If you were to collect everything I (and many others like me) have written on risk management for lawyers, I suspect the collection would fill a tome or two; but sometimes less is more. It is with this sentiment in mind that I offer this brief Malpractice Avoidance Checklist that covers the basics: Always try [...]
In March of 2020, just as Katie Peterson’s first year of law school was nearing its close, everything changed. As Katie rounds out a full year of remote law school, she and ALPS Claims Attorney Martha Amrine reflect on how 2020 upended long-held law school traditions and created new ones. They talk about what [...]
Lawyers become lawyers to help people. To right wrongs, to champion for justice. While law school prepares you substantively for the legal issues you’ll face in private practice, it doesn’t address the systemically unhealthy cultural expectations of the profession. Five years in, one new lawyer found that the tremendous workload, low associate’s salary in the [...]
The best risk management advice I will ever have to offer is simply this: Never minimize the importance taking care of yourself. I know it sounds simple, yet so many seem to struggle with it over the long-term. I really do believe that taking this advice to heart can not only make a world of [...]
In many jurisdictions, commentary to Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1 Competency states that lawyers are to keep abreast of the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology. With that language in mind, do you actually do so? I ask because in my world I often find that lawyers are pretty good at evaluating the benefits [...]
Guest Blogger Karen Thalacker advocates that sometimes a good, old-fashioned phone call makes the most sense. In the past, attorneys communicated regularly via telephone but that all changed with email. After all, an email can be sent at any time of the day or night and the communication is easy to pass along to your [...]
Prior Acts Coverage With the short history lesson of Part 1 behind us, we can now start to dig into the basics of malpractice insurance. In order to do so, we need to first understand what coverage for prior acts actually is. Let me start by defining the term “retroactive coverage date.” The retroactive coverage [...]
I’ve heard all kinds of crazy comments from lawyers over the years. For example, during a CLE event with a state bar’s ethics counsel sitting next to me on a speaker’s panel, two lawyer attendees tried to convince others in attendance that the panel’s position on conflict of interest resolution was clearly wrong. They stood [...]
For years so many, myself included, have talked about the importance of trying to find a healthy balance between work life and personal life as a way to take care of one’s self. Those who tried and succeeded did so believing that, once there, all would be good with the world. I’m not buying it [...]
ABA MRPC Rule 1.4 Communication seems clear on its face. Attorneys are to keep clients reasonably informed about the status of their matters as well as to promptly comply with reasonable requests for information. Attorneys are to also explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit all clients to make informed decisions regarding [...]
