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2017 GLSA Conference Registration
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The GLSA Community and Hurricane Harvey
This is coming from the heart of the GLSA on the Harvey Hurricane. The storm hit the shore Thursday August 24th as a Cat 4 storm about 150 miles south of Houston. Initially, the Storm hit the Texas coast on Thursday August 24th without any impact on Houston. The rain began hitting the Houston Area Friday morning. What we thought was a normal effect of a Texas Coast hurricane turned into a nightmare. After a strange turn of events, the hurricane moved up the Texas Coast like a buzzsaw. The storm nested itself just off the Texas Coast, sending waves of heavy rain on the Houston Area. Since it was off the coast, the storm had a vacuum effect on the water and dumped 54 inches on the Houston area. All areas of Houston were effected. No area was unscathed.
We had tremendous flooding in Dickinson, Texas where no flooding had ever occurred before. Flooding occurred in the north in the Kingwood area sending water of the banks of the San Jacinto river. And worse of all, the damns on the West side and along the Brazos River were breached. This breach had a similar effect as Katrina in New Orleans, but more homes were involved. Over 40,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Over the 6-day ordeal, the people of Houston took on the task of saving the displace flooded victims. Shelters were set up at churches and the GRB convention center. Only 20 lives were lost in the flooding. The lawyers of Texas came forward to help flood victims file insurance claims before the eve of the change in the Texas flood law. GLSA members of LegalShield led the charge by fielding members’ calls and filing claims. Others assisted in working at shelters.
The ark finally landed on Mt Arafat on Tuesday August 29. The day finished with a beautiful sunset. My community is in full recovery. The courts system is closed for now. The legal community is on survival mode and will resume later in the month. The Municipal courthouse took on 8 feet of water in the basement. The county courts took on more. The Juvenile courthouse roof failed and there was flooding of all 9 floors. The surrounding counties had similar devastation. One of the refineries suffered and was closed. This closure created a statewide gas shortage all the way to Dallas. But our Mayor and County judge have taken the leadership and are putting our city back together.
I dodged a bullet myself. The water came up to my front door and receded. I didn’t lose any cars. But my sister was flooded with 14 feet of water in her house. It’s hard to imagine your neighborhood turning into an ocean and river with contaminated nasty rain water in your home. The costs of cleanup alone are estimated to be 25 million. The costs of rebuilding will be in the Billions. But Houston will return. Thank you for all your donations and prayers. We are alive and coming back.
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The Curse of the Flat Fee Agreement
If you’re an attorney trying to give a new client a good deal, you’ve probably run into the joys and sorrows of charging a flat fee to your client. While such an arrangement is often a great deal for the client, in some cases it can backfire on you, big time. Although having a few bad apples can make you want to run from charging a fixed fee altogether, it’s still a great tool for a practitioner to have in order to retain a new client since it takes the speculation out of their legal bill. In deciding whether you should use fixed fee arrangement, consider the risks that come with them as well as the solutions to limit the headaches some of these arrangements can bring.
Pitfall #1 The case takes much more of your time than you anticipated
You start working on the client’s matter and then realize that the case is going to be five times more complex than you thought it would be. This often happens when you don’t scrutinize every detail of the case during the intake. You can avoid this common pitfall by doing the most thorough intake possible, and taking more time to digest all angles before quoting a price. When unsure, quote a little higher in case it takes longer than planned, as it almost always inevitably does.
Pitfall #2 The client adds facts to the case after he’s signed the retainer and paid you, complicating matters
This is similar to above, where the case is now going to take you more time than anticipated, only this time, it’s not so much your fault. To protect yourself against clients innocently (or not so innocently- trust me), doing a bait and switch on you, make it explicit in your retainer agreement that the flat fee is based on the facts and information presented to you at the time of signing. Any information that complicates matters will require additional hours and payment. Just to make it clear, have the client initial this section of your retainer so he can’t pull a “you never told me that” excuse.
Pitfall #3 The client thinks “flat fee” is like a 24-Hour gym membership or a T-Mobile unlimited calling plan
I’ve found the biggest problem to be clients who think that since they’ve paid a flat fee, they can use you as often as they want, for as long as they want, for whatever they want. Some of them act as though they own you and you’ve become their general counsel for ALL legal matters in their life.
I had a bankruptcy client that would call me a couple of times a day, and want to have face to face meetings weekly to discuss his case after it was filed. In reality, there was nothing to discuss as all we were doing was waiting for his case to close. As us lawyers know, there is rarely anything to update a client with from just one week to the next. To avoid this assumption, set your limits with the client from day one. Let them know how often they are permitted to call you for updates, such as once a week, and any further communication or contact may be billed hourly at your discretion. If you assign value to your time, so will the client. Hopefully.
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Sponsored Post – A Day in the Life of Free Citizens in 2022 – Jeff Bell of LegalShield
Content Sponsored by LegalShield
LegalShield CEO Jeff Bell
Today in 2017, access to justice in the United States lags behind other developed nations despite our fundamental rights to free speech and religion plus a stable judicial process and rule of law. When, not if, the average citizen needs a lawyer, they are often scared off by the cost or are not confident that an attorney can solve their problem. Let’s fast forward five years to 2022 and look into what it really means to live freely in the U.S. with respect to legal services. The answer lies within the disruptive model of group legal services plans.
Although much has been written recently about the mechanics of legal plans, whether pre-paid, subscription, or insurance, we believe that those details should be irrelevant to the consumer now and in 2022.
First meet Ashley, who is getting married next week on July 15, 2022. She knows that her employer pays for LegalShield benefits but does she need to do anything? Is it too late?
Ashley has a law firm in the palm of her hand and it’s not too late. We all see that the smartphone has become the remote control for your life. As you plan to get married, you will push on button and speak to your law firm about preparations, including a prenuptial agreement. Indeed, you will be able to answer some simple questions and send the answers securely to your law firm to facilitate that conversation. The same simple and convenient process will exist for all estate planning – your last will and testament, durable power of attorney for healthcare, etc. You will answer simple, plain English questions right on your smartphone, and send them securely to your law firm. You see, in the future, the relationship is with a law firm, not a random lawyer. A law firm will handle any question and any area of law all with the touch of a button.
This closes the education gap because with a law firm at your fingertips, you will not hesitate to ask when you have big life events like a marriage or new job. Your firm and the chatbots used to gather information will ask the right questions to make sure that you access all the benefits in your plan. Getting people to talk to the lawyer is half the challenge and by treating the law as a right rather than a privilege Ashley knows to look to her mobile legal services app just like she would look at a doctor’s app.
Next meet Steve, who has just been pulled over as he is suspected of drinking and driving after his 2022 holiday party. He is being charged with a DUI, what does he do next?
As Steve is in the presence of law enforcement, whether a DUI or any other traffic issue, he can immediately access his law firm for advice and counsel and support – 24/7/365. Again, one mobile app to push one button to speak to your law firm and get the representation you need. Bad things happen to good people and good people sometimes do bad things, but everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and everyone needs the support of legal counsel when faced with criminal charges. That support should never be further than one touch away for all citizens to be free.
In 2022, attorneys are now viewed as affordable, responsive, and accountable because access to legal service is facilitated by technology including mobile applications, artificial intelligence, and real lawyers freed up to practice law. A mobile app will send simple questions about life events to trigger push notifications and reminders to use the legal plan.
Finally, meet Maddie and Jake who are thinking of starting a business at the end of 2022 but are afraid of the cost of a startup lawyer. Where do they go to find affordable advice to start and then run the business? Or should they do it themselves?
Maddie and Jake should be able to start a business and receive advice and support without fear of high hourly rates or a lack of unresponsiveness from a lawyer and law firm. While the internet has revolutionized our lives, it has led people to believe that they can “do it yourself,” and unfortunately that is too often untrue. Filling out and filing legal forms to start a business needs the support of a qualified lawyer and law firm. In the future, there should not only be a great deal of information to help everyone become more informed and confident in how the law functions – whether to start a business or live life freely as a citizen – but also easy to understand processes to engage with a law firm to either create a legal entity for a new business or address business or personal legal issues and opportunities. Maddie and Jake can follow a process where they answer natural language questions, without legal gobbledygook, about what they wish to do with their business, and how they wish to form it, and then submit that for review by their law firm. A lawyer will be involved every single time a new business is created.
They are involved not to slow the process, but to ensure that the right questions are asked and answered, and that the correct elections and selections are made. Moreover, their new business entity will be supported by the law firm that helped create it for at least 90 days, and perhaps permanently.
In life, law happens, so you need to use legal services regularly, not only when there is a crisis or calamity. The future will be one where citizens and lawyers both win. Citizens will be better informed and prepared and engaged with the law, and lawyers will be more utilized and responsive and accountable. Free citizens are those that do not have to worry or puzzle over what their legal needs might be.
In 2022, attorneys are now viewed affordable, responsive, and accountable because access to legal is facilitated by technology including mobile applications and artificial intelligence, which in turn frees up the lawyers to practice law.
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Solo Pilot: Testing PracticePanther
Let’s face it. As a solo attorney in 2016, good practice management software tailored to a solo/small firm practice is an essential tool of the trade. Without it, a lawyer can quickly flail and fall into a spiral of administrative work. Good practice management software should do the administrative work for you and allow you to focus on lawyering!
Over the last few years, I have tried several leading software packages. Most were either difficult to learn, didn’t offer the features or customization I needed, or were just not user-friendly. I signed up for a free trial of PracticePanther and quickly realized that it integrated seamlessly with my life and with virtually no learning curve at all because of how intuitive it is to use.
It takes less than a minute to create and email an invoice to a client with PracticePanther. The software then alerts me when a client views the invoice, and I receive an email when the client makes an online payment. For the on-the-go attorney who often works remotely, PracticePanther’s invoicing and billing features are among its many unique features.
PracticePanther also allows attorneys to automate documents, so redundant tasks like intake forms, retainer agreements, and even documents used in practice can be automated easily. I also found the short training videos to be extremely helpful for several of these functions and can be found conveniently within the software and also on YouTube.
In furthering its theme of making attorneys’ lives easier, PracticePanther also offers email and calendar integration in its own unique way. Attorneys can add events in their native calendar, like Outlook or Google, and it appears within PracticePanther’s dashboard. Attorneys can also copy each client’s unique code into the BCC line to ensure that emails are directly saved in the software, as opposed to having a paralegal add correspondence manually or entering a separate note for each email. It also saves attachments that you sent within the software.
Other features that PracticePanther offers are export in PDF format instead of Excel and the ability to recover items from the Recycling Bin if they are mistakenly deleted (as I have done many times in the past).
Before PracticePanther, it was a struggle every time I needed to learn a new feature. I’d have to schedule a demo with customer service and was unable to use the features when I needed them. Even after learning, it would often take weeks to actually get used to different features in the software, as is the case with several software packages that are commonly used by solo and small firm attorneys.
Transitioning to PracticePanther is much like using a smartphone; it‘s intuitive right off the bat. If it is not, then you can be rest assured that it will be soon. PracticePanther has a tab on its homepage that asks users to submit requests for new features. This is one of my favorite things about the software. When you think of something and suggest it, the development team actually takes it into account. Over the time that I’ve used PracticePanther, its development team has added several features I have requested, and that other attorneys have requested.
It is refreshing to have a tool in my pocket that feels like it is all mine, customized to my lifestyle and ease of use. Most of all, it’s refreshing to be supported by a team of people that is truly invested in your success. PracticePanther’s support team is second to none. Time and time again they have gone out of their way to provide support in ways that suited me—whether by phone, live chat, screen sharing, or email.
PracticePanther integrates seamlessly with my life; the days of DOS and manually entering billing systems are long gone. It is time to upgrade to a software with no learning curve and a team of real people that is there to support your practice.
Aastha Madaan is a solo practitioner in Long Beach, California, where she practices business law and estate planning. She is a young lawyer leader, a social media disciple, and is on the editorial board for the GPSolo Magazine. She can be reached at aastha@madaalaw.com.
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Sponsored Post-State of the Industry-Jeff Bell of LegalShield
Content Sponsored by LegalShield
LegalShield’s Campaign for the Citizen: In Life, Law Happens
Jeff Bell, CEO LegalShield
In May 2017, I spoke for LegalShield on the State of the Industry panel at the Group Legal Services Association (GLSA) annual meeting. The panel brought together LegalShield competitors ARAG and Hyatt plus Avvo, LegalZoom, and Rocket Lawyer, the latter three being platforms rather than traditional group legal plans. Although reinventing the law with technology remains important, I believe it’s mission critical to educate citizens about how to solve their legal problems. At some point, we all need legal help and I believe that the solution to access to justice exists in our plan offerings.
Each panelist spent time talking about their perspectives on how legal plans help members and lawyers, including discussions on business models and offerings. While lawyers were our audience at the conference, I believe we must also focus on the citizen who needs legal services. Below are three critical areas that require focus to bridge the access to justice gap.
Education
I believe that our society has erroneously taught all of us, from the time we were children, to fear lawyers and the law. We have all heard: lawyers are expensive; unresponsive; and not accountable. Or that lawyers speak their own language and patronize the common citizen.
Rather than spending an excessive amount on advertising legal services, citizens need education on what and when legal help is required. It’s obvious that you should ask for a lawyer if you face a criminal charge, but how does the average citizen know when and why to draft a will? Or having your lease reviewed before you sign it can save you headaches later? Or to set up a business for your new idea? Not everyone does not know when they need a lawyer. There are two ways to address this gap. First, we need a WebMD or MayoClinic.com for the law, and maybe more than one. Those sites did not end doctors, but they do make patients feel more informed and confident when they visit their doctor. We need the same free education for legal services. Second, we need free legal checkups powered by technology to identify the risk of not seeking legal advice.
Relationships
Life is a journey and along the way, law happens. Delivering legal services is a business and should not be based on a “one and done” or a transactional approach. We encourage our members to use their plan and that should be the model for the industry. Plans work best when the citizen has an ongoing relationship with a law firm and therefore does not hesitate to reach out for help.
To that end, measurement of the citizen’s experience using customer satisfaction and/or a net promoter score (NPS) is critical to quality and continuous improvement. We diligently monitor and follow-up on our members’ NPS ratings for provider law firms and every lawyer therein. Transparency around service levels, NPS scores, and quality is the norm outside the legal business and we must bring this to the law. Ratings or stars that are bought with advertising or based upon peer reviews are not the same as true client feedback. We use only the voice of the real customer.
Technology
We are aggressively pursuing technology, such as chatbots, to answer common legal questions but not to replace lawyers. Providing free forms is also key. For more complex documents, we provide simple to follow questionnaires for things like wills, prenuptials, contested divorce, personal bankruptcy and personal injury to help educate citizens and streamline the intake process for our firms. We do all of this from our mobile app.
LegalShield is a 45-year-old startup in the sense that we are continuously revisiting and changing our model based on our customers and lawyer needs. We will not stop improving the citizen experience with technology and strive to have both satisfied citizens and lawyers.
In addition to education, relationships, and technology, we believe in the following for our members and lawyers:
Done for you by a law firm. Our customers do not need to know the inner workings of the legal services plan other than understand our commitment to put the law firm in the palm of your hand through our mobile application and our member bill of rights commitment.
Lawyers should lawyer. Marketers should market and so on. Other professions outsource their administrative functions, including marketing to professionals. We encourage lawyers to let us market and manage the details to free them up to practice law. Like free legal checkups, lawyers will have free profiles on the LegalShield site that they own and control. No fees. No advertising.
Obsession with Engagement. We have moved away from the model where we sell a plan and hope that it’s never used, or the breakage model. We will provide education and free forms for our members so that all citizens can engage easily and regularly live free of worry about legal assistance.
As a leader in the group legal services market, I hope we can bring the wisdom of our panel to educate lawyers and citizens alike on the power of the group legal plan around the country. Although we are competitors, the under-served citizens will benefit from a collaborative campaign by the plans to educate and build relationships. We hope to see you in New Orleans at GLSA’s spring meeting and also at Elevate by LegalShield in June 2018. Elevate2018 – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/elevate-2018-tickets-35516703416
