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Audio
20 Practice Tips to Wow Your SmallBiz Clients
Produced on May 28, 2019
Course Information
Course Description
Small businesses comprise 99% of America’s workforce - many of whom will struggle or fail within the first 5 years. Not all of these challenges can be solved by legal counsel, but attorneys with a demonstrated and comprehensive understanding of small business issues can help shepherd start-ups to success. For this reason, successful solo and small firm attorneys are uniquely positioned to counsel these clients, as the attorneys can relate firsthand to the issues posed by entity selection, marketing, service delivery models, the staffing structures, accounting matters, and other operational issues.
In addition to business ownership principles, great attorneys should understand the client’s business’ subject matter, and to truly wow clients, define their niche. For example - do you enjoy researching and synthesizing administrative rules and regulations? Does offering legal services to creatives provide you with a rewarding practice? Does keeping abreast of cannabis laws excite you? Whatever niche you choose, you have the opportunity to continually impress your clients if you can offer both legal advice on the fundamentals of business ownership and subject matter knowledge from a legal perspective.
This program, taught by Max Elliott, the principal and founder of a Chicago-based firm, and the General Counsel for the Bernie Mac Foundation, Inc. will help attorneys counsel their small business clients in a “wow” way.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify your niche (small business clients who will likely use your services) while staying compliant with the Rules of Professional Conduct
- Determine which legal entities, including newer entities such as Series LLCs and L3Cs, will best support your client’s short- and long-term business goals
- Gain familiarity with primary laws, rules, and regulations governing critical components of business operations, such as business income tax laws, Intellectual Property, and wage rules
- Review broad rules and regulations that apply in the uncertain environment of cybersecurity and how they may affect your clients
- Review new frameworks, such as Opportunity Zones, which may assist your clients in furthering their business success
Credit Information
Faculty
Max Elliott
The Law Offices of Max Elliott, Ltd
Max Elliott, Managing Attorney and Founder of The Law Offices of Max Elliott, Ltd., is a licensed, Illinois estate planning, estate administration, and wealth preservation attorney. Her firm, with offices in Chicago and New York City, focuses on unique families and women small business owners, and services include estate planning for taxable and non-taxable estates, estate administration, and advising small businesses in start-up, growth, restructuring, cybersecurity compliance, and succession planning phases.
On behalf of her firm, Ms. Elliott is also General Counsel for the Bernie Mac Foundation, Inc., a private non-profit foundation, and spearheaded the organization’s most recent restructuring.
Ms. Elliott routinely speaks to lawyers, students, and community groups on the intersection of estate and retirement planning; small business essentials, including legal entity selection, succession planning, generational wealth transfers, and cybersecurity program planning; and fiduciary selection and other protective measures for seniors and the LGBTQ community.
She is ranked as one of the Top 100 Black Lawyers by the National Black Lawyers organization, a member of the Executive Committee for the Chicago Bar Association’s Trust Law Committee, a 2017-18 Super Lawyers® Rising Star, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a volunteer faculty member for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE), a faculty member for Manhattan, New York-based Lawline that provides online legal CLE for attorneys nationwide, a faculty member of Esquire CLE, a member of the U.S. Trust, Bank of America Center of Influence on estate planning, ranked “Superb” and a recipient of the Top Contributor in Estate Planning Award from Avvo, a lawyer peer ranking site, and a member of the Association of African American Financial Advisors.
Before launching her practice in 2011, Ms. Elliott was a law clerk in a small tax law firm, assisting the principal in probate, domestic relations, corporate records, and non-profit corporation compliance.
Ms. Elliott graduated from DePaul University College of Law and, while there, Ms. Elliott co-founded, as Co-Editor-In-Chief, the DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law, the first legal journal in Illinois dedicated to women and gender legal issues. She also served for 2 years as Editor of DePaul’s public interest law newsletter, “The Advocate.”
In addition to her legal experience, Ms. Elliott has more than 20 years of non-legal experience, including several years’ employment in the American Bar Association’s International Liaison Office and several years with Fortune 500 companies, including a former “Big 8 Accounting Firm” and a leading international management consulting firm.
Throughout Ms. Elliott's career, she has also assisted entrepreneurs in creating viable business planning solutions, such as creating and implementing marketing plans, strategic operation plans, securing capital, and business succession. She has worked with start-ups in the personal care, healthcare, small manufacturing, and nonprofit sectors. This experience provides a solid foundation for the business advisory services she provides to small business owners.
Ms. Elliott has received numerous awards, starting in law school and continuing through her legal career, for her commitment to advocating for the rights of marginalized individuals and communities.
Besides her blog started in 2011, “The Lotus Rules,” (formerly, “The Shark Free Zone”), Ms. Elliott's publications include “Improving Afghanistan Maternal Mortality Rates despite the Lack of the Rule of Law,” International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) Human Rights and Rule of Law Review, Fall 2010; “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: What the Reversal of U.S. Asylum Law Means to Advocates and Women Asylum Seekers,” The Women's Advocate, Fall 2009; and “Catching Up with International Criminals in the Twenty-First Century: Modifying and Accelerating U.S. Extradition,” White Paper, Library of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, Spring 2009. Ms. Elliott is also the author of the non-fiction book, “Ms. Thang, Real Knights Don't Show Up at 3 in the Morning,” published by Pocket Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster.
Presentations
- Virtual Estate Planning: Digital Currency & Posthumous Children
- Preventing Disasters: Estate Planning for Older, Unmarried, LGBTQ Couples in Illinois
- Future Planning: Cryptocurrency, Cryonics & Posthumously Conceived Children
- Planning Family-Owned Businesses: Avoiding Earthquakes and Landslides while Building Legacies
- Diversity Matters: In/Tolerance Tales from the Solo/Small Firm Trenches
- How to Incorporate Estate Planning into Your Offering: The Silver Tsunami, Planning Trends, and Estate Planning Myths
- Avoiding the ARDC Checkmate: The Ethical Difficulties of Lawyers Functioning in Dual Roles
- Professional Wills and Advanced Directives for the Solo/Small Firm Practitioner,
- Working in a Solo Small Firm Practice Environment
- Estate Planning and Wealth Preservation Considerations
- The Lottery & Estate Planning for Elders: You Don't Need A Ticket to Win
- What if I Am Neither: Estate Planning for the Transgender and Queer Community
- Estate Planning for LGBTQ Couples: Legal Changes in Plain English, Part Deux
- Estate Planning for LGBTQ Couples: Legal Changes in Plain English
- Celebrating Black History Month: The Essence of the African American Community and the Law
- Tax and Estate Planning for Same-Sex Couples
- The Silver Tsunami: Are You Prepared? (Estate Planning for Baby Boomers & Their Families)
- Fundamental Estate Planning Documents for Today’s Families
- Succession Planning for Attorneys
- Basic Estate Planning Is an Oxymoron
- Fundamental Estate Planning Documents for Same-Sex Couples
- Changes in the Estate Planning Landscape in Light of the Illinois Civil Union
- Basic and Intermediate Estate Planning Fundamentals
- Marriage Equality, Hot Topics in Family Law,
- LGBT Employment and Relationship Rights
- Estate Planning and the Illinois Civil Union
Professional Affiliations
- Chicago Bar Association
- Illinois Bar Association
- American Bar Association
Volunteer Support
- Chicago Women’s Health Center
- Howard Brown Center
- Marillac-St. Vincent Family Services
- Legal Advisory Board of Raise the Floor Alliance,
Education
DePaul University College of Law, International Law
Northwestern University, Political Science, International Relations
Reviews
good faculty
Great presenter!!
Greatest overview I have seen addressing the topics. Presentation skills are great
Superficial content and breezy delivery.
Good job.
Very easy to listen to this topic and speaker.
good
Many practical advice for attorneys with smaller clients.
very helpful; a lot of information packed into one hour. nicely done!
Another LawLine triumph! I thought I knew this material reasonably well, but was pleasantly surprised by coverage of intellectual property and novel nonprofit / low-profit business entities.
Very good speaker. Easy to follow
Helpful presentation for representation of small businesses, and even tech startups.
Excellent.
I found the information to be both a refresher and to aid in new concepts.
very informative!
Thank you.
Extremely helpful, informative and well-presented. Thank you very much!
ok
I really enjoyed the presentation of this material.
I really enjoyed this speaker. Lively presentation with great case studies.
This course was OMG fantastic. What an impressive woman!!! Yea!
Instructor was clear and engaging.
Informative
We all need to learn to better cost benefit for our smaller clients. Hopefully they'll get bigger or find more clients. We all gotta start somewhere.
She’s a great speaker!
excellent! Huge amount of information. Thank you
Great Course! Like Law School/MBA squeezed into an hour!
Recommend downloading both the transcripts and the 2 course material pdf files. A lot of information was provided very quickly.
Good presentation but may have been too much of an overview.
Great course
She should be asked to do a longer CLE and allowed to provide more depth - excellent teacher!
an excellent speaker
I really enjoyed this overview. It was very practical and I think it will be a continued resource for me.
Great content for small business advisors
Great course!!
Exceptional written materials - will be using various slides for daily reference.
Helpful tips and good presentation.
Thorough overview. The hypos and selected cases were relevant. The alphabet chart on forming a new business entity was a fresh approach.
Wow! Content heavy AND substantial practical advice. Great lecturer.
Thank you!
Excellent speaker, advice, and materials.
Great coverage and great speaker. Very informative program.
This was an outstanding and informative presentation in every way I can imagine. Thank you!
great presentation
Great
The information was useful and can be used in all types of practices .
Excellent overview of general corporate law.
Love the supplemental documents
good practical tips for business clients
Outstanding
great and informative speaker
Excellent discussion
good overview
Instructor was great -- a pleasure to learn from a business lawyer generalist who could explain issues across disciplines. Terrific issue spotting exercise.
Excellent speaker. Her effervescence made this a lot more interesting. Hire her again.
This is my first online course through Lawline. I am very impressed with the detail that this course provided. I am used to online courses being very general. The substantive nature of this presentation was a pleasant surprise.
Thank you
Insightful!
Good presentation and insightful.
Excellent speaker and materials
Very expansive and intelligent
Good speaker. Interesting material
Max Elliott was awesome. Excellent presentation.
Nicely done. Jam packed with info
I would like to see more CLEs with this presenter
One the best courses I've taken so far. Content was spot on and presenter was amazing!
Excellent, worthwhile program. The presenter knew the material but perhaps was talking a bit too fast for me to follow some of her points.
An unexpected & interesting & nicely dense mix of touchpoints for work with small businesses.
Too much material, not very practical tips other than know your stuff...pretty much what they said in law school.
excellent presentation and materials
Another excellent presenter. Awesome presentation. Thank you.
Very informative
Excellent presentation!!
Outstanding presentation containing an abundance of very useful information.
My first course on Lawline. Described as "Beginner", but glad I didn't let that deter me. Lecturer was affable with thorough and substantive and current trend examples that were new to me (e.g. "B" corps) as a " seasoned attorney.
Good general discussion.
Outstanding presenter. Clear, engaging, and interesting.
The course covered a lot of ground but was easy to understand
WOW!!!
Very helpful. I learned a lot.
great and informative
Excellent instructor.
Extremely informative content.
Well done!
Excellent course. One of the best.
Thanks.
good speaker
Unique perspective. Extremely helpful advice. Simply great.
Outstanding. May have to watch several times to absorb all the info.
This class was very well researched and prepared. The presenter was very intentional about ensuring we were prepared and had all necessary info on the topic - and I appreciate the thoroughness of the materials.
Excellent!
Interesting material.
Excellent presentation
Ms. Maxwell had so much info in this course, she could easily extrapolate out the various sections as independent CLE topics!
Good overview
She was great!
WoW! I took many notes as this presentation was excellent !
Great presenter. Thank you!
Very informative!
I'm sure many say this, but this may be some of the most practical information I've ever received in lawline.
Very good
very well organized
Some good tips were expressed
very good presenter
Very nice presentation by Ms. Elliot!
Interesting
Hypotheticals were helpful
The presenter was very good.
Excellent material but a lot for one course if someone is a newbie. I've represented small businesses so all very "real" to me. In real life, clients will rarely follow all the advice you give them and will find something or someone from the internet that tells them there's an easy way or "everyone does it" or some other wisdom along those lines.
Thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. Engaging.as well as informative.
Terrific presenter and presentation. The materials are extensive, very helpful and informative, and well worth archiving a copy
I would encourage this attorney to speak again. Very thorough, professional and prepared.
Excellent: as much for the substance as for the "tips"
Excellent information
Excellent presenter very informative and she made good use of the slide deck.
Great course
Expert presentation.
Very engaging presenter
The lecturer was good and engaging and kept my interest. She was very knowledgeable.
Very fine and helpful course
good video good written material well done
Great course, great content and insight
Nicely presented.
very detailed!
Thank you
Excellent presenter.
Max Elliot was great. Look forward to more from this person.
Enjoyed the course and instructor.
Very informative and comprehensive.
a helpful summary of issues involved in helping set up a new small business, with emphasis on business form and levels of liability limitation.
Max Elliot is a fantastic speaker. She kept me engaged all the way through. The materials were pertinent and substantive.
Good course
Excellent Content and Presentation
Max was professional and gave a lot of information.
excellent job.
Good speaker.
Excellent introduction on a range of issues relevant to small businesses.
A careful and thoughtful presentation of how to represent a company that can afford a solo practitioner to guide it through day to day needs intersecting with controlling laws.
Excellent presenter
Really liked this even tho the subject matter has nothing to do with my practice. This articulate speaker knows her stuff! And made it interesting!
I really enjoyed this attorney's enthusiasm and presentation.
Great, practical tips. Very useful CLE. Terrific chart for selecting small business form.
Interesting presentation
Many subjects well covered.
very well organized!
Great presenter. Very knowledgeable.
Interesting topics
thank you!
A wealth of knowledge in the materials, thanks!
Engaging speaker, very knowledgeable, useful hypos
Good lectuer
Great Outlines
Lovely presentation, informative and engaging! Well done!
She was great! Best CLE I've taken.
What a great speaker. Her presentation was informative and interesting.
Excellent program!
Max's presentation was excellent and easy to watch. Good advice.
Excellent
Very informative.
Presenter was great. There was so much to cover, though, you might think about Parts 1 & 2. Really enjoyed it and thanks !
Informative
Speaker was very informative
Very enjoyable.
The instructor was very knowledgeable and articulate. It was a very helpful session.
Every attorney needs to know this basic small business information.
Excellent suggestions.
Interesting and diverse set of topics.
Terrific!! Thank you.
Excellent.
great speaker.
great
Really impressed with this knowledgeable speaker!
Great job! I have been practicing for more than 40 years, and although this course is labeled "basic" by Lawline, I learned a lot from it. The information about "B" corporations was worth the price of admission all by itself. Thanks.
The faculty on this session was outstanding!!
Fabulous presentation with excellent materials
Strong presenter. I liked her poise and she had great info. Would definitely recommend.
This was a great course. I learned a lot and developed ideas for learning more.
The handouts and accompanying materials were excellent.
Some helpful information for my small business clients
The presenter was highly effective in communicating information on a variety of topics that would assist counsel of small businesses. Her knowledge of subject matter and delivery of information was organized and well presented.
GREAT COURSE.
Fair
A lot of useful material. Thank You !!!
very good
Excellent business formation/consideration summary for new clients. Enthusiastic speaker also a plus.
Instructor was highly prepared, efficient, knowledgeable and great voice tone . Presentation was keenly organized and magnificently delivered. Great job!
Great speaker
lot of ground covered
Very practical tips, very useful
Great class -- lots of information and good examples
She's outstanding. First-class!
Great program
Well presented course!
I was Wow'd by this very informative and enthusiastic presentation. Thanks!
Excellent presenter!
good topic
I liked the way the presenter broke the areas down into tips.
The quality of the audio is very good
She was great!
Great speaker --very knowledgeable in subject!
Very enjoyable and interesting.
Really well done. Presenter is a human being and extremely competent and engaging.
She is an excellent presenter- easy to follow and remain engaged....
Interesting presentation of numerous topics
Not what I expected, but very interesting
Excellent
Totally relevant to the work that I do and speaker has both mastery and clear love of the material presented.
My favorite, by FAR!!
Good CLE. My suggestion is to make it longer. She had a lot of material to cover and is very knowledgeable.
outstanding CLE
Fantastic tools, especially the entity selection chart. Thank you very much.
Very well presented and packed full of information.
Very Informative.
Particularly informative, and well presented
VERY engaging presenter
A lot covered in this one; quality and quantity of written materials was excellent.
Ethical considerations were very well done
Speaker was wonderful - clear and concise.
So informative
Very good presentation
Excellent and lively
Good general overview of key issues for new small business clients
Ms. Eliot was amazing...just brimming with information and very enthusiastic. Well done!
Excellent presentation that I will use in my work almost immediately. Thank you.
Id love to see more CLEs like this where the application is practical and immediately useful. Great presenter as well.
Well done Well done presentation
I would also recommend the attorney presenter for my company's small business clients and borrowers.
Thoughtful presentation of various issues of interest to the small business lawyer.
Very helpful tips presented in an organized and interesting way
Excellent course! Fantastic and engaging speaker.....
Good presentation
Excellent overview - great case law and examples. Would like more CLEs like this
unique idea. Nice change of pace for a seminar.
This program had a lot of practical value for myself in particular, as I cater specifically to small business owners. Excellent presenter with great in-depth materials accompanying the course.
Great tips!
Essential knowledge for attorneys with small business clients. And presented with details and examples in flowing and easy manner. Excellent course.
Excellent presentation skills and very engaging material, one of the best videos I have seen on Lawline.
she was excellent .
VERY WELL PRESENTED.
Nice presentation!
Informative
Wealth of information. Will definitely use some of this material in my client meetings and business operations.
Loved the content!
one of the best presenters kept it lively, and moved it along with a good flow and great slides
Clearly knew her stuff!
Knowledgeable presenter. Very thorough.
Thanks!