Month: April 2012

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Iowa lawyer suspended 30 days for $2,500 minimum fee.

As reported by the ABA Journal and Lawyerist, an Iowa lawyer was suspended for 30 days for keeping a $2,500 minimum fee on a criminal law matter.

According to the article, the lawyer only completed 3.7 hours of work  – including 1 hour spent doing an accounting.  The case against the client was ultimately dismissed and the client wanted some money back.

I don’t have more facts beyond the article.  I have read plenty of ethics opinions where non-refundable fees got lawyers in hot water or worse.  My question:  why use one?  It doesn’t seem worth the risk.

Here are my other thoughts:

  • Don’t be a jerk
  • Don’t charge more than your services are worth
  • Don’t mess with the disciplinary committee
  • Solo lawyers can have a hard time making a living

I feel a little bad for the lawyer.  $2,500 is a pretty reasonable retainer.  My dentist charges more for less.  Doctors charge more for less.  Lawyers seem to get the low end of the proverbial stick.

What are your thoughts?

 

-This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders and lawyer in Apple Valley, MN.

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Starting a Law Firm | Minnesota Lawyers Mutual Roadmap

I wanted any readers out there who are either (1) contemplating or (2) starting a law firm that Minnesota Lawyers Mutual (MLM) now has a blog and roadmap for lawyers who are looking to go out on their own.

This helpful tidbit of information was reported by Andrea Hable at the Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA) Practice Blawg.  The MSBA – like any state bar association – is a wonderful resource for solo and small firm lawyers.  Furthermore, I belong to the Indiana State Bar Association (where I am also licensed) and I can say that the MSBA provides much more in terms of its membership bang-for-the-buck.  The amount of materials, forms, etc have exceeded my expectations.  Also, the membership fees are very reasonable for new bar admitees.

The Minnesota Lawyers Mutual blog is also well done and covers a lot of good ground.  Check it out.  Topics include important things like:

  • Ethics
  • Trust accounting
  • Law Office technology
  • Billing clients
  • Collecting fees

The blog is new and it appears to be directed more towards signing up new lawyers for MLM’s malpractice insurance, but it is helpful nonetheless.

I attended a CLE last fall put on by the Minnesota Solo and Small Firm section.  MLM was there handing out goodies and the like.  For those who don’t know, MLM appears to be the big-boy when it comes to attorney malpractice insurance in the state of Minnesota.  MLM does a good job marketing themselves and their materials have substance.  I don’t have a problem doing business with an organization who sells a good product and who tries to help with quality materials.

If you haven’t gone to starting and building a law practice CLE in Minnesota (or any state for that matter) I highly recommend you do so.  The presenters and materials are excellent  and the networking possibilities are even better.

Have a great weekend!

 

-This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders, an Apple Valley, MN attorney.

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Starting a Law Firm No-Nos | Minnesota Law Firm scammed to tune of $400,000

As reported by the ABA Journal, the Minnesota law firm of Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz (MGM) has sued Wells Fargo Bank for cashing a fraudulent check in the amount of nearly $400,000 from MGM’s IOLTA account.  Click here for a copy of the complaint.  Bad news.

According to reports in the Minnesota Star Tribune, MGM was the victim of a scam, three-years-ago, involving someone who said she was a 40-year-old Korean woman who was hurt in Minnesota.  The woman apparently told the firm that she needed help securing a $400,000 legal settlement.  Believing her, the firm received a settlement check for the amount, deposited in the bank, and received assurances it had cleared from Wells Fargo.  The forwarded amount of the check was $396,500 and it went to a Hong Kong bank.

Reading the complaint filed by MGM is not entirely helpful.  As would be expected, the complaint is largely one-sided.  I will report on this more when Wells Fargo files its answer.

This story has been all over the news in Minnesota and is being discussed by bloggers (like me) and has been on multiple listservs which I belong to.  The general reaction?  Disbelief.

No, it isn’t disbelief that this could happen – this has apparently happened to over 70 lawyers in the United States and has cost an estimated $29 million dollars in damages.  The disbelief is related more to the fact that a law firm would fall for this kind of scam.

I don’t have all the facts, so I am not going to speculate on what happened.  My two cents is that I have been contacted on numerous occassions by scammers with very similar stories.  In fact, one of my former bosses came up to me in the halway about a year-ago and was giddy with news that he would be handling a very lucrative settlement.  He told me all about it and that it would be very little work.  He contacted the firm’s bank and they did a little investigation. Guess what, it was a scam.  He was almost duped.  My boss was a judge and lawyer for nearly 40-years.  It can happen to anybody.

Let this case be a warning to anybody out there who is running a law practice or starting a law firm that scammers exist, they are sophisticated, and you better watch your ass.

Luckily, as a small-fry solo practitioner who doesn’t deal in the hundreds-of-thousands of dollars, I don’t have to worry about scams quite as much.  If my bank was asked to clear a $400,000 check from my trust account, they would probably just laugh.  I guess that is one of the advantages of being a solo – less money for scammers to steal.

 

-This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders, an Apple Valley, MN attorney.

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Starting a Law Firm | Online fax resources for lawyers

While doing the due diligence and trying to set up faxing services for my law firm, I law firm fax number - Solo in Minneapolisdiscovered a nifty little comparison website for online faxing for lawyers.  Great!

I wanted to share my find with readers of this legal blog.

The fax comparison website is aptly titled www.faxcompare.com.  Cool!

The comparison site does a really nice job summarizing different pricing options for online or “e-fax” services.  I had heard of E-Fax and they do a really nice job advertising themselves.  The E-Fax service also looks great.  The problem?  It’s more expensive than its competitors.  It pays to do a little research.

I ended up choosing Extreme Fax – mainly because it appears to offer the most and it is cheap.  I don’t send a lot of faxes, but I have found that many attorneys either (a) do or (b) expect you to have a fax number.

I have also noticed that many online directories and websites that I have been signing up for have requested fax numbers for my new firm.  I was getting tired of saying “I don’t have one.”  It was kind of embarrassing.

Anyway, go check out the online fax comparison site.  I locked in a year’s worth of faxing for about $50.00.  If I use the service all the time there is likely going to be a cost; however, I don’t anticipate using it all that much.  Scanning and emailing is so much more efficient.  Yet, some curmudgeonly attorneys want to fax stuff to me.  Now they can.

Happy faxing!

 

 

-This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders, a Apple Valley MN lawyer who practices in the areas of family law and estate planning.

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Starting a Law Firm? | The Future of Law Practice and a Takeaway from the ABA Techshow

Great post by lawyer David Bilinsky on his blog Thoughtful Legal Management about the use of technology and the future of the law practice.

As a practicing family law attorney, I understand much of what Mr. Bilinsky is trying to say.  I do wonder, however, whether many lawyers are simply resistant to change because they are too set in their ways.

I invite you to go read the post and add your thoughts.  I don’t have a great deal to add other than the post is very interesting and though provoking.  I remember talking with another lawyer in a courtroom, lawyers-lounge a couple of years ago.  The lawyer was telling me all about how the IPad would revolutionize how he practices law.  I sat there doe-eyed as he discussed schedule management, billing, document storage, etc.  He said he could do all of this straight from the IPad.  At the time, I was a little taken-aback and skeptical.  Now, I laugh at my nievity.

I’m not saying that technology is the answer or that it is evil incarnate.  I’m just saying that the practice of law is undeniably changing and I’m not sure if it is for better or worse.