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Event Description:
The KBA Solo Practitioner & Small Firm Section presents a seminar entitled ”How to START & How to GROW a Successful Law Firm" on May 18, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. - 5:20 p.m. at the City County Building - Main Assembly Room. The CLE features RJon Robins, Esquire and is sponsored by The Small Law Firm Store.

If you are just starting out, wondering where to begin and want to do it right, then you need to attend this seminar! The most instantly-usable CLE workshop you’ll ever attend on how to start, market & manage a successful small law firm.

Your law firm’s performance affects every part of your life:

• When it’s generating plenty of predictable positive cash flow, you feel nourished and strong.
• When it’s operating reliably without you having to ’be there’ all the time and without too many unexpected fire drills, you feel supported and safe.
• When the work you do for your clients and the clients themselves are important to you, you feel satisfied.

Why can’t EVERY lawyer have this kind of relationship with his or her law firm? The answer is, YOU can. And it’s not even that hard to accomplish. In fact, it’s all based on a surprisingly few fundamentals that lawyers have been using to start, market, manage and even profitably sell successful law firms for hundreds of years.

This seminar will give you take-a-ways that you will be eager to apply to your law firm so you can experience tangible improvement in your firm’s financial performance and your personal and professional performance as a result.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Morning Session
Starting A Small Law Firm
9:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

9:00-10:30 a.m. (90 min)

1. The business of a law firm vs. the job of a lawyer
2. Surprising statistics about the legal industry most lawyers don’t know
3. The history of the legal industry and dangerous law firm management lessons from the Patron Saint of Lawyer
4. What clients REALLY want
5. Ethical obligation of every lawyer to actively and effectively market our legal services

10:30-10:50 a.m. (20 min break)

10:50 a.m.-12:20 p.m. (90 min)
12 steps for starting a successful law firm
If you already have a successful law firm, you can use this opportunity to congratulate yourself that you haven’t missed anything.

1. How to set, track & measure realistic goals
2. How to identify the most profitable practice area(s) for your new practice.
3. How to squeeze every ounce of value out of your choice of office location (includes discussion of ethics & marketing considerations home office lawyers)
4. How to create administrative policies to ensure a profitable & professional practice.
5. How to create administrative procedures to keep your clients, your family & your malpractice insurance carrier happy.
6. Profitable furnishings for your law firm
7. Equipment & website strategies that really make a difference for your clients.
8. Basic overview of the financial controls you’ll need to ensure profitability & keep yourself out of trouble.
9. How to use your IOLTA Client Property Trust Account as the PROFITABLE & ETHICAL law firm management tool it was actually meant to be.
10. Ethical marketing.
11. Professional marketing.
12. Real world case study featuring a volunteer from the audience. If no volunteers then a discussion of resources you’ll need to start a successful law firm including where & how to get help so you don’t have to do everything yourself. Either way we emphasize practical ethics and real world professionalism.

12:20-2:00 p.m. LUNCH (on your own)

Afternoon Session
Growing A Small Law Firm
2:00-5:20 p.m.

2:00-3:30 p.m. (90 min)

2:00-2:20 p.m. RATES: A real world discussion of rates vs. realization rates and the ethical implications of your choice of billing strategy(ies).

• The history of the billable hour in our industry - where DID lawyers get the idea to sell hours anyway?
• Why the billable hour does a disservice to clients.
• How to profitably, confidently and professionally replace the billable hour with a variety of better, more ethical and more professional billing models.

2:20-2:40 p.m. UTILIZATION: Best practices and how the most profitable law firms utilize hundreds of years old law firm management policies, generations-old practice management procedures and new technologies to get more done with less time, energy and working capital.

• Best practice ethical internal policies
• Best practice professional external policies
• Best practice & most profitable procedures
• Case studies in how solo & small law firms are using technology to deliver more value to clients while increasing profits and without working more hours.

2:40-3:00 p.m. LEVERAGE: Legal staff, you can’t live with ’em and you can’t live without ’em; at least not if you want to give your client the care, attention and service they deserve without running yourself ragged.

• Why there’s friction between lawyers and our staff.
• When to know it’s objectively time to hire staff to leverage your brilliance & be a more professional and a more ethical lawyer.
• How to hire, manage and maximize productivity of legal staff.
• How to hire a $ 50,000 legal assistant or paralegal for just $ 2,300.

3:00-3:20 p.m. EXPENSES: Financial control is the professional responsibility of every equity owner of a law firm. Plus it’s very rewarding and gives you a lot of confidence when you discover why & how lawyers are actually better at financial management than accountants are!

• Understanding the gap that exists between where a book keeper leaves-off & an accountant picks-up.
• "Accountingese” translated into plain English you don’t have to take off your shoes & socks to understand.

3:20-3:30 p.m. SPEED of Collections: Time really IS money in a law firm.

• Identify the "true” cost of a/r.
• Understanding the snowball effect of a/r including reduced referrals and increased risk of bar grievances and malpractice.
• Real world best practices your clients will appreciate for eliminating a/r from your practice once & for all.

3:30-3:50 p.m. (20 min break)

3:50-5:20 p.m. (90 min)

3:50-4:40 p.m. Reality Check: Small law firm financial management 202.

• Learn to see what’s been right under your nose so you can use it to improve your practice and your life.
• How to use your IOLTA client property trust account as the profitable law firm management tool it was originally meant to be.
• The 6 Key Numbers the managing partners of the most profitable law firms could tell you without having to guess if you woke them up in the middle of the night with a cold splash of water.
• The lost secret of how to get your book keeper & accountant to empower you so that you won’t have to guess either if someone were to wake you up in the middle of the night with a cold splash of water. (Hint: It’s the same secret of why your cat won’t fetch and your dog doesn’t climb trees).

4:40-5:00 p.m. Calculating the hidden potential you probably feel in your gut is stored-up inside your law firm. No doubt your gut is great. But wouldn’t it be better to have an actual number against which you can make objectively rational management & marketing decisions instead?

5:00-5:20 p.m. Determining where you are today on the three axis of a law firm’s success; where you want to be; and sketching-out a plan for how you’re going to use what you’ve learned here today in order to achieve your goals, once this program ends so that you can say with enthusiasm: This Is The BEST CLE Program Ever!

Who Should Attend This Workshop?

• The accomplished practitioner whose business success does not-yet reflect your skills as a lawyer.

• The successful lawyer who wants or needs to transform the "job” you own practicing law into a law firm business that works for you.

• The lawyer who recently started a law firm (or you’re thinking about it) and you are smart-enough to know that building a sustainably- successful law firm is about MORE than just being a great lawyer.

Program Cost:

KBA Members - $ 150
Non-KBA Members - $ 210
KBA Law Student Members - $ 75

A reservation is required in advance of the program - $ 5 dollar additional fee the day of the program.

You do not need to be a member of the section in order to attend the CLE program.

smalllawfirm.pdf

Location Information:
City County Building
400 Main St. / Main Assembly Room
Knoxville, TN 37902

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