Academy For Private Practice Is Just 3 Days Away!

It's APPening on Friday.

APP is upon us. ATL’s Academy For Private Practice, our first-ever conference for solo and small firm attorneys is happening this Friday, October 2, here in New York City at the Westin Times Square. (There are just a handful of tickets still left, so get yours here.)

Today, lets’s hear from a sampling of our experts about what APP attendees can expect from some of the panels and workshops taking place on Friday:

Nicole Bradick of CuroLegal will be leading the First Things First panel, featuring a lineup of experts sharing insights into all those urgent questions lawyers face when starting a firm:

“To launch a firm (and do it well) takes careful thought. There are a large number of moving parts to bring together to build and grow a successful firm, and understanding those components and making thoughtful decisions at the outset will pay off for years. Choices that once were predetermined for lawyers launching a new firm — business model, technology, staffing choices — are all now up for debate and should be part of strategic planning from the start. New firms have the tremendous benefit of working with a blank sheet of paper to design just the right model to support the firm’s unique value proposition. The First Things First panel will explore different ways to serve clients and build a successful firm, and will be discussing topics such as creating a business plan, deciding whether to bring on partners, how to choose the right business model, and more. While the panel will be focused on launching brand new firms, the information will be valuable for solo and small firm lawyers who are already running firms to begin thinking about strategically modernizing existing models.”

Jeff Bennion (along with Roe Frazier of Cicayda) will be conducting a Cybersecurity and eDiscovery workshop.

“We are speaking about two things — security and e-discovery, and how both are relevant to small law firms. The first issue deals with how we can securely and efficiently store our work files. As with people who work in the health care or financial industries, lawyers are highly regulated as to how they store their clients’ confidential information. On the other hand, new technologies are becoming available to make accessing our work files easier from anywhere. As a solo practitioner, you always have to stay efficient, especially if you want to keep pace with larger law firms with more resources. So, with that in mind, we are going to discuss what attorneys need to know when walking the line of making their confidential client files more accessible to themselves, but also keeping up with their ethical obligations to maintain the security of their clients’ information.

EDiscovery is no longer just a problem for mass torts or class-action attorneys. EDiscovery is becoming prevalent in all cases that involve parties or witnesses who have information stored in e-mails or in their phone, from family law to personal injury. It’s quickly becoming everyone’s problem. Likewise, when attorneys leave large law firms to form their own firms, and they take with them large clients, those attorneys are going to probably be in a situation where they have to advise their client on either the production of electronic data, or how minor decisions can save the client hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the second half of our presentation, we are going to cover what attorneys need to know about working with eDiscovery, and best practices for managing large data in a small firm.”

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Bruce Stachenfeld, founding and managing partner of 75-lawyer, NYC-based Duval & Stachenfeld — and hugely successful rainmaker — will share his ideas on marketing and business development during our All About Clients panel. Bruce minces no words:

“There is nothing more important to any business than getting customers — indeed you could probably say: No customers = no business at all. In the legal world that means getting CLIENTS. Our panel will discuss the nuts and bolts of how exactly one goes about getting clients.

I will be joined by Tim Baran of Rocket Matter and Gary Ross (of Jackson Ross) who will give out their secrets on marketing and client retention and expansion. This presentation is not to be missed!”

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