The Choctaw Casino Resort will be the setting for the 2012 Oklahoma Bar Association Solo and Small Firm Conference June 21–23. This new inviting venue in Durant will be a surprise to those of you who have not visited it. Choctaw Casino Resort carries the prestigious North American AAA’s four-diamond rating. In addition to gaming, the resort also offers a relaxing full-service spa, unique shopping opportunities, a state-of-the-art fitness facility, plus stunning pools and fountains.

But this year’s educational offerings should be stunning in their own right and the return of the Bar and Grill Singers for a Friday night show will be a highlight of the conference.

A wide variety of programming about all types of issues impacting solo and small firm lawyers will be offered to Oklahoma bar members, as well as social activities, networking opportunities, interaction with vendors and an outstanding lineup of children’s programming. The Young Lawyers Division is again holding its Midyear Meeting in conjunction with the conference, and the General Practice Solo & Small Firm Section will hold its annual meeting. This year we will have a separate, day-long sister event on the Thursday of our solo conference — the OBA Solo and Small Firm Trial College.

Among the special presentations at this year’s OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference will be Mark Powers, CEO of Atticus, whose talk will be Time Management for Solo & Small Firm Attorneys — How to Decrease Stress, Eliminate Interruptions and Get Home on Time and Walt Coleman, NFL referee, with his entertaining presentation, Turning Boos into Cheers, How Effective Are You?

Our ethics presentation will be handled by Justice John Reif of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and OBA General Counsel Gina Hendryx, so we know attendees will learn from these two leaders.

A returning guest to the OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference will be Catherine Sanders Reach. Catherine, formerly of the American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center, is now in a newly created practice management adviser position with the Chicago Bar Association. She will give a presentation on Using Technology to Improve Client Services. She will also do a presentation on the latest in practice management software.

There will be more of a focus on Apple products this year as technology consultant Brett Burney who writes the Macs in Law blog (www.macsinlaw.com) will give us several presentations including Macs in the Law Office and iPractice on an iPad.

Of course, Catherine and Brett will join me for the ever-popular opening program 50 Tips in 50 Minutes. I will also present The Future of Law Practice: Dark Clouds or Silver Linings? When the ABA TECHSHOW™ planning board asked me to do this topic as a plenary session for the 2012 show, our conference planning board decided I should reprise that for our conference.

Legendary Oklahoma trial lawyer Garvin Isaacs will be speaking on the Life of a Trial Lawyer.

Guthrie attorney Tim Green is going to give us a two-part presentation that is adopted from the very popular OBA seminar Supercharge Your Law Practice. He will first speak for an hour on The Checklist Manifesto for Lawyers. As many of you who read my articles in the bar journal know, once Tim introduced me to this book it has become something that I have heavily promoted to our legal community. I think lawyers need to think more about how checklists improve their office procedures and final work product. Then Tim Green will follow up that presentation with a program called How I Run My Solo Practice. He has some very interesting and different ideas about how lawyers should make use of assistants, what lawyers should do and what lawyers should delegate. This will be, again, a program of great interest to many people, as he will outline step-by-step techniques that he uses to be more efficient.

OBA Board of Governors member Kim Hays will do a program that is near and dear to every family lawyer’s heart, Collecting Your Fee in Family Law Cases.

A team from conference co-producer, Oklahoma Attorney’s Mutual Insurance Co., consisting of Phil Fraim, Alison Cave and Bill Bandi will do a program of interest to every lawyer, Potential Pitfalls in Private Practice — Avoiding Professional Liability.

In tough economic times, there is a need for bankruptcy lawyers, particularly in the smaller communities of Oklahoma. But with onerous statutory changes, many small firm lawyers eliminated those services. Now there are years of experience with the new law, so O. Clifton Gooding will do a program for us entitled Is It Time to Practice Bankruptcy Law Again?

Small towns are home to many small businesses. Small town lawyers may want to attend Business Entity Choices: Why the Conventional Wisdom May Not Always Be the Best Choice for Your Clients featuring attorneys and CPAs Kendra Robben and Chris Papin.

Noel Tucker and Phil Tucker of Edmond, who have devoted a great deal of time to tracking proposed legislative changes in family law, will give a presentation on Recent Developments in Family Law.

If you want to bring your children to the conference with you, check out this year’s great children’s activities. Preregistration is required as there is limited space on the bus taking them to the activities on Friday.

The conference will end with What’s Hot & What’s Not in Running Your Law Practice, which, as always, will focus on getting the questions answered that were not answered during the program and will also allow time for drawing door prizes.

We look forward to having you at the 2012 Solo and Small Firm conference. You may register online at https://secure.okbar.org/SoloAndSmallFirm. Hotel reservations are to be made by direct phone calls to the Choctaw Resort Hotel reservations office at 800-788-2464. Please refer to the Oklahoma Bar Association when you call to obtain our discounted room rate.