The committee members who compiled this little book are grateful to the Bar members who took the time to give us feedback. We have tried to incorporate all your suggestions in this revision.
Our purpose in writing the first edition in 2004 was to distill the subject to its essentials, primarily for the use of attorneys in solo and small-firm practices. We have kept things as simple as possible in this revision. This book is an outline of the key procedures and forms, the irreducible minimum below which a lawyer will usually find malpractice, unethical behavior, degradation and despair — or at least a bad day at the office.
The chapters are keyed to what you must do with each case or transaction that comes into your offices. You must get off to a good start with the client, which includes avoiding conflicts of interest. You must handle fees, billing and trust accounts, at the peril of a serious disciplinary complaint. Maintaining client relationships and file management can be irksome but necessary parts of your work, so we have chapters that show how the best lawyers do those tasks. Calendar control can ease the tension of a busy practice and make you an exemplar of promptitude — or at least an exception to the cliché that lawyers are always late. Both danger and opportunity lurk in the termination of a client relationship, and the suggestions we provide will help you steer clear of the dark side. Failure to do these essentials will often lead to a malpractice suit against you. So in addition to implementing the tips found in this guide, it’s a good idea to have professional liability insurance, which can be obtained through the Bar-sponsored carrier or any other carrier licensed to sell malpractice insurance in the state.
In this version of the guide, we provide you with more sample forms that can be adapted to your practice. We also give you easy access to the ethical rules and point the way to more comprehensive information on law office management with lists of other resources.
Many changes here were driven by technological change. We tried to provide ideas that work with the newest tools, but also attempted to avoid recommendations so specific that they would be obsolete by the time you need them. New features for this 2016 edition include:
- A Chapter on Disaster Planning in the wake of Katrina and other possible disasters.
- In Section 6, Calendar Control, we’ve added recommendations for cloud calendars, often free, that work on computers or smartphones and allow you to schedule a court date or appointment on the fly.
- A Chapter on the proper ways of closing your practice.
- A section on lawyer advertising and solicitation since the Rules of Professional Conduct were amended in 2008.
We request that you judge our work by the standard of whether our presentation on the subject of law office management is necessary to competent law practice. If something is missing, or is included but should be omitted, please give us your feedback, and the next edition will be better.
Any corrections or other updates over the next few years will be available on the Louisiana State Bar Association’s website, www.lsba.org.
The Practice Assistance and Improvement Committee
of the Louisiana State Bar Association
Download Entire Practice Aid Guide with Sections and Forms