♫ You know its gonna make it that much better
…
Wouldn’t it be nice …♫

Music and Lyrics by: Brian Wilson, Tony Asher, Mike Love, recorded by The Beach Boys.

Reba Nance

This is a “Tip” from my colleague and friend, Reba Nance, who is a fellow PMA (Practice Management Advisor) for the Colorado Bar Association:

How to compose and send an E-Mail Without Ever Leaving Microsoft Word from Word 2007, 2003 and 2000:

Many of us spend much of our time in Word. Wouldn’t it be nice to easily compose and send an e-mail in Word rather than having to minimize Word, open Outlook to send the message, and then go back to Word? Here’s how to do it in Word 2003 and earlier versions: Read the rest of this entry »

♫ Taking all of my energy, energy, energy
Taking all of my energy…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Louis Biancaniello, Rico Love, Sam Watters, Wayne Wilkins; recorded by: Keri Hilson.

Energizer Bunny

This guest post is courtesy of Beth Flynn of the Ohio State University Leadership Center and is one of her “Leadership Moments” emails. The OSU Leadership Center is inspiring others to take a leadership role that empowers the world.

In theory, every person on your team is a source of energy for your organization. But in reality, some team members create energy while others sap or destroy energy. If you know your team well, you already know which team members are sappers and which ones are the energizers.

High-energy performers test the limits and spur themselves and others on to even greater results. These are the people who will push you up and add energy to your reservoir. They spark others to perform. It’s fun to watch them in action. A team full of energized people is typically easy to motivate but challenging to manage because their high energy level requires constant direction and focus. Read the rest of this entry »

♬ Your a mean one, Mr. Grinch
You really are a heel
Your as cuddly as a cactus
Your as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch…♬

Lyrics by Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, music by Albert Hague, performed by Thurl Ravenscroft.

Mr. Grinch by Dr. Seuss

Anyone who runs a business knows that it is profitable only if you have funds left over after paying all the bills. This enforces a common-sense mentality in ensuring that your costs don’t get out of control. However, in some offices the principle of saving money is taken to such an extreme that their frugality is actually costing them money. Here are some examples (drawn from the collective experiences of my fellow Practice Management Advisors and myself): Read the rest of this entry »

♫ Can’t pay tax
Won’t pay tax..♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Chaos UK.

HST Flowchart

Well the HST on legal services is now a reality in BC and in Ontario.

The CRA’s  publication:

Ontario and British Columbia:  Transition to the Harmonized Sales Tax – Services has the displayed flowchart in Appendix A – Transitional rules for services.

A PDF version of this diagram can be downloaded here: HST Flowchart PDF

This flowchart helps clarify the issue as to when HST or GST (and PST for those in BC) applies to legal services. The publication is: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gi/gi-056/gi-056-e.html Read the rest of this entry »

♫ Stand by your belief and have faith in this sound
You know that you can always turn it around
Feel the rhythm and its healing remedy
Listen to the sweet melody
Feel the rhythm and its healing remedy
RISE TO THE CHALLENGE! ♫

Songwriters: Miah Camacho, Aulakh,; Anirudda Das, Sanjav Tailor, Savale Rajput, Steve Chandra; Ahmed, Joh Pandit; recorded by: Asian Dub Foundation.

Bob Denney

Once again it is time for Bob Denny of Robert Denney Associates, Inc. [bob@robertdenney.com] to report on What’s Hot and What’s Not in the Legal Profession. With Bob’s kind permission, we are reproducing his latest report here:

In our 2009 year-end report, we said 2010 “will be a year of continued challenge and change.” It is proving to be so although the challenges may be greater than the changes. We cannot cover all the developments in this Update. These are the ones we believe are the most significant – or interesting.

PRACTICE AREAS

Hot

• Health Care. Of course, involving many areas: regulatory, transactional, employment, et all.
• Bankruptcy. Still. Pre-packaged bankruptcies are raising the temperature even more.
• Trusts & Estates. The temporary lifting of the “death tax” is raising the temperature here too.
• Regulatory. In many industries, not just health care, banking and finance.
• Commercial Litigation. Particularly “bet the company” cases, patents and labor.
• Employment Law. That’s why major L&E firms are opening new offices.
• Emerging Companies. It is surprising but the number of former big company executives starting new businesses hit a four-year high in 2009 and continues to increase. Read the rest of this entry »

♫ I know his journey ends never.
His Star Trek will go on forever…♫

Music by: Alexander Courage, lyrics by: Gene Roddenberry.

Sooner or later, every firm must deal with the issue of succession planning. Given that the ‘boomers’ are all nearing retirement age, this is a looming – and lurking – issue for most firms.

This issue can arise in several ways. One major way this issue comes to the forefront is the lease for the office is coming up for renewal. At that time the partners who really don’t wish to keep practising for another 5 years refuse to sign onto the lease. This throws the partnership into a crises and most likely leads to the firm going ‘supernova’ – the firm explodes and a group of partners leave (usually the ones with the biggest book of business) and the remaining ones are left to try to pick up the pieces (or most often, simply close the doors and turn off the lights on their way out).

More subtle ways of this occurring happens as major keystone partners start to leave – one by one – until what is left is a shell of the former firm. This is death by a thousand cuts as the major income earning assets of the firm depart leaving only the liabilities of the old firm in the hands of those remaining. Read the rest of this entry »

♫ Hold you in his arms yeah, you can feel his disease
Come together, Right now, Over me..♫

Lyrics and Music by Lennon & McCartney.

There is a conference going on in at Duke University School of Law on May 10/11. Judges, lawyers and others are going to be gathering to see if they can ‘fix’ the US federal civil justice system.

Seems that they see a bit of problem:

“To prepare for the meeting, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System canvassed chief legal officers and general counsel who are members of the Association of Corporate Counsel from around the country. Fifty-five percent agreed the civil justice system is “too complex,” while 97 percent agreed that it is “too expensive.” In addition, 80 percent disagreed with the statement: “Outcomes are driven more by the merits of the case than by litigation costs.”

This sounds eerily familiar, considering our new BC Supreme Court Rules coming into effect on July 1. One can ask: If the same symptoms are felt in different jurisdictions, perhaps all of the jurisdictions are feeling the same disease? Read the rest of this entry »

♬You’re my latest, tell you you’re my greatest
My latest, my greatest inspiration
You inspire me, inspire me…♬

Lyrics and music by: Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, recorded by: Teddy Pendergrass.

2010 Techshow logo

This column was written for the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia’s magazine “The Verdict” immediately after ABA TECHSHOW in March. That edition of The Verdict has just hit the streets (print publication lags being what they are…) so here is the column on ABA TECHSHOW 2010:

Well the three days of the 2010 edition of the American Bar Association’s TECHSHOW wrapped up on March 27. This leading legal technology conference had three major themes this year.

Theme One: The Cloud

Ethics, security and privacy concerns aside, the cloud has arrived. Whether it is using SaaS applications (software as a service) or law firms building virtual deal rooms using SharePoint, working on the cloud is now a reality for virtually all law firms. Read the rest of this entry »

♬ This boy has got it made
Media exposure
It will make him all the rage
But he’s not playing
He’s not playing
He’s just having
Adventures in modern recording…♬

Music and lyrics by: Simon Darlow, Trevor Horn, Bruce Woolley, recorded by The Buggles.

This column starts a new category theme in this blog: “Tips”. This tip comes from British Columbia lawyer Richard Fowler.

On Slaw.ca there have been posts on recording in the courts. Most recently, Mr. Justice Richard Granger posted on Technology and Court Reporting. Mr. Justice Granger stated:

Unfortunately, court reporting in Ontario has not kept pace with the emerging technology which is available in the market place today and which could greatly assist judges in having a command of the vive voce testimony during the trial and when preparing their reasons for judgment.

As Mr. Granger notes in his post, such real-time reporting is not inexpensive. For most trials, but particularly for criminal ones with legal aid and court budgets under so much pressure, the cost of such a system is simply prohibitive for counsel to bring into the court. Accordingly, there must be a better way! Read the rest of this entry »

♬ Everything is not what it seems
When you can get what you want by the simplest of means
Be careful not to mess with the balance of things
Because everything is not what it seems…♬

Lyrics and music by: John R. Adair, Ryan David Elder, Bradley Jay Hamilton, Stephen R. Hampton, recorded by: Selena Gomez.

CBC News on May 4, 2010 in an on-line article entitled: “Bank of Montreal alleges huge mortgage fraud” reported on a potential $30 million mortage/real estate fraud in Alberta.

The article is disturbing, as the size of the fraud and the number of people involved is not small: there are apparently 14 inter-connected groups involved:

Toronto forensic accountant Al Rosen said he has never seen anything like it.

“This is massive in the sense that it is so broad and so deep,” Rosen said Tuesday. “This is [allegedly] a huge fraud. I can’t think of any situation that has so many people involved and over a period of time like this one.”

The people involved ranged from ‘straw buyers’ who fronted the purchase of the properties for inflated prices based on fake, inflated wage and net income documents, to lawyers, to bank employees and ‘masterminds’.
Read the rest of this entry »