General Practice, Solo & Small-Firm Newsletter
April
GPSSF Leadership from left to right: Peter T. Elikann, chair, Law office of Peter T. Elikann, Boston (left) and John B. DiSciullo, vice chair, Mitchell & Desimone, Boston (right).
Message from GPSSF leadership
Although the General Practice Solo & Small-Firm Section has
had its most active and ambitious year ever in this, its fourth
year of existence, much of the hard work finally came to fruition
this spring.
Thanks to the efforts of Tom Barber and Brigid Mitchell, our
series of statewide outreach programs for attorneys, many who are
not even yet members of the Massachusetts bar, got underway with
the first one in Springfield in March. The program is a primer on
Limited Assistance Representation (LAR) where a lawyer can
represent a client for just one segment of a case instead of
participating from beginning to end. These open meetings, featuring
at least one experienced LAR practitioner and a judge, are free to
all attorneys interested in learning more about LAR and how they
and the public community can benefit from this experience. The LAR
is now being taken on the road as it criss-crosses the state with
presentations already scheduled for April 28 in
Brockton at the courthouse; at the MBA Centennial
Conference in Boston on May 18; and a training session in
Barnstable at the Probate and Family Courthouse on May 25. More of
our LAR outreach open meetings will be scheduled for early
fall.
Our main project of the year-the GP
Solo Symposium: Strategies for Success 2011 held on March 31
was a smash hit. It was so successful that it is hoped it will go
down in history as the first of what will be an annual symposium
from now on. It was a particularly fast-paced program addressing
the needs and concerns of practitioners in small firms or out there
solo. Credit goes to its main organizers-Alan Klevan; Rodney
Dowell; Scott Goldberg; and John DiSciullo.
The program, which attracted a particularly nice-sized audience,
was marked by the exceptional quality of its speakers who were
remarkably compelling, inspirational and informative.
It got underway with seven 20-minute sessions of pointers by the
pros: Alan Klevan spoke on how to market yourself in a bad economy;
Robert Ambrogi on how to use social media to Promote your Practice;
Gabriel Chong on how to create an effective referral network;
Channing Migner on how to start your paperless office transition;
Rodney Dowell on managing your time to increase productivity; Jay
Shepherd, Jr. on pricing for a profitable practice; and Marc
Breakstone on building a reputation: your foundation for
success.
Next came an extraordinary program where the trio of Alan
Klevan, Rodney Dowell and Robert Ambrogi gave a power point
presentation called Sixty Sites in Sixty Minutes pointing out
websites you may not have been aware of that every lawyer should
know. It was a hilarious rapid-fire presentation.
The program ended with two 10-minute presentations called
Perspectives on Success featuring former MBA President Warren
Fitzgerald and Brigid Mitchell who was pitch-hitting for her boss,
the other scheduled speaker, MBA President Denise Squillante, who
was as disappointed as the rest of us by being unavoidably unable
to attend.
As stated above, this is hoped to have been the groundbreaking
first of what will be an annual symposium of the General Practice
Solo & Small-Firm Section. To this end, a brain-storming
session was held a week later at the GP Solo Section Council
meeting to get off to an extremely early start and already plan
next years second annual symposium.
It was suggested that, due to the success of this year's event,
the program may be expanded from a half-day to a full day. This
would allow for question and answer sessions. At some point during
the symposium, it could also split into two tracks where some
presentations for solo practitioners could be held in one part of
the building while, at the same time, there could be presentations
geared for lawyers in small firms. The portion of the program where
perspectives on success were given by veteran heavyweights of the
bar could be expanded from two speakers to, at least, a half
dozen.
This would continue to fill an enormous need for solo and
small firm practitioners that is the current main reason for the
very-needed existence of the General Practice Solo & Small-Firm
Section Council-to continue to serve their interests in attempting
to thrive in a very difficult period of time.
Peter T. Elikann, chair
John B. DiSciullo, vice chair
General Practice, Solo & Small-Firm Section
Council