A 700 lawyer private law firm in China — Zhong Lun Law Firm — has opened an office in New York.  The firm announced in a press release that the purpose of the office is to help American clients investing or doing business in China, and also to help Chinese clients conduct business and make investments in America.

Two attorneys with degrees from top American law schools — Philip Zhang and T.K. Chang – will head the firm’s NYC office. They will be supported by  over 40 partners in the firm’s worldwide offices who have American law degrees.  Thanks to varying time zones, they will be able to support clients 24 hours a day.

So many of you are reading this and thinking that this is not a threat to your firm, but rather to the huge firms which handle international law.  True enough.  But contemplate for a minute what happens when this foreign law firm starts trolling the waters and catching clients formerly netted by these large firms.  Those firms will in turn need to find a new fishing spot.  Maybe your fishing spot.  And it will take a whole lot more fish of the size you catch to replace the ones they will be losing.

Where will you fish next?

The post Big Time Competition Just Arrived appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

Just to give you an idea of how bad a year 2012 was in terms of security, here is a brief excerpt:

Data breaches continue to grow in both number and scale. This past year saw major hacks at Zappos (24M customer accounts), Statfor (private U.S. intelligence firm; 5M e-mails), Global Payments (1.5M credit card numbers), LinkedIn (6.5M passwords), eHarmony (1.5M passwords), Yahoo (0.5M passwords), Nationwide Mutual (1.1M customer accounts), and Wyndham Worldwide (600K credit card numbers). According to industry reports, this past year saw a sharp increase in browser-related exploits, such as luring an individual to a trusted website that has been infected with malicious code. Using browser vulnerabilities, attackers can install malware on the target system. In addition, the rise of “bring your own device” policies in the corporate world have led to security challenges for organizations. For example, many large organizations reported that security breaches were caused by their own staff, most commonly through ignorance of security practices.

This past year saw a dramatic increase in the number of breaches from state and local governments. Leading the pack was the South Carolina Department of Revenue, where an employee fell for a phishing e-mail that allowed hackers to steal 75GB of data containing the social security numbers, credit cards, and bank account information for 3.8M residents. The data also contained information about 700,000 businesses. The governor faulted outdated IRS standards, which did not require social security numbers to be encrypted. Another major hack affected the New York State Electric & Gas Company, in which 1.8M customer files were stolen that included social security numbers and some financial information. Investigations of the hack faulted out-of-date data security standards. Other notable breaches occurred at the California Department of Social Services (700K employees’ payroll information), Utah Department of Health (780K citizens’ health information), and the California Department of Child Support Services (800K health and financial records). Many of these attacks could have been prevented by following up-to-date security standards.

No wonder President Obama signed an executive order on February 12, 2013, seeking to strengthen the cyber security of critical infrastructure, by directing the development of a public-private sector cyber security framework, and increasing information sharing between the public and private sector.  If you’ve been following my blog, you’re read my previous posts “Another Cyberattack on a Major U.S. Bank;” “Cyberattacks on U.S. Banks — Are You Safe?;” “Beware Email Messages from Facebook Friends;” and “Trojan Infects 260,000 Android Devices” to name just a few.

It’s a very dangerous computing world.  That means you have to keep up to date on developments.  You need to keep your software updated to plug security holes as they’re discovered.  You need to actually use your shredder.  You need to avoid using public WiFi for accessing confidential information.  You have to train your employees not to click on links or email attachments which are unexpected, regardless of the source.  You should encrypt your laptop hard drive, and use a boot password too.  You should be sure you have enabled the ability to remotely wipe the data from your Smartphone before you put anything on there.  This is just a start off the top of my head.  If you’re not already doing all these things, or if you don’t even know about some of these things, perhaps your starting point should be a simple security audit by a qualified vendor.

The post Cyber Security and Data Privacy appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

As you can tell, since June is an end-of-compliance month, there is little doubt additional courses will be scheduled.  If no county near you has booked me yet, don’t give up hope.  The fat lady has not yet sung her last note. 

The post Another June Seminar Presentation Scheduled appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

Allegheny County Bar Association Institute for Gender Equality
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Client Service and Marketing for Women Attorneys Within Ethical Boundaries
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (registration 8:00 a.m.)
Register online at www.ACBA.org

Beaver County Bar Association
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Technology Tools to Level the Playing Field for Solo & Small Firm Attorneys
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. followed by a reception
Contact the Bar Association for additional details.

Erie County Bar Association
Friday, May 17, 2013
Social Media:  Part of Today’s Client Development and Retention Toolkit
8:15 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.
The Art & Science of Setting and Raising Rates
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Survival 101:  Emergency Planning for Your Law Practice
10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Register here.

I am also pleased to be returning to Maryland this year to present at the Maryland State Bar Association Annual Meeting on Friday, June 14, 2013.  The event is being held at the fabulous Clarion Resort Fountainbleau Hotel in Ocean City, MD.   What a great location for June.

Get a Grip! Effectively and Efficiently Administering Your Practice While Making the Most of Your Time
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
50 Finance Tips in 60 Minutes
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

If we’ve never had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face, please be sure to stop by after the presentation to introduce yourself!

The post Upcoming Seminar Presentations appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

I thought my first post when I returned from TechShow would be about one of the many wonderful lessons learned.  I was in fact going to post diligently from there.  But the Chicago Hilton has about the worst Wi-Fi access I’ve encountered.  It was tough just getting a cell phone signal.  It was fairly humorous to see so many lawyers with cell phones to their ears and bodies literally plastered to the windows like some sort of human antennae.  At night, when I got back to the room after the myriad of social events, I was just too tired to think, let alone write.

Now that I’m back I’m anxious to share, but an article in the Anderson Elder Law Newsletter entitled “Son Liable for Mom’s $93,000 Nursing Home Bill Under ‘Filial Responsibility’ Law” really caught my attention.  How could that be?  Well, it be!  And I am so shocked by this, I feel compelled to share it right now.  The article explains:

Some 29 states currently have laws making adult children responsible for their parents if their parents can’t afford to take care of themselves. These “filial responsibility” laws have rarely been enforced, but six years ago when federal rules made it more difficult to qualify for Medicaid long-term care coverage, some elder law attorneys predicted that nursing homes would start using the laws as a way to get care paid for.

And it was precisely the application of this law which caused the son to be forced to take financial responsibility.  Unbelievably, the law does not require it to consider other sources of income or to wait until a parent’s Medicaid claim is resolved.  Even more pernicious is that the law permits the nursing home to choose which family members to pursue for the money owed.  In this particular case, they ignored a spouse and other siblings, and went after the apparent ”deep pocket.”

Linda Anderson notes that after Pennsylvania re-enacted its filial support law in the mid-2000s, Williamsport attorney Jeffrey A. Marshall forecast that the new Medicaid law would trigger a wave of lawsuits involving adult children.  Obviously, he was correct, and this is just the beginning of what may become a tidal wave of lawsuits.  In Marshall’s blog post about this court decision he writes:

Children are often surprised to learn that they can be held responsible for their parent’s unpaid medical and care related expenses. It just doesn’t seem fair. But, whether fair or not, the Pittas case shows that the child’s support obligation to the parent is the law in Pennsylvania.  Children: be warned. If your parent needs long term care and may someday be unable to pay for it, you should find out about your potential financial liability and what to do about it.

So what is the son supposed to do, now that he has lost his appeal?  Is he to sue his father and siblings for their “fair share” of the debt?  Declare bankruptcy?  I’m just thinking out loud on this, while I shake my head in disbelief.  Our lives are already so stressful . . . raising children in a two-income household, trying to care for aging parents, trying to save for retirement in an ever-increasing financially hostile future environment, and to have some quality of life and semblance of balance in the current moment.  Is this the straw which breaks the back of American families?

I am so grateful I “strongly encouraged” my mom to purchase optional Long Term Care Insurance through her employer’s Cafeteria Plan some 30 years ago, so that it’s there if she needs it.   We found out from personal experience about 2 years ago how quickly the bills can mount after my mother suffered a fall at home.  The nursing home costs, followed by rehab at home, and then extended personal care until she was recovered enough to be completely on her own again, added up to a huge amount of money which her Medicare and additional excess policy didn’t cover.   They paid plenty, don’t get me wrong.  But there was a lot of uncovered additional expense, especially the personal in-home care, which cost a fortune.  At least the Long Term Care contributed toward some of that once the elimination period was passed.  (Although I admit I had to really duke it out with them to get her benefit paid, despite her making premium payments like clockwork for 30 years.  But hey, don’t even get me started on the topic of insurance companies!    )

If you have living parents, this is not something you can afford to ignore.  Make sure they have adequate insurance coverage, and talk to an Elder Care attorney just to see what risks you face, and how you might avoid them.  The investment to protect yourself now is a pittance compared to the potential exposure later.

The post Children Responsible for Parental Debt appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

I arose early this morning after a scant 1.5 hours of sleep — trying to clean up client work before departure — to make my way to Philly airport to catch a flight to Chicago. My suitcase came in at 48.5 lbs out of an allowable 50 lbs before a hefty $$ penalty applies.  So much for my usual practice of grabbing all the vendor “swag” I can fit into my suitcase.

 The windy city has not disappointed thus far.  Sunny, crisp breeze, moderate temperature, and a lovely room at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue.  Enroute from airport to  hotel, I had a delightful cab ride with a Nigerian driver who spoke beautiful English.  The accent is surprisingly similar to Jamaican.  Turns out he has his Masters in Psychology from St. Joseph’s in my neck of the woods, but couldn’t get the job he wanted, and wasn’t earning a decent wage with what he could get.  So he decided to drive cabs instead, and relocated to where he could earn the best money doing it.  He is working hard to earn enough to bring over his wife and baby daughter,  He couldn’t wait to show me pictures.  Maybe it was a ploy to increase his tip, who knows, but it was a great chat nonetheless.

So I’m unpacked, and awaiting the start of my annual update on everything related to law firm technology.  I’m especially looking forward to sessions on mobile apps, courtroom technology, Windows 8, security,  and more.    Some people come to the show to get a break from the office.  They spend as much or more time with local entertainment as they do in class.  Not me.  I take my educational opportunities very seriously.  There won’t be a timeslot that doesn’t have me in a class.  Class-free  breaks will have me going from booth to booth in the extensive exhibit hall, to see first-hand what’s new, and familiarize myself with vendors new to the marketplace.

This year my stay is much more comfortable thanks all my personal tech.  Let’s start with my high quality and very small pop-up  portable stereo speaker, all the great tunes I put on my iPhone, the multi-plug electrical cord I brought which makes it possible to plug everything in conveniently right on the night table.  No more taking turns in charging iPhone and iPad.  No more running across the room when the phone rings while being charged.    And I can leave my laptop in the room, and just carry my itty-bitty iPad around, using the convenient app to review handouts, make notes in sessions using the portable Bluetooth keyboard, keep track of which sessions I intend to attend, and even locate the next classroom on the map.

Stay tuned.  It’s going to be an exciting week.

The post ABA TechShow – Ready and Waiting appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

You can find information about The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), in a blog post of mine written in late 2009.  Local healthcare attorney Jennifer Stiller guest blogged here and here in early 2010 about the HITECH and new privacy regulations.  And now, finally, we have final regulations.  You can read additional details in the excellent article written by Amy M. Gordon and Jamie A. Weyeneth of McDermott Will & Emory.

The post New HIPAA Regulations Require Action appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

A lot of time has passed since then.  I became an iPhone user.  Now, let me assure you that I’m not one of those MAC-head fanatics.  In fact, I don’t even own an Apple computer.  But I DO have an iPad which I adore.  Here’s the thing about the iPhone.  It works.  Simply, intuitively (for the most part) it just works.  I’ve never had a synching issue.  I have had to reboot about 3 times in 5+ years, which has included 2 different models.

Using the touch screen for typing took some time to get used to.  Mostly that’s because of my beautiful long fingernails.  Great for hard keys, but impossible for soft keys which require heat from a fingertip.  It’s like trying to walk on stilts — my actual fingers are about 1/2″ away from the screen at all times.  I had to learn to use a stylus or the side of my fingers.  But aside from that, I have to say my experience has been great.  I even catch an occasional episode of my beloved HGTV on it when I am having lunch alone on the road.

The apps are all-inclusive in terms of what is available; virtually anything you can ask for.  Most are high quality, at least of the ones I have used.  So my long-term relationship with Apple has been very productive and pleasant thus far.  Yet . . .

There’s the new BlackBerry Z10.  Thus far it is disappointing analysts in numbers.  That’s because the market now has another major player in the form of Android, which makes a lot of other phones more desirable.  I predict that Android will eventually dominate the market in terms of operating system.  Windows has also started to take a bite out of the marketplace.  So the BlackBerry has lost a lot of momentum, and faces stiffer competition than before.  Yet . . .

BlackBerry Z10 is now marketing itself not as a business tool, which was always their niche.  They are marketing the BB-Z10 as “Fun re-invented.”  Huh?  BB was never known for being fun.  The Z10 features stuff like Time Shift for photograph improvement, and Video calls with Screen Share for on-the-fly face-to-face communications with sharing of documents and photos.  These are some seriously Apple-like innovations.  So UN-businesslike, and it looks easy.  (Look being the operative word!)  Who knows what the future holds?  It’s worth a look, and maybe more thought.  Wish I could take a test drive.

The post BlackBerry Z10 appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

I was making this point in order to emphasize the perils of becoming a service partner.  In “olden days” this was often called a “worker bee” partner.  In the Finders, Minders, Grinders scenario, this would be a Minder as a partner, or perhaps Grinder as a partner or associate.  In short, if you are not familiar with these terms, we are referring to an attorney whose career involves servicing clients of some other partner(s).

How does one become a service partner?  Early in one’s career, one is convinced by one or more partners with heavy books of business, that they do not have to do any rainmaking on their own in order to do well, and even to become a partner; just service the partner(s) clients and that will be sufficient.

Many a capable attorney has been drawn by the siren’s call of no marketing necessity, and the ability to do nothing but practice law to their greatest capacity.  Many have made the ranks of partner, although for the majority who worked at firms with non-equity partners, that is the level of partner they achieved.  Still, even without a share of profits, and perhaps no say in management, having the title and a nice compensation package was more than adequate when coupled with the ability to ignore rainmaking responsibilities.

Here’s the problem.  It’s a lie.  Maybe a good-intentioned lie, but a self-serving lie nonetheless.  Because when a lawyer depends on someone else to fill his or her plate with work, in all likelihood that lawyer will eventually have an empty plate, and no justification for continued employment.  In some small percentage of such cases, the service partner may eventually “inherit” the desirable clients when the rainmaking attorney dies or retires.  But that assumes that the rainmaking attorney makes it a point to actively work on succession such that the relationships that matter are passed on to the service partner.  In my experience, that’s not going to happen often.  So eventually, at the point in one’s career when the attorney expects to start working less hard, he or she becomes a liability due to a lack of work, and has to start all over again somewhere else, or as a solo with no business and lots of experience.

Some firms have called me in to deliver the bad news, because no one within the firm had the ability to look the 70+ year old attorney in the face and tell him/her that the firm could no longer economically justify their existence at the firm.  The feelings of betrayal are incalculable.  The attorney feels that the “deal” with the firm required them to continue to fill his/her plate.  Why aren’t other partners, younger partners, feeding them work to make up for the partner who retired or died?  Simple:  they are going to push the work downward, so as to maximize their profit, as well as their control.  They are not comfortable pushing the work up.  They can not critique performance comfortably, and many times, the older partner doesn’t treat their clients with the same significance as clients from the more senior partner(s) who used to feed them work.

Law firms today can’t afford to elevate attorneys to true equity partnership positions unless they are also rainmakers.  So don’t be drawn by the siren’s call of alleviation of rainmaking necessity, to rocky waters where your ship will eventually crash and sink.  Stay the course.  Even if it means asserting your rights to keep some time to work on your own meager clients, as you build your book of business.  Your very existence will some day depend on it.

The post Law Firm Layoffs Continue — Quietly — to the Detriment of Service Partners appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.

I recall presenting “High Tech Courtroom Presentation Tools” for the first time at a Bench Bar Conference, about 10 years ago.  The entire front row of the audience was occupied by the judicial members of the county.  One of their hands went up in the first five minutes, with a comment “I would never allow any of this stuff you’re going to talk about to be used in my courtroom!”  I was a little shocked, but managed to ask that the opinion be restated at the conclusion of the presentation.  I guess I did a good job satisfying concerns regarding Rules of Evidence, because at the end, most of the judicial members said they would consider allowing use of electronic exhibits.

Lawyers have always been slow to embrace technology.  I never realized the courts were even further behind.

The post Technology Inches into the Sixth Circuit appeared first on PA Law Practice Management by Ellen Freedman.