D.C. Bar Voices

Practice Management Report: 10 Essentials for Small Firm Management

10 Essentials for Small Firm Management

1. Manage yourself, manage your time

For the small firm lawyer, our success is hidden in the way we spend our time. While time may seem like a limitless commodity, the irony is that the only moment in which we can manifest action is now. How we use and manage now is key to our success. We can do nothing to affect the future unless we effectively manage the now. The past of course is history but it can be a way we evaluate our process. Stay in charge of now.

Rather than check e-mail when you first get into the office (or get out of bed), schedule precise time periods in your day for e-mail review. Your first moments at work should be in thought about how you will effectively move through your day. A great tool to employ is a concept map (aka mind map). It’s a thinking tool useful for problem solving and strategy. Concept map your day first thing. Organize your priorities. When you master concept mapping,create one for your week, month and year. Chances are you will become a militant mapper and won’t make any decisions without having employed this useful and creative tool.[1]

2.  Have a plan, a goal, a purpose

A small firm is a business and it must have a plan. The plan contains a mission statement and steps to accomplish your goals. The plan tells your story. It describes how you message so that people with the problems you solve can find you. A small firm without a plan is like a ship adrift in the Sea of Whimsy.  Every action you take as a professional problem solver must be rooted in your plan.[2]

3.  Create systems for the repetitive tasks

Every small firm has repetitive tasks like opening a new file, creating the fee agreement, or declining a representation. Create checklists and systems for repetitive tasks to ensure that they are performed correctly and efficiently. For the solo lawyer, the checklist will become a part of the firm office manual as staff are brought on board. Checklists and systems create efficiency and focus. A terrific tool for creating forms and checklists to help manage repetitive tasks using Microsoft Word is:  http://www.theformtool.com/

4.  All action must manifest The Plan

Once you have a working draft of your business plan and a precise mission statement for your firm, print the mission statement and tape it to your computer, your phone, and other places where you will see it and be reminded of your professional purpose. Every moment of your professional day should define and be a part of this mission statement. If your firm is engaged in family law and you have a well thought-out mission statement, know that the traffic case a friend is asking you to handle is outside your mission statement. Those frolics and detours from your mission statement take a toll in risk, inefficiency and anxiety.

5.  Own the first two seconds of any engagement

In any professional engagement, such as a conversation with a prospective client, an exchange with opposing counsel, or in your introduction at a networking event, ensure that your words are rich with content immediately. Speak for emphasis in short, clear statements. Know where you are going and why. 

Use a few easy words rather than many challenging words. Speak to communicate and then stop talking when you have accomplished your goal. A subtle and common addiction of our profession is our attachment to the sound of our voices. Before you speak, think through the goal of the communication.

In the first sentence or two, cover the necessities of who, what, when, where, why & how. You will never have a more focused audience than the person who is listening during the first seconds of your delivery. Start hot.

6.  Track your time, track your projects

Create a system to track how you spend your professional time. Create a separate system to track every project you undertake in your firm. Both can easily be done with spreadsheets.[3]  Using our 168 hour time management spreadsheet, you can record two or three times a day how you are spending your professional time. Some time will of course be for professional problem solving for clients for which you hope to be paid. Some time will be for firm administration, some for marketing, and some for learning. 

Our professional life is aboutwhat we spend our time on. Our profit is determined by the number of productive hours we have in a day. By honestly tracking our time on a regular and consistent basis, we become informed managers of time and we realize that time is precious and the only moment in which we have impact is now. 

When you realize how much time you truly spend on a high maintenance client who pays reluctantly or not at all, you tend to make better decisions at intake. Using our Case & Action Manager spreadsheet gives you a simple database for every project in your office. Enter every prospective client, actual client, marketing project, and firm management issue and track progress. Docket dates, set goals, target deadlines and record delegation where appropriate. Nothing slips off the radar.

7.  Handle the hot button issues

For the small firm, there are many hot button issues, but the two most critical are handling money and managing client communication. Drop the ball on either and you could be looking at a disciplinary complaint. On an annual basis, nearly one-half of the docketed disciplinary complaints handled by the D.C. Office of Bar Counsel are against small firm lawyers.[4] 

You may be handling advance fees properly and routinely depositing them into your IOLTA, but what about your credit card transactions? Are they compliant with D.C Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15?  Is the earning mechanism in your fee agreement consistent with actual practice?  Are there clients you avoid?  Are there phone calls too painful to return?  Do you have trouble delivering bad news?  Guidance on handling money is available on a free and confidential basis from the D.C. Bar.[5] 

Client communication really lends itself to a system. Start by describing how it will be handled in the fee agreement. Return calls the same day if possible but no later than the next day. Consider scheduling return calls during defined periods of time (three or four a week) and schedule the return call with the client. This system has the beauty of not interrupting your working periods and allowing you to prepare for several return calls at a set time. 

8.  Know and avoid the distractions of doom

This may be a person or a place you go to escape either in your mind or down the street. Perhaps your distraction of doom is procrastination. Whatever it may be, in the end, it’s a habit and it’s consuming and you regret it, but you repeat it. It sucks the time and life from you. 

For some, the internet, e-mail or social media has become a distraction of doom. For others, it happens when they venture into D.C. Superior Court to file a case and don’t make it back to the office to work because of the distractions of the courthouse. If you have one of these distractions of doom, deal with it. Some of us can kick the habit and change the behavior. But for some, it takes a little extra help. Help is available from the Lawyer Assistance Program of the D.C. Bar, a free and confidential service.[6]

9. Evaluate regularly

Once a week or once a month, pull back and see how you are doing. Revisit your plan. Think about your mission statement. Then look at the last several new clients you have taken on and check the time management spreadsheet for how you are spending your time. Are you on message and manifesting your plan? And what about you? How do you feel about your professional enterprise? Are your clients in a better place as a result of your effort? Take regular stock and make adjustments as needed.

10.  Refuel

Being a small firm lawyer can be an exhilarating, creative experience and it is nearly always a demanding and challenging enterprise. It is often very hard work. Lawyers have a high incidence of burnout, depression and substance abuse.⁶

More often than not, our clients need us and depend on us at very difficult moments in their lives. They can be demanding and irrational. Sometimes they turn on us despite our best efforts. Our health is important to us and to our clients. We need time away, time to refuel, and space to recover. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we won’t be effective at solving our clients’ problems. 

Incorporate, within your plan, time to recharge and come back strong. Each day and week should hold some moments for us to refuel.  On a regular basis, every quarter or six months, take some extended time for rest and relaxation. A network of supportive colleagues can be very helpful for the small firm lawyer.

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[1] If you would like a lesson in concept mapping, please contact Dan Mills, assistant director, D.C. Bar Practice Management Advisory Service (PMAS), (202) 737-4700, ext. 3212, [email protected] or Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS, at (202) 737-4700, ext. 3217, [email protected].  The PMAS is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law.

[2] E-mail Rochelle Washington or Dan Mills for a small firm plan template in Microsoft Word format.

[3] E-mail Rochelle Washington or Dan Mills for the 168 hour time management spreadsheet and the Case & Action Manager spreadsheet (available in Excel or Numbers). 

[4] Less than 10% of the D.C. Bar’s 100,000-plus members are small firm lawyers.

[5] Call Rochelle Washington, Dan Mills, or the D.C. Bar’s legal ethics counsel at (202) 737-4700, ext. 3231 or 3232; e-mail [email protected],or visit us on the new www.dcbar.org.

[6] The free and confidential services of the D.C. Bar’s Lawyer Assistance Program include counseling and guidance for District of Columbia lawyers, judges and law students who are experiencing problems such as addiction, mental health symptoms, or stress, which interfere with their personal or professional lives. Call (202) 347-3131, e-mail [email protected], or visit us on the new www.dcbar.org.

Related articles

Practice Management Report: Best Practices in Billing - Introduction

Practice Management Report: 5 Productivity Ideas For Solo and Small Firm Lawyers

Personal Mission Statement: A GPS for Your Career

Practice Management Report: 6 Tips for Better Invoicing

 

Best Practices in Billing #7

• Personalize the invoice – use actual names when referring to your client and others. Never call your client the client in the invoice;

• Resist a billing entry for more than two hours for anything done in your office. Break the work into multiple events for the entry, but;

• Total up small entries and don’t nickel & dime your client in the bill;

• When the invoice is larger than normal, consider giving some explanation in addition to the invoice itself. For example, explain in a letter or personal note what occurred and include it with the bill.

• Review prior invoices to make sure it does not appear to your client that you are charging for work already performed. For example, when we bill for research, if we don’t explain in detail what we researched and why, it can appear that we might be repeating something already performed and perhaps paid for by the client.

• Make sure the client knows that s/he can talk to you about the bill. Any time an issue arises on your end about the billing process, address it immediately. Avoiding the issue never adds to the solution. You are far more likely to collect a past due amount if you call the day after payment is due as opposed to sending a nice letter sixty days later.

Catch Up On Entire Series

The PMAS is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law. Daniel Mills, assistant director for PMAS, Regulation Counsel, and Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS, can be reached at 202-737-4700, ext. 3212 and 3217, respectively, or at [email protected].

 

Practice Management Report: Invoice Appearance is Important

 

Best Practices in Billing #6

 The invoice form itself should be professional in appearance and easy to navigate.  It should be called an Invoice for Services Rendered or Statement for Services.  It must be clear that it is a bill with an amount to be paid.  The firm’s Employer Identification Number should be stated on the Invoice.  Your client’s name and address as well as yours should be displayed.  The Invoice should contain the date it is sent to the client.  Time worked, expenses incurred and subtotal amounts should be set out clearly with the total amount owed at the bottom so that the client knows how much to pay. 

Terms should be reflected on the invoice so that the client knows when payment is due, how to make payment and whether there is a discount for early payment or a penalty for late payment.  If you can receive payment electronically, describe how that feature works and how the client may make use of it.

Traditionally the bottom or end of your invoice should be a clear statement of how much is to be paid and any applicable terms[1]:

Payment Time:	15 days	30 days	60 day	75 days
Adjustment:	-5%	0	+5%	+10%
Adjusted Amount Due	$950.00	$1,000.00	$1,050.00	$1,100.00

Send the invoice by email or snail mail based upon your office’s best practice and your client’s need. Hard copy, snail-mailed invoices are often perceived as more professional. Emailed invoices, making use of PDF format, work best for clients set up to receive the invoice in this manner. 

A personal note from you with the invoice can often help the communication process. It can be a Thank you, or I’ve enjoyed helping you, or I would appreciate prompt payment, should that be appropriate. It lets the client know that you have had direct input into the invoice. If you need to call about a past due sum, the note might say I’ll be calling you soon to discuss this.

To regulate cash flow, time entry must occur as near as possible to the action performed and billing must occur on a regular schedule. When billing at the end of a flat fee event that is completed, the invoice should issue immediately upon completion of the project. When accounting for time on a regular, monthly basis, invoices must go out as close as possible at the same time every month. For clients who are billed quarterly or on another time basis, the invoice must go out immediately at the end of the cycle. The cycle must be consistent with the fee agreement and your oral discussion with the client of the billing process.

If you bill at the same time that you deliver work product, send these items separately. The invoice gets its own envelope or email.

Next:  Tips for Better Invoicing.

Catch Up On Entire Series

The PMAS is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law. Daniel Mills, assistant director for PMAS, Regulation Counsel, and Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS, can be reached at 202-737-4700, ext. 3212 and 3217, respectively, or at [email protected].

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[1] Interest rates may be regulated by your jurisdiction’s applicable law.

Practice Management Report: Make the Entry Now, Not Later

BEST PRACTICES IN BILLING #5

If you charge on the basis of recorded time, whether you do it by writing down what you do, entering it by keyboard or touch screen into a data base, or dictating it for transcription, make the entry immediately after you complete the work and not later that day, during the week or at the end of the month.  The entry must be made while the effort is fresh in your mind.  Make the entry as though your client was sitting across the desk from you and you were explaining what you did, why you did it and how it helped the client.^[1]

If you are not in the habit of making time entries immediately after performing work, this may be a difficult transition for you, but it is a necessary one for several reasons.  The conventional wisdom is that you will record more accurately all of your time if it is entered immediately after the work is performed.  If you wait until the end of the day, week or month, your memory will not be as good and work will be missed. 

While capturing all work is important, a more important reason for contemporaneous entries is that the content will be better and the time entry accurate and fair.  The content will be better because the work is fresh.  The opportunity to “talk” to your client in the entry will more likely lead to a better explanation of the work.  If something took you longer than it should have because you were distracted during the work, your entry is more likely to be fair and accurate if made immediately after the work is performed.  So as you are entering time and activity, visualize your client and explain what you did, why it was necessary and how it helped when appropriate.

Review the invoices before they are sent to the client and conduct the review from the mindset of your client.  If you see entries that would puzzle, annoy or offend you as the client, make the necessary changes.  Have trusted non-lawyers working in your firm review the invoices with you.

Next:  Invoice Appearance is Important.

Catch Up On Entire Series

The PMAS is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law. Daniel Mills, assistant director for PMAS, Regulation Counsel, and Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS, can be reached at 202-737-4700, ext. 3212 and 3217, respectively, or at [email protected].

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[1] Evaluating the many and varied software applications that make time and billing more manageable is beyond the scope of this article.  Which application is best is a fact sensitive inquiry.  

Practice Management Report: How to Set up and Run a Billing Process

BEST PRACTICES IN BILLING #4

What is the billing process? The billing process is more than just a way to compile information and invoice a client. The billing process is actually a communication system and consequently an often missed opportunity for you to market to the client. It is only appropriate that your first consideration should be compliance with the rules of professional conduct for any jurisdiction in which you are licensed, and in particular the rules on fees, fee agreements, communication, advertising (marketing), confidentiality and handling money.

All communication you do with the public and prospective clients should be primarily focused on marketing to or communicating about the problem you solve rather than talking about yourself. You make yourself much more relevant and attractive to a prospective client when your marketing is all about the problem that the client has. By doing this you are matching your value with the client’s need. Marketing about the problem you solve is a credibility-builder that works much better than talking about yourself.

So assuming that you have attracted the prospective client you want who can and will pay for your problem solving ability, the next essential element of the billing process is the fee agreement. At its essence, the fee agreement clearly defines the problem you are going to solve (scope provision), it sets out the fee and basis for payment, and it covers how expenses will be handled.^[1]

Include in your fee agreement - and never miss an opportunity to explain - how the fee agreement works and how services will be provided; how money will be handled; how explanations will be given; how questions will be answered; how invoices will be issued and what, precisely, is expected of the client. Put it in writing.Talk it out in detail. The client needs to know how you work, how you charge, how invoicing occurs, and how the client pays.

Be mindful, it is absolutely essential that you precisely follow the oral and written description of how your billing system operates. 

Next:  Make the Entry Now, Not Later.

Catch Up On Entire Series

The PMAS is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law. Daniel Mills, assistant director for PMAS, Regulation Counsel, and Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS, can be reached at 202-737-4700, ext. 3212 and 3217, respectively, or at [email protected].

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[1] Scope, fee and expenses are the mandatory elements of Rule 1.5 of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct.  

Practice Management Report: Manifesting Value

BEST PRACTICES IN BILLING #3

We must do all we can to manifest value to our client. Clients usually presume our competence but they are often unsure that we represent value. Simply put, clients often don’t know that we know how to solve their problems in a manner they can afford. Thus, when we can solve their problems and make certain that they can understand how well we solved their problems, they can then understand the value of our work.

How good a job do you do manifesting value to your clients both at the peak of their need for a solution and through-out the problem solving process? If you are able to manifest value to your clients then they will ultimately become your personal marketing machine. The client who recognizes the value of your services will be funneling to you the clients you want and your problem solving process will be turning out happy clients who sing your praises. Your problems will change from collecting accounts receivable to keeping up with demand for your services.

So, try as we might to collect all fees upfront when need is typically greatest for our solution, there are practical reasons why this is not always possible.  We may not be that good at talking about money with our clients.  But, we can get better at that.  It’s really not that difficult.  Sometimes it’s just our belief and approach that has to change. 

Daniel Mills shares: One of my favorite partners had his secretary say to each prospective client when she would schedule an initial consultation: Tom said to tell you to bring your checkbook. Clients hired Tom because he was an attack dog lawyer. He knew their need was highest at that first meeting. That’s why he would say, if he wanted the case, Get out your checkbook when it was time to close and get a signed fee agreement and upfront fee. 

Keep in mind, this approach won’t work for everyone, but it’s a good place to start. A variation can be found for every practice area and every prospective client.

Another practical reason we take on clients without full payment up front is that not all clients can afford that method and others may just be unwilling. Other times we don’t know how much money the problem solving will require. Under these circumstances where we do not take full payment upfront, we need a billing system.

What are the elements of this highly functioning system for informing and educating the client about the problem solving we are performing that gets us paid?

Next:  How to Set Up and Run the Billing Process.

Catch Up: Best Practices in Billing #2

Catch Up: Best Practices in Billing #1

The Practice Management Advisory Service (PMAS) is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law. Daniel Mills, assistant director for, PMAS, Regulation Counsel, and Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS. can be reached at 202-737-4700, ext. 3212 and 3217, respectively, or at [email protected].

Practice Management Report: Matching Value and Need

BEST PRACTICES IN BILLING #2

When a potential client comes to you it is usually because s/he has a problem that s/he needs you to help solve. If you have a solution to the problem in that moment, your solution has value to the potential client. A perfect opportunity to talk about money with a potential client is the moment value and need come together. 

For example, the typical criminal defense lawyer gets paid up front before the case gets going. Gunfighers of the Old West were not hired and paid by the bullet--the criminal defense lawyer is not hired for a little defense. People hire lawyers to reach and or achieve a desired outcome. When need and value match, the criminal defense lawyer is all in and the flat fee paid upfront covers a trial, plea or any other resolution which the lawyer is instrumental in bringing about.

On the other hand, matching value and need for an estate planning lawyer with a 30-something single client is a whole other dynamic. The client thinks s/he is immortal and does not really have a problem in need of a professional solution. Here, matching value with need is more of a process to educate about need. You will find that some prospective clients simply don’t know they have a problem in the making.

It is imperative that you understand your ideal client’s problem recognition process in order to match value and need. Find out when and why did the process start, what did s/he do to inform her/himself and how did s/he eventually find you? If you are not well versed in the process of your client in recognizing the problem that s/he will ultimately bring to you for solution, then start asking and listening. 

Next Up:  Manifesting value

Catch Up: Best Practices in Billing #1

The Practice Management Advisory Service is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law. Daniel Mills, assistant director for, PMAS, Regulation Counsel, and Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS. can be reached at 202-737-4700, ext. 3212 and 3217, respectively, or at [email protected].

Practice Management Report: Best Practices in Billing – Introduction

Little needs to be said to the solo or small firm lawyer, new or old in practice, about the challenges of billing and collecting fees.  This is a pertinent issue because although we may love practicing law, we would also like to earn a decent living.  In the coming weeks we will be providing a seven part blog series titled Best Practices in Billing where we will share information compiled as part of our Practice Management Advisory Service (PMAS) with the D.C. Bar.  

The authors of this blog series--Daniel Mills, assistant director for PMAS, Regulation Counsel and Rochelle Washington, senior staff attorney, PMAS--together have over 35 years of direct experience building and managing solo and small firms from the ground up.  We understand the plight of the lawyer who has performed what s/he believes to be a good, if not exceptional, job for a client only to find that the client takes issue with the bill or just won’t pay you for all you have done.

Rochelle Washington:  Billing is a huge issue for the solo and small firm practitioner because we know that if we don’t collect from our clients, we usually don’t have recourse without repercussions.

Yes, we said it.  We know that if we pursue our clients legally for the fees we earn, we could end up with a bar complaint or counter-claim that we don’t have the time or resources to deal with.  In an effort to avoid that path all together, we intend to provide you with ways you can make the billing and collections process easier both for you and more importantly for your clients.  We believe that sharing our combination of insightful practical experience and knowledge gained during our solo and small firm careers will prove useful.

GET PAID UP FRONT

The best way to ensure that we are paid for the professional problem solving that we do is to take on only clients who pay us and preferably up front.  We are advocates of the Zips Dry Cleaners model for the law firm:  no inventory, nothing perishable, and payment up front.^[1] 

Daniel Mills: When a prospective client asked me why I had to be paid up front, I would say it is so I only have one thing to worry about and that is solving your problem.  Otherwise I have two things to worry about.  I never had to explain the second worry.

There are two essentials for the process of being paid for professional problem solving.  The first is that we create incentive for our client to pay us either now, before we do the work, or as we do the work.  The second is that we have a highly functioning system for informing and educating the client about the problem solving we are performing and that asks for payment.  This is also known as the billing process.  The process should avoid angering or annoying the client.  It should also make it easy for the client to pay.

There are two truths about being paid for problem solving that are important to acknowledge now.  The first is that there is a moment in time when the client really needs us.  At this moment, the need is at its highest level.  Over time the need usually wanes and with some it vanishes all together.  The second truth is that clients read what we send them about what we do and what they owe us.  They may not read much else but they read the bills.  If you can time the request for money to the height of the need for your services, you are likely to get paid.  If the need vanishes all together or worse yet, if it is replaced by indifference, resentment, confusion or anger, you are not likely to get paid.

Next Week:  Matching value and need.

The PMAS is a multifaceted Bar program designed to help Bar members improve and enhance management skills in the practice of law. Daniel Mills and Rochelle Washington can be reached at 202-737-4700, ext. 3212 and 3217, respectively, or at [email protected].

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1 The Washington Post, May 31, 2009, G1-3; www.321zips.com

 

Practice Management Report: 5 Productivity Ideas For Solo and Small Firm Lawyers

1. Objectively evaluate all areas of your office that clients see and occupy. Ask yourself if you would hire a professional that worked in a like space. Get someone you trust to give you a second opinion. If the consensus is that your office and work area send a bad message, clean it up and make it appealing to clients. Consider everything that can be seen, heard, touched and smelled.

2. If you have multiple parties and are having trouble getting everyone contacted by phone to set an event, try Google.docs as a solution. Let’s say you have three or four depositions to set and three or four busy lawyers involved in the case whom you must contact and schedule. Go to http://docs.google.com and create a new document or spreadsheet with the name of the witnesses and possible dates for the depositions. Using the lawyers’ e-mail addresses, circulate the document or spreadsheet for each lawyer to indicate availability. It eliminates the phone calls and speeds the process. You will first need to open a Google account at https://www.google.com/accounts and take the tour to get an explanation how this helpful process works. It’s simple and effective.

3. When you are meeting with a new client and you have been officially retained, start work immediately on the case in the presence of the client, even if it something small. Let the client see you begin the case or project by directing a staff member to open the file or prepare a letter. If you still dictate, dictate a letter or memo in the presence of the client. Enter the client’s contact information into your contacts list or database. Convey the message that you are immediately at work for this new client.

4. Find a person you trust and have this person call your office as a potential client and also come into your office as a potential client and evaluate how he or she is greeted, how the office looks, and the overall impression that is made by your staff and the physical surroundings. Is your sign old, faded and in need of painting? Are the magazines dated? Does your waiting area turn people off? Does the person who answers your phone and greets persons coming to your office seem genuinely interested or distracted and hurried? Get an objective evaluation of your office function and take corrective actions.

5. If you want to make a great impression, keep a client happy and get a good reputation for being accessible and a good communicator, call a client before he or she calls you. On a weekly basis, set aside fifteen to thirty minutes and call a client with whom you have not spoken for a while and just check in and see how he or she is. Maybe it’s a case where you are waiting on a ruling and the judge is taking a long time. Maybe it’s a case where you are waiting on a trial date or some other event. The work is done, and you may not have contact with this client again for months. Give this client a call, tell him or her you were thinking about him or her, give a brief update, assure that all is well and move on to the next call. You will stand out against the common rap on lawyers that says we are inaccessible.

Get an evaluation of the productivity of your office or to learn more about running a small office contact Dan Mills, Manager of the Practice Management Advisory Service at the District of Columbia Bar. Call 202-626-1312 or e-mail Dan at [email protected].

NOTE: This article is provided as a service to members of the District of Columbia Bar by the Practice Management Advisory Service. It is not intended as a substitute to independent research and planning, but as a resource to assist you in your efforts to start and manage your own law practice. This article has not been endorsed or adopted by the Bar's Board of Governors. It is advisory only and is not binding on any office or person charged with responsibility for attorney discipline. The reader should also consult directly the District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct. The references to commercial products, services, or companies in this article are not intended as endorsements. The article may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without the consent of the District of Columbia Bar.