Practice Blawg » Announcements

Bringing It All Back Home — a state-wide legal services virtual conference and CLE

Rinal Ray — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:34:29 +0000

Bringing It All Back Home, a state-wide virtual conference sponsored by the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition, started today. This concentrated series of webinars will provide 15 hours of virtual conference CLE by week’s end to legal services staff and volunteer attorneys across the state.

Throughout the week, you can tune into 14 individual webinars including:

There are sessions spanning many practice/skills areas, as well as sessions appropriate for non-attorney staff. On Friday, Oct. 14th, a link will be sent to all registrants for viewing the recorded statewide awards presentation.

Perhaps the best part (besides the video invitation) is that all sessions are free, you just need to register. Actually, sessions are freer than free because participants will receive a voucher to attend a complimentary, hour-long webinar in 2012. Can’t beat that!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

What’s New at practicelaw? Me.

Bob Striker — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:16:32 +0000

As Andrea noted in her last post, I recently joined the MSBA staff as the new Practice Development Director. So it is probably high time that I say hello to our Practice Blawg readers and tell you a little about myself and my new job.

I grew up in Cincinnati, but spent most of my summers in northwest Wisconsin and northern Minnesota. After moving out east for college and then working in New York for three years, I figured out that I am a Midwesterner at heart. Canoe country beckoned, so I decided that after law school I would make my way to the Twin Cities to check out Minnesota. Seventeen years later, I almost feel like a native.

Following graduation from law school, I joined the real estate department of a large Minneapolis firm. I toiled in the trenches as an associate and then a shareholder, practicing primarily in the areas of real estate finance, real estate development, and energy M&A and development.

About five years ago, I began to feel that my practice and my life were out of alignment. I spoke with colleagues, friends, and coaches about charting a new path for my career. After several twists and turns, I finally decided to hang my own shingle and open my own practice. While starting a new business in 2009 may not have been the smartest idea I’ve ever had, the past two years have been exciting, challenging, and worth the effort. I recently reached a point where I felt my solo practice had finally taken hold and was moving forward.

So, if things were finally falling into place, what am I doing at the MSBA? The answer is fairly simple – I’m up for a new challenge and the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. I’m the kind of person who loves to push buttons and twist dials. I enjoy trying to figure out how to do something better or faster. I love to read about the latest greatest web site and online tool. And I’m often the person who fields my friends’ questions about tech issues. Throw in a little experience in the law and in setting up a solo practice, and you’ve got many of the job qualifications for my position.

Over the next few months, I’ll be settling into my job and rediscovering all of the tools and resources that the MSBA offers to its members. As I do, I plan on posting about the resources and asking you, our readers, for your opinions about them. I also look forward to sharing some of the tools that I chose as I built my solo practice.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions about services and tools that the MSBA offers to its members. I look forward to hearing from you.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Happy Hour

Susan Minsberg — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:23:47 +0000

The MSBA Solo and Small Firm Section will kick off the new fiscal year with a Happy Hour in Duluth after the first full day of the 2011 Strategic Solutions for Solo and Small Firm Conference. For a mere $5 you will receive a drink ticket and appetizers. You can’t beat that!! Check here for more details.

Network
Why attend? Well, the solo and small firm lawyers I have met through the MSBA are some of the smartest lawyers I know. And they are a lot of fun, too! You can connect with other lawyers like you, who encounter the same issues you do, and you can make new friends along the way. I have been very fortunate to learn from my solo-small colleagues and have received many referrals from them as well.

Listserv
So how did I meet so many great lawyers who I am now lucky enough to call friends? The solo-small listserv has been one wonderful resource. You can get your questions answered – everything from complicated legal issues to where to buy the cheapest toner. If you are like me and have a virtual office, the listserv also combats the sometimes isolation nature of being a solo. Posting on the listserv is like walking down the hall to talk to another lawyer. But the great thing with the solo-small listserv is you get the expertise, humor, and support of hundreds of colleagues without leaving your office.

CLEs/Newsletter
Duluth is only the beginning. The Solo and Small Firm Section sponsors several CLEs each year and publishes a newsletter. You can get involved by writing for the newsletter, serving on a committee, or attending a CLE.

Please join us! I hope to see you on August 8th in Duluth.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

To Market, to Market

Nancy Hupp — Thu, 19 May 2011 22:22:01 +0000

Every once in awhile, like last Tuesday, I write about what’s new at practicelaw. I then start thinking about what’s going on at the wider MSBA. Lots.

I will preface my remarks by noting that I am not in Marketing. My sales days ended when I sold innumerable boxes of Girl Scout cookies to win a 10-speed bike, but was beaten by the girl whose dad took the order form to work. When the cookies arrived for me to deliver, I was sullen, knowing I was not the new bike owner, so was quite slow in delivery. I let the boxes languish in our basement where they were discovered by ants. My parents had to reimburse the Troop and I was done with Marketing. Until now.

Attention: I am now going to market two new MSBA Sections and the MSBA Unconventional Convention. I feel secure in this detour from my usual job duties, because unlike Girl Scout cookies, I believe in the product. (Yeah, I only sold the cookies to get the bike.) Believe me, no bike or other desirable is headed my way for a successful sales pitch. Rather I am motivated by the knowledge that MSBA staff are doing good things, and I want to tell you about them because in our collective rushes to get our individual jobs done, we don’t often notice the good things done for members by our coworkers. Time to notice. What better way to break my arm than to pat someone on the back.

#1. MSBA Sections. Did you know the MSBA now has two more sections available to members? Yes, the Consumer Litigation section and the Social Security Disability section were approved at the April MSBA Assembly meeting. Adds work but benefits members. Joining a section gives members a chance to connect with others in the practice area and get involved in many ways. Check here for upcoming CLEs and events for all MSBA sections.

#2. Nine Days, MSBA’s Unconventional Convention. Last year, for the first time, we did something completely different. Instead of inviting you to a statewide convention, we brought the convention to you. Nine days of CLE programming in nine different judicial districts. The CLEs concern topics identified by Bar leaders in each of the judicial districts. In addition, we kept some of the “old” favorites like the law school receptions, President’s Reception and added Lawyers with Talent, all on Day 9 at Target Field. How popular was the change? Well in 2010, 1,525 lawyers participated — a 577% increase over the 2009 convention. Try it this year, you’ll like it.

My final pitch – joining an MSBA section or going to the Convention will benefit you in all sorts of ways. Cookies aren’t good for you.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I’m Leaving, But Not Going Far

Gregory Luce — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:03:30 +0000

I started the Practice Blawg in September 2008 with a short post about producing a “comprehensive” family law judgment and decree. Exactly 105 posts later, this is likely my last. After four years at the Minnesota State Bar Association, I’m leaving at the end of May to pursue other opportunities.

It’s been a great four years, and I hope that the work that the MSBA staff and I completed during that time shows. It includes developing and launching a robust document automation system; a top-to-bottom overhaul of practicelaw; the addition of hundreds of new forms and resources; and the experimentation with other online offerings, such as mypractice or the (still in beta) MSBA CourtOps Online. My favorite project was Off the Clock, which allowed me to get out and meet with solo and small firm lawyers and talk about tech issues, usually over a beer or coffee. I will miss all of these things. I will also miss the talented staff with whom I worked and who have been integral to our success.

It’s been great blogging with Andrea and Nancy, particularly because when we met each Tuesday morning, we managed to spend most of that time talking about the law and the profession, only at the end coming up with what we planned to write in the next week or so.

For those wondering where I’m going, I won’t be going far. I’ll be sticking around the Twin Cities and you’ll probably see me pop up in another venture over the summer. And, as I posted about a bit ago, I’m on my way back to Italy in January 2012, one of the perks of being married to an academic.

My best wishes to those who read my posts, and special thanks to Nancy Hupp and Andrea Hable, who collaborated with me on the Practice Blawg and plan to carry it into the future. It’s in great hands.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh