Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell do a fantastic job analyzing the pros and cons in their latest Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast. Download and listen to their practical and insightful thoughts on whether the iPad is a game-changer for lawyers.

Jordon Furlong further explores the issues in his blog post on Slaw, mentioning both my blog post, Is the Apple iPad the Tipping Point? and John Wallibillich’s succinct iPad post on his Wired GC blog.

I won’t make my final decision about buying an iPad until I see and try it, but it just seems to me to be the right tool at the right time in the evolution of technology–especially with the dramatic rise of cloud computing.

February is a great time to spend a few hours each weekend to chill out and read these books to get more ideas and information to have a more successful 2010.

Use these discount codes to save up to 25% through February 28, 2010:

Take a listen to the podcast, that also features Judd Kessler of AbacusLaw, and take in our tips in a whole new way.

And you don’t need a Kindle either to get our book electronically. If you have an iPhone, you can now download the Kindle for iPhone app from the App Store for free, then download our book or just about any other favorite book. Best of all, the “Kindlized” version of our book will save you a few bucks over the printed book, and it can go with you wherever you take your iPhone or your Kindle.

1. Lawyers are being targeted on bad check frauds in record numbers - be alert and don’t be duped: Fraudsters posing as clients on collection matters, business finance or mortgage loans are targeting lawyers. The ruse is simple: trick lawyers into running counterfeit certified checks or bank drafts through their trust accounts. The fraudster gets legitimate funds and the lawyer is left with a shortfall-often six figures! Take 20 minutes to learn more about these scams and what you need to know to prevent them from happening to you.

2. Spend time learning LinkedIn. Facebook and other social media tools. These social networks are fast emerging as sources of new business. Create a profile, search for connections/friends, and post regularly about your practice and your professional life. If you are familiar with these networks, spend time to learn their power in more detail, or expand to other networks, such a Martindale-Hubbell Connected (Beta) or LegalOnRamp. The December 2009 issue of LAWPRO Magazine is a good social media primer as it has articles on the different social networking tools, how to use them to market yourself, and the dangers you need to be aware of when using them.

3. Book a vacation now! Everyone needs some downtime. Grab your calendar and block off two weeks together or two one week blocks. (Health experts say a 2-week vacation is best.) Get your spouse, partner or significant other to block the same dates off in his or her calendar. Those dates are sacred - don’t book anything in them. If you don’t block them off now and keep them clear you will never get the holiday your mind and body needs.

4. Resolve to improve client service and don’t do any of the eleven things that annoy clients the most: How many can you name? Don’t read the next paragraph - close your eyes and see how many you can come up with.

OK, how did you do? Here’s our list:

* Not returning phone calls.
* Not replying to e-mails.
* Making clients wait in reception.
* Ignoring client/staff incivility.
* Dropping names to impress others.
* Not clarifying for the client.
* Not delivering on promises of performance.
* Not delivering on a promised outcome.
* Not communicating during long periods of inactivity.
* Failing to be prepared.
* Sending a very large bill without warning or explanation.

See an excerpt from our book for more on the 11 biggest client annoyances, and more importantly, what you can to do avoid them. Applying the tips featured in this excerpt will help you have happier clients, and even better, reduce the likelihood you will face discipline complaints and malpractice claims.

5. Recognize the growing need for bi-lingual legal services. Consider language classes at a community college or consider popular software just to start. The world is changing, those that greet the changes will be the most successful.

6. Connect with your peers: Join the ABA Law Practice Management Section or the ABA GPSolo Division to get the best information on developing or fine-tuning your law practice. Also, join your state bar Solo and Small Firm Section to increase your networking opportunities. If your state bar does not have one, start one!

7. Don’t just say you will start a marketing plan this year–do it! For yourself and for you firm. While marketing efforts are always welcome, shotgun efforts really are inefficient. We recommend the practical and realistic plan outlined in our book as a great place to start. To keep your marketing momentum, make appointments for yourself each week throughout the year–written on your calendar now–to implement all parts of your plan.

8. Evaluate your fee structure and retainer requirements. Are you asking clients to pay for value or results? Is your message “We’ll do your last will and testament, trust, power of attorney, and medical directive for X dollars, rather than “We can protect you, your family and estate from government intervention, taxes, and most family squabbles for X dollars? Turning the discussion from “price for paper” into a discussion of “price for value” is more effective in convincing clients to hire you. Analyze, revise, and practice incorporating this new approach into your discussions with clients.

9. What is the one thing you would like to change about yourself? We all have our personal shortcomings and foibles. Some of them are small, some of them are big. Pick one things that you would like to change or improve in your personal or professional life. Write it down on a piece of paper - and then write out the steps you need to take to make the changes you want to make. This is your path to make one significant change to improve yourself over the next twelve months.

10. Buy our book - The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Success: Essential Tips to Power Your Practice. If you like the short tips format and content of the above tips, you will love our book. It contains more of the same - almost 75 collections of ten or so tips on client service, marketing, strategic planning, business process improvement, technology-all targeted to help busy lawyers be even more successful. We guarantee it will contain at least one tip that earns back your purchase price.

We wish you a happy and successful 2010!

Dan and Reid

A notable aspect of that pattern is that, regardless of size, “all firms seem to make the same types of errors,” said Daniel Pinnington, a speaker at the ABA National Legal Malpractice Conference in September. “People make mistakes and systems break down, in the same ways regardless of firm size.”

The article highlights an emerging trend that should be sobering to all lawyers: As the economy has worsened, plaintiffs are trying new and unique theories to sue lawyers for malpractice.  We need to be more vigilant than ever to make sure the quality of our work and client relationships does not give rise to these new novel theories. The good news, according to the article, is that

[E]ven with clients becoming increasingly hungry for recoveries against their lawyers when cases don’t turn out their way, many claims can be avoided. Pinnington said 10 years of data for claims handled by his company for lawyers in Ontario indicates that, overall, errors in communication with clients are the leading cause of malpractice claims—followed by missed deadlines and procrastination, followed by inadequate discovery or investigations of fact (AKA not digging deep enough to make sure key issues for client are recognized and dealt with) .

There is no coincidence that many of the tips in The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Success: Essential Tips to Power Your Practice are aimed at better client communication, improving workflow management, and malpractice avoidance techniques. The goal of our book is to make sure lawyers not only stay out of trouble, but have more effective, efficient, and profitable practices.

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 Slaw and Avoid A Claim