the customer, like having them waste time in the the law firm’s waiting area for a long time after…