Ethics & the SmallLaw Practitioner Update

It can be a challenge for solo and small firm (“SmallLaw”) practitioners to ensure their practice complies with the rules of professional responsibility. Since lawyers in solo or small firm practice don’t have the luxury of having a large number of other attorneys in the office, SmallLaw practitioners have to rely on themselves to ensure they abide by the ethics rules. Questions such as whether an attorney can collect a referral fee and when an attorney can spend a retainer can be difficult to answer and often that answer will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Furthermore, SmallLaw practitioners normally serve as their own marketing, administration, billing, and collections departments, all of which raise ethical concerns that may not be applicable to other attorneys.  

In this program, attorney Gary J. Ross updates his previous course examining many of the ethical issues pertaining to solo and small firms and addresses some of the major concerns of SmallLaw practitioners. 

Learning Objectives:

I.       Access sources to ethics rules for attorneys

II.      Recognize the reasons SmallLaw attorneys tend to have more ethics violations than other attorneys

III.     Understand common ethical concerns for solo and small firm attorneys

IV.     Review how to properly operate your law practice in accordance with the ethics rules

This course originally appeared as a part of our February 2016 Bridge the Gap Event.