News

New Law Office Developments, June 2012

As previously noted here, Bruce Godfrey will be opening the “Gone Geek” conference track of the MSBA Annual Meeting in Ocean City next week on Thursday the 14th.  The 8:15 AM lead-off presentation will cover “30 Tech Tips in 30 Minutes”, covering a variety of tools, strategies, vendors and key concerns in the modern social media and legal marketing era.  To the left is a summary of the main topics.

It’s a bit early to announce it officially, but Bruce Godfrey may be teaching a free “street law” course in Baltimore this fall through the Baltimore Free School.  If everything works out, the course will cover practice legal topics once a week such as consumer protection and debt collection, landlord-tenant, criminal procedure, the Maryland court system’s structure and employment law.

And a personal note:

In November 2010, I (Godfrey) co-presented on the topic of social media for attorneys at a conference of the Solo and Small Firm Division of the Maryland State Bar Association.  It was an honor to make that presentation with attorney Bradley Shear, Esquire, whose knowledge of the matter substantially exceeds mine.  It is somewhat ironic to report that I have decided to cease participation in most social media websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, as they have grown to be a source of strife and unpleasantness as two separate incidents, one on each of those sites, demonstrated over the last several days.  Accordingly, clients and real-life friends and acquaintances expecting to see me on those sites should, if they wish to say “hello”, pick up the phone and say “hello.”

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Gone Clio interview with Godfrey on Legal Talk Network

Jack Newton of Themis Solutions, the publisher of the Clio online law practice management platform, interviewed me last week to discuss my overall positive experience with their product.  The discussion is probably of interest primarily to other attorneys but perhaps there might be value to other self-employed professionals in the discussion as well.  15 minutes.

FYI the fishing tackle business in question is Godfrey Custom Tackle, owned and operated by my father Ted Godfrey with a lot of help from my mother Faye Godfrey.

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GoClio.com “Gone Clio” Interview

I had an hour-long interview with GWynne Monahan of Clio a few months ago and the transcript made it to their blog. It’s a little rough and there are a few errors in it, probably due to the difference between my funny mid-Atlantic accent and the ear of my British Columbia-based interviewer, and I might have had a cold that day as well. In fairness to Clio they gave me an opportunity to edit the text of the transcript, but I didn’t take up their offer as I was too busy with other tasks.

Clio’s a solid choice. The few things I wish they did differently will probably eventually iron out; I respect Clio for printing my remarks insofar as they were contained constructive criticism regarding the need for a few tweaks.

Recently the county attorney’s office for Multnomah County, Oregon (basically Portland and a few of its inner suburbs) signed up with Clio as their practice manager for a 20-attorney office.

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Law Office of Bruce Godfrey Update 10 May 2012

The following is a brief update on the firm’s recent activities.

1)  Practice growth has led the Law Office to sign a short-term lease with Businessuites for space that overlooks the Owings Mills Mall. at 10451 Mill Run Circle.  After the lease expires, the Law Office will probably either remain in its current space, move down the hall to another unit.  So far, it’s working out well.

2) The latest edition to the Law Office is a high-powered Fujitsu ScanScap S1500M scanner, a highly-rated piece of office equipment that earns its reputation through lightning-fast performance.  The device is helping the Law Office to go mostly paperless (some documents must remain in dead-tree paper, but most can simply scan and shred.) Client files are maintained in electronic format in a secure, off-site server for access by the firm’s practice management platform, and are simultaneously synced with the Law Office’s local drive, so that both are correct, both are complete and if one gets destroyed, the other is secure.  The Law Office uses a very similar storage tool to handle non-client document.

The bane of attorneys is clutter and I am naturally no organizer at all.  But the ScanSnap has already made the move towards (mostly) paperless practice so easy; it’s a better document-trapping model in a busy office.  It’s the gold standard and my clients and I are both reaping the benefits.

3)  As previously noted here,. on June 14, 2012, I will be giving a presentation at the “Gone Geek” section of the Maryland State Bar Association Annual Meeting in Ocean City on “30 Tech Tips in 30 Minutes.”  It’s early in the program so I will be staying over in Ocean City for at least the night before and possibly for the full convention, my docket permitting.  Although the Bar Association has the rights to the final, full 30+page presentation, I am posting a small excerpt here:

4) My online lessons at the Solo Practice University video course on Unemployment Insurance: Law, Practice and Procedure continue.  I have gotten a little bit better at handling the video editing deftly and a little better at handling “me” well, if not deftly, somewhat more smoothly on the video.  A new lesson on state-by-state comparisons of unemployment insurance procedures and regulatory environments is coming up.

5) The Law Office has joined the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute, a trade association for legal plans.  I worked for a number of years with a law firm that handled an account with a major plan within that trade association; while I am not and will not be affiliated with that specific plan, I do serve as a referral attorney for several of the member plans already and will be working with additional such plans in the near future.

6) As a matter of practice, I am reluctant to discuss the specifics of my cases on this blog because it’s difficult to judge how much privacy is necessary to secure client anonymity and confidentiality.  I can state, however, that the Law Office  reached a major Title VII discrimination settlement in the last 60 days.  The case involved a large employer and a sales professional.  It was a case in which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had made conducted a meaningful investigation leading to an ultimate finding reasonable cause to believe that illegal discrimination occurred.  We (my client and I) were successful in reaching a settlement with the counterparty shortly before the right to sue letter 90 day expiry date.  That’s all I can say.  I am extremely proud of this case because the claimant in question was and is, like myself, a father who worked very hard as a provider.  Handing him his settlement check was my 2nd or 3rd happiest professional moment of my career to date, on par with my most important trial victories.

7) A personal note.  I am writing from the 4th floor of 10451 Mill Run Circle in Owings Mills late at night from my compact but comfortable, professional office.  15 years ago I used this office complex as my base when I was first starting out and when the Rouse Company owned the operation; I didn’t have permanent space here and only recently did I commit here to hard space this spring.  Now I have a window with a gorgeous view over the Owings Mills Mall (soon to be demolished and, per plans, rebuilt into a Town Center in the manner of Hunt Valley or White Marsh.)

If I had had any idea that the practice of law could bring me this much fulfillment then, I have no idea what I would have done differently.  If I knew then what I know now, ugh….! In the intervening 15 years, I have survived a house fire in my parents home, a reformulation of my practice model, relocated how many times, gotten married, gotten divorced, became a Daddy, done an immense variety of work.  I have lost a few friends along the way, a few by estrangement, a few for reasons I actually don’t know and one to a drunk driver.

I discovered that an ex-wife – more politely but equally accurately – the mother of my beautiful children and even her husband can actually be my good friends despite, well, history and personal shortcomings (specifically mine.)  I discovered that not only does life go on, but it oddly goes on quite well.

While I am non-religious, I feel oddly fortunate in the way that sincere, decent religious people do when they offer prayers of thanksgiving.  Despite problems, life is going eerily well.  What a fortunate man I am.  I can say that I could die happy today – not that I want to die, as I have a lot of important things to do for my boys, my family, my clients!  But how fortunate I am.  I don’t know if I am at the “I am the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” level of Lou Gehrig’s famous speech.  But I feel peculiarly fortunate – fortunate to do work I enjoy for clients who seem grateful for the work done.  How lucky I am.

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