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  • March 24, 2010 | Practice News
    Best Practice: What is primary financial problem for most firms?
    Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Our firm, a seven attorney personal injury firm in the southwest, seems like we can never get to the next level financially. Do you find that excessive overhead (expense) is the major problem for law firms? A. Not really. In fact, in many cases I find that law firms should be making larger investments in their future and spending more money. Often monetary and time investments in marketing, talent, and technology are insufficient in many firms. The problem in most firms is insufficient leveraged fee revenue. In other words - many small firm practitioners - only think in terms of whether they have adequate work to keep themselves busy - they do not think in terms of being a net exporter of work so they can keep themselves busy plus two or three other attorneys and or paralegals. A well leveraged practice is what takes you financially to the next level. In reality - more marketing is needed - to create a sufficient volume of work to support this leverage. Once this is accomplished - attorneys must learn how to manage and supervise others - and the compensation system must shift emphasis from personal working collections to responsible (billing attorney) collections. John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC,  is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics.
  • March 23, 2010 | Practice News
    Be a coupon clipper
    My dad used to grumble enviously about "coupon clippers" of the inherited-wealth kind. He was using a term that goes back to the days when you needed to clip a coupon to get the interest on a bond. Today, "coupon-clipping" is a decidedly regular-folks phrase. It's about saving money, not cashing in. And in the latest ISBA Standing Committee on Government Lawyers newsletter, Lisle Stalter shares a helpful list of her favorite coupon sites for saving money on groceries and the like. Check it out.
  • March 23, 2010 | Practice News
    Illinois Supreme Court to hold public hearings on evidence law proposals
    The Special Supreme Court Committee on Illinois Evidence will hold public hearings on proposed new rules codifying Illinois evidence law at the following locations:
    • Tuesday, May 18, 10 a.m.: Supreme Court Building, 160 N. LaSalle, Room C-500, Chicago
    • Thursday, May 20, 10 a.m.: Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, 3101 Old Jacksonville Road, Springfield
    The proposed new rules are available on the Supreme Court website. The Special Supreme Court Committee on Illinois Evidence invites public comments on the proposed rules. Written comments should be submitted by Tuesday, May 4, 2010, to: Special Supreme Court Committee on Illinois Evidence, c/o Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, 222 N. LaSalle Street, 13th Floor, Chicago, IL 60601
  • March 18, 2010 | Practice News
    Illinois Supreme Court: Provena not entitled to tax exemption
    In a much-anticipated opinion issued this morning, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court ruling upholding the Illinois Department of Revenue's determination that Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana had not dispensed enough charity care to merit a property tax exemption. Read more in the News-Gazette, in the Chicago Tribune and read the opinion.
  • March 17, 2010 | Practice News
    A quick guide to appealing an administrative ruling
    One benefit of being an ISBA Mutual insured is the practice-oriented information the company pushes your way. After all, they want you to be the best lawyer you can be. Good for them, good for you. Which brings me to this article by Joe Marconi, which appears on the Mutual's Web site. It's a short primer on appealing administrative rulings, a process which, as Joe notes, "often confuses even the most experienced attorneys and may result in missed opportunities for redress." Read the article.
  • March 17, 2010 | Practice News
    Illinois Supreme Court disbars 7 lawyers, suspends 9

    The Illinois Supreme Court disbarred seven lawyers, suspended nine and censured three in its latest disciplinary filing. More information on each case is available at the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission Web site.

  • March 17, 2010 | Practice News
    Best Practice: Improving profitability through better communications
    Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. We are a 17 attorney IP firm in the Southwest and I am the managing partner. We are having a lot of problems with poor attitude in the office, inadequate production, employee turnover, and we have recently lost a few key institutional clients. I believe that the core of our problem may be poor communication skills on the part of our attorneys. What recommendations do you have? A. Poor interpersonal communications is often the root cause of many of the management problems that arise in law firms.
  • March 15, 2010 | Practice News
    Judge Kressel's much-blogged-about 'order preparation guidelines'
    Minnesota bankruptcy judge Robert J. Kressel was surprised by the stir he created when he distributed his “Order Preparation Guidelines” to local bankruptcy lawyers. Before he knew it, his legal-writing guidesheet was bouncing around the 'Net, inspiring mostly favorable comments from bloggers at the ABA Journal, Law.com, and other lofty berths. The editors of ISBA's Bench and Bar newsletter asked the good judge to let them publish his common-sense guidelines, and he did. More interestingly, they asked him to comment and expand on them, and he did that, too. Read the article here. By the way, nothing illustrates the challenge of legal writing better than these two sentences from the introduction to Judge Kressel's guidelines: "My goal in preparing orders, as it is for all of my legal writing, is to use regular grammatical English as much as possible. A secondary goal is to use actual statutory language as much as possible, rather than changing or paraphrasing it, which runs the risk of changing its meaning." If only more actual statutory language were written in regular grammatical English.
  • March 14, 2010 | Practice News
    Wolfe appointed associate judge in DuPage County
    The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts announced Friday that the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Michael A. Wolfe as an associate judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. Mr. Wolfe received his undergraduate degree in 1981 from Marquette University, and his Juris Doctor in 1984 from John Marshall in Chicago. Mr. Wolfe is currently affiliated with the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office in Wheaton.
  • March 12, 2010 | Practice News
    Is unemployment compensation "current monthly income" for bankruptcy purposes?
    That can be an important question, writes law student Brent Wilson in his article in the latest ISBA Commercial, Banking & Bankruptcy Law newsletter. "The means test of BAPCPA incorporates 'current monthly income' and uses it as an initial hoop that consumer debtors must jump through. If the debtor’s 'current monthly income' is too high according to the median wages of individuals in the debtor’s state, the debtor may not be granted access to Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief." And it's a question courts are struggling with, he writes. Two bankruptcy courts have said "no," unemployment benefits are not "currently monthly income," while two -- most recently the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois -- have said "yes." Read his article.