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Welcome to the Special Committee on Solo and Small Firm
Practice
The NYSBA has created a Special Committee on Solo and
Small Firm Practice to study the issues and challenges currently
confronting attorneys who work in solo practices and small firms. The
Special Committee is chaired by Past Association President Robert L.
Ostertag (Ostertag O’Leary and Barrett) of Poughkeepsie.
“Solo and small practice firms represent nearly 60
percent of the Association’s membership, and we are always looking
to provide new ways to help these firms succeed,” New York State
Bar Association President Bernice K. Leber (Arent Fox, LLP) said.
“Coupled with the recently created Solo/Small
Firm Practitioner Resource Center on NYSBA’s Web site,
this new special committee will be a tremendous asset that provides even
more opportunities for solo and small practice firms to grow and
thrive.”
The Committee will undertake a comprehensive study of specific issues
and challenges facing solo practices and small firms, and recommend ways
in which bar associations, the Courts, and other entities can assist
them in meeting these challenges. The Committee also will recommend new
programs, benefits, resources, and services that should be developed in
the future, with an eye toward achieving successful law practices and
balanced lives for the attorneys working in these firms.
Special focus will also be paid to the report of Chief Judge Judith
S. Kaye’s Commission to Examine Solo and Small Firm Practice,
issued in 2006. Committee members will report on the progress made in
implementing the recommendations of that report, while making additional
recommendations regarding further steps that may be needed to fully
achieve the report’s goals.
Read
the full news release on the establishment of the Special Committee on
Solo and Small Firm Practice.
Starting Your Own Practice
On April 21, 2009 The Committee on Law Practice
Management presented a full day CLE program called "Starting Your Own
Practice." Professor Gary S. Munneke (White Plains) introduced speakers
Peter Giuliani (Weston, CT), David C. Wilkes (NYC), Marian Rice, Esq.
(NYC), Jude Travers-Frazier, Esq. (NYC) and Nancy Schess, Esq. (NYC).
The program offered instruction on a variety of issues including "Do
You Have What it Takes to Start a Practice?", Organizing Your
Practice, Financial Management, Human Resources, Ethical Issues and
Leveraging Technology. The course materials included a checklist
for starting your own practice and participants received a free copy
of the ABA book "How to Start and Build a Law Practice, Fifth Edition."
The course is now available for purchase by going to www.nysba.org/cle or by calling
1-800-852-2452.
It's Here!!
Best Practices in Legal Management
NYSBA’s Law Practice Management Committee, in
collaboration with the New York City Chapter of the Association of Legal
Administrators, has launched a major publication – Best
Practices in Legal Management. Professor Gary Munneke, Chair of the LPM Committee, wrote the
preface for the publication. "I found it to
be a perfect description of the publication and how critical legal
management is to a successful law firm." LPM
is thrilled to be part of the project. The
Committee is putting together a series of articles on best
practices. Professor Munneke’s preface
seems the perfect introduction to the series
Best Practices in Legal Management Preface by Professor Gary Munneke:
For some people,
the term Best Practices conjures up notions efficiency experts armed
with charts and research studies telling embattled managers how to make
their lives easier. For others, the words suggest an idealized set of
expectations that can never be attained in the real world. Still others
think of Best Practices in terms of standards below which managers may
not fall without the risk of professional failure and possible sanction
or liability.
In one sense, those who perceive Best Practices in these
ways are correct; in another sense, they have it all wrong. Yes, Best
Practices rely on research studies, practice management surveys, and
other forms of empirical data to identify what practices are
“best.” Yes, perfection is a state that is always just
beyond the reach of even the “best” practitioners, although
its cousin, “excellence,” is not. And, yes, behavior that
does not target achievement of “best” practices often risks
failing to achieve “adequate” practices.
In a larger sense, however, Best Practices represent the
collective experience of managers who have learned, often by trial and
error, how to accomplish organizational objectives in the
“best” way. If these experiences could be collected, culled,
dissected and organized in a rational way, they would provide a gold
mine for those aspiring to excellence who seek to accomplish
trial without
error. When I was a kid, I frequently disregarded the
advice of my parents about how to do something the easy way. Fill your
gas tank up when it gets down to a quarter of a tank; don’t wait
to see how long you can drive with the Low Fuel light on.” It took
running out of gas on a lonely road miles from a gas station (in the
days before cell phones) to teach me that I did not have to test my
car’s capacity for gas consumption with every
tank.
Lawyers and law firm managers now have such a resource
for managing a law practice. Best Practices etc., edited by Barry
Jackson and Kim Swetland with contributions from numerous experienced
law firm managers, provides a blueprint for achieving excellence and
avoiding error in running a modern law practice. The editors, all
leaders in the New York
chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators, have
aggregated their accumulated wisdom and share it with the rest of us.
The text has also benefitted from review and comment by members of the
New York State Bar Association Law Practice Management Committee, and
the editorial guidance of the NYSBA Publications
Department.
The final product is comprehensive, informative and
amazingly for the serious nature of the subject matter fun to read. The
various chapters of the book address every aspect of managing a law
practice, including some most lawyers and law firm administrators may
not have even thought about. The chapters cover the following
topics:
- Chapter 1: Strategic an
Organizational Planning;
- Chapter 2: Business
Development;
- Chapter 3: Legal Practice
Management;
- Chapter 4: Human
Resources;
- Chapter 5: Financial
Management;
- Chapter 6:
Procurement;
- Chapter 7: Operations
Management;
- Chapter 8: Technology and
Systems Management;
- Chapter 9: Space Planning and
Design;
- Chapter 10: Legal
Administrators; and
- Resources and Web
Sites.
Each chapter includes both a checklist of Best Practices
and recommendations on how to achieve the levels of excellence
articulated in the Practices. The text also includes resources that law
firms can turn to in order to improve their Practices. Best Practices: etc was written for individuals with management responsibilities in
law firms, including managing partners, management committee members,
solo practitioners who manage their offices by default, law firm
managers, and support staff with management responsibilities. This book
will also be useful for those who do not have line management
responsibility but want to know more about how the organization where
they work operates. This group includes partners who are not actively
involved in management but who nevertheless have an interest in how the
firm is managed, associates who aspire to partnership and/or management
status, support staff members who see a path or career mobility in law
firm management, law students who want to know how the firms where they
will be working someday are run, and those who study the practice of law
in order to contribute the Best Practices principles upon which this
book is based.
A word for
the lawyers who read this book: Most of us did not go to business school
and may have even eschewed learning about business, because we were
going to law
school, not business school. At some point, we
all come to realize that a law firm is a business; it requires capital
to start up, income to cover operating expenses, and enough profit to
compensate the owners of the business. Some lawyers argue that law is
a profession
and not a business, but this is a false
dichotomy, because the practice of law is a professional business, which
means that professional standards often govern
the way we conduct our business. In fact, it would not be
inaccurate to say that if we do a better job of running our
business we are likely to be more professional. In any event, lawyers
owe it to themselves, their clients, their peers and the profession to
become good business people, even if they never
got a BBA or MBA or even took a business course in college. This book is
a primer on how to get ahead in the practice of law without compromising
professional responsibilities along the way.
A word for the law
firm administrators and support staff managers who read this book: You
may possess training and experience in management, but it does not take
long to learn that managing a law firm is different from managing a
business outside the law. First of all, you have to deal with all of the
quirky lawyers with their professional rules and seemingly genetic
inability to delegate managerial responsibilities, even when they do not
have a background in management. Second, you probably have learned that
the practice of law is a fast-paced, client-driven enterprise. When
clients need something done, they almost always need it now, unless of
course they needed it yesterday. Third, you have probably learned that
change comes slow to the legal profession. In a world where precedent is
a central principle in the analysis of legal cases, it is easy to look
backward to find answers to management questions, than to proactively
and creatively address problems. This book provides a model to follow to
help deal with the impediments to progress in law firms
For all readers:
This book is not intended to create minimum standards below which
lawyers and law firms should not fall. It rather establishes
aspirational goals that are both achievable and laudable. If law firms
elect to implement a Best Practices program, they will see an
improvement in client satisfaction, in the quality of services provided,
in the reduction of mistakes and professional error, and in the
financial bottom line.
As a teacher
in the field of Law Practice Management and Professional Responsibility
for over a quarter century, I can tell you that a book like this has
been needed for a long time. As an author of an American Bar Association
compendium of essential management forms (The Essential Formbook: Comprehensive Management Tools
for Lawyers), I can state unequivocally
that Best Practices
etc fills an important niche in the practice
management literature. I encourage you not just to read this book, but
to use it, to internalize it, and to teach it to those around you. In
the end, practice management is intrinsic to the effective delivery of
legal services, which in turn improves the integrity of the justice
system and the confidence of citizens in a society governed by the rule
of law.
Order Your Copy Now at: http://www.nysba.org/BestPracticesGuide
The General Practice Listserve is the place to
post questions and share experiences, solutions, and ideas. All the
information you need is delivered right to your mailbox: get insight,
tips and advice from practitioners from all over the state. Access to
our listserve alone is worth the price of Section Admission- for dues of
only $25.00 annually you too can have all of your questions
answered! Click here to join now.
Mission Statement:
The Committee’s
charge is to make a comprehensive study of particular issues and
challenges which confront solo practices and small firms, and to
recommend ways is which the bar associations, the Courts, and other
entities can assist them in meeting those challenges and in achieving
successful practices and balanced lives. In
doing so, the Committee shall review programs already undertaken by the
New York State Bar Association to assist solos and small firms, and
recommend ways in which those programs can be expanded or improved, and
shall recommend new programs, benefits, resources, and services that
should be developed to help such practitioners and their
firms. The Committee shall review the report
of Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye’s Commission to Examine Solo and
Small Firm Practice, issued in 2006, and report on progress made in
implementing the recommendations of that Report, and shall make
recommendations regarding further steps that may be needed to achieve
particular goals set forth in that Report. In pursuing its work, the Committee shall consult and
collaborate with other appropriate entities within the New York State
Bar Association, with local and specialty bar associations in
New York, and
with the Courts. The Committee shall pursue
its work with all deliberate speed and shall promptly report its
findings and recommendations to the New York State Bar
Association’s Executive Committee and House of
Delegates.
Articles of Interest
September 5,
2008
New
Committee Targets Small Firm Challenges, NY Law
Journal
By Thomas Adcock
A
newly-formed New York
State Bar Association committee held its
inaugural meeting last month in Manhattan to begin a "comprehensive
study" of "specific issues and challenges" faced by solo and small firm
practitioners, according to a news release from the Albany-based bar
group.
Chaired
by Robert L. Ostertag, a former state bar president and partner at
the Poughkeepsie firm
Ostertag O'Leary & Barrett, the committee will give "special focus"
to a report published in 2006 by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye's Commission
to Examine Solo and Small Firm Practice. That report advocated a
streamlining of court procedures that litigants often regard as costly
time-wasters for the nearly 60 percent of the state bar's 74,000 members
who are solo or small firm practitioners.
Included among
the report recommendations were uniform statewide court rules, the
serving of court orders via fax rather than personal appearances by
attorneys, uniformity of court forms, elimination of preliminary court
conferences when parties agree on discovery issues and staggered court
appearances to avoid "cattle call" motion calendars.
Committee
member Florence M. Fass, a partner in the Garden City family law
boutique Fass & Greenberg, said a "large number of the
recommendations in the 2006 report either have not been implemented, or
implemented sporadically" around the state.
Ms. Fass said
"there is urgency in these tight economic times" for the courts to
better manage time.
"That's the
biggest issue in the litigation environment, wasting time," said Ms.
Fass, who said clients had a perfect right to gripe about a typical fee
of $1,000 merely for a consent adjournment.
State Bar
President Bernice K. Leber said the new committee, along with the new
Solo/Small Firm Practitioner Resource Center on the association's Web
site [www.nysba.org], "will be a tremendous asset that provides even
more opportunities for solo and small firm practices to grow and
thrive."
In addition to
court procedure issues, Ms. Leber, a partner at Arent Fox, said the
committee would "recommend new programs, benefits, resources and
services" aimed at "achieving successful law practices and balanced
lives" for solo and small firm practitioners.
________________________________________________________________________
September
18, 2008
New Committee Targets Small-Firm Challenges,
National Law Journal
By Thomas
Adcock
A newly formed
New York State Bar
Associationcommittee held its inaugural meeting last month in Manhattan to
begin a "comprehensive study" of "specific issues and challenges" faced
by solo and small-firm practitioners, according to a news release from
the Albany, N.Y.-based bar group.
Chaired by Robert L. Ostertag, a former state bar president and partner
at the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., firm Ostertag O'Leary & Barrett, the committee will give "special focus" to a report published in
2006 by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye's Commission to Examine Solo and
Small Firm Practice.
That report advocated a streamlining of court procedures that litigants
often regard as costly time wasters for the nearly 60 percent of the
State Bar's 74,000 members who are solo or small-firm practitioners.
Included among the report recommendations were uniform statewide court
rules, the serving of court orders via fax rather than personal
appearances by attorneys, uniformity of court forms, elimination of
preliminary court conferences when parties agree on discovery issues and
staggered court appearances to avoid "cattle call" motion calendars.
Committee member Florence M. Fass, a partner in the Garden City, N.Y.,
family law boutique Fass & Greenberg, said a "large number of the recommendations in the 2006
report either have not been implemented or implemented sporadically"
around the state.
Fass said "there is urgency in these tight economic times" for the
courts to better manage time.
"That's the biggest issue in the litigation environment, wasting time,"
said Fass, who said clients had a perfect right to gripe about a typical
fee of $1,000 merely for a consent adjournment.
State Bar President Bernice K. Leber said the new committee, along with
the new Solo/Small Firm
Practitioner Resource Centeron the association's Web site, "will be a tremendous asset that
provides even more opportunities for solo and small-firm practices to
grow and thrive."
In addition to court procedure issues, Leber, a partner at Arent
Fox, said the committee
would "recommend new programs, benefits, resources and services" aimed
at "achieving successful law practices and balanced lives" for solo and
small-firm practitioners.
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