How Solid Workflows Can Save Your Solo Practice from Chaos | First Flight #9

Starting your solo firm means building good habits from day one and that begins with your intake process. In this episode of New Solo: First Flight, host Adriana Linares revisits her conversation with Chad Burton, co-founder of Modern Law Practice and CEO of CuroLegal, about how thoughtful workflows create better client relationships and fewer headaches.

From conflict checks and engagement letters to managing matters in Clio and working with virtual assistants, Chad shares how documenting your processes can help your firm grow smoothly and ethically. Plus, Adriana Linares and Rio Laine from ALPS Insurance break down why consistent intake procedures and clear engagement letters are key to avoiding malpractice claims and protecting your peace of mind.

Transcript

Adriana Linares:

Hello and welcome to New Solo on Legal Talk Network. I’m Adriana Linares , a legal technology trainer and consultant. I help lawyers and law firms use technology better. I want to thank our partners in developing the New Solo first flight series for solo attorneys presented by ALPS Insurance. They’re interested in helping solo and small firms get the best start to their practices. We curated the best 12 episodes for new solos in partnership with Alps. We’re highlighting a portion of the episode with Chad Burton. He worked as a solo and then set up a few legal tech companies that centered around building good workflow processes to build good client relationships. We love a good process here on New Solo and hope our discussion gives you some insights into your own workflows. Stay through to the end. When I sit down with Rio Lane from Alps Insurance, Rio and I are going to get into things like which language to use in intake engagement letters to avoid the number one cause for malpractice claims, the charms of checklists and how your brain is not actually the best place to keep details like potential conflicts with new clients.

And now my interview with Chad Burton about how beginning well lets you practice. Well, Chad, tell us a little bit about yourself. What kind of law you practice, where do you practice?

Chad Burton :

So you want to know about me?

Adriana Linares:

Yeah, tell us about you.

Chad Burton :

Okay. So I wear effectively two business hats. One is law firm Burton Law, and second is Cure Legal. First one law firm, what’s been labeled a virtual law firm model. Whether we like that label or not, it’s here for now. We are multi-state, multi lawyer firm in Ohio, dc, Kentucky currently, and in growing I practice out of Ohio. Our firm focuses on business law litigation. Typical client base is in the tech company, whether it’s startup to multinational company. It’s really good as a solo to narrow your client base. So it’s one person startup to all over the world and everything in between. So

Adriana Linares:

Hey,

Chad Burton :

Think big, right? Think big, right?

Adriana Linares:

Think big or go home.

Chad Burton :

Yeah, might be bored. So virtual law model in that we work outside the traditional brick and mortar setting. Some of the technology we’ll talk about today with client intake helps tie us all together. So that’s one thing that I do. In Cure Legal, we work with firms. So alegal is at its core, the outsourced managed services for other firms. So we work with lawyers to not only help them use technology and incorporate best practices for operating their firm, but we also have virtual assistants, bookkeeping, marketing, professional services type help as well. So obviously you can see kind of the overlap in those worlds, but that’s what I do.

Adriana Linares:

Well, that’s great. And one of the reasons I was excited to have you on is because you are a lawyer, obviously you were a solo and you started a business and a practice, and then you also sort of started a side business helping attorney. So I’m really glad to have you on to talk to us about client intake and what that’s like and some of the best practices in getting that done. So why don’t we start with something as simple as, so client walks in and you have a conversation, or in your case, they don’t necessarily walk in because you have a virtual office. So somehow you’re engaging them maybe in a non-traditional way. Maybe it’s the traditional way

Chad Burton :

Or both.

Adriana Linares:

Or both, or some weird combination of both. What happens after you’ve shook hands and said, okay, I want to be your attorney, and they say, cool, I want to be your client. What’s the next first step?

Chad Burton :

Fortunately, that’s how it happens. Yeah, sure. May I be your attorney? Yes, you may.

Adriana Linares:

Okay, check here.

Chad Burton :

Right, exactly. So when you’re talking client intake, it’s however you start the relationship. So it’s even in more traditional models, so many engagements are now getting started electronically or you’re connected via phone because the person’s halfway across the world or the country and you’re not seeing face-to-face. That’s part of the interesting part about the virtual model is that it sounds magical and mystical as if I’m sitting in my parents’ basement eating Cheetos, hoping for a real client to show up.

Adriana Linares:

And

Chad Burton :

Why wouldn’t they? Wouldn’t they? Right, exactly. I have a computer, but the way engagements are started, they’re happening remotely regardless of your type of firm, big, small, whatever. So high level thinking on client intake is that you hug, you agree that you’re going to be their lawyer. I assume everybody does that, right?

Adriana Linares:

I always hug my lawyers,

Chad Burton :

Who wouldn’t. And then it’s how can you be most efficient in getting them into your world and start serving them, doing the lawyering part. Now, one thing, so you’ve got different topics. We can cover conflict check, which should happen before you hug,

Adriana Linares:

Right?

Chad Burton :

So that’s kind of a, let’s start there. Backing up even before the hug and high five occurs,

Adriana Linares:

Right?

Chad Burton :

Conflict check. It’s one of those things that everybody knows well should know because if you went to law school and or you’ve read the ethics rules, it matters that figuring out, okay, make sure you haven’t represented somebody in the solo world. It seems like it’s a lot easier because if you’re a solo in your head, Hey, I haven’t, I’m good either side, it’s not going to be a

Adriana Linares:

Problem. I remember,

Chad Burton :

Right? I remember.

Adriana Linares:

I would remember.

Chad Burton :

Which it sounds logical, especially when you’re starting off because maybe you have a limited scope of clients, but years pile up and people pile up. And conflict checks are not just about have you represented them in an engagement? Well what if they’re a related party that’s tangentially involved in a previous matter or what happens if you’re involved in some litigation at some point or general corporate representation, then a subpoena comes down the road later on, you still have to do conflict checks with subpoenas and different issues. So it is really important and it can get lost. And I’ve seen this, it really surprised me. I came out of the large law firm world before I went to the small firm world and conflict checks in the big firm world are just what you do. And there’s so many lawyers and there’s whole departments, massive systems,

Adriana Linares:

Right? Departments

Chad Burton :

And systems in place, department and systems processes. That doesn’t happen as much in the small firm world fact, but it should. It’s even, yeah, even if you partner up with one or two people, you now have two or three pasts histories that you’re bringing together that could affect us. And I’ve seen it firsthand where some lawyers don’t get that that really matters as much.

Adriana Linares:

Quick question on the conflict checks that I just thought of. So you said you came from a big firm.

Chad Burton :

Yes.

Adriana Linares:

So let’s say you’re a big firm attorney and you decided to go out on your own, do your conflict checks that you’re now doing, let’s say you literally hung your shingle yesterday. First potential client walks in. Do you have to then go back to who you could have or tangentially big lawyer word that you used there?

Chad Burton :

I dunno what that means.

Adriana Linares:

It just fit in. Have to. Is that part of your conflict check? Oh, when I was at big law firm, I may have gone across some documents and searching for a new document where I read about that client. Is that how far back you have to go on a conflict check or is it basically, and this might be an ethics question that you can answer, but answer it the best that you can. Okay,

Chad Burton :

So the disclaimer upfront is it’s going to vary state by state, but if we go generally,

Adriana Linares:

Let’s go general,

Chad Burton :

Those conflicts are going to follow you throughout your career. So if you’ve got 40 years under your belt, you’re going to have those will follow you. So yeah, you go big firm, I have to look at new representations in our firm. Now that could be up against what I did at a previous firm And That goes for everybody. So if you have a firm of six, seven lawyers and they were at six, seven firms in the past, that’s all going to carry. Now that doesn’t necessarily preclude you from being adverse because this is where you’re going to dive into the rules to figure out the actual, is there a conflict? But you have to carry it along with you and have that as part of the process.

Adriana Linares:

So part of getting started is, so there’s probably two roads if you’re a new attorney, then the concept is just start a good conflict checking system right now. Make the habit, find a system, find a way even while you can still remember everything you’ve done. So if you’re brand new, start a good habit, it’s going to help you for the rest of your career. If you’ve been practicing, you’ve got to go back and then now start a new habit, a new system that you’ll use on a go forward basis.

Chad Burton :

Correct. And I mean that’s where your platform that you use is really important. And the way

Adriana Linares:

Gmail, is Gmail a good way to do conflict checks?

Chad Burton :

It’s part of it. So I’ll tell you what our process is. There’s two parts to it. So we use Clio for our practice management solution.

So potential client comes in, lawyer goes into Clio, does searches to, because conflict check feature in Clio, do searches, is there anything that comes up there that you have to have your eyes on and you can reach out to the lawyers involved, et cetera. We also simultaneously, well I guess you can’t do it at the exact same time unless you’re really good. You send an all firm email that puts all the parties and the brief description idea. So then it would be unreasonable to think that you could put into Clio now everything you’ve ever done in the past that wasn’t part of Burton Law, but by sending the email it puts it in front of your face. So everybody in the firm looks at it and says, Nope, we’re good there. And then that email was also saved in Clio, so now it’s memorialized there. So those parties will pop up in the future if it becomes an issue.

Adriana Linares:

So let’s talk real quick about Clio and not necessarily just about Clio, but of course as a technology consultant and trainer, one of the things that I just recommend every single time I talk to a new lawyer is you’ve got to have a practice management or a case management system in place. So we’re familiar with Clio, we’ll use it as an example, but I want our listeners to know that any good legal specific practice management system is going to do this very thing, which is it’s keeping track of all the parties adverse, the clients related parties, experts, emails that are being put into the system where somebody is just CC’d. So what if the person that you’re doing a conflict check against might not be a direct contact, but perhaps they were CC’d on a string of emails from on another matter. Just doing a search on that name is going to bring back all the results, whether it’s a contact who’s actually in your address, book a name in a matter record and an email and that sort of stuff. And that’s important. It’s just to find where that name or that entity could show up somewhere in the history of your law practice, whether it be very short or very long.

Chad Burton :

And that’s where in having, when you start gathering that data from building that historical record, if you think about it from a larger firm perspective where you have whole conflicts, departments, this is the kind of stuff they’re digging into, they’re really going in and analyze it and doing these kind of searches and digging into the information that exists in the firm. And this is where you hear folks talk about, well practice management solution, I’m just getting started. I’ve got Outlook,

Adriana Linares:

Which I’ve

Chad Burton :

Got so much stuff to do. I’ve got Outlook, I keep track of it. I know what’s in my law firm bank account because it’s just me. I know who owes me money because it’s a short list. I can just keep track of it this way. What you’re doing though, and hopefully you’re starting something with the idea that it’s actually going to succeed. So if it grows, it seems like a good

Adriana Linares:

Thought goal number one,

Chad Burton :

But you are building that data to use later on. And so if five years down the road you’ve got a bunch of lawyers in your firm, well now you’ve captured that data and you’ve got that record that’s there and that’s important to do.

Adriana Linares:

So I feel like we’ve sort of

Chad Burton :

Beat conflict enough.

Adriana Linares:

Got conflict check done. Okay, so let’s move on. So you’ve done the conflict check, now the actual hug can happen and what happens next?

Chad Burton :

Yeah, this is where you are setting up matters and whatever your practice management solution is. So you’re going to set up the matter going forward so that your team, or if you’re a solo, you can access the information. Hopefully you’re using a platform that’s actually useful and you can access the information from anywhere. But the way we do matter setups is that we created a PDF that is fillable by the lawyers to capture key data for putting it into Clio and setting a box and how we’re going to deliver invoices. So if the client doesn’t want a Clio Connect invoice, they say, can you just email me a PDF attachment? We put that kind of note in there. Yes.

Adriana Linares:

So when I first started my career, one of the very first articles I ever wrote was an idea that law firms should have a technology compatibility questionnaire with their clients. Because so often what would happen is I would go to a secretary who couldn’t open a document from a client, and this was 15 years ago, so this happened all the time. It still happens today. But I would say, why can’t you open the document? And she would say, I don’t know, it just won’t open. And I would say, well, do they use Word perfect because we’re a word shop? And she would say, I don’t know. And I was offended because one, I was new in the business and I didn’t understand how this could happen, but I also thought, haven’t they been a client of ours for 15 years? And she would say yes. And I would say, how do we not know? So are you sort of saying that in that questionnaire you’re also capturing how you’re going to communicate with them technologically? Correct. Okay,

Chad Burton :

Good. Yes,

Adriana Linares:

I love that idea. So even if you’re a solo, this is not hard. It’s a series of questions

Chad Burton :

And the reason why we use this form is we use virtual assistants to set up these matters and to produce the engagement letter. The reason why we do this uniform practice is because if you had seven lawyers doing it seven different ways, it becomes a cluster of what’s actually being put in. You’re busy, and I used to do this as a solo as well. When I was setting up the matters myself, I would say, I’ll do it tomorrow,

Adriana Linares:

Right? I’ll remember.

Chad Burton :

And then well, let me just put my time over here and then I’ll put it back into, and now it’s like a month later you’re ready to invoice them and now you have to go back and do all this work. It’s just so much easier to start doing it upfront. So we created this matter and our lawyers can either type it out themselves or actually I send voice memos with the data for the form. So the virtual assistant listens to it, types it in to Clio directly. It’s a lot faster for me. Sure.

Adriana Linares:

Okay, so you’re in the car, you hit voice record on your iPhone, you put in the information, you send it to the virtual assistant, boom, it gets entered,

Chad Burton :

They populate it. Then what’s going to happen is the matter is going to be set up in Clio. We use box to store documents, which integrates with Clio. So they’re going to also set up the folder tree and box.

Adriana Linares:

Right?

Chad Burton :

That’s going to occur

Adriana Linares:

For documents. So you’re setting up now the infrastructure in the matter management system?

Chad Burton :

Correct. Which is important. And then engagement letter is generated and then sent to the client. Usually we’ll pop that out via box and we’re in the process of integrating, said that I’m saying this out loud that we don’t have it already set up

Adriana Linares:

Electronic

Chad Burton :

Signature

Adriana Linares:

And it’s being recorded and memorialized.

Chad Burton :

No? Yes. Okay. The electronic signature concept into engagement letters.

Adriana Linares:

Oh, you haven’t done that yet?

Chad Burton :

No haven. I’m

Adriana Linares:

Surprised. Wow. Whoa. Demerits.

Chad Burton :

Long story

Adriana Linares:

Dumb merits.

Chad Burton :

I have been trying to do this and it, it’s a good vendor story. So we’re in the process of doing that now.

Adriana Linares:

Okay, couple questions about the form itself. We talked about how do you want things, do you want an e-bill? Do you want a paper bill? What other three or four must have things do you put on the retainer engagement letter? Your ranks?

Chad Burton :

I mean, yeah, the fee structure is going to be the key. So if it’s structure

Adriana Linares:

Going to

Chad Burton :

Put that in there. We have a pretty standard engagement letter concept that may or may not have been lifted from my previous firm. Nobody ever does

Adriana Linares:

That. That’s how we all do it.

Chad Burton :

Right. That’s really good. So why not use it? And it’s been adapted over time because things like including that we use cloud-based technology to store documents and that kind of stuff. We

Adriana Linares:

Also also, you’re including a disclaimer and a terms of service and an FYI in there, correct? Oh,

Chad Burton :

Actually in the process of changing up the engagement letter to be a very short document that incorporates terms of service. So that will probably save it on box and there’ll be a link in the agreement or letter, whatever the shortened version of it is. But then we would have the terms of service in it. Part of that’s also going to be, because in our model, we’ve started to work with some of counsel that have their own solo practice elsewhere under the ethics rules and Ohio. And I’m guessing most states you have to disclose to the client that they also have their own practice. So what we can do is put that in the terms of service. So that’s constantly being updated if I add a new lawyer they’re in and we can keep track of it there.

Adriana Linares:

Okay. Any other good things to make sure you put in there?

Chad Burton :

There’s a lot of things you should put in an engagement letter. Obviously fee structures, how costs are handled is always an interesting one. What is passed along? So it’s not a surprise to the client that they’re getting billed for X, Y, and Z if you pass along. We don’t do a lot of pass alongs actually because I don’t like that and whether that’s, I adopted a practice that we started at previous firm of not charging clients for research services. So Lexis is not pass through at

Adriana Linares:

All. Interesting. Do you raise your rates a little because of that? Do you figure out a way to roll that in or it just gets absorbed in some out?

Chad Burton :

It’s part our overall. I mean it’s just part of our overall structure model, operating structure. Yeah, interesting. We won’t pass along small coffee jobs and things like that or a stamp. It’s just if, do

Adriana Linares:

You know how much money lawyers make every year off of stamps?

Chad Burton :

I know it’d be so smart, but I don’t ever want a client to look at an invoice and have a question on a cost issue.

Adriana Linares:

Okay, so that’s smart. What about how long you’re going to keep their documents or what happens to their documents when the matter is open

Chad Burton :

Document over retention? Yeah, basically it lays out all the different pieces of the engagement. We’ve done a conflict check and everything’s clear. There’s a line in our engagement letter that exists that the client will pay for costs including train travel, which is awesome. We don’t have trains really in Ohio, but we include that because it’s fun. I’ve had a client come back once and it showed, they actually read it. It was another lawyer. She said, I’m fine with everything, but I will not pay for your train

Adriana Linares:

Travel. What about jet pack travel?

Chad Burton :

Well, that totally cool.

Adriana Linares:

Jet pack travel must have

Chad Burton :

Actually, when the check came out of, they sent it from their bank from bill pay. The account was, it actually didn’t have their firm name. It just said train travel on the check for the bill pay. So I knew it was there.

Adriana Linares:

Chad, I want to ask you, you’re a pretty methodical guy and maybe you weren’t when you were a solo and you’ve developed these processes through your experience with a big firm as a solo and now managing a seven attorney virtual firm. So let’s talk about process. So I’m a brand New Solo, whether I big firm again or just out of law school, and I don’t think about process because surely there’s not a process class other than the legal side of process process, but they don’t teach you how to build a process to intake in clients and dealing with the data and then how to work with it long term. So give us some ideas about how you did it, tools that you used. And I want you real quick also to describe box because you’ve mentioned it many times and it’s possible that our listeners don’t know what it is, but you can probably say it’s like Dropbox and they’d get it. But go ahead,

Chad Burton :

Right Process. Yeah, it’s something that, one of my issue, I guess I have lots of issues, but one of them is the, I know

Adriana Linares:

We should call your wife right

Chad Burton :

Now. Do we have some extra time? Because I would need to share some problems that I’ve got. I am one of those people that cannot stop testing out different types of apps and platforms and things like that. Now, when I became a solo, this was in early 2010, so think in years of cloud-based solutions, were early on. Clio, rocket Matter are about two years old or so at

Adriana Linares:

That point. Yep. They were the new darlings.

Chad Burton :

They’re new. Coming from the bigger firm world. I had no idea this stuff existed. Impulsively bought a Mac when I started my solo practice.

Adriana Linares:

Oh wow. That’s a whole episode right there.

Chad Burton :

It is. And it was awesome. So I bought this Mac and then went to, oh, let me go get some software to put on it to manage my practice didn’t exist because Dumbly people don’t make it for traditional software for Mac because Mac users are awesome. They should. So then that’s when I got introduced to the cloud concept. So I tried, even before I used Clio, I used some other platforms and was mixing and matching things together as trying highrise. It was hilarious using my political science and history degrees to try and figure out QuickBooks on my own, which was awesome. I kind of became an accountant sadly every six months when I would look at it and say, I should probably put that in QuickBooks. It’s a good idea. This is why outsourcing, after I started outsourcing stuff, it became so much easier actually giving it to people that know how to do

Adriana Linares:

It.

Chad Burton :

That are competent. That are competent

Adriana Linares:

Topic.

Chad Burton :

Right, exactly. That’s why I outsourced my legal work. No, I’m just kidding. Competency. But so when you’re talking about process and procedures, you need something and it’s a trial and error depending upon your type of practice. I want to focus on mobility. So how does it work? How can we set up matters, et cetera. That’s where the virtual assistants come in, where it doesn’t matter where I am, where they are to set this stuff up. Sometimes I meet new clients face to face and I don’t put an engagement letter in front of them. It’s going to get emailed later on. But some lawyers to, let’s say you’re doing personal injury or you’re doing criminal offense, you want to get the engagement set up and they’re probably going to drop a check off when they’re in your office. This is where a lot of people use forms or just kind of fill in engagement letters or retainer agreements where they hand write the name in and things.

Processes that could be very cool would be using an iPad, putting in front of ’em. They type it in, it gets emailed off, it gets put into your practice management system. So these are the kinds of things you want to think about based on how you operate as a firm and your client base as to what those processes are. And there’s a lot of value in doing it first. So then you’re not like I was, you’re always going to be making stuff up, but if you’re not trying it at all or you’re not really strategically thinking about it, it just takes a ton of time

Adriana Linares:

And it’s frustrating. And what happens is when you don’t take the time to create a process, the next time you’re actually going through the process because you’re going through a process every time, it’s just a matter of how efficiently you’re doing that. So getting a form. So if you actually take the time to move the form into a fillable form and then figure out maybe how to make that form available on your website, that two or three hours that you spend, which you think you don’t have to spend because none of us have to spend. But when you do it, formalizing that process is so helpful and it’s just such a relief when you get around to doing that. It’s incredible.

Chad Burton :

And if you write it down, which sounds like a horrible exercise to capture your processes, but as you add team members, or even if you hire an assistant

Or you have a bookkeeper that is doing, you’ve got processes in place that you can then point them towards. They read it, go through it, they’re always evolving documents. Our policies and procedures are ever evolving. Documents internally you do that, but so you bring somebody on to your team, then you can say, read this. We will talk through it, but it puts something there. So in theory, they can, if a question arises, nobody actually goes back to the document. They just ask somebody else. They can go back, read the document and know what those procedures are. I’m thinking, I’m trying to, there’s several different ways to do it, but I want to explore something like a Zendesk idea internally with the firm, internal wiki kind of thing, frequent ask questions, maybe like a Google, let’s say Google site, whatever it is, kind an internal wiki you can set up that attach to Google apps, something like that.

Adriana Linares:

So there’s a lot of places that you could put information like that to make it so that you’re not repeating it all the time. Or for me, I know when I’m training someone new to help me, it’s so piecemeal, I remember this and then I’ve got to go back to her four times because I forgot this step or forgot this piece or forgot this part. So I think the takeaway here is create great habits from the beginning. And you’re doing it and thinking like a business owner, not a lawyer.

And that’s the hard part for lawyers to think business people. I’ve got to get my conflict check system. I’ve got to get my engagement letters as perfect as I can, recognizing that they’re going to evolve and change all the time, but I don’t want to be creating a new one every single time. And think about the processes that make that whole process of onboarding orienting as I like to say, clients into working with you. Orienting, well ranting, yes, I rant often, but orienting clients to working together. That was Chad Burton, an attorney turn tech advisor talking about the importance of going through best principles in setting up workflows to bring clients into the firm and particularly conflict checks. I hope you like meeting Chad. This is part of the New Solo first flight series presented by Alps Insurance. I’m joined by my friend Rio Lane Alps, iss director of strategic partnerships. Rio helps attorneys protect their practices even through transitions. Hey Rio.

Rio Laine:

Hey Adriana. Thanks for having me back.

Adriana Linares:

It’s always a pleasure. So you like me, and I feel like I say this every time we’ve met a lot of solo attorneys. I really like the way Chad suggested kind of gave this idea of starting his relationship with clients or recommending that attorneys start their relationships with kind of like a hug of sorts. And it seems to me like talking about the engagement letter and the onboarding process is exactly what you would do when you’re, it’s like the hug of the, Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you. Hug. So I want to talk about a good intake. He mentioned a lot of good tips and I want to also talk about the engagement letter. So it seems like he suggested and really had a structured process for intake, which a lot of attorneys just do not. They have it in their head, they don’t write it down. They expect everybody to just know how they want that intake process to go through. So why don’t you start by giving me some ideas about why having a documented intake process is important for your malpractice prevention plan. Shall we call it an MPP?

Rio Laine:

Yes, yes. For our MPP that you’re going to put together when you start your solo firm.

Adriana Linares:

Love it. Yeah.

Rio Laine:

Yeah. So fun fact, poor documentation, particularly around engagement letters is one of the highest causes of malpractice claims. Oh, that is a fun fact. What? Yeah. Yes, yes. Documentation. Documentation. It always comes back to that. And it really does start with your engagement letter. That is the first documentation. And I really actually, I like this concept of starting it with a hug because it can be kind of intimidating to hire a lawyer. You’re obviously stressed, you have a legal issue, and suddenly getting this engagement letter, getting all this documentation for the client can be a very stressful thing. So kind of starting it off on that positive footing. I really like the way that he framed that. But in terms of your engagement letter in general, it is really important to send it. And it doesn’t have to be a super long multi-page legalese document, but it does have to be a consistent in the way that it is structured when it gets sent out your process, like to Chad’s point, having a structured intake process is a really good way to prevent errors and claims from arising in terms of what you should be putting in that engagement letter.

A scope of representation is a big one, and that includes what you will be representing them for, but also what you won’t be. That’s a really big one.

Adriana Linares:

It seems to me like a lot of these engagement letters might get really lawyerly wordy.

Rio Laine:

Yes.

Adriana Linares:

Do you ever see them or talk to attorneys who talk about writing a really plain English engagement letter that says, here’s how I will help you and here’s how I won’t, rather than I can imagine now it goes, attorney represent client during blah, blah, blah. I mean, is there a reason from a malpractice prevention plan perspective that we wouldn’t just write it in plain English?

Rio Laine:

No, it’s actually better. Yeah. We actually do recommend that you write it in plain English because your clients usually aren’t lawyers, right? They don’t understand legalese. Well, maybe they do, but usually they don’t. And that’s a really good way to create misunderstandings and to find yourself in hot water with a malpractice claim because the client starts to read legalese and their eyes glaze over and they’re like, whatever. It’s all fine. I agree. It turns out it wasn’t fine and they didn’t get it. You’re writing it. Yeah,

Adriana Linares:

Exactly. Let’s make this suggestion. I like this idea. Take your engagement letter, put it in a robot and say, put this in plain English, take out the legalese so that a client who’s not a lawyer can clearly understand this. Let’s try that. Okay. If an attorney out there tries that, I want you to let us know and we want to see a sample of it, we’ll talk about it. So we’ve got a good reason for having a documented intake processes. Consistency helps prevent errors. And one of the things we’re always trying to do to mitigate malpractice is prevent errors or mitigate malpractice claims scope and clarity. Great. We just really dug in on that one, and I think I actually had a good idea there. I hope somebody gives me credit from it. And then I know you had one more point.

Rio Laine:

So having a repeatable intake process, it is not only good for your clients, it’s also really great for your practice because it’s repeatable what’s going to happen. It’s efficient every single time. It is the same thing, the same process. You’re not scrambling to put together this letter that maybe you forgot. If you do end up having staff or support staff, they know what’s happening because you’ve documented that process and they know what to do and what comes next. And it really kind of frees up your brain to do your job, to practice law, to focus on the things that are important rather than maybe cleaning up mistakes or if you’ve missed this engagement letter, having step a claim, rise down the road or missed a step. Exactly. And I know people, processes are not exciting. They’re not the funnest thing, but they’re so, so important and really worth taking the time to put into place and to follow.

Adriana Linares:

So when I’m shopping around for malpractice as an attorney, is this one of the questions that’s on the checklist? Do you have documented intake and engagement letter processes? What is the key thing that I’m looking for in order to make my malpractice carrier happy, but also to do right by my practice?

Rio Laine:

So we don’t typically ask questions like this. We ask more like, has your firm had a claim in the past? And if you have, then we’ll dig into that and start asking these types of questions. But we do ask these when we’re doing a risk assessment. When you’re helping your firm determine really how at risk you are for a malpractice claim, this is something that we ask, we will ask you to consider and tell us about your process. Let’s dig into that. And if it falls short, we will make recommendations and say, Hey, these are some things you need to tighten up in order to cover your butt, basically.

Adriana Linares:

That’s very good. Okay. I didn’t realize a conversation like that actually happened. And especially new ones don’t realize that a conversation like that actually can happen and it’s probably very helpful.

Rio Laine:

Yes, yes. And so fun fact, again, another one, we also have a risk manager on staff Mark Bassing waits. He is our kind of resident risk manager. You can call him, you can email him and you can ask him questions like this, and he will give you all the advice that you need. He’ll answer any of your questions, and he will help you take meaningful actual steps towards reducing your risk in your practice. And that’s free. That’s totally. And you don’t even have to be an ALPS insured actually do that. That was going to be my next question. Any

Adriana Linares:

Before Mark, he is about to get buried.

Rio Laine:

He loves it. He loves it. He is been doing this for about 25 years. He was in private practice before and he really prides himself on supporting solos in small firms. So he doesn’t mind reach out to him, mark,

Adriana Linares:

Get ready.

Okay, great. Now an important part of that initial hug, Hey, how are you? Here’s how we’re going to work together. Here’s the things and the information I need from you, and I need some money. But before that, I’ve got a clear conflict check. This is probably one of the poorest processes I ever see in a law firm, especially if it’s just one attorney, maybe two. They keep it all in their heads, so their conflict checks happen in their minds, which I know are brilliant. But tell us really about the importance of having a good conflict checking process as part of your MPP.

Rio Laine:

Yeah. Well, I mean, again, really comes down to that documentation, documenting that process in order to avoid making those errors, but also just avoiding an issue arising down the road. We like to think that we can remember every single person and every case and everything, but we can’t. Things pile up after the years. And I mean, our memories are not what we think they are sometimes. So a single conflict check mistake can really, it can damage client trust, bring on ethics complaints.

Adriana Linares:

It can. Nobody wants

Rio Laine:

That run you a foul. Nope, nope. So even if you didn’t mean to make that mistake, they do happen. So having a process in place is really, really important to avoid that. And to your point, having these processes, particularly for conflict checks can be really overlooked. But also because there isn’t really a widely, I would say, accepted or recommended process. What are some examples or what’s something you’ve seen that worked?

Adriana Linares:

I’m glad you asked me because I always say that our goal as a law firm is to work in a matter centric environment, meaning everything related to a matter should be in a central location and all of those matters together should be in a essential location. So a case management system is really the best way to do that. And there are still so many lawyers and law firms that don’t have case management systems. The way that a case management system can help you, and especially in preventing malpractice, is from the technology side. But here’s the point to answer your question. When everything is in one central location, it’s easier to run a conflict check. And by that I mean when all of your emails and their attachments and all of your documents and all of your notes and your internal communications and text messages with the clients and appointments from your entire calendar, not just from one matter when everything can be in one central location and you can do a search for a term, a name, a word, the conflict check can be run in one place or fewer places, you’re automatically reducing your risk right now, if you’re having to run a search in your email and over in your document management system and on an Excel spreadsheet and in your case management system, your risk is enhanced.

It’s big, but you can reduce that risk by putting as much as possible into one central location. So I would say the answer to your question is a case management system is where it starts. And today’s case management systems are so good at indexing everything that goes into the case management system from a text message that comes into the client to an internal message that we send each other saying, Hey, do you remember Bob Writer? And by the way, that was a name I literally just made up, not intended to call out Bob Writer, whoever he may be. So that’s my answer is case management system helps actually with all of these things, including documenting your processes,

Rio Laine:

Typically in your case management system, there’s also a place to log that you have completed that conflict checked that you actually did it. And that is kind of the last key piece of that is, yes, you can run it, but again, if you’re relying on your memory to tell you whether or not it was done well, who knows? So yeah, I would absolutely agree with that. And yeah, it’s a really important thing that obviously people tend to miss. They tend to kind of skirt over, but really a really good way, an easy way to avoid a claim.

Adriana Linares:

Well, Rio, yet another fun fact filled conversation and always a pleasure to chat with you. Thank you so much for taking the time. Remind everybody where they can reach out to you and Alps and especially if they’re shopping for malpractice insurance.

Rio Laine:

Thank you again for having me. It’s always a pleasure. And if you are lovely listeners would like to reach out to me, you can get me at R Laine, LAIN e@alpsinsurance.com. That’s Alps like the mountains. And if you want to check out any of our resources that we have, we’ve got engagement letter examples, checklist for your practice, et cetera. You can visit alps insurance.com and check out resources.

Adriana Linares:

Alright everyone, thanks for listening to another episode of New Solo. I hope you enjoyed it and we’ll see you next time