COURSE DESCRIPTION
Solo and small firm practitioners wear many hats. They practice law but also run the office and manage all of its information technology – file storage, email, and Web sites. They may supervise paralegals or contract attorneys. They also need to be attentive to developing new clients. Each of these and other roles comes with ethical issues and traps. Email, file storage, and law firm web sites implicate issues of competence, confidentiality, and potentially the attorney-client privilege. Supervising paralegals or junior attorneys implicates supervisory ethics and conflicts of interest. Client development also implicates a range of ethics issues. It’s a lot to manage for a firm of any size, but particularly for smaller firms.This program will provide you with a practical guide to major ethics issues for solo and small firm practitioners.
- Ethical issues for small law firms and solo practitioners
- Technology – storing client files in “the Cloud,” email traps, and remote networks
- Pooled Resources – shared office/meeting space, shared support staff, shared technology
- Client Development – web sites and lawyer biographies, email/newsletters, social media, advertising and more
- Paralegals – training and billing, confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege
- Co-Counsel – ethical responsibilities when practicing with other lawyers
Speakers:
Thomas E. Spahn is of counsel in the Tysons Corners, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, where he advises firm clients on professional responsibility issues and properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. He has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and is a Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has written extensively on attorney-client privilege, ethics and other topics, and has spoken at over 2000 CLE programs throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries. Through links on his website biography, he has made available to the public his summaries of over 1,600 Virginia and ABA legal ethics opinions, organized by topic; a 300 page summary of his two-volume 1,500 page book on the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine; over 900 weekly email alerts about privilege and work product cases; and materials for 40 ethics programs on numerous topics, totaling over 9,000 pages of analysis. Mr. Spahn graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School. Mr. Spahn will serve as the discussion leader of today’s program.
H. Michael Drumm is the founder and member of Drumm Law, LLC in Denver, Colorado, where he has an extensive franchise, trademark and business transactional practice. He works with franchisors across industries nationwide helping them draft, file and renew their franchise Disclosure Documents and franchise agreements. He has a specialty representing craft breweries to help them trademark their brands and protect their intellectual property. He has been repeatedly honored by Franchise Times magazine as a “Legal Eagle” and has been designated by the International Franchise Association as a “Certified Franchise Executive.” Mr. Drumm received his BSBA from the University of Missouri-Columbia and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.