Practice Aid Guide - Louisiana State Bar Association

1 Practice Aid GuideThe Essentials of Law Office ManagementPublished by the LouisianaState Bar Association andunderwritten by Gilsbar, CNA Insurance Company These materials are available online at AID Guide : THE ESSENTIALS OF LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT. Copyright 2004 by Louisiana State Bar in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Published by the Louisiana State Bar Association , 601 Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130. Underwritten by Gilsbar, Inc., Box 998, Covington, Louisiana 70434,and CNA Insurance Company, CNA Plaza - 36 South, 333 S.

2 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 0-9707819-3-82 Practice AID GUIDEL ouisiana State Bar AssociationPractice Aid GuideTABLE OF CONTENTSI ntroduction: The Essentials of Law Office Management ..5 Section 1 Establishing the Attorney-Client Relationship ..7 Additional Resources .. 8 Establishing the Attorney-Client Relationship Checklist .. 9 Consultation Engagement Letter (General).. 12 Sample Non-Engagement Letter (General).. 13 General Information 2 Conflicts of Interest ..20 Conflicts of Interest Checklist .. 24 Additional Resources for Conflicts of Interest.

3 25 Conflicts of Interest Search Form ..26-28 Conflicts of Interest Search Results Memo .. 29 Sample Conflict of Interest Non-Engagement Letter .. 30 Sample Conflict of Interest Informed Consent Letter .. 31 Sample Conflict of Interest Disengagement 32 Sample Conflict of Interest Financial Assistance Agreement .. 33 Section 3 Fees, Billing and Trust Accounts ..35 Additional Resources .. 43 Flat Fee Fee Agreement ..46-47 Hourly Fee Agreement with Advance Deposit ..48-49 Hourly Fee Agreement with Advance Deposit (Domestic) ..50-51 Sample 52 Sample Settlement 53 Approval and Receipt.

4 53 Gilsbar Money Management Map .. 54 Trust Account Disclosure and Overdraft Notification Authorization Form ..55-56 Section 4 Maintaining the Attorney-Client Relationship and Law Office Procedure ..57 Sample Client Activity 59 Sample E-Mail Communication for Release of Information from Former Attorney .. 61 HIPAA Authorization to Disclose Protected Health Information ..62-63 Authorization for Release of Financial Records .. 64 Sample Court Appearance or Hearing Letter .. 65 Sample Deposition Scheduling Letter .. 66 Deposition Instructions to Client.

5 67 Confidentiality 68 ESSENTIALS OF LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT3 TABLE OF CONTENTSS ection 5 File Management ..69 File Management 69 Additional Resources for File Management .. 69 Checklist for Opening Files .. 70 Checklist for Closing 71 Section 6 Calendar Control ..72 General 73 Louisiana Prescription Quick Reference , 117 Calendar Control System Installation 74 Calendar Control Evaluation 75 Additional Resources .. 75 Section 7 Termination of the Representation ..76 Checklist for Termination of the Representation .. 77 Sample Disengagement Letter (Non-Payment).

6 78 Sample Disengagement Letter (Conclusion of Representation) .. 79 Section 8 Ethics and Professionalism ..80 Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct ..80-102 Overview of the Disciplinary Process .. 10310 Frequently Alleged Rule 105 What to Do When a Complaint Arrives .. 105 What to Do When Formal Charges Are Filed .. 106 The Lawyer s Oath .. 108 Code of 109 Section 9 Additional Resources for Louisiana Lawyers ..113-116 Louisiana Prescription Quick Reference Card ..117CD (with forms, sample letters and checklists) ..inside back cover4 Practice AID GUIDEThe Essentials of Law Office ManagementIntroductionThings should be as simple as possible, but not more EinsteinThe committee members who compiled this little book were inspired by our work with the Louisiana State BarAssociation Ethics School.

7 We teach this class to members of the Bar who have accepted disciplinary diver-sion or who have been disciplined by the Louisiana Supreme Court. Many of these colleagues got into troublebecause of what they did not know about law office committee saw early on that there were many good books available on law office management from other barassociations and from commercial publishers. Finding ourselves working with limited funds and wanting to give every lawyerin the State a copy, we realized that no single book of affordable size could cover every aspect of the business side of lawpractice.

8 Furthermore, we saw no need to duplicate the work already on the market, and we doubted our ability to improve onthose the many good books on law office management, we did not see any that distilled the subject to its essentials. So,we chose to take a shot at producing an outline of the key procedures and forms, the irreducible minimum below which a lawyerwill usually find malpractice, unethical behavior, degradation and despair or at least a bad day at the chapters are keyed to what we must do with each case or transaction that comes into our offices.

9 We must get off to agood start with the client, which includes avoiding conflicts of interest. We must handle fees, billing and trust accounts, at theperil of a serious disciplinary complaint. Maintaining client relationships and file management can be irksome but necessaryparts of our work, so we have chapters that show how the best lawyers do those tasks. Calendar control can ease the tensionof a busy Practice and make us exemplars of promptitude or at least an exception to the clich that lawyers are always danger and opportunity lurk in the termination of a client relationship, and the suggestions we provide will help you steerclear of the dark side.

10 Sample forms that can be adapted to your Practice and a CD with those forms are included in this , we give you easy access to the ethical rules and point the way to more comprehensive information on law officemanagement with lists of other resources. (This information also is available on the Louisiana State Bar Association s website, )We request that you judge our work by the standard of whether our presentation on the subject of law office managementis necessary to competent law Practice . If something is missing, or is included but should be omitted, please give us yourfeedback, and the next edition will be Practice Assistance and Improvement Committeeof the Louisiana State Bar AssociationJuly 1, 2004 ESSENTIALS OF LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT5 NOTES6 Practice AID GUIDEE stablishing the Attorney-ClientRelationshipThe establishment of the attorney-client relationship involves two elements: a person seeks advice or assistancefrom an attorney; and the attorney appears to give or agrees to give the advice or assistance.