By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director Many Oklahoma lawyers, especially solo and small firm lawyers, have used LawPay for years. LawPay has long been one of the best-known payment processing tools for lawyers because it was designed with law firm trust accounting concerns in mind. So, this latest news is worth noting. Bob…

By Julie Bays I spent several days out of town a couple of weeks ago for a meeting. It was a good meeting and well worth attending. But every lawyer knows what happens when you are away from the office for several days. The work does not stop. Emails keep coming. Decisions are waiting for…

By Julie Bays The legal profession is changing quickly. New technology, evolving client expectations, cybersecurity risks, leadership challenges, and constant legal developments mean that staying current is no longer optional. The Oklahoma Bar Association’s Midyear Conference is designed to help Oklahoma lawyers meet those challenges with practical ideas, timely education, and valuable professional connections. A…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director For more than two years, courts have warned lawyers that artificial intelligence can be a useful tool, but it is not a substitute for professional judgment. Recent decisions suggest many judges have reached a new stage of frustration: they are tired of seeing lawyers submit inaccurate research,…

By Julie Bays Every year at ABA TECHSHOW, one of the most entertaining and surprisingly insightful events happens before the sessions begin. The Startup Alley competition gives legal tech companies just three minutes to pitch their ideas to a room full of lawyers, who then vote on the winner. This year’s winner, CollBox, caught my…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director If you’ve been practicing for a while, you’ve likely noticed that discovery is starting to look a little different. That shift is not accidental. The Oklahoma Discovery Code already builds in the concept of proportionality. Discovery must be tailored to the needs of the case, taking into…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director If you’ve ever gone back and forth three or four times trying to find a meeting time that works, you already know how much time can be wasted on scheduling. Most lawyers I talk to have solved this problem by using tools like Calendly. And I get…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director I was discussing types of clients with a lawyer the other day when the conversation turned to affordability and client expectations. We also talked about the kinds of matters lawyers may hesitate to take on, such as small claims, where full representation often doesn’t make sense for…

By Julie Bays I will confess something right up front: most of my technology tips tend to focus on Microsoft 365. That is simply the platform I use every day, so it is the environment I know best. But not every law firm operates in Microsoft’s world. Many firms use Google Workspace as their core…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director A recent cybersecurity report about a breach involving LexisNexis contained an unusual detail. The attackers did not just claim they accessed company systems. They publicly mocked the company’s passwords. According to reports, a threat actor calling itself “FulcrumSec” gained access to LexisNexis cloud infrastructure by exploiting a…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director A lawyer recently asked me whether switching to a fiber optic internet provider would create a security problem. He was upgrading from an older, more expensive service and wanted to make sure he wasn’t trading savings for risk. It’s a fair question. Lawyers should be thinking about…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director Every time a new technology shows up in the legal world, someone declares the billable hour officially deceased. We heard it with email. We heard it with document automation. And now we’re hearing it again with generative AI. The truth? Technology changes how we practice law. It…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director Over the past few weeks, I have seen more lawyers openly talking about burnout. Not in abstract terms. In very real ones. Missed deadlines. Constant client demands. Staffing shortages. Financial pressure. Tension inside the office. The sense that you are always one step behind. Burnout is often…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director Lately I have been having more conversations with lawyers who are worried that their website “just isn’t working like it used to.” They are not imagining it. The way people search for lawyers is changing, and it is changing because the way people search for anything is…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director It is tax season, which means banks are sending out 1099 forms. If you receive a 1099 for your IOLTA trust account, stop and do not ignore it. That should never happen. In a properly set up IOLTA account, the interest does not belong to the lawyer,…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director This week I received a note from the ABA National Pro Bono Manager that made me stop and smile. Every year, the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service recognizes attorneys across the country who have provided extraordinary volunteer service through the Free Legal Answers…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director I’ve been thinking a lot about AI policies lately, prompted by a question I saw on a listserv I follow. Someone asked what AI tools law firms are actually using right now. The responses surprised me. Not because lawyers were not using AI, but because so many…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director For more than four decades, ABA TECHSHOW has brought legal professionals and technology together. That phrase has appeared on brochures and banners for years, but heading into TECHSHOW 2026, it feels less like a slogan and more like a statement of fact. Technology is no longer a…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director Last week, Oklahoma’s updated Security Breach Notification Act took effect (Title 24, §§ 161–166). I spent years in consumer protection believing our previous version did not put enough pressure on organizations to treat personal information like the high-value asset it is. The 2025 Legislature didn’t rewrite everything…

By Julie Bays, OBA Management Assistance Program Director As we close out the year and look ahead to 2026, it’s a good time to pause and take stock of how much law office management and legal technology changed in 2025. If you missed our End of the Year Review seminars, now is a great time…