By Jim Calloway One thing you do not learn in law school is what clients you should not represent. Veteran lawyers have hopefully learned what potential clients they should avoid, but it is still not a perfect process. Almost every lawyer has a story of that client they wish they had never represented. I’ve had…

By Jim Calloway A lawyer’s final duty to the clients is often appropriately shutting down their law practice in a way that ensures clients’ interests are protected, which may include providing clients with appropriate departing advice and perhaps a referral to successor counsel. With proper advance planning, this can be handled more efficiently. The closing…

By Jim Calloway Communication is something we all do every day. Some days we do it better than others. We have all had the experience of making some statement we immediately wish we could take back. Most of us would admit we could invest some time improving our communication skills. Managing your professional communications with…

By Jim Calloway Recently, many media outlets covered the plight of Stefan Thomas, the man who, as of January 2021, had $250 million worth of bitcoin trapped in his Bitcoin wallet. He secured the keys to the wallet on an IronKey flash drive. I recall in one 60 tips presentation years ago noting the Mission…

That helpful person calling from Microsoft Tech Support is most likely a scammer. The odds go up to 100% if they tell you they noticed a problem with your computer and are calling to help you fix it. You can easily test that premise by telling them they have just reached an FBI agent and…

Lawyers deal with confidential client information and we have a duty to secure that information. No matter who you are, you wouldn’t want to donate, give away or even discard a computer or phone with information still on the device. No one would want to transfer a computer or phone without making certain the personal…

By Jim Calloway 2020 certainly gave us all a lot to digest. My personal observation working with small to medium-sized law firms was those with digital client files securely available online had a better working experience than those with critical information trapped only in paper files. The most significant observation I have distilled from the…

By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance program. The “On Tech” newsletter from The New York Times typically has great content. I encourage people to subscribe to this. The current edition is Why Your TV Spies on You, which is a fact of life for most smart TV’s and streaming services. But while some lawyers…

By Jim Calloway, Director OBA Management Assistance Program Negative online reviews can hurt businesses and law firms are no exception. But other types of businesses don’t have to be concerned about confidentiality and attorney-client privilege if they choose to respond to a negative review. Here are some suggestions for lawyers on dealing with negative online…

By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance Program It is now a cliché to note that we have more computing power in our mobile phones than NASA had at its disposal during the moon missions. Today we’ll discuss harnessing one bit of that power. Suppose you are visiting with a client outside of your office…