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LPT Articles
The Basics of a Lawyer’s Smartphone
By Jim Calloway At the OBA Annual Meeting, during a discussion about smartphones, an attendee pulled out an old-style flip phone and smiled at us. This happens a lot, although not nearly with the frequency it did several years ago. Sometimes the lawyer is a bit sheepish about still having an old flip phone and…
The Benefits and Risks Associated with Relevant Technology
By Jim Calloway The technology and best practices used by lawyers to serve their clients and manage their practices has been a frequently discussed topic over recent years. For Oklahoma lawyers, there is a new reason to increase the attention paid to technology now. By order dated Sept. 19, 2016, the Oklahoma Supreme Court amended…
Email Attachments vs. Client Portals
By Jim Calloway Let me start by noting this particular column is focused on tools to use in a law practice. As the title suggests, this month I am going to discuss the differences between providing clients documents by sending them as email attachments versus providing the documents through a client portal. Some readers may…
Some Post-Summer Law Practice Tips
By Jim Calloway Summer is coming to a close and hopefully you have en-joyed some vacation and family time. Several of us enjoyed the OBA Solo & Small Firm Conference in June. We had one of the largest turnouts in recent memory. Our conference is only possible because of the support of a number of…
Proposed Agenda for Your Law Office Retreat
By Jim Calloway This probably seems like a presumptuous title. Every law firm is a little bit different, so there are different items they may want to focus on during a law firm planning retreat. But many law firms also have reinvention and repurposing challenges they need to consider. It seems like an agenda on…
You Are Not Paranoid If They Really Are Watching You Attorney-Client Privilege, Confidentiality and Cybersecurity in the 21st Century
By Jim Calloway “The government is watching me all the time. They have implanted devices to eavesdrop on me.” It used to be when a client or friend made this type of statement to you, it was time to gently steer them toward a mental-health evaluation. After sitting through multiple sessions at ABA TECHSHOW 2016…
Reimagine Your Law Practice at the OBA Solo & Small Firm Conference 2016
By Jim Calloway On June 23-25, 2016, the OBA Solo & Small Firm Conference returns to the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant. If you haven’t been to this venue since our last conference there, you may not recognize the place. They have remodeled with greatly improved meeting facilities, expanded spa facilities, four movie theaters showing…
The Grind
By Jim Calloway An ancient bit of large law firm wisdom was that there were three types of lawyers: finders, minders and grinders. The first term referred to those rainmakers who were great at new client development. The second term, minders, referred to the law firm leadership, including those who headed up practice groups. And…
Thoughts on Social Media: Risks, Rewards and Uncertainties
By Jim Calloway As I was finalizing this column, there were news reports that the so-called “affluenza teen” Ethan Couch and his mother had been arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Readers will recall this young man stole beer from a Walmart and crashed his father’s truck into some stopped vehicles on a country road. Four…
2015 Year-End Roundup
By Jim Calloway This year I have been writing a lot about change in law offices. If you missed reading any of the prior Law Practice Tips columns in the Oklahoma Bar Journal they are online. I’m sure that some readers are tired of hearing about systemic change in the legal marketplace and wondering how changes…