practicePRO’s claims prevention and law practice management resources continue to grow in popularity with lawyers. In 2009 almost 150,000 copies of our articles, checklists and precedents were downloaded.

We’ve compiled the list of the forty most popular downloads for 2009. Many of them are consistently popular year to year, such as Peg Duncan’s e-discovery reading list, limitation periods charts, retainer precedents and various technology articles. There were a few interesting developments though:

• The Sample Budget Spreadsheet came in in the top spot, with twice as many downloads as last year. A sign of lawyers taking a closer look at their finances in a tough economic year?
• The LawPRO Fraud Fact Sheet had 2,500 downloads, and has proven to be a very popular resource for lawyers looking to avoid becoming victims of the ever more sophisticated frauds targeting them.
• Lawyers love their BlackBerrys. Our BlackBerry 101 tips article from the summer of 2008 is still in the top ten a year later.

The top downloads list is a good indicator of what’s of interest to lawyers year over year, and what issues are concerns in a certain years in particular. We’ve tracked the top downloads for each of the past four years.

See the forty most popular downloads for 2009 for tools and resources you can use to reduce your risk of a malpractice claim. The top downloads of 2008 and 2007 are also posted on this page.

The current #1 on the New York Times most popular articles list is an item that appeared in the Technology section on the weekend: The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now.

In terms of complexity, the Facebook privacy settings lie somewhere between the calculations behind a space shuttle launch and figuring out what the Toronto Maple Leafs need to do to win a Stanley Cup. These things are simply beyond most of us mere mortals. I think it is safe to say that most Facebook users do not appreciate all the nuances of Facebook privacy settings, especially when it comes to third-party apps.

This is the clearest explanation of the basic Facebook privacy settings I have ever come across. If you are a Facebook user you should read this article and tweak your privacy settings.

Cross posted on Avoid a Claim

Family law matters seem to be the new flavour of the month when it comes to bad-cheque scams. In the past few weeks Ontario lawyers have sent me almost 20 different emails from fraudsters seeking help on matters involving the collection spousal and/or child support.

One message in particular is making the rounds as I have had at least a dozen lawyers send me a copy of it in the last week alone. A copy of that message follows:

To: (lawyer’s personal email address)

Usually these types of messages are a reasonably obvious attempt at a fraud, and they don’t deserve a reply or acknowledgement. Remember that sending a reply to a spammer confirms your email address as a good one which in turn can encourage more spam to that address as spammers can sell lists of live addresses for more money.

However, I have had a few lawyers ask me how the handle these types messages where it is not immediately obvious whether the request for help is legitimate or not.

On the questionable ones I think more care is warranted, both in terms of checking to see if there is a real client there and to be sceptical and watch for red flags that will indicate if it is a fraud. If it looks like the email might be from a legitimate client, send a reply indicating that you can’t act unless your firm completes proper a client identification verification and is properly retained (include payment of a retainer). Where things don’t add up, asking for more details about the circumstances of the matter can also help you determine if it is legitimate or not (if pushed hard enough to explain things that don’t make sense fraudsters will disappear).

As we approach the holidays remember that in the past we have seen more attempted and successful counterfeit certified cheque or bank draft frauds around long weekends and other holidays. Fraudsters like to execute frauds around holiday times as law firm staff can be distracted and bank holidays mean the fraud won’t discovered as quickly.

Keep your guard up so that you don’t become a victim of bad cheque or bank draft fraud.

Remember to use the fraud prevention resources on the practicePRO Fraud Page (www.practicepro.ca/fraud) to help the lawyers and staff in your firm avoid being duped.

Cross posted on Avoid a Claim

[A post for Ontario lawyers only.]

We have received various questions and comments on the enhanced coverage for counterfeit certified cheques and bank drafts that we are providing under the 2010 LAWPRO insurance program and policy. To respond to those questions and comments, we’ve prepared an extensive list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) that help explain this new enhanced coverage>, and also to provide some tips and guidance on how to make the coverage requirements work in your law practice.

These FAQs should help answer your questions as some recent media coverage about this new enhanced fraud coverage was not accurate as to what is and is not covered.

Any assertion that lawyers “effectively have no insurance coverage for such fraud” is incorrect. Lawyers DO and always have had coverage in situations where funds of legitimate clients were inadvertently paid out to fraudsters before the lawyer discovered that the instrument was counterfeit. Moreover, you do not need to make any changes in the way you practise for this protection to continue be in effect.

LAWPRO is now enhancing the existing protection: If your trust account is in an overdraft position because of a counterfeit certified cheque or bank draft, and the shortfall is strictly between the bank and you (no legitimate client funds are taken, or the amount of funds disbursed exceeded that belonging to legitimate clients), you will now have protection – at no additional cost - under the insurance program, provided that you comply with certain coverage requirements. (See FAQ #4 for information about these requirements.)

Moreover, this coverage is intended to help protect ALL segments of the bar; it was not, as has been suggested in the media, introduced to only address the particular challenges faced by the real estate bar. Fraud is very much a reality for all members of the bar. Litigators are being targeted on sham collection matters. Business lawyers are being targeted on bogus commercial loan matters. This enhanced coverage attempts to better protect all lawyers against the reality of fraud.

But at the same time, LAWPRO has a mandate to operate in a commercially reasonable manner and risk rate the insurance program. Hence the coverage requirements (e.g. waiting 8 business days before disbursing funds as instructed): These practice requirements help ensure that we moderate the risk to which the insurance program is exposed through this enhanced coverage. They also help equalize the likely impact on the insurance program arising from the different practice areas.

Making this enhanced coverage work is itself a work in progress, and we look forward to working with the profession to help lawyers avoid being victimized by fraudulent clients.

Call LAWPRO immediately at 1-800-410-1013 (416-598-5899) if you’re an Ontario lawyer (or your own malpractice carrier if you are in another province) and suspect you have completed or are acting on a matter that appears like it might be a fraud. We will talk you through the common fraud scenarios we are seeing and help you spot red flags that may indicate you are being duped. This will help you ask appropriate questions of your client to determine if the matter is legitimate or not. In the event the matter you are acting is a fraud and there is a potential claim, we will work with you to prevent the fraud and minimize potential claims costs.

As always, we welcome your questions, comments and suggestions.

Cross posted at Avoid A Claim

While we have been receiving great feedback on the various articles on social media in the latest issue of LawPRO Magazine, the surprise front-runner for most popular article in this issue has had over 300 downloads in the first four days – Yvonne Diedrick’s article on the Apology Act, 2009. Perhaps not a real surprise as many Ontario lawyers I have talked to are not familiar with this new legislation.

The Apology Act came into force in Ontario on April 23, 2009. It allows the communication of expressions of sorrow or regret without worrying that the comments can later be used adversely in a civil court.

Many lawyers, and especially litigators, are likely not inclined to think of an apology as a method of dispute resolution. However, experience in other jurisdictions has shown that an apology can go a long way towards resolving a dispute. Ontario was the fourth Canadian jurisdiction to enact apology legislation, following British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. More than 30 states in the U.S. have similar legislation in place.

Read this LAWPRO webzine article to understand the circumstances in which you can make an apology and those in which you should not — there are a number of exceptions under the Act.

Note that LAWPRO’s policy of insurance does not specifically prohibit apologies or expressions of sympathy or regret. It does, however, provide that an insured shall not voluntarily assume any liability. The Act assists lawyers in dealing with this issue and makes it easier for lawyers to apologize to their clients. We encourage you to explore this option in consultation with LAWPRO. Ultimately the legislation should help lawyers achieve the same goal as health care professionals hope to achieve of enhanced accountability and open communication between the lawyer and the client. It may even help you AvoidAClaim.

Cross-posted at Avoid A Claim

While some lawyers are very tuned into social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, many have yet to realize the communications potential of these tools. The newest issue of LawPRO Magazine aims to change this.

Here’s a sample of the topics covered:

• Social Media: Why? An overview of how social media are changing the legal landscape;
• Social Media: What? A guide through the many social media available PLUS inteviews with five lawyers who walk the social media talk;
• Social Media: How? A primer on social media as marketing and networking tools in law practice; and
• Social media pitfalls to avoid: the dangers inherent in social media tools.

You can access the rest of the articles in this issue on the magazine page of the LAWPRO site.

Almost every day lawyers send me copies of emails they have received that attempt to dupe them into acting on a matter involving a bad cheque or bank draft. Some of these messages are clearly attempts at fraud; others can look very legitimate. We have seen some one in which a lawyer is contacted and asked to refer the matter to another lawyer, presumably to fool the lawyer getting the referral.

Thankfully, most lawyers seem to recognize when they are being targeted. But we are still seeing some lawyers that are getting fooled – including one just this week on a collection matter.

The fraudsters continue to come up with new scenarios. One we have seen a few times recently involves the collection of outstanding support arrears. Indeed, several lawyers in Oklahoma were targeted over the American Thanksgiving holiday weekend by this exact type of fraud. The fraudsters pose as a potential client seeking to collect outstanding child or spousal support. They usually say that they have already worked out an agreement with their ex-spouses, but want the lawyer to be involved with finalizing the agreement and handling the payment (for a very healthy share of the proceeds of course). If someone wants to pay you five figures to serve as a cheque-cashing service, your internal “too good to be true” alarm should go off.

Keep your guard up. Make sure your client intake and identification processes are on
high alert. Be on the look-out for frauds involving collections, small business loans and real estate or mortgage transactions loans for commercial purposes. Typically, both the client and the lender institution are new to the firm, and the deals and certified cheques will look legitimate. But they will turn out to be counterfeit, leaving a shortfall in the lawyer’s trust account.

Watch for the common red flags on frauds:

• Client will be new to your firm (or may have retained you previously on a small matter)
• Source of referral is unknown or not recognized
• Client will provide only a cell number
• Client is in a rush to complete the deal
• You will be instructed to disburse the funds to a third party

How to protect yourself: Check out these and other free fraud prevention resources on the practicePRO fraud page (www.practicepro.ca/fraud)

• Download and read Lawyers as targets of fraud: the common misconceptionsto understand the recurring misconceptions that are preventing some lawyers from recognizing potential frauds.
• Download a 90-minute LAWPRO presentation on what frauds look like and how to avoid them. You can access the MP3 (audio) file at http://www.cmcgc.com/DEMO/OBA/09GEN0526T.mp3. The program Powerpoint presentation is available for free download at http://www.oba.org/en/pdf/09GEN0526T.pdf.
• Download copies of our Fraud Fact sheet and distribute them to the lawyers and staff in your office. It contains descriptions of the common fraud scenarios and lists the red flags to watch out for.

Call your insurer if you suspect you have completed or are acting on a matter that appears like it might be a fraud. They can talk you through the fraud common scenarios they are seeing to help you spot red flags and ask the appropriate questions of your client to determine if the matter is legitimate.

Cross posted on Avoid A Claim and LawyerSuccessTips

Cross-posted on the Lawyer Success Tips blog

Although we have never met, over the years I have avidly read and learned a lot from Nancy Byerly Jones. She has written some great articles and created some awesome resources on risk management and claims prevention. My good friend and fellow PMA (practice management advisor) Jim Calloway pointed out a great post Nancy made on her blog yesterday.

Nancy gives us all solid practical advice for making the most with family and friends on this US Thanksgiving (we actually did Thanksgiving in Canada about a month ago), and indeed on any other holiday. In her post Nancy said:

Some of the best advice I ever received was to cherish the good moments during the holidays. In other words, instead of our lamenting over the presence of a loud, obnoxious relative or your grumpy ol’ Uncle’s sour outlook on life, celebrate the one or two moments they actually laughed, shared a rare hug or cracked a funny one liner. If we judge our holidays in their totality, we may very well be disappointed because we so badly wanted the entire holiday to be picture perfect. Yet, we all know perfect just “ain’t” going to happen in the midst of all our personality differences, quirks and wide ranging dispositions.

Happy Thanksgiving, Safe Travels, Enjoyable Feasting &
Wishing Each of You Many Happy Moments with Family & Friends!

Words to live by on our holidays and in our personal and professional lives. Thanks for some great advice Nancy!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our US SLAW readers.

Cross posted at AvoidaClaim.com

There is a fantastic article by John Harvey at page 12 in the October 26 issue of Law Times. (Sorry I can’t give you a public link – unfortunately it is locked up for Law Times subscribers – they can access it in the Law Times Digital Edition here.

While written for Ontario lawyers as it references the Ontario Family Law Act (FLA), the risk issues the article highlights are equally applicable to lawyers in other provinces and territories.

The article has some great comments and quotes from Lorne Wolfson of Torkin Manes LLP. The closing quote of the article says it all: “Estates practitioners must be extremely cautious when advising clients with respect to the potential consequences of estate planning techniques in the event of a separation of their clients and/or their client’s children”.

The article advises trusts and estates practitioners to think about the impact of the FLA when creating trusts. Trusts can certainly help with the deferral of taxes, but the FLA can throw some curves into the mix if the marriages of the clients or their beneficiaries end. In the event of a marriage breakdown the FLA dictates what counts as matrimonial property, and by extension, income if the issue of support in on the table.

The article has a good discussion of some of the issues and law in this area. It also makes another key point – estates practitioners shouldn’t dabble in family law – they should get some help from a lawyer that understands and can advise them on the potential FLA issues.

If you are a Law Times subscriber, pull the Oct 26 issue out of your inbox and read this article – it could help you AvoidAClaim.

Steven Covey is addressing the Drucker Institute live on the web: http://www.drucker100.com/

Not sure if it will be available afterwards.

Thanks Dave Bilinsky for the link.

Cross-posted on The AvoidAClaim blog (www.avoidaclaim.com)

As part of a brief endorsement dated November 3, 2009 in RE: IN THE ESTATE OF Evelyn O’Reilly, et. al., Justice D. M. Brown of the Superior Court Of Justice–Ontario provided some useful direction on the form and content of an order in applications to prove a lost will under Ontario Rule 75.02. Ontario lawyers handling this issue on estate matters will find Brown J.’s comments helpful.

The relevant part of that endorsement is as follows:

[2] My only purpose in writing this brief endorsement is to deal with the form of the order. Since the Rules of Civil Procedure do not prescribe the form for an order made under Rule 75.02, judges see a wide range of language submitted for proposed orders proving lost wills. In order to bring some uniformity to this type of application, I would ask applicants to submit draft orders using the language recommended several years ago by (now retired) Justice Haley. The draft order should read:

I declare that the Will of [insert name of deceased] dated [insert date of will] has been proved and that the copy of the Will adduced in evidence shall be admitted to probate as the last Will of [insert name of deceased] deceased, until such time as the original may be found.

I direct that, subject to the filing of the appropriate documents with the Court, a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will for the Will of [insert name of deceased] dated [insert date of will] be issued to the applicant(s).

To this language should be added any other orders sought by the applicant, such as dispensing with service of the application, etc.

[3] Judges considering these applications are provided with a template endorsement using this language. Therefore, in order for an applicant to avoid the delays associated with submitting a draft with different language and then having to submit a revised order that tracks the language of the endorsement signed by the judge, the language I have set out above should be used in the draft order submitted with the application record.

The decision is unreported as of today’s date, but I understand will be posted on CanLII next week. In the interim a copy of it is available here.

This came to my attention via the Ontario Bar Association Trusts and Estates Section’s list serve.

I over-think and over-analyze every purchase I make, large or small. One of my favourite sources of information is Consumer Reports Magazine (www.comsumerreports.org).

The December issue arrived at home yesterday. It is “The Best New Electronics” issue and is perfectly timed for anyone thinking about a Christmas electronics purchase. They have tested and give ratings for 400+ hot new electronic products. They give basic info on the features you should consider and list the top performers and values. They have repair history ratings on some products, and tell you where to buy computers and electronics, and how to get the best deal.

If you are in the market for a laptop or desktop, printer, LCD & plasma TV, Blu-ray player, home-theatre system, music player, headphone, point-and-shoot camera, SLR camera or lens, microwave oven and coffee maker you should grab a copy of the December issue of Consumer Reports.

I’m very pleased to have practicePRO venturing into the blogosphere with the AvoidAClaim blog – www.avoidaclaim.com. AvoidAClaim has a narrow and specific focus: helping lawyers avoid legal malpractice claims.

In conjunction with practicePRO’s website, www.practicepro.ca, AvoidAClaim will provide risk management, claims prevention and law practice management information to help lawyers proactively take steps to avoid legal malpractice claims, and to help them grow successful and thriving law practices.

I will be writing the majority of the posts on the AvoidAClaim blog, but from time to time there will be content from other LAWPRO staff, and other leaders in the fields of claims prevention and law practice management.

PS: I love being part of the great SLAW community, and plan to continue blogging here.

(This article comes from the latest issue of LAWPRO’s new Webzine and magazine.)

Almost every day LAWPRO receives calls and emails from lawyers who are acting on files that are possible or obvious frauds. The types of sham matters targeting lawyers range from collections and commercial loans to real estate and mortgage transactions.

Based on feedback, we believe that lawyers and law office staff are generally more aware of the red flags that warn of potential fraud. Lawyers are more often identifying and stopping frauds targeting them.

However, these calls also tell us that several recurring misconceptions are preventing some lawyers from recognizing potential frauds. To help you spot matters that may involve a fraud, keep these common misconceptions in mind:

Fraudsters are always “new” clients: Generally this is true, but there are degrees of “newness.” We have seen frauds in which a new client will retain (and pay) a lawyer to do work on a smaller matter that otherwise appears legitimate (e.g., an incorporation),and then come back months later to engage the lawyer to work on the fraudulent matter.

Emails from fraudsters will be very obvious: Probably every lawyer in Canada has received an email that is clearly an attempt at fraud. The clues can include one or more of the following: promises of large sums of money, a scenario that doesn’t add up, bad grammar and loads of spelling mistakes. While the really bad emails are easy to spot, the really good ones are not. We have seen attempted and successful frauds initiated by emails that had little or nothing in them that would raise suspicions. In some frauds, we have seen emails that appear to come from another lawyer (or the staff person of a lawyer who has conveniently gone on vacation). The email will include links to a real law firm’s website, where there will be information on the lawyer who allegedly sent the email. However, a careful inspection will show that the email address and phone number for the supposed sender will not be legitimate (i.e., consistent with the information on the website). They will put you in touch with the fraudster instead.

Fraudsters will only contact you by email or telephone: While the initial contact might be an email message or phone call, we have seen frauds in which the perpetrators visit a lawyer’s office multiple times over weeks or even months. Fraudsters will provide valid-looking identification, including an Ontario driver’s licence. Note: The driver’s licence provided by fraudster clients is almost always fake. Note to Ontario lawyers: To confirm that a driver’s licence is valid, use the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s online Driver Licence Check (www.dlcheck.rus.mto.gov.on.ca/Scripts/OrderForm.asp).

The fraudsters won’t go as far as faking contact info on documents or a cheque: We have had a few calls from lawyers who didn’t think that the fraudsters would go as far as faking contact information on a forged bank draft. Don’t be fooled. This is a critical part of the ruse. See the next point.

The client, lender, seller and buyer can’t really all be in cahoots– can they? Yes they can! Don’t be fooled. Frauds are getting much more sophisticated, and there are usually multiple accomplices involved. All of the documents will look real and be drafted to make the transaction look legitimate. They will put you in touch with the co-conspirators. In one commercial loan fraud, the target lawyer spent many hours over several days going back and forthwith a representative of the supposed lender negotiating terms of the loan and security documentation. On another fraudulent matter, loan instructions came from someone pretending to be a major bank employee.

The fraudsters were so smooth, I never suspected a thing: Several of the lawyers who called us said that in hindsight they were surprised at how friendly and talkative the fraudsters were. The fraudsters seemed to have all the right answers to any questions they were asked. The fraudsters even played on cultural connections where they existed.

Carefully review the above misconceptions so that you don’t become a victim of fraud. Remain on high alert and don’t let your guard down. Frauds are becoming ever more sophisticated, and the fraudsters appear to be going to ever greater lengths to try to trick lawyers into accepting bogus cheques or bank drafts and disbursing good funds from their trust accounts.

Thankfully, we have not seen another organized fraud similar to the one that occurred just prior to the Victoria Day weekend (but expect we will at some point). Use the fraud prevention resources mentioned in the sidebar below, and call your insurer if you are acting on a matter that is a possible or obvious fraud. You insurer will want to help you avoid being the victims of fraud and prevent expensive fraud-related claims.

These resources will help you avoid being duped. They are all available at www.practicepro.ca/fraud.

• The LAWPRO fraud page: Extensive information on fraud and fraud prevention;
• <Fraud And How You Can Avoid Being Its Next Victim webinar: Listen to the MP3 (audio file) and follow along with the materials from this online presentation;
• The LAWPRO Fraud Fact Sheet: Download this handy checklist and keep it in your desk. It will help lawyers and law firm staff spot the red flags to look out for on a fraudulent matter.

The web has certainly transformed the travel industry, and given travellers access to all sorts of amazing info about flight options, hotels and everything else business or vacation travellers would ever want to know. My friends and fellow PMAs (practice management advisors) Jim Calloway from the Oklahoma Bar Association and Courtney Kennaday at the South Carolina Bar Association wrote “Sites For Sore Eyes – The Travel Site Less Visited” which was published this month in the ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division eTechnology Newsletter. They mention several sites I regularly use, and a few I don’t, but clearly should.

I agree with Jim and Courtney, for finding out about flight options by take off and landing time I love Kayak (www.kayak.com).

Note that Porter flights don’t appear on Kayak or Trip Advisor.

If you are travelling on Air Canada, remember to checkout your options on both AirCanada.com and United.ca (they codeshare flights) as I have sometimes found cheaper prices on United.ca for the same flight.

For hotel reviews by guests, I think Kayak and Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor) are great.

When I am looking at different hotels, I find Google Maps is great for helping me find out where hotels are located relative to one another and the other things I want to be close to when I am visiting another city.

And checkout the package deals on Kayak or Trip Advisor – you will find amazing deals where flight, hotel and ground transport will be far less than then the cost of a flight booked separately.

For fare predictions Bing Travel (www.bing.com/travel) (formerly farecast.com) works nicely for US flights, but at times I have found the results to be dodgy on some Canadian flights.

Despite the fact they don’t mention a site that will help you find 120vAC in airports (one of my pet peeves when I travel – especially through Concourse C at ORD as I think there is only one working plug in the whole terminal!), a great article all travelers should read.

(This article comes from the latest issue of LAWPRO’s new Webzine.)

When times are good, bumps in the road won’t always cause problems. Clients are upbeat and they want the deal to close, their problem resolved or the litigation matter to proceed. Happy clients are far less likely to sue their lawyers for malpractice.

However, in tough times, clients squeezed by money problem scan become unhappy and they will be more likely to look for ways to allege that their lawyers made a mistake. In a similar fashion, lawyers squeezed by financial problems can also find themselves more likely to engage in risky behaviour. Unhappy clients and risky lawyer behaviour translate into more LAWPRO claims.

In good times and bad, avoiding a legal malpractice claim requires that you understand where the risks are so that you can respond to them by proactively taking steps to reduce your exposure to a claim. As you will see, the risk management strategies you should employ in good times and bad are essentially the same. And, as clients are likely to hold you to a higher standard when money is tight, being proactive with risk management becomes even more important in tough times.

The most common malpractice claims

As has been highlighted in more detail in past issues of LAWPRO Magazine (See this article for more detail), in good times and bad, in most areas of the law, lawyer/client communication problems are the number one cause of claims. Deadline and time management issues are the second most common type of error, followed by claims that arise because the lawyer didn’t dig deep enough into what the client wanted or needed, substantive law errors, conflicts of interest and then clerical/supervision errors.

And contrary to what most people think, the malpractice errors made at solo, small, medium and large firms are virtually identical in proportion and type. People make mistakes and systems don’t work properly in similar ways, regardless of firm size. See this LAWPRO Magazine article for more detail on this point.

Tough times make clients more demanding

A client squeezed by financial problems may behave in a less reasonable or rational way. A financially desperate client may act in a totally irrational way. A client’s financial health can take a turn for the worse very quickly and unexpectedly. Don’t under estimatethe impact that financial pressures or changed circumstances can have on an individual, or on the relationships between family members or business partners. People who were all previously marching in the same direction can all of a sudden want very different things (e.g., a sale of business or a buy-out of an individual interest). If the matter or amount of money at issue is significant, even long-standing and loyal clients can turn on you. They can see a malpractice claim as a potential solution to their financial difficulties.

In response to financial pressures or changed circumstances, clients may want to back out of business deals or delay litigation matters that would have otherwise proceeded in a good economy. To this end, they will look for ways to allege that their lawyers made a mistake. You will be held to a higher standard. Minor questions or issues that would have warranted little or no attention in good times can become deal breakers in bad times. When making an allegation of malpractice, unhappy clients will look to exploit (with or without merit) one or more of the following: retainers with a vague scope; poor lawyer/client communication; missed deadlines or delay; ambiguous language in documents; unanticipated scenarios or circumstances; unexpected results or outcomes; and immaterial conflicts of interest.

Five key risk management strategies

These five risk management strategies will help you reduce the risk of a claim when you are dealing with demanding clients:
1. Start out on the right foot with a written retainer: The retainer letter or agreement is your terms of engagement. It should clearly identify who the client is and what you are retained to do. A written retainer can protect you if there are unexpected changes in the scope of the engagement as the matter progresses.
2. Control client expectations at all times: Clearly and accurately communicate to your clients the available courses of action and possible outcomes; all the implications of any decisions; how long things will take; and the expected fees and disbursements. This strategy, coupled with the next one, is your best protection from a malpractice claim in good times and bad.
3. Document everything (almost): It is just not practical to document everything on every matter, but you should document as much as you can in some contemporaneous manner. Letters are fine, but emails, detailed time entries and marginal notes on documents can be equally effective. In particular, you want to record advice or instructions that involve significant issues or outcomes, and major client instructions or decisions. Documenting things is especially important when you are dealing with clients who are difficult or emotional due to financial stresses. Documented communications help confirm what was said or done for the client in the event you ever need or want to look back to explain why or what work was done, to justify an account, or to defend yourself on a malpractice claim.
4. Meet or beat deadlines: Set realistic deadlines when it comes to completing tasks and/or delivering things to clients. Underpromising and over-delivering (i.e., earlier than promised) on work for clients will make them very happy. Don’t leave things to the very last minute, as unexpected events beyond your control (blackouts, snow storms, taxi got lost on way to file documents) may prevent things from happening as required. Giving yourself an extra day or two by setting your deadline before the real deadline can be a lifesaver.
5. Send interim and final reporting letters: They should confirm what work was done and the successes obtained for the client, outline future steps, and confirm that the retainer is terminated. This helps keep the client fully informed, and can be critical when it comes to defending a malpractice claim if circumstances unexpectedly change as you work on a matter for a client or after your retainer is terminated.

Risky lawyer behaviour to avoid

Lawyers under economic and financial pressures can also find themselves more likely to engage in a variety of risky behaviours. These are discussed in more detail in the following paragraphs.

Don’t dabble in areas of law outside your expertise: When you are not busy and have extra capacity to do work, it is just so tempting to take any client who walks through the door, even if you have limited expertise in the area of law in which they require help. The pressure to do work outside your usual practice area for an existing client, family or friends can be even greater. Lawyers who hoard work because they are under pressure to increase their billable hours or billings also have a tendency to dabble. Don’t do it! Resist the temptation and pressure. As a “dabbler” you will be less efficient and effective – and far more prone to a malpractice claim. LAWPRO’s claims tell us that dabblers make more than their fair share of mistakes when it comes to knowing and applying substantive law.

That is not to say you should never consider doing more work in or switching to a “growth” area of law. But, if you do so, take steps to become competent by attending CLE programs, working with other lawyers who already know the area or seeking help froma mentor.

Poor client selection: Shortages of work or money pressures canal so cause lawyers to engage in another type of risky behaviour: poor client selection. Poor client selection manifests itself in a variety of ways. It can be working for a client that is unwilling or unable to pay an initial retainer or ongoing fees. It could also be acting for a very difficult client or one who has unrealistic expectations about the strength of his case, the cost of proceeding with it, and/or the likelihood of success. With these types of clients, collecting and replenishing retainers is critical to avoid fee disputes. And carefully setting and controlling their expectations by documenting communications is key to avoiding disputes.

Taking shortcuts: Clients under financial stress are going to want lower legal fees. To please a client with a faster turnaround time and/or lower fees, lawyers may find themselves tempted to take shortcuts. Taking shortcuts means a lawyer will do less work than she might otherwise have done on a matter. This could be skipping searches on a real estate deal, taking less care in reviewing or drafting a document, skipping discoveries or not ordering transcripts, not completing enough due diligence or not updating research.

In some cases taking shortcuts will be fine, provided the client fully understands and accepts the risk. But never let the client’s financial distress expose you to a malpractice claim because you didn’t take all of the necessary and appropriate steps to handle the matter in a competent way. If your client instructs you to take shortcuts, carefully document your advice to her on the risks of doing so.

Don’t sue for fees: Tough times mean there will be more clients who are unwilling or unable to pay their legal fees. This will lead to more lawyer/client fee disputes, and in turn, more lawyers suing their clients for fees. Think twice before you sue for fees. A suit for fees almost guarantees a counter-claim alleging negligence.

The better solution: Get the money up front so you avoid fee disputes altogether. At the time you are retained, get a retainer that is sufficient to cover all initial work that needs to be done on the matter. Replenish retainer funds before they are exhausted (setup your accounting system to monitor and remind you when the amount in trust is getting low). Stop working on the file if the retainer is not replenished – working on credit greatly increases the likelihood you will not get paid for your work, especially in tough times.

Lawyers or staff dipping into trust funds: Financial problems caused by tough times or personal difficulties can be the motive for even the most long-serving and trusted staff or lawyers to commit fraud. Weak internal controls coupled with the knowledge of firm systems and how to get around them create the opportunity for them to get away with it. Internal law firm fraud has been very costly for the insurance program. See When The UnthinkableHappens: What To Do When Partners, Associates Or Staff Commit Fraud for information on recognizing when internal fraud may have occurred, and how you should respond.

Watch for conflicts of interest on lateral hires: Lateral hires of partners or associates frequently occur in bad times. A strong desire to hire a transferring lawyer should not lessen the need to identify and honestly assess potential conflicts, and to take appropriate steps to deal with them if necessary (e.g., confidentiality screens or client waivers). A failure to deal appropriately with these conflicts only delays the inevitable: in all likelihood the firm will have to refer any clients with a conflict to another firm.

Conclusion

When times are tough, clients in financial distress are far more likely to sue their lawyers for legal malpractice, and financially pressed lawyers may be tempted to engage in risky behaviour. In these circumstances, risk management is more important than ever. Use the knowledge you have gained from this article and the tools and resources mentioned below to reduce your exposure to a malpractice claim.

practicePRO claims prevention tools and resources

Numerous tools and resources that can help you reduce the risk of a malpractice claim are available at www.practicepro.ca.
These include:

• LAWPRO Magazine Archive: Articles from all past issues of the magazine
• LAWPRO Resources Topical List page: Articles and resources sorted by topic
• Retainer precedents for several of areas of law and matter types
• Dealing with difficult clients paper and client file opening information memo precedents
• Limitation periods charts
• ILA checklist
• Sample law firm business plan and budget
• practicePRO Lending Library: Books on law practice management issues that Ontario lawyers can borrow for free (Sorry – Ontario lawyers only!)
• practicePRO Wellness and Balance Page: Tools and resources to help you manage stress

Domenic Bellacicco’s phone is ringing off the hook these days thanks to a great “practice tip” article he wrote for latest issue of LAWPRO Magazine. Domenic is a Claims Counsel in the New Claims Unit at LAWPRO. and his article addresses an area we all too frequently see claims in these days: administrative dismissals.

Read the full Administrative Dismissal: Take It Seriously And Ask For (Our) Help article here.

I spoke with colleagues at two law societies (one in the West and one in the East) who said this was also a big issue (with local variations) in their respective provinces, so I thought a post on SLAW would be a good way to get an important claims prevention pointer out to lawyers right across the country.

Domenic’s article starts out with a scenario that will, unfortunately, sound very familiar to many lawyers. A Friday afternoon phone call from counsel on the other side of a matter that has sat too long on the corner of your desk. It has been difficult to obtain instructions from the client, and you have a nagging feeling that you have put the matter off for too long. The call from counsel on the other side informs you that the registrar dismissed the action for delay about six months ago and he is closing his file. When you review the file, you find buried with some client documents the dismissal order which never came to your attention. You are not even sure if you received the status notice advising of the pending dismissal. You don’t see it in the file. Your first thought is that a registrar’s dismissal order is easy to set aside. Wrong!

LAWPRO sees this scenario (or a similar version) on a weekly basis. Many lawyers are unfamiliar with the case law and think registrars’ dismissal orders are routinely set aside. They do not call LAWPRO. Instead, they bring a motion but are not successful in restoring the action. The motion materials are poorly drafted and the affidavit lacks crucial details. See Domenic’s article for a summary of the requirements under the Ontario rules and case law. Of course, other provinces will have their own requirements.

Further, by being late in reporting the matter to your malpractice insurer, you are not only jeopardizing your coverage but also endangering hopes of an appeal because this is likely not a case where you can introduce fresh evidence on appeal. Typically, all relevant information was available prior to the motion.

When you realize that an action has been dismissed for delay, call your insurer immediately. Don’t bring the motion without telling your insurer first, and don’t advise it of the situation on the eve of motion. Your insurer can help by reviewing your motion material. In some cases, a consent to set aside the order may be available. In some circumstances, your insurer may agree that your firm can proceed on its own with experienced counsel handling the motion. In most cases, it is necessary for your insurer to retain counsel for you to prepare the motion record and argue the motion. LAWPRO has been successful when it has had the time to properly respond. Remember, your insurer is there to help.

Read the full Administrative Dismissal: Take It Seriously And Ask For (Our) Help article here.

Good practical advice for dealing with administrative dismissals – and an important broader lesson for all lawyers: talk to your malpractice insurer to get objective and expert advice if you think you have a real or potential malpractice claim.

The August 2009 issue of Law Practice Today, the ABA Law Practice Management Section’s webzine was just published.

Read the Law Practice Today “Wellness and Balance” issue here.

All sort of great articles on how you can find balance and wellness in our very busy world, including:

• Achieving Life/Work Balance Through Effective Time Management by Kathleen Brady
• How to Take a Vacation from Your Law Practice by Sheila M. Blackford
• A Lawyer’s Tale: Recovering from Depression by Keith Anderson
• Job Satisfaction: Little Things Lawyers Can Do to Make a Big Difference by Dan Millman
• Putting Up With Nothing—How To Do It by Joshua Hornick
• Who Is the Best and Brightest? by Ronda Muir
• Tech Tool Reviews: Password Management by Stephen Bird
• Your Practice Management Advisor: The Advantages of Digital Dictation by JoAnn L. Hathaway
• Being Solo Does Not Mean Being Lonely by Carolyn Elefant
• Law Firm Wellness Programs Offer Help and Support by Colleen Ford Kennedy
• Good Client Communications Can Help Lawyers Avoid Malpractice Claims by Barbara Power with a sidebar by Dan Pinnington: Top Twelve Tips for Avoiding Claims
• Selling a Properly Valued Practice Can Turn Fear Into Opportunity by Ed Poll
• Computers, Tequila and Hand Guns: Controlling Technology So It Doesn’t Control You by Thomas W. Shumate, IV

Read the Law Practice Today “Wellness and Balance” issue here.

Law Practice Today is the ABA LPM Section’s online publication. Anyone can subscribe to it (i.e., you don’t have to be an ABA member to get it). Subscribe to LPT here.
Each issue has at least a dozen articles and it goes to almost 30,000 people monthly. Hundreds of articles from past issues are available in the online archives.

The latest issue of LAWPRO Magazine – Changing Direction: Thinking Differently About Your Law Practice – is in the mail and on the web. Download entire magazine here (PDF format, size: 3.27MB)

Our cover stories this month all ask the question: Which kind of lawyer will you be? Legal guru Richard Susskind describes the five lawyer types he predicts will be in future demand. Karen Bell examines how some lawyers are innovating and resetting the legal services model. This article also contains a series of checklists to guide lawyers on the new skills and tools lawyers can use. In Strategic Resourcing: Outsourcing two outsourcing providers discuss their services, there are discussions with virtual associates and risk management tips when you outsource work. Technology opens doors to new thinking contains profiles of two firms who did interesting things with technology: one outsourced IT, the other innovated on the back of technology.

There are several other feature articles including:

• Fraud-related claims are contributing to increased claims numbers and costs – putting pressure on insurance premiums. There is an article recapping the types of frauds LAWPRO is seeing, and more importantly, some risk management tips to help you avoid being conned. We also summarized how our recent fraud alerts help prevent 18 Ontario lawyers from being victimized.
• Changes to Land Title Assurance Fund in which former Government Services Minister Ted McMeekin discusses the new fraud prevention/consumer protection measures implemented in Ontario’s land registration system.
• Debra Rolph’s Casebook column challenges retired lawyers to consider whether they have enough run-off coverage (the legal malpractice coverage in place after you retire).
• An article on the Home Buyers in Ontario Facebook group just launched by TitlePLUS.
• In our OLAP (Ontario Lawyers Assistance Plan) article this month John Starzynski focuses on recognizing and helping lawyers in distress, and in particular lawyers that might be suicidal.

Download entire magazine here (PDF format, size: 3.27MB).

Having just passed the halfway point of 2009, we crunched the numbers on the most popular year-to-date article and resource downloads from the LAWPRO and practicePRO websites. There are a few new additions to the top ten, and past favourites have swapped places. The updated most popular LAWPRO/practicePRO downloads list appears here.

It looks as if more lawyers are looking at their firm finances, as the always popular sample law firm budget spreadsheet jumps up to become the most downloaded resource over the last six months. The sample law firm business plan came in at #9.

Peg Duncan’s amazing and always popular Canadian-focused e-discovery reading list comes in at #2.

Rollie Thompson’s article on the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines from LAWPRO Magazine comes in at #3.

The LAWPRO Magazine article on understanding the dangers of metadata, which has been at or near the top since it was first published, comes in at #4.

I’m very pleased to see LAWPRO’s new Fraud Fact Sheet comes in at #5.
It has lists of the specific red flags to look out for on various types of fraudulent matters. Download and give copies to your staff and lawyers to help tmem spot bogus matters.

My recent LAWPRO Magazine article BlackBerry 101 comes in at #6. These practical tips for doing more with your BlackBerry clearly struck a chord with lawyers, as this has to be one of my most popular columns ever, judging from the dozens of calls and e-mails I have received on it.

Several of our retainer precedents, as well as our always popular limitation periods charts , round out the top 10.

On our top downloads page you can see the rest of the top 40 downloads to July 2009, as well as the top downloads for 2008, 2007 and 2006.

On May 26 LAWPRO put on a special webinar aimed at helping lawyers to avoid being the victims of fraud. It was hosted and broadcast by the Ontario Bar Association.

You can now listen to a free MP3 of this program, and follow along with the program PowerPoint.

Fraud is the new normal. It is a real and growing problem for Ontario law firms and lawyers. Prior to the May 24 holiday weekend, we saw an apparent organized fraud that targeted 19 different lawyers for a total amount of $5.4 million. We continue to get almost daily calls from lawyers that are finding themselves in the middle of handling a matter that is clearly, or appears to be, a fraud. And all too frequently we see situations where fraudsters successfully “trick” lawyers and law firm staff, in practices large and small, into helping make a fraud happen. These claims have been costly for LAWPRO.

How can you protect yourself and your firm from being a victim? This webinar will help you become familiar with the common fraud schemes and scenarios, recognize the “red flags” of a fraudulent deal, and show you the steps you can take to lessen the likelihood you will be a victim of fraud.

I moderated the program, and two of my fellow LAWPRO employees were the speakers: Rosanne Manson, Claims Counsel, and Lisa Weinstein, Director, National Underwriting Policy, TitlePLUS.

The topics covered in the webinar include the following:

• Why fraud is a concern
• Current fraud trends and claims numbers
• The common fraud schemes and scenarios
• The types of bad cheque fraud
• Commercial loan matters
• Collection matters
• The different types of real estate fraud
• Identity theft
• Power of attorney fraud
• Value fraud
• The role of title insurance
• Red flags for a problem client or transaction
• How to protect yourself and your clients
• Internal fraud: when trusted staff go bad
• What to do if you think you are about to be victimized

Listen to the MP3 of the program and follow along with the program PowerPoint.

Please also download and share with your staff LAWPRO’s new Fraud Fact Sheet for a more complete list of the specific red flags to look out for on the various types of fraudulent matters.

There are even more resources on fraud prevention on practicePRO’s fraud page (www.practicepro.ca/fraud).

Cross-posted on lawyersuccesstips.com

The latest issue of Law Practice Today (www.lawpracticetoday.org), the ABA Law Practice Management’s webzine was published today. This blockbuster issue has all sorts of great articles for the “suddenly solo” lawyer. This is new lawyer starting out as a solo because they didn’t get a job at a firm, or someone leaving a firm to continue a practice on their own. Many of the top names in law practice management have contributed articles to this issue: Dennis Kennedy, Jim Calloway, Andy Atkins and Mark Robertson.

Read the Law Practice Today “Suddenly solo” issue here.

Law Practice Today is the ABA LPM Section’s online publication. Anyone can subscribe to it (i.e. you don’t have to be an ABA member to get it). Subscribe to LPT here.
Each issue has at least a dozen articles and it goes to almost 30,000 people monthly. Hundreds of articles from past issues are available in the online archives.

For a limited time, ABA Publishing is offering a special 20% discount on all ABA titles. Do your shopping before July 24, 2009 as this offer expires on that date. To get this special pricing order online and enter source code PEP9MJPM

The 20% discount applies to all ABA books and you can find a complete listing of them at www.ababooks.org. Non-ABA members get 20% off of list price. ABA Section members get 20% off the special reduced member price of any section they belong to, and 20% off the list price for books from sections they aren’t members of.

In particular though, I suggest you review the books published by ABA’s Law Practice Management Section (www.abanet.org/lpm/). They have an amazing collection of awesome books on anything and everything you want to know about law practice management. This includes firm management and administration, billing and finances, legal technology, marketing and client relations, the internet, HR issues and much more. You can see a list of the LPM Section’s books here.

A catalog of LPM books in PDF format is here.

A list of the ABA LPM best sellers is here.

I was very pleased to see my new book, The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Success: Essential Tips to Power Your Practice, made the best seller’s list.

Get some great summer reading before the July 24 order deadline.

This afternoon LAWPRO sent an e-blast warning Ontario lawyers to be on the lookout for the latest fraud scheme targeting them. For the first time LAWPRO is seeing a counterfeit bank draft fraud scheme that targets real estate lawyers on mortgage deals. Furthermore, the new scenario may include the supposed fraudster using the identity of a major national financial institution as the actual lender in the transaction.

This new type of fraud works as follows: A new and previously unknown client or lender contact allegedly from a major bank will ask a lawyer to act on mortgage matter. The source of the referral will be unknown to the lawyer (i.e. a person they don’t know or recognize). Shortly thereafter, mortgage instructions will arrive at the lawyer’s office along with a legitimate looking bank draft drawn on a major bank. Loan amounts to date range from $640,000 to $685,000. Client will be in a rush to complete the deal.

LAWPRO is warning Ontario lawyers be wary if they are handling matters that appear the same or is similar to the one described above. Lawyers and their staff are encouraged to be extra careful when handling mortgage deals. These are very sophisticated frauds. The letters and other documents provided by the client and bank drafts received from the lender will look legitimate – but turn out to be counterfeit.

The red flags to watch for on this type of fraud include:
> Client and/or lender contact are new to your firm
> Source of referral is unknown or not recognized
> Very large mortgage be placed on mortgage free property
> Client is in a rush to complete the deal.

It appears that the people behind this fraud have stolen the identity of the property owner, and that the property owner is unaware that this has happened. Lawyers are encouraged to use the title search, telephone book, Internet and other sources to cross-check client and bank names, addresses, phone numbers and other information in the documentation provided to them.

Lawyers are also advised to protect themselves when dealing with the bank. Don’t rely on oral confirmation from your bank at time of deposit that the bank draft is good. Don’t disburse funds immediately – even if a client is pushing! Wait until the second bank-to-bank verification before issuing funds from a trust account. For branches in major centres this often will take one or two banking days, and for branches in more remote locales as long a 8-10 calendar days. See the Show Me the Money article for more information on funds transfers from the Summer 2008 LAWPRO Magazine.

Please read LAWPRO’s new Fraud Fact Sheet at to learn more about the red flags to look out for on matters that are frauds. Or see the practicePRO Fraud page (www.practicepro.ca/fraud) for information on fraud and how to avoid it.

Rasterbator is a free tool that turns any image into a huge poster. While you can have fun with pictures of family, friends or your pets, or monsters in your living room window for Halloween, for work purposes you could also use this app create a sign or to blow-up a chart or graph.

Rasterbator gives you two ways to blow-up images: You can upload an image to the Rasterbator site or you can download a Rasterbator app to your computer.

Rasterbator gives you a blown-up image that you can print on multiple sheets of paper. Assemble these sheets in the proper order on your wall and viola, see yourself larger than life. You will have to do some trimming if your printer can’t print to the very edge of each sheet.

A word of warning, you will gain a new appreciation of the cost of printer cartridges as printing large posters will consume large amounts of ink. Printing black-and-white posters might be a cheaper option, and printing on a laser printer is probably an even cheaper option.

Have fun with this cool app.

From the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) blog.

Adobe expects to deliver security updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 7.x, 8.x, and 9.x for Windows and Macintosh on Tuesday, June 9. This is the first quarterly security update for Adobe Reader. Adobe considers this a critical update and recommends users be prepared to apply the update for their product installations. Details of where to download updates will be posted to Adobe’s Security Bulletins and Advisories support page on June 9.

It has been crazy busy here at LAWPRO over the last month or so. Just over three weeks ago, we had calls from a few lawyers who had found themselves as possible targets of a bad cheque scam. They had been retained on a business loan matter in which it appeared the intent was to have them deposit a forged loan proceeds cheque into their trust accounts and then disburse good funds from them. We decided to send an e-blast warning the profession to watch for bad cheque scams.

That e-blast prompted several more lawyers to call us. We saw a number of similarities in the scenarios that they described to us, leading us to conclude there was a large scale and organized fraud scheme targeting Ontario lawyers. That prompted us to send another e-blast, which in turn prompted more even more lawyers who appeared to be targets of this fraud scheme to call to call us. As some of them were preparing to close the deal, i.e. run the bad cheques through their trust accounts, we decide to send a third e-blast. That prompted even more calls.

As of today, we have identified 17 matters where we believe frauds that were part of this organized scam were avoided. These attempted frauds had an average value of $305,000, and had a total value almost $5.2 million. See my earlier SLAW post for more info on how these frauds worked.

Needless to say we are ecstatic about this result: $5.2 million in trust account shortfalls may have been avoided, and a large number of potential and very expensive LAWPRO claims were likely prevented.

But, we are holding our breath. Why? Because we are wondering if some lawyers were caught by this scheme. We are waiting for the second bank-to-bank verifications to happen, at which point we think at least some lawyers might be getting a call from their bank about shortfalls in their trust accounts. “Certified” doesn’t mean what many lawyers seem to think it means. Lawyers need to protect themselves when dealing with the bank. Don’t rely on oral confirmation from a bank at time of deposit that the cheque is good. Don’t disburse funds immediately – even if a client is pushing! Wait until the second bank-to-bank verification before issuing funds from a trust account. Wait at least 2-3 banking days to so. To better understand funds transfers and what certified really means, see the Show Me the Money article from the Summer 2008 issue of LAWPRO Magazine

If you are ever suspicious you are working on a matter that could be a bad cheque scam, talk to someone else for an outside perspective – you may not see things clearly as you are in the middle of the deal. That could be another lawyer, or just call your Law Society or insurer. Please read LAWPRO’s new Fraud Fact Sheet to learn more about the red flags to look out for on matters that are bad cheque scams.

See the practicePRO Fraud page at http://www.practicepro.ca/fraud for more information on fraud and how you can avoid it.

LAWPRO is sponsoring a free webinar today: How You Can Avoid Being Its Next Victim. It is hosted by the Ontario Bar Association. Instructions on how you can attend are here:

Further to my post last night, we have received more than a dozen calls and e-mails from lawyers further to the fraud warning blast LAWPRO sent out Monday afternoon this week. Thankfully, that e-mail blast prevented most of these lawyers from being victims of a bad cheque fraud.

However, two of the lawyers who called didn’t get our message because their Spam filter caught our e-blast. One happened to call us for advice on how to handle a suspicious transaction further to articles he had read in past issues of LAWPRO Magazine. The other just happened come across our message when he checked his Spam filter this afternoon.

The lesson: Spam filters aren’t perfect. They sometimes catch legitimate messages – these are called false positives. Please whitelist your Law Society, malpractice carrier and anyone else that you really need or want to get messages from. And on a regular basis please check your Spam filter for messages that should not have been caught by it. It could save you from a malpractice claim.

I did mention this point at the end of my post last night, but felt that it warranted a post of its own to make sure people get this important message. No doubt, LAWPRO will get calls next week from lawyers that were victims of this fraud because they didn’t get our e-blast warning messages.

Last week LAWPRO e-blasted 20,000 Ontario lawyers in private practice with a warning about a bad cheque fraud scam targeting lawyer trust accounts.

That e-mail blast prompted several Ontario lawyers to call us and we have gathered further information about these frauds. It now seems clear to us that there is an organized scheme underway to defraud Ontario lawyers in and around the Greater Toronto Area using matters involving small business equipment loans. These matters all share the same basic timeline and circumstances, and in some cases, the same purported individuals or entities (a lender from Halifax or Montreal). These are contrived matters that are solely intended to have you disburse good funds to the fraudster after depositing a bad cheque in your trust account – leaving you with a shortfall.

As of tonight I have not heard whether related or similar frauds are happening in other provinces. I have been in contact with my colleagues at other provincial law societies and insurers and will advise via a comment to this post if I hear of frauds happening in any other provinces.

In all cases, a previously unknown client retained the lawyer to do an incorporation three or four weeks ago. The client presented realistic looking photo ID (a newer Ontario driver licence). The lawyer completed the requested work and the client paid in full for the incorporation (usually with cash).

In the last week, the client returned to the firm asking the lawyer to act on an equipment purchase loan matter. Loan amounts are approximately $300,000 and the loan is to come from a Halifax or Montreal-based lender (there is someone answering the phone for the lender – we suspect the fraudster or an accomplice). The client is pushing to have the loan completed as quickly as possible. The loan proceeds are to go to a third-party corporation (not the client’s new corporation).

There are clear badges of fraud in the above scenario. The lawyers’ suspicions were also raised for one or more of the following reasons: the client and corporate addresses were the same; it is unusual for a brand new corporation with no apparent purpose to get such a large loan; the only security for the loan was a promissory note or GSA; the client had only a cell number or the home phone number given was not working, and the address on the driver’s licence is not a real one.

In the last four business days I have personally taken three of the calls from lawyers in the middle of a bad deal. All three say they were tipped off that something was amiss after reading our e-blast and/or one of our recent LAWPRO Magazine articles on fraud. What is amazing to me is that despite seeing some of the red flags for fraud, they still wanted to believe that the matter was a legitimate one and that the client was not a fraudster. I gather he is very convincing.

Please be wary if you are handling a matter that appears the same or is similar to the ones described above. Over the past year, almost 20 of these types of fraud schemes were reported to LAWPRO during the various holiday/long weekend times. Clearly there appears to be an organized fraud scheme targeting Ontario lawyers. We encourage lawyers and their staff to be extra careful in the next few weeks. Remember that these are very sophisticated frauds. The letters and other documents provided by the client and the certified cheques or money orders received from the lender will look legitimate – but turn out to be counterfeit. Once the lawyers had suspicions and dug deeper, cross-checks and searches on the names, addresses, serial numbers or other information in the documentation provided to the lawyer proved to be false.

Please read LAWPRO’s new Fraud Fact Sheet to learn more about the red flags to look out for. You can also find further information on this type of fraud and how to avoid it on the practicePRO Fraud page (www.practicepro.ca/fraud) for information on fraud and how to avoid it.

Stay In The Loop – Please Whitelist Your Law Society And Insurer

One of the fraud victims I spoke to did not get our e-mail blast last week. We did send the blast to him and it appears that his spam filter caught it. Please make sure your law society and insurer have an accurate e-mail address for you, and make sure you whitelist their addresses so that important information and bulletins get through to you.

I have posted on SLAW before about this, but as the June 1 deadline is approaching I thought another post was warranted. Also posted on LawyerSuccessTips.com.

Is your law practice or firm one of the profession’s leading lights of innovation? Have you or someone within your firm with vision and courage led a groundbreaking effort to practice law differently? Have you developed a new and better way of serving clients, a breakthrough way to find new business, a truly innovative way to value and sell your services? If so, then you deserve the recognition of lawyers and clients in your region and worldwide. And if so, the College of Law Practice Management (www.colpm.org) wants to hear from you.

The College of Law Practice Management is now accepting entries for the 2009 InnovAction Awards at www.innovactionaward.com. Awards are presented for law practice innovations within law firms and legal departments that have never been done previously, or that take an existing innovation to the next level of originality and performance.

See the Hall of Fame for previous winners.

The goal of the Awards is to demonstrate to the legal community what can be created when passionate professionals with big ideas are determined to solve the business challenges faced in today’s competitive markets. Award entries will be judged on the basis of four primary criteria:

• Absence of precedent (never been done or done quite this way before)
• Evidence of action (the innovative idea was transformed into action and not merely reflective of best intentions)
• Effectiveness of innovation (there is some measurable outcome that indicates the innovation is accomplishing what it was intended to do)
• Action must have taken place within no more than three years prior to this entry.

Complete contest rules and application forms can be found at http://www.innovactionaward.com.

If you are or know someone that is truly innovative – please apply or get them to apply before the June 1 deadline.

Nothing like a pending crisis to get law firms to focus on critical issues. No doubt a pandemic has the potential to interrupt many a law office – everything from sending a few staff home sick to entirely shutting the office down for a few days or weeks. Here are some resources to help you and your firm prepare for the eventuality of a pandemic:

• Pandemic Preparations for the Workplace is a great article just published by The Colorado Bar Association in its Colorado Lawyer Magazine
• The ABA Division of Bar Services has a posted a good list of pandemic preparedness resources
• LAWPRO’s Managing a Practice Interruption Booklet is a good general reference on preparing for any unexpected practice interruption

When it comes to disaster preparedness an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Hopefully we won’t face many serious impacts from the pandemic, but it is better to be safe than sorry, and any preparations for it will help you reduce the impact of other unexpected practice interruptions that may come your way in the future.

Just posted on the web is a recent discussion between Mark Harding, Group General Counsel, Barclays and Professor Richard Susskind, OBE on “The End Of Lawyers?”.

If you didn’t listen to Professor Susskind’s ABA TECHSHOW keynote, here is another chance to hear his take on what the future holds for lawyers. The topics covered include:

• Market predictions and changes – technology and commoditisation
• Law firm management – new approaches for the future
• Innovation and R&D – rethinking the delivery of legal services
• Change management for clients – new ways of working
• Market competition and external investment
• Collaboration – more for less
• Developments in technology to support risk management
• Implications of emerging technologies for access of justice
• Future trends and opportunities for lawyers

Listen to the TECHSHOW keynote or this interview – both argue very persuasively that fundamental change is upon the legal profession. Lawyers interested in a future in the practice of law should read “The End of Laywers?” book.

The attendees at ABA TECHSHOW 2009 where treated to a fantastic keynote presentation by Dr Richard Susskind. He spoke about the hypothesis of his new book, The End of Lawyers?

Now the good news for all those that couldn’t attend TECHSHOW: an audio recording of Dr Susskind’s keynote is now available on the TECHSHOW site. It is most definitely worth a listen.

The title and theme of Dr. Susskind’s book – the end of lawyers – appears on first blush to be rather ominous. And while it is, most people miss is the question mark, and its implication. The title asks a question. It is not a statement. In his book Dr. Susskind asks and explores the extent to which the role of the traditional lawyer can be sustained in coming years in the face of what he sees as challenging trends in the legal marketplace, and various new techniques and technologies for the delivery of legal services. Dr. Susskind has assembled a collection of predictions and observations about a generally honourable profession that is, he argues, on the brink of fundamental transformation. He urges lawyers to ask themselves what elements of their current workload could be undertaken more quickly, more cheaply, more efficiently, or to a higher quality using different and new methods of working. He argues that the market is unlikely to tolerate expensive lawyers for tasks that can be better discharged with support of modern technology systems and techniques. The book does point to a future in which conventional legal advisers will be much less prominent in society than today. This he says will be caused by two forces: a market pull towards commoditization and by pervasive development and uptake of information technology. Commoditization and IT will fundamentally reshape twenty-first century legal service.

I am reading Dr. Susskind’s book now, and plan to comment more on it in a upcoming SLAW posts. Lawyers interested in a future in the practice of law should read this book. If my statement alone doesn’t convince you to do that, listen to Dr. Susskind’s keynote – it argues very persuasively that change is upon us.

The death of the billable hour has been (allegedly) imminent for at about two decades now. But by most accounts, at least until recently, the billable hour has remained as healthy as Mark Twain was when he responded with his famous quote to the rather incorrect rumours of his passing. (He actually did this twice with two slight different quotes – read more here)

I included the at least until recently above because I am seeing evidence that things are finally changing, at least in the corporate and larger firm worlds (and no doubt it will trickle down to smaller firms and non-corporate clients). The current economic woes seem to be causing some clients to demand alternatives to the billable hour. As money is tighter these days, the drive behind this is nothing more than getting better value for the money spent on legal fees. Firms that want the work have little choice to respond to client demands, often with detailed answers to client RFPs that set out fees based on other than simple billable hours.

Question for the lawyers: Is your firm ready to make this change? (Stated a slightly different way: By matter type do you really know what it costs to handle the various types of matters your firm handles?)

Question for the clients: Do you understand the ways you can get more value for your legal spend?

Question for both: Have you talked to each other about this?

I suspect the answer to these questions for many law firms and their clients is no.

If you are a lawyer or a client and answered no to the above questions, you should visit the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Value Challenge website. The ACC has put together a truly amazing online resource to help clients and their lawyers understand what clients really need, want and are willing to pay for. While really aimed at corporate law departments and bigger firms – much of the content on this site is helpful and relevant to lawyers at firms of all sizes and their respective clients.

The premise for this resource is that many traditional law firm business models and cost management strategies (read reward more billable hours) are not aligned with what corporate clients really want and need: value-driven, high-quality legal services that deliver solution for a reasonable cost and develop lawyers as counselors (not just content-providers), advocates (not just process-doers) and professional partners.

The site includes some “Meet/Talk/Act” guidelines to help law departments and law firms open the dialogue on these issues. (And, I’m all for more lawyer/client communication as it can help alleviate the most common cause of legal malpractice claims – poor lawyer/client communication. See my LAWPRO Magazine article on the most common malpractice claims.)

To help you make changes there is a Toolkit that includes resources and tools on the following topics:
* Structuring Relationships
* Budgeting and Staffing
* Performance Management
* Teamwork & Communications
* Leveraging Knowledge

And the ACC also commissioned a major economic consulting firm to develop a computer-based model of basic law firm economics. This model allows in-house counsel and law firms to test assumptions and input data (for example, numbers of associates and partners, rates, overhead, etc.) and see how changes in these and other factors can affect a firm’s efficiency and profitability. Wow!

Kudos to the ACC wants for promoting a discussion on these issues between lawyers and their clients. If you want to succeed you need to make time to review and consider the content on the ACC Value Challenge site.

Twitter was a certainly a hot topic at ABA TECHSHOW last week. Loads of active Twitterers were tweeting away there, and many more attendees where trying to learn more about it. Are you still trying to figure out what Twitter is, and more importantly, what it might do for you? My good friend Jim Calloway, the Practice Management Advisor at the Oklahoma Bar Association, has a special knack for explaining technology in a practical and very understandable way. To learn more about Twitter read this great article he posted on the OBA site earlier this week: Twitter: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Most of us tend to look outside our offices for threats or dangers. However, you should also be aware of potential inside dangers. Statistics show that the majority of incidents involving the destruction or loss of data were perpetrated by current, soon-to-be dismissed or recently dismissed employees. Few, if any, know more about your firm’s systems than your employees, and few, if any, are in a better position to cause major damage.

In particular, your IT staff, employees with advanced technology knowledge, and outside technology support people are potentially the greatest threat because they have the greatest knowledge about your system configurations, and the technical know-how to be very destructive.

Needless to say, the issue of properly handling the departure of employees is an issue more firms are dealing with these days.

When any employee leaves your firm, regardless of whether they are leaving of their own accord, being terminated or laid off, ensure that your files and systems are protected. Promptly close all their points of access to your office and computer systems, including keys and access cards, login accounts and passwords, e-mail accounts or remote access. If you discharge an employee who has access to critical company data, let them go without notice, and don’t allow them any access to a computer.

There are literally dozens of steps you should complete systematically to make sure all points of access for departed employees are closed down. Follow this detailed employee departure checklist to make sure you take all the necessary steps. This checklist was prepared as a supplement to LAWPRO’s Managing the security and privacy of data in a law office booklet.

And when it comes to avoiding problem employees, start at the very beginning: When hiring a new employee, make sure you are diligent and carefully check their backgrounds and speak to references. Look for any red flags on an application letter or resume, and watch for issues during the interview process. Watch for someone that is withholding relevant information, or that has falsified information on the application. Assess the overall integrity and trustworthiness of the candidate.

Many installations of Microsoft Office have “Full menus” disabled (it is the default setting when Office is installed). What does this mean? You will see only a few items on any menu you select (File, Edit, View, etc.). And, to find a menu command that you don’t use often or have never used before, you have to click the two downwards pointing chevrons at the bottom of the menu – this forces Windows to show all the available commands on that menu. You can also double-click the menu to expand it.

When you expand one menu, all of the menus are expanded until you choose a command or perform another action, and then you go back to short menus again.

But note, when you click on a command on the expanded menu, that command is immediately added to the short version of its menu – so you will see it next time you use that menu. So you will see a few more menu commands over time. However, if you do not use that command often, it will be dropped from the short version of the menu.

So you are really playing a twisted game of menu hide-and-seek. This has to be the dumbest MS Office and Windows feature ever. Duh! Why would you want hide menu items from yourself? I just can’t fathom what the Microsoft programmers were thinking of when they came up with this one. It just doesn’t make sense to make it harder and more time consuming to find and select the menu items you want and need – assuming you know what you are looking for – for those just learning to use Office you can’t even see what you don’t know you are looking for. Duh!!

Do yourself a favour and configure your installation of MS Office so full menus appear all the time. In any Office application, click on Tools, then Customize, then the Options tab, and check “Always show full menus”. Stop playing menu hide-and-seek – there are other computers games that are much more fun.

The Ontario E-Discovery Implementation Committee (EIC) has just released eight model e-discovery precedents, as well as additional e-discovery best practices documents.

The EIC is a joint committee established by the Ontario Bar Association and The Advocates’ Society. It is composed of litigators from both the private and public sectors, and members of the judiciary in Ontario. The mandate of the EIC is to implement best practices with respect to electronic discovery within the Ontario court system and litigation bar. One of the keys tasks of the EIC is to inform and educate lawyers and the judiciary regarding the “how” of e-discovery – creating practical tools that help practitioners and the courts deal with e-discovery issues. A key theme in the work of the EIC is proportionality – the requirement to ensure that the e-discovery requirements that are placed on litigants are proportional, in terms of cost, time and effort, to the nature and dollar value of the case.

The eight EIC model precedents include:
• an e-discovery checklist, with annotations on how to minimize e-discovery costs
• a discovery agreement
• a preservation agreement
• two sample memoranda to be sent to a client (corporate or individual) regarding documentary discovery
• two preservation letters
• a preservation order

Additional best practices documents include 10 Guiding Principles to Minimize E-Discovery Costs and a case-specific example of a lawyer’s letter confirming a discovery agreement.
The documents are available to anyone and can be downloaded from the Ontario Bar Association’s e-discovery page.

These documents include detailed annotations to The Sedona Canada Principles Addressing Electronic Discovery (the “Sedona Canada Principles”). The Sedona Canada Principles are a set of national guidelines for e-discovery in Canada, which reflect both existing legal principles and a set of identified best practices. They are intended to be compatible with the discovery rules in all Canadian jurisdictions.

The LEXUM Canadian E-discovery Portal page has other useful information on e-discovery, includig Peg Duncan’s Canadian E-Discovery Case Law Digest for Common law and Civil law. Peg Duncan also prepared a great Canadian focused e-discovery reading list that is available on practicePRO’s site.

The EIC invites comments on its materials. The Committee will review all comments received and consider appropriate revisions to the documents. Comments may be submitted to David Outerbridge, Chair of the EIC, at douterbridge@torys.com.

ABA TECHSHOW 2009 is quickly approaching – April 2-4 in Chicago – and as the earlybird registration was just extended to March 6, you have a few more days to save up to $400 on registration fees.

After several years on the organizing committee, and as Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2007, it could easily be claimed that I am a tad biased about this conference. I won’t deny that – but I think this conference speaks for itself.

ABA TECHSHOW, now in its 23rd year, is the world’s premier legal technology CLE conference and expo. The conference offers more than 70 educational sessions over three days. TECHSHOW is all about legal technology education by lawyers for lawyers – we strive for CLE credit on our sessions and do not tolerate selling from the podium. In most years there is a substantive paper on the materials CD for every session at the conference. There are sessions on all the hottest topics: e-discovery; e-records management; enterprise it; Macs; paperless practice; client development; financial management; trial skills; virtual practice and more.

You can see a full listing of faculty members and session descriptions here.

The presentations at TECHSHOW will be of interest to lawyers, paralegals, firm administrators, IT managers, and professionals. People of all knowledge levels will gain beneficial information to take home and put to use immediately. More than 100 technology vendors display goods and discuss services during the two-day expo.

I think this is the best place to learn about legal technology, and to connect with more than 1,500 other conference attendees who are really excited about how technology can make you a more effective, efficient and profitable lawyer.

Solo and small firm lawyers should make note of Solo and Small Firm Day at TECHSHOW. Special pricing for all the sessions on the Friday, including two tracks of content specifically for solo and small firm lawyers. Amazing!

Come network with more than 1,500 conference attendees during ABA TECHSHOW at the Hilton Chicago. Bring your friends. Register by the March 6 earlyvird deadline to save up to $400 on registration to get a deal on a hotel room (space is running out).

Bring 10 friends (anyone from anywhere) and get in on the Full Conference SuperPass at even greater savings.

See www.techshow.com for more info on ABA TECHSHOW 2009.

Contact me directly if you have any questions about TECHSHOW.

Necessity breeds invention. From Procter & Gamble to IBM to Federal Express, from nylon to photocopiers to the electron microscope — some of the world’s most well-known companies and products were born in past recessions and depressions. The current economic crisis will be no exception — when times are tough, forward-thinking people will find ways to do things better. That applies especially to the practice of law.

Is your law practice or firm one of the profession’s leading lights of innovation? Have you or someone within your firm with vision and courage led a groundbreaking effort to practice law differently? Have you developed a new and better way of serving clients, a breakthrough way to find new business, a truly innovative way to value and sell your services? If so, then you deserve the recognition of lawyers and clients in your region and worldwide. And if so, the College of Law Practice Management (www.colpm.org) wants to hear from you.

The College of Law Practice Management is now accepting entries for the 2009 InnovAction Awards at www.innovactionaward.com. Awards are presented for law practice innovations within law firms and legal departments that have never been done previously, or that take an existing innovation to the next level of originality and performance.

See the Hall of Fame for previous winners.

The goal of the Awards is to demonstrate to the legal community what can be created when passionate professionals with big ideas are determined to solve the business challenges faced in today’s competitive markets. Award entries will be judged on the basis of four primary criteria:

• Absence of precedent (never been done or done quite this way before)
• Evidence of action (the innovative idea was transformed into action and not merely reflective of best intentions)
• Effectiveness of innovation (there is some measurable outcome that indicates the innovation is accomplishing what it was intended to do)
• Action must have taken place within no more than three years prior to this entry.

Complete contest rules and application forms can be found at http://www.innovactionaward.com.

Working with the Working Group on Lawyers and Real Estate, the Law Society of Upper Canada has prepared guidelines to help lawyers avoid becoming the tool or dupe of unscrupulous persons when dealing with real estate transactions involving powers of attorney. These guidelines are available here.

With the prevalence of real estate fraud, it is important that real estate lawyers implement practices and procedures in their firms to recognize and fight fraud. In recent years, powers of attorney have been used in real estate transactions to perpetrate fraud. Forged powers of attorney have been used to fraudulently mortgage properties or transfer title out of the true registered owner’s name. An example of such a situation is contained in the recent case of Reviczky v. Meleknia, 2007 CanLII 56494 (ON S.C.).

See this LAWPRO Magazine article for more info on Powers of attorney and solicitors’ liability

And don’t for a moment think fraud is just an issue for real estate lawyers! As I detailed in a previous SLAW post, litigators are being targeted on debt collection frauds and business lawyers are being targeted on business loan frauds. Read that post so you can recognize the red flags of a fraudulent cheque transaction.

For more info on avoiding being a victim of fraud on a real estate transaction see practicePRO’s Fraud Prevention page (www.practicepro.ca/fraud)

Many lawyers assume that simultaneously acting for members of the same family and their business or corporate entities is relatively safe from fraud and conflicts issues. After all, the parties all know each other and everyone is on good terms.

Unfortunately, this is just not the case. An analysis of LAWPRO claims files tells us that there is actually a greater likelihood of a fraud or conflicts of interest issue when clients are related to or know each other.

Understanding when and why malpractice claims arise when work is done for related clients can help you avoid a claim.

When do these types of claims arise?

In the estate and real estate contexts, problems often result when there are dealings with a property that is owned by a parent and child, or by siblings.

On a will matter, allegations of undue influence or lack of ILA are often made when one family member appears to receive more than others under the will, or where it is unclear whether there was a gift or pre-taking when property is received before death.

In a real estate transaction, problems can arise after a mortgage is placed on a property and it is alleged that one sibling has received preferential treatment. Mortgage transactions involving spouses commonly lead to claims where one spouse is giving security but not receiving the benefit of the mortgage advance. Typically the lawyer is acting for both spouses and the mortgagee; when the mortgage goes into default a non est factum or undue influence defence is thrown up, and the mortgagee adds the lawyer into the action. It is vital in this scenario that the spouses be separately represented.

On the real estate fraud front, we have seen several high profile cases in Ontario in which a family member was the first true victim of the fraud, often because a Simultaneously acting for members of same family is more risky power of attorney was fabricated or used incorrectly by another family member. Spousal impersonation has also been a problem for many years. Further complications arise because it can be challenging to establish the good faith of the alleged victim once a family member, now outside the jurisdiction, obtained significant proceeds from a real estate fraud.

In the business or corporate context, claims often arise when lawyers do work for both a corporation and its individual shareholders, or for multiple members of a partnership. As long as everyone involved is getting along, headed in the same direction and making money, all is fine. But circumstances change, often in unexpected ways. There can be unanticipated costs or even financial losses, marriages break-up, people lose interest and decide they want to cash-out or sell their interest, and so on. When changes such as these occur, clients who once all wanted the same thing now want very different things. As a result, duties of confidentiality and loyalty can become very complicated, and even irreconcilable.

As there are often two of more parties on a conflicts claim, defending them usually complicated and tends to be more costly than other the types of claims LAWPRO handles.

LAWPRO is also seeing more “fail to warn” claims. These occur when a lawyer doing work for multiple people and/or entities makes a seemingly innocuous comment to one of the clients. Due to changed or unexpected circumstances, that comment ends up giving that one client an advantage, and the clients that didn’t get the benefit of that comment allege a “fail to warn.” When you are acting for multiple people or entities, take care to make sure all communications and advice reach all clients.

Indeed, when it comes to avoiding conflicts, the best defense is a good offence. Be extra vigilant in looking for potential conflicts when you are doing work for related individuals or entities, both at the start of the matter and as it proceeds.

Don’t let your guard down

When handling a file for clients who are family members or know each other, lawyers seem to let their guard down and miss or do not follow-up on things that are slightly out of the ordinary. The situation can become even worse when the lawyer has become an acquaintance or close friend with one or more of the clients.

In this situation, it also seems lawyers are more likely to take shortcuts at various stages in a matter, including:
• not following formal file opening process, and, in particular, not doing a proper and full conflicts of interest check;
• not opening a file and doing “off-the-books” work;
• not documenting the file or keeping time dockets;
• skipping appropriate or necessary searches;
• not following up or completing tasks to be done by client or lawyer; or
• not sending interim or final accounts and reporting letters

When shortcuts are taken, things will be missed, mistakes will be made, and malpractice claims will result. For the reasons stated above, when clients know each other it is even more critical that you jump through all the procedural and legal hoops.

Most lawyers are surprised that they are more likely to get a claim where clients are related or know each other. Please be aware of your greater exposure in this circumstance, don’t let your guard down, and make sure clients have separate and independent legal advice when current or future circumstances warrant it.

The CBA Conflicts Task Force’s Conflicts Toolkit has a variety of useful precedents and checklists to help you recognize and avoid conflicts of interest situations.

In the US, Amazon.com has just announced the second version of its wireless reader, the Kindle 2, will be released February 24, 2009 and cost US$359.

See info and specs here.

Kindle 2

3G wireless lets you download books right to your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots (in the US from the Sprint data network). This means you can download books in less than 60 seconds; no PC required. They are claiming the Kindle 2 has a better display and 25% longer battery life. It can hold over 1,500 books. It also has a new Text-to-Speech feature, which means the Kindle 2 can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you.

I don’t own a wireless reader, but the concept really intrigues me. Unfortunately, the Kindle won’t work in Canada, and Amazon won’t ship a Kindle to a Canadian address (and you need a US credit card to order one). You can get the Sony reader here (Cdn$299). I have played with a Kindle (version 1) and the Sony reader. I liked the Sony better (easier to read the screen and I liked the form factor better – I thought the buttons were in better location).

Looking forward to seeing a Kindle 2 – probably when I’m at ABA TECHSHOW in early April.

Lawyers that have been laid off or are facing a potential layoff some time this year need to plan for a new future. If you or someone you know is facing a job search, Resolve to Manage Your Job Search by Kathleen Brady is a great article that contains a step by step guide to seeking new employment. It appears in the January issue of the ABA LPM section’s webzine Law Practice Today (www.lawpracticetoday.org). LPT is free to all – subscribe here.

My good friend and fellow geek Catherine Sanders Reach, Director of the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center (as an aside – there is tons of great info for lawyers on legal technology at the LTRC) sent me this hilarious cartoon by David Mills from Courtoons on How lawyers use technology to make things easier

Nobody likes to think about their death or disability, but you’ve got family, employees and clients who rely on you. What will they do if you become disabled or pass away unexpectedly? Put a plan in place now to protect those you may leave behind. My friends and fellow practice management advisors Reid Trautz and Courtney Kennaday discuss these issues in a great article in this month’s ABA LPM Section’s Law Practice Today webzine: When You Go to Heaven, Will Your Practice Go to Hell?

If you want some practical help, notice precedents and checklists, see the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Guide to Closing Your Practice, and LAWPRO’s Mangaging Practice Interruptions booklet. As a supplement to the booklet there is a vulnerabilities assessment chart that you can use to help identify and assess your vulnerabilities.

The February 2009 issue of PCToday has the most amazing collection of info on smartphones that I have ever seen in one place. If you are in the market for a smartphone you must read this issue.

Great articles on the features and options that different models have, and why you need or want those features. There are articles on the latest updates, services and tips for various mobile phones and platforms, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Nokia, iPhone and one on how to extend BlackBerry battery life. It teases with some real cool newer models that are or will soon be available – at least in the US :-(

There are tons of great tips for existing smartphone users. (Read this article of mine for my favourite BlackBerry tips)

Here is a full table of contents for this issue.

I am a subscriber and find PCToday is often a great read. I am an even bigger fan of sister publication Smart Computing Magazine – tons of great practical info make it a monthly must read for me.

practicePRO, LAWPRO’s risk management and claims prevention initiative, provides lawyers with tools and resources to help them succeed in the practice of law and avoid a malpractice claim (see this article for information on the most common legal malpractice claims).

As we have completed another year we have updated our most popular downloads list. What are other lawyers looking at? The top 5 downloads were as follows:

1 Peg Duncan’s Canadian focused E-Discovery Reading List
2 Rollie Thompson’s article on the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines
3 A LAWPRO Magazine article on The Dangers of Metadata
4 A sample law firm budget spreadsheet in PDF format (XLS format is here)
5 Directions for Enabling Security Features on Wireless Access Point or router

Other top downloads included:

• General retainer letter precedent in PDF format; ( this and several other retainer precedents in DOC and WP format are here)
• Law firm business plan outline in PDF format; (DOC format is here) (from the also popular Managing The Finances Of Your Practice booklet)
• Carole Curtis paper on dealing with difficult clients
• Lawpro magazine articleon new fraud scams
• Law firm employee departure checklist
• Sample associate agreement in PDF format; (DOC format is here)
• Managing the Lawyer/Client Relationship Booklet
• Dr Larry Richard article on lawyer personalities
• Independent legal advice checklist

You can see the full list of the 2008 most popular practicePRO/LAWPRO downloads
here. Many malpractice claims are easily preventable – use these tools and resources to reduce the likelihood you will face a claim.

I dare say more than a few SLAW readers will have a New Year’s resolution that, in one form or another, has at its core, a goal of getting to an empty inbox. Unfortunately, there is no magic button – it takes a lot of time and effort to get to an empty, especially if you have hundreds (or even thousands of messages) in your Inbox.

I won’t focus on cleaning up older messages in this post. My LAWPRO Magazine article Surviving the E-mail Onslaught has some quick tips. Probably the best collection information on this topic is the Inbox Zero series of articles on the 43 Folders site.

What I would like to suggest is a way you can get a fresh start on you Inbox for the New Year.

Simply send yourself an e-mail with a subject line of “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”.

That effectively draws a line in your Inbox.

You will find it much easier to keep up with current e-mails, including getting to the elusive goal of going home each night with an empty Inbox (at least after the line you have drawn). This will help you feel more positive, and at least partially, lift the weight of overflowing Inbox off your shoulders.

Yes, you will still have to go back and deal with your older messages, but having that line in your Inbox will give you a far more attainable goal of keeping current on your recent messages.

Happy New Year everyone!

The latest issue of LAWPRO Magazine just hit the streets, and we focused on helping lawyers get through difficult economic times.

Our cover story, Surviving the slide: What Firms Should (And Shouldn’t) Do To Ride Out The Economic Storm, is a roundtable discussion with four of the world’s top experts on law firm management and operations (Gerry Riskin, Merrilyn Tarlton, Ed Flitton, and Karen MacKay). In this discussion they share their insights and tips on leadership, marketing, client relationships, law firm finances and technology in tough times. It is an amazing discussion (we actually taped it) and when the transcript of the call came back there was far more than we could fit in the magazine. There was so much valuable content that we decided to post the full roundtable discussion on the web. I strongly recommend you take the time to read the full version.

The two other feature articles address How To Build And Retain A Better Clientele, something that is more important than ever when money is tight for lawyers and their clients; and, How To Innovate In Trying Times By Selecting And Implementing The Right Legal Technologies.

In this issue we also included an article focuses on Fraud on the inside: What to do when partners, associates or staff commit fraud. Think it won’t happen to you? Think again. We have seen some very significant and costly LAWPRO claims involving frauds by longstanding and most-trusted employees. Tough times can push people over the edge. This articles explains why the most trusted members of your firm sometimes turn to fraud, how can you spot these frauds, and what do you do once you’ve discovered the fraud. It is a must read for every lawyer.

You can find the complete Surviving the Slide issue here, and a full archive of articles from all past issues of LAWPRO Magazine here, and a full listing of articles from LAWPRO Magazine as well as other claims prevention resources arranged by topic here.