June 2008 newsletter

United States Supreme Court<br />Chief Justice John Glover Roberts, Jr,<br />the current Chief Justice, was appointed September 29, 2005
Chief Justice Roberts
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Contents

•  Greetings
•  Chair’s column
•  Executive Committee
•  WSBA 3rd Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference
•  List serve
•  Mission statement
•  New web site
•  SSP board elections
•  Coming up in the next Newsletter

Greetings

Welcome to the first installment of the WSBA Solo and Small Practice Section Newsletter. This quarterly newsletter will provide you with upcoming section events, news and practice tips.

Future newsletters will feature articles by noted law practice management experts Pete Roberts and Ann Guinn among others, as well as practical business information every solo and small firm should be aware of.

We value your membership in the Solo and Small Practice Section and will strive to ensure you receive value from your membership. Please give us your feedback on issues you would like the Section to address, newsletter content, practice tips, etc.

Feel free to contact any of the Section board members to discuss your questions and concerns.

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[Image: Photo of Dirk Bartram]

Chair's Column, By SSPS Chair Dirk Bartram

What does the Solo and Small Practice Section do? Can the Solo and Small Practice Section help me? Who the heck runs it? We aim to answer those questions in this introductory article.

The Solo and Small Practice Section (SSPS) helps solo and small practice attorneys ethically conduct a profitable, satisfying business. We don't provide information on areas of the law—we leave that to the other WSBA sections. We provide business intelligence—information that will help your business survive and prosper. We pass on business intelligence to you in five ways:

List serve

Every SSP member can join our list serve to get valuable information from fellow solo and small firm lawyers statewide. Questions ranging from the best practice management software for the solo or small firm to leasing office space in Spokane, to managing office absences can be asked on the list serve.

E-letter

With this inaugural edition we will electronically send our section e-letter to our members each quarter. We publish articles relevant to your business and provide information about the section and its activities. You can request a topic for this publication or submit an article of interest to our membership.

CLE sessions

We plan and conduct CLE sessions on vital topics you won’t see in other CLE sessions, like business plans, billing rates, advance fee deposits, expense recovery and more.

Legislative Stuff

We put our ears to the ground to discover proposed changes in rules or statutes that affect solo and small firms. We analyze those proposals, get section input when needed, and tell the rulemakers what we think.

Web site

Our web site will be online shortly after the publication of this newsletter. Go to our web site and get information and links that help solo and small practitioners. We’ll eventually add forms to help you structure and run your business.

The SSPS is run by an executive committee, which is currently composed of 11 solo or small practice lawyers and 3 non-lawyer professionals who serve as non-voting ex officio members. The current members appear below this article. Give them a call if you have questions, comments or ideas. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up online at http://www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/lpmt/default1.htm and click on the link “Join the Section” online.

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Executive Committee

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[Image: Photo of Lake Wenatchee]

WSBA 3rd Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference

July 17-19, 2008, Wenatchee Convention Center, 121 North Wenatchee Avenue, Wenatchee, WA 98801.

This conference has sold out the last few years, so be sure to sign up!

For details and registration go to www.wsba.org.

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List serve

August 1, 2008, the Yahoo group list serve currently utilized by our section will be closed and the section will make use of the Lyris list serve managed by the WSBA. Additional notices will be sent to section members via the Yahoo and Lyris list serves as the date for changing approaches.

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Mission statement

We help solo and small practice attorneys to ethically conduct a profitable, satisfying business by acting as a clearinghouse for qualified law practice management and technology information.

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Solo and Small Practice Section Prepares for Launch of New Web site, by Dan Fiorito

The SSP Executive Committee is pleased to announce it has received approval to maintain its own web site. The web site will be dedicated to helping small practice attorneys conduct an ethical, profitable, and satisfying practice. The anticipated launch date is August 1, 2008.

The web site will provide notice of events that may be of interest to small firm practitioners as well as links to helpful practice management resources. In addition, the web site will include a members only section housing forms related to practice management. While the web site committee is still in the process of developing the forms database, the current plan is to include variations of sample fee agreements, engagement letters, client intake forms, etc. In order to ensure that we have broad base of forms that will be helpful to our members, we welcome unsolicited contributions. If you are willing to share a form that you believe would help a fellow small practitioner to manage their practice, please email it to info@wsba-ssp.org.

Also, in order to create a web site representative of our membership, we are asking for photo submissions that depict the geographic locations of your practices. For example, if you have a photo of your local courthouse or some other point of interest in your city or town, please feel free to send it to me. We will do our best to put your artistic skills on display.

Once the web site is up and running, a notice will be sent to all members. Thank you in advance for your contributions!

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SSP Board Elections

To all members of the WSBA Solo and Small Practice Section:
The SSPS is seeking nominees to serve on its Executive Committee. The EC is currently composed of 14 positions. Six positions will be coming up for election in September 2008. Each position is for the term October 1, 2008, to October 1, 2010. All nominees must be active members of the WSBA and must be members of the section.

The EC plans and directs the activities of the section, including budgeting, section web site development and content, e-letter publication, legislative affairs, list serve usage, and CLE planning. It currently meets six times per year. Five of the meetings are currently held for two hours at lunchtime; the sixth meeting is a weekend retreat. All EC members are expected to attend (in person or by phone) at least five of the six meetings annually. Serving on the EC is a great way to network and to get good information about the business of law in the solo and small firm setting.

If you or someone you know wishes to become a nominee, please submit name, contact information, resume and a brief statement of why the nominee would like to become an EC member. The information should be submitted to:

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Coming up in the next Newsletter...

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Disclaimer

This is a publication of a section of the Washington State Bar Association. All opinions and comments in this publication represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily have the endorsement of the Association nor its officers or agents.

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