Comments on: The Bars, Reviewed: What Has Your Bar Association Done for You Lately?

By: Neil J. Squillante

Neil J. Squillante — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:21:35 +0000

Carolyn, since you liked our video, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the free TechnoLawyer Archive subscriptions we provide to members of various local and state bar associations. They normally cost $75.
Here’s that video.
http://blog.technolawyer.com/2007/01/im_not_feeling_.html

By: Pamela

Pamela — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:20:40 +0000

Carolyn,
The Florida Bar does have
1. FastCase Florida database free with membership.
2. A Mentor program for lawyers called SCOPE
3. A Law Office Management Assistance Service for those considering solo practice.

By: John Graves

John Graves — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:55:49 +0000

Carolyn:
A note regarding the Oklahoma Bar. There is an online classifieds area on the members-only forum. Additionally, the Bar offers numerous solo/small firm resources. The online forums are the most frequently used. They serve as a “virtual firm” for many attorneys that are seeking information, forms, and been-there-done-that advice from more experienced folks. The Bar also has a very active solo and small firm section that hosts an annual summer retreat that is well attended. As you noted in your article, Jim Calloway (an OK Bar employee) is one of the nation’s leading law firm management/technology folks. He is an invaluable resource to members of the bar. All that is required to access this resource is to pick up the phone and call Jim or stop by the Bar Center. Jim also teaches an annual, day-long class called “The New Lawyer Experience: Hit the Ground Running.” It is for new attorneys and experienced attorneys opening their own practice for the first time. It covers opening a business, management, marketing, technology, trust accounting, legal ethics, communications, and professionalism. I am proud to be a member of the Oklahoma Bar and a solo practioner. Currently our legislature has pending egislation that will turn our Bar from mandatory to voluntary and, if it passes, we will lose the great service that our association provides.

By: Linda Oligschlaeger

Linda Oligschlaeger — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:31:43 +0000

Carolyn:
Thanks for keeping us on our toes.
The Missouri Bar particularly devotes considerable time and resources to assist solo and small firm lawyers. We do offer listservs for all our committees including the solo and small firm group (SFIG), which is very active. It has been running parallel to SoloSez for many years.
We have a starting a practice checklist on our website, which you may or may not consider a “guide”.
I noticed that you didn’t ask about whether bars offer an annual Solo and Small Firm Conference. The Missouri Bar’s Solo and Small Firm Conference is one of the largest in the country. Check the conference website for this year at http://www.sasfconference.org.
Although, it’s not on the public site, we offer a forms bank repository that is well used by solo and small firm practitioners.
Last year, The Missouri Bar introduced a new Lawyer-to-Lawyer Dispute Resolution Program that offers a service to resolve disputes between lawyers over money, property or professional disputes that are not violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
Although it’s not yet available, I’m working on a Practice Makes Perfect blog. We do feature an RSS feed on our website to some of the LPM blogs currently operating.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:02:20 +0000

Just a note that the Illinois Bar Association is a voluntary bar and has no relationship to the creation or enforcement of the ethics provisions. Although the bar association website does not have IOLTA information, the ADRC (our disciplinary commission) has an extensive and regularly updated client trust account handbook at https://www.iardc.org/pubs.html

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:49:13 +0000

Your assessment of the Oregon State Bar website is fairly accurate. However, with Oregon’s mandatory malpractice insurance (i.e. Professional Liability Fund – follow the link on the Bar’s website). The PLF offers free live practice management advisors to help a solo start with advice on all areas of starting a firm, plus forms, practice guides, etc.

By: Ben Glass

Ben Glass — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:20:11 +0000

Well, the whole concept of the “bar doing something for you” is kinda like waiting for the government to bail you out. Right? Its not surprising at all that bars lag behind the time in everything from technology to marketing their own stuff to understanding legal ethics in a 2009 world.
It will always be private enterprise that leads the way. If you want to learn how to build a practice the last place to look is to most state bars…their advice always seem to focus on what you “can’t” do.

By: John Sirman

John Sirman — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:44:31 +0000

Thanks a bunch for compiling this info, and for the shout out.
I’d like to add that the State Bar of Texas has a social networking site, Texas Bar Circle; a Facebook page; Twitter and Flickr accounts; and soon, a blog. We’re working on a website redesign which will make these tools more visible.
Our legal research is provided by Casemaker.

By: Jordan Furlong

Jordan Furlong — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:15:52 +0000

Tremendous stuff, Carolyn! Although it's outside the 50 states, let me blow the horn for my colleagues here at the CBA, who produce the award-winning CBA PracticeLink site: http://cba.org/cba/PracticeLink/Home/

By: Erik Mazzone

Erik Mazzone — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:46:50 +0000

Carolyn, thanks for undertaking an important assessment — at the NCBA, we work hard for all of our members, but we are always mindful that solos and small firms make up a big percentage of our membership. Thanks as well for referencing my blog.
A couple of notes:
1) One key benefit that could be in your survey is which bar associations staff practice management advisors. It is a large commitment of scarce resources to staff a practice management advisor and one that particularly helps solo and small firm members.
2) I’m not sure what your methodology was for doing this survey, but perhaps contacting membership departments at the various bars (while time consuming) would be a good way to make sure you are gathering all of the relevant information about solo and small firm services that a bar offers. Apologies if you already did that for this survey.
3) We do have LinkedIn and Facebook groups for NCBA members to help facilitate social networking among our members.
4) We have a lending library of books available to our members, including many titles on the going and succeeding at being solo.
I could go on but I don’t want to hijack the comments thread with a big NCBA commercial.
This is an important topic, so thank you for your sustained excellent work in furthering the conversation.