Great News!  (for me) we’re currently sold-out for BOTH my “How To Start A Successful Law Firm In 90 Days Or Less” coaching program AND my “Small Law Firm Management & Marketing Bootcamp” Groups.  The latter of course being for lawyers with already-established solo & small law firms.

Great News (for YOU) we’re working hard to open a new “Start A Successful Law Firm” coaching group and we’re working hard to expand capacity for the Bootcamp-Growth groups too.  Because I’d rather ask you to wait a little while so you can have a great experience with me, than allow you to take a seat that stretches me too-thin.  Makes sense, yes?

MORE Great News (for both of us) the fact that you’re reading this now means you’re probably already miles-ahead of most of the other lawyers in the market; And therefore much more likely to be exactly the kind of person I like to work with in my groups.  Because client selection is critical for all of us isn’t it!?!  So if you would like to be first in line to APPLY for a spot in either the Start A Law Firm -OR- the Grow A Law Firm Bootcamp program just leave your name & email address below.  And I’ll be sure you get a head-start over everyone else.

I say “apply” by the way because before I’ll let anyone into the group we’ll have a private one-on-one call to be sure we BOTH agree it’s a good fit.  Another client selection “secret”.

As soon as we are able to expand capacity and open enrollment again, I expect to shut-down this page and put all the content back into the private “Members Only” library, as you would expect. In the meantime, if you tell me you’re interested in getting a head-start on everyone else you’ll have extended access to all of these materials including the videos, the support pdfs and the MP3s.

]]> http://www.lawyercontrol.com/qa/feed/ 3 http://www.lawyercontrol.com/common-credit-card-mistakes-with-iolta/ http://www.lawyercontrol.com/common-credit-card-mistakes-with-iolta/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:06:34 +0000 RJon http://www.lawyercontrol.com/?p=334 Should we offer our clients the option to pay by credit card?  Absolutely!  There’s just too much evidence that lawyers who offer clients the option to pay by credit card are happier and make more money and have happier clients too vs. lawyers who still don’t offer this option.

BUT WAIT!  There are some things you MUST KNOW before offering clients the option to make cost and fee deposits into your trust account via credit card.

And the fact of the matter is the way most State Bars are organized the “Member Benefits” department doesn’t usually know what the Bar Rules Department has to say on this important subject.  So it’s no surprise how many times I’ve gone into a law firm that’s using a Member Benefits Merchant Service Provider that’s NOT BAR RULES COMPLIANT.  How many times?  Lots of times!!!

In fact not long ago my car was actually broken into and the thieves actually left over ten thousand dollars of audio courses I keep in a big CD case. Sort of ironic isn’t it? Someone who is so down on his/her luck to be breaking into cars actually leaves-behind some lessons that could transform their life for the better!

Oh well, that’s a topic for a different day. Because TODAY I’m excited to announce that we’re going to be getting the audio files off the videos back from editing pretty soon. And as great as the internet is, if you’ve ever actually tried to deliver as much substantive content as we’ve been on this site you know how quickly you run into bandwidth issues that slow everyone down.

So if you’ll let me know you’re interested in getting the audio files, I’ll give you a 24 hour head-start before I announce it to the more than 3,800 lawyers & counting who have been getting these emails from me about how to set-up, manage & reconcile our law firms’ client property IOLTA trust accounts.

Just leave your info in this form. And if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate you letting me know WHY you’re interested in learning about this subject:

Thanks,

~ RJON

St. Thomas More

(Patron Saint of Lawyers) (1478 – 1535)

The more things change, the more they stay the same (no punn intended).  We can learn alot about the modern practice of law from our Patron Saint Sir Thomas More (Beatified1886, Rome by Pope Leo XIII).

Nowadays most solo lawyers and lawyers who own small law firms tend to feel isolated.  Maybe it’s because they don’t realize that throughout history solo lawyers have always been and for reasons discussed below I believe always will be in the vast majority of lawyers in the World.  Certainly that has been the case here in the U.S.

Back to Attorney More...

Our patron saint was born in London, on February 7 1478, He was the eldest son of a successful lawyer and educated first at St Anthony’s School, then considered one of the finest schools in London, and later spent the years 1490 to 1492 as a page in the household service of John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and lord Chancellor of England.  Morton was an enthusiastic supporter of the ‘New Learning’ of the Renaissance, and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More showed great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at Canterbury College, Oxford, where More began his studies in 1492 and became proficient in both Greek and Latin. He left Oxford in 1494, after only two years at the insistence of his father, to begin his legal training in London at the New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.  In 1496 he became a student at Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the bar

Interesting isn’t it?

Five hundred and fifty years separate us from Thomas More and yet his path to becoming a lawyer is remarkably-similar to the path so many the rest of us followed.

Let’s see what other similarities there may be. . .

More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career in order to become a monk and although he deeply admired the piety of the monks, he ultimately decided on the life of a layman upon his marriage and election to Parliament in 1504.

Lots of lawyers today struggled with other career opportunities and the path not taken haunts most lawyers I know.  Like More we also tend to bring with us to our profession a sense of a higher calling, don’t we?

Despite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued to observe certain ascetical practices for the rest of his life, including occasionally engaging in flagellation (1) & (2).

I’ve already written extensively about the “Doctrine of Sacrifice” which has seeped into our profession and how it has lawyers (mistakenly) believing that sacrificing your happiness is an inherent and noble part of “serving” clients. This way of thinking turns you into the servant and clients into your masters – and adds insult to the injury by saying you should find happiness in the sacrifice!

Gee, imagine that! Our Patron Saint was given to self-punishment as a form of religious obedience.   And nowadays lawyers go around taking pride in how MANY hours they work for their law firms seemingly oblivious to the self-destructive nature of selling hours when our clients and our families would much prefer us to deliver results efficiently and get home in time to enjoy our lives.

Yes, in fact, most lawyers DO have a big hole in our education when it comes to the practical realities of law firm marketing and even worse when it comes to law office management.

But the BIGGER PROBLEM, I eventually realized years-ago, which prevents so many otherwise-capable and intelligent lawyers from taking the tools I gave them and using those tools to make big improvements in terms of revenues and personal and professional satisfaction, was that they were not-yet ready to believe that they DESERVED to be happy.

Sadly for them, the fact of the matter is that most lawyers are not-yet-ready to let-go of this old familiar pain.  Notwithstanding the fact that it leads to too many days spent worrying about cash flow, too many hours of self-sacrifice in the office, and service to clients and on cases that those lawyers don’t have any passion for.

Instead, with the right law firm marketing and law office management skills you don’t have to choose between happiness, cash flow, or the ethical practice of law. You really can have all three.  In point of fact, notwithstanding the example set for us by our Patron Saint, for hundreds of years lawyers have been learning, improving-upon and enjoying the benefits of professional, ethical and profitable law firm marketing & law practice management skills, tools & techniques.

And you know what?  If you strip-away all the technology what worked hundreds of years ago for the lawyers who came before us is STILL working for those of us who take it upon ourselves to learn How To Manage A Small Law Firm.

Right now, but for only a little while longer you can learn how to master a critical law practice management skill that can contribute to more professional , ethical and more profitable law firm marketing too.  Or it can feel like self-flagellation and turn what SHOULD be a profitable law firm management tool into an instrument of intimidation and torture.

Visit www.LawyerControl.com right now and register to watch the FREE training “A Simple System For Managing A Law Firm Client Property Trust Account That WON’T Make You Feel Like A Schmuck”.

I certainly have no ambitions of being Canonized as the next Patron Saint of my fellow lawyers.

But I am on a mission to combat the Doctrine of Sacrifice and help all my fellow lawyers experience for themselves that Happy Lawyers Really Do Make MORE Money.(this time the punn was intended) 

————————————————————————————————————————-

(1) Rebhorn, Wayne A, editor. Utopia. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics. 2005. Introduction, pg xxi

(2) The Flagellation refers in a Christian context to the Flagellation of Christ, an episode in the Passion of Christ prior to the Jesus’ crucifixion. The practice of mortification of the flesh  for religious purposes was utilized by some Christians throughout most of Christian history, especially in Catholic monasteries and convents.some Christians throughout most of Christian history, especially in Catholic monasteries and convents.

Or if you already started your own law firm more than 18 months ago but now you’re thinking it would have been good if someone gave you this same advice back then, you can skip the survey and just register for the training now, here on this site.

But you better hurry because the response to this site and this free training has exceeded my expectations.  And it’s becoming alot of work to keep up with all the questions.

So I’m going to have to take this whole site down soon.

~ RJON

You see, your trust account was not originally conceived to be a torture device to keep you up at night and cause you worry or concern.  I fact the opposite!

Your IOLTA client property trust account was originally MEANT to be a profitable law practice management tool.  A tool that when used correctly can actually help you alot with your law firm marketing, client service and yes it will make you more profitable too.

So how is it that big law firms can (and do) use this as a competitive advantage over small law firms & solo lawyers?  Because big law firms have professional legal administrators who supervise the management of their trust accounts.  And those legal administrators take courses to teach them EXACTLY how to manage a law firm’s trust account.  And how to use it to squeeze extra profits for the firm.

Have YOU ever taken a course about how to profitably manage YOUR IOLTA client property trust account?  If not you’re leaving money on the table.  I’d estimate that for every $100,000 of revenue you gross proper trust account management could EASILY net you an extra $2,500.  Not a bad return for learning how to do something that will ALSO make you feel much more in control over your law firm, eh?  Now apply that to a big law firm with dozens or even a hundred lawyers or more and pretty soon the extra profits become pretty hard to ignore!

• And that I’ve been involved in legal & forensic investigations that accounted for and recovered tens of  millions of dollars.

• And that I’ve even authored a book entitled “The Lawyers’ Practical Real World Guide To Receivership“

Of course, based on my family history you already know why I have a special interest in understanding the cause of fraud & embezzlement.

So here’s the TRUTH about trust account embezzlement.

I share these thoughts with you now because one of the side-effects of my having made the decision to offer these videos for free is that I’ve received a bunch of personal emails and even a few phone calls from lawyers who have been personally affected as a consequence of their IOLTA-Intimidation, to thank me.  And to say in essence, “I wish I knew about this stuff sooner because then X wouldn’t have happened to me.”

In fraud examination parlance there is what we call a “Triangle of Fraud” which for most people must be present before a person will cross the line.  There is a very small sub-set of the population for whom this does not apply and below I’ll tell you how to protect yourself from them too.

1. Un-shareable need.  In other words some intensely perceived need for money that the fraudster cannot bring him or herself to share with others.   The thing is, what’s intensely un-shareable for one person might be shareable by another.  One book keeper might be OK about breaking the news to his family that he couldn’t afford the payments so the Honda is getting repossessed; While the other book keeper could find it unbearable to think that his co-workers might see him driving that very same Honda,instead of the Cadillac that was repossessed.  The key is not to substitute our own standard when investigating or protecting ourselves from fraud.

2. Justification.  Most people need some sort of justification before they will defraud someone.  The most common justifications are “Just borrowing I’ll pay it back”; “I’m under-appreciated so I’m  just taking what I deserve”; and “They don’t deserve it/they deserve to have this taken from them”.  By far, the most common justification we find when investigating theft from IOLTA client property trust accounts is the “borrowing” justification.

3. Opportunity.  Obviously in order for an accountant, book keeper or trusted employee to embezzle money from our client property trust account, they must have the opportunity to do so.  Far & away the absolute most common cause of opportunity is when a lawyer delegates responsibility for the management AND the reconciliation of the IOLTA account to the same person.  BIG MISTAKE!

Business people have been successfully and profitably delegating the management & reconciliation of their accounts to book keepers and trusted employees for thousands of years.

And do you know what has proven to be the A+, #1, absolutely MOST RELIABLE means of avoiding fraud and embezzlement?

Not some kind of newfangled technology.

Remember this problem has been around since before electricity.

The MOST RELIABLE protection is when the person whose ass is ultimately on the line (YOU) takes it upon him/herself to learn HOW the accounts are being managed & applies the “smell test” during our review of the monthly reconciliations.

That’s why in this video series I don’t waste my time or yours insulting your intelligence and integrity by admonishing you WHY not to steal from your IOLTA client property trust account.  Instead, these videos will empower you to know HOW To Profit From This Skill-Set And Protect Yourself With It Too.

~ Enjoy

You can play the audio here, or download the MP3 as you wish.

The topic of today’s show was “Why IOLTA Should Be A Lawyer’s Best Friend”

And your IOLTA SHOULD be your best friend!  Why?   How about because lawyers who learn how to manage their IOLTA accounts earn more profits, have less a/r, enjoy increased repeat & referral business from clients and report higher levels of career satisfaction.  All true.

Listen to the radio interview to confirm that you are NOT the only lawyer out there who is a little or a lot intimidated by your IOLTA client property trust account.  Then watch the Set-Up, Management & Reconciliation videos on this website as we get them back from editing to be EMPOWERED by finally learning this Simple System For Managing A Law Firm Client Property Trust Account so you don’t have to feel intimidated by it anymore.

Note: Any lawyer who doesn’t have a background in finance, accounting or book keeping;  If no-one has ever taught that lawyer the HOW TO of trust account management; And if that lawyer says he or she doesn’t feel at least a little bit intimidated by their IOLTA client property trust account.  THAT LAWYER IS LYING TO YOU!

If you don’t have a background in finance, accounting or book keeping; If no-one has ever taught you the HOW TO of trust account management; and if you feel a little or a lot intimidated by your IOLTA take comfort:  YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

You can play the audio here, or download the MP3 as you wish.

Listen to the radio interview and then feel free to post your follow-up questions to the discussion/comment section below (remember to register first).