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Are you ready to think about some fun in the sun? Would you like to experience some really great educational programs? Make plans now to attend the 2009 OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference, held in conjunction with the YLD Midyear Meeting and the Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Section Midyear Meeting. Mark your calendar for June 11 - 13, 2009. The location is the Tanglewood Resort on the shores of Lake Texoma.

We have a great lineup of CLE programming focused on the solo or small firm lawyer � and also focused on these economic times.

This year we welcome several out-of-state experts as well as hearing from our own Oklahoma lawyers who are leaders in our field.

For the first time, we welcome Irwin Karp, who is a productivity consultant with Productive Time in Sacramento, Calif. He is also an attorney with more than 30 years of experience, so he knows the obstacles that can get in the way of staying organized and focused. He was the managing partner of a small firm for nearly 20 years before starting his consulting firm.

His plenary session is �Multitasking Gone Mad � Coping in a Wired, Demanding, Distracting World.� Technology has made it easier to stay connected to work. But, is this a good thing or has something gone awry? This plenary session will address the emotional and physiological consequences of always being connected, as well the potentially negative impact on legal work. He will explore the impact of multitasking, ways to deal with keeping lots of balls in the air and how to stay focused on priority tasks.

He will also give another presentation titled �Overcoming Procrastination � How to Kick the Habit.� This program will be repeated, just in case you put it off and miss the first session. Procrastination creates undue stress. This breakout session will focus on how lawyers can complete their work with more control and less crisis management. Attendees will learn how to recognize your individual style of procrastination and overcome it, how to break down legal work into component parts so it doesn�t appear so overwhelming, and how to focus on what you really need to accomplish.

We are hosting two highly regarded law office management and technology experts from the state of Wisconsin, Nerino Petro and Ross Kodner.

Ross Kodner is president of Microlaw Inc. and is making a return engagement to the OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference after several previous visits with us. He has received many honors and awards for his work and is a well known opinion leader in legal technology circles. His presentations include �Tightwad Technology for Tough & Trying Times: Better Word, Outlook & Acrobat� and �Buying Law Office Technology 101: How to Buy Right and Spend Smart.�

In a day where there is a national movement toward digitizing all medical records, his program �The PaperLESS� Office: Practicing Lean and Green� covers some extremely important concepts for today�s small firm lawyer.

Nerino Petro is the practice management advisor for the State Bar of Wisconsin and will be visiting our conference for the first time. Nerino is a former speaker at ABA TECHSHOW and numerous other events. He brings us two presentations that he has done for ABA TECHSHOW and other venues, �Using Speech Recognition & Digital Dictation� and �Practice Killers: Six Things That Can Kill Your Practice.� Nerino is recognized by many of us as the go-to guy nationally on digital dictation issues.

We also welcome Texas lawyers Steven W. Novak and Daniel H. McCarthy of The Blum Firm PC. They will inform us about the �Top 10 Mistakes in Estate Planning,� as well as providing a �Federal Estate Tax Update.� If you are a lawyer who does estate planning, you will not want to miss these programs.

Our conference will open with the ever-popular and fast-paced �50 Tips in 50 Minutes� and close with �What�s Hot and What�s Not in Running Your Law Practice,� where we will have drawings for door prizes as well as a final opportunity to get your questions answered or perhaps stump our experts.

I�m very excited to do a program called �Your Online Persona � What Does the Internet Think of You?� I�ve been asked to talk about online reputation management for ABA TECHSHOW 2009, and I wanted to talk to our small firm lawyers about this important cutting-edge topic. This may sound like a technology program, but it is really a program about marketing and some things about the Internet that every lawyer should know. We will cover everything from how to get noticed by the search engines to how some lawyers are using social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter to increase their online visibility. I�ll also be doing a quick program on some useful Web sites you may need to be using.

THE FUN STUFF

There will be lots of fun social events and entertainment as well. The Young Lawyers Division has promised us an opening social event on Thursday night that will be the best ever, and on Friday evening we will be entertained by comedy ventriloquist Ian Varella, who has done thousands of performances on international cruise ships, Las Vegas shows and corporate events � performing as an opening act for the country�s biggest stars. He has also appeared on HBO, Showtime and the Nashville Network. For more information about Ian, you can visit his Web site at www.comedyvent.com.

A new event this year is a cocktail reception in honor of Oklahoma�s solo and small firm lawyers hosted by the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS

Our diverse selection of educational sessions should provide something of interest to every lawyer.

Work-life balance is an issue for all of us. To that end, we feature �Finding Sanity in the Practice of Law� with Miami attorney Chuck Chesnut and �Don�t Let Hard Times Drag You Down� with Oklahoma City attorney Julie Rivers.

Those who practice in the family law arena will no doubt be attending �New Child Support Guidelines: D�j� Vu All Over Again� with Oklahoma City lawyer Amy Wilson and �Military Law Developments Relating to Family Law� with Tulsa lawyer Bill LaSorsa.

Practicing in an almost paperless environment is not just a theory anymore. Oklahoma City lawyer Elaine Dowling will show us how she does it with her program �My �Paperless� Bankruptcy Practice.�

Lawyers with a personal injury component to their practice will enjoy �A Lawyer�s Guide to Understanding Medical Records� with Tulsa attorney Martha Rupp Carter and �Negotiating with Insurance Companies in These Trying Times� with Shawnee attorney Brad West.

Our opening session Saturday morning will be �Money and Ethics: Potential Pitfalls When Handling Client Funds� with OBA Ethics Counsel Gina Hendryx.

�Search & Seizure Primer and Update� will be the focus of Norman lawyer Jim Drummond.

The conference will feature several panel discussions on various topics of interest including �Starting/Restarting a Law Practice,� the �Oklahoma Family Wealth Preservation Act,� �From Chaos to Cases: Case Management Systems are Practice Power Tools� and �50 Marketing Tips in 50 Minutes.�

All in all, it looks like another great OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference. The only additional thing we need to make it perfect is you. Reserve your hotel room and register early. We think this selection of great programming may cause our conference to sell out early.