Committee Announcements

		Title	Announcement Description
		Chief IP Counsel Mentions AIPLA Economic Survey In An Interview	Dear Law Practice Management Committee Members: Please click HERE to read an interview with Philip S. Johnson, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Johnson & Johnson, which was published in Landslide, a magazine published by the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. Mr. Johnson specifically refers to the AIPLA Economic Survey. Thanks, Donika Pentcheva
		Law Practice Management Committee Monthly Call / A Conversation for Completion / April 12, 2013, at 1pm Eastern (10am Pacific)	Dear Law Practice Management Committee Members, After a brief hiatus as we all worked through the new AIA provisions that went into effect in March, the AIPLA Law Practice Management Committee monthly call is back on schedule in April. Our Vice Chair, Rich Goldstein, will be presenting the last in our series of The Six Critical Conversations Every: “A Conversation for Completion.” The call will be held on Friday, April 12, 2013, at 1PM EST / 10AM PST. The duration of the call will be 1 hour. The purpose of this and future monthly calls is to facilitate education, discussion, and support related to law practice management and leadership issues we all face. If you have any leadership/management questions you would like addressed on the call, however, please email them to Rich (goldstein@goldsteinpc.com) or myself in advance. Time permitting, we are happy to discuss them. Please note: To participate in the call, you must sign up in advance to obtain your own personal call-in phone number and pin. Please click here to sign up. We look forward to having everyone on the call Sincerely, Dave Divine, Rich Goldstein and Donika Pentcheva
		Announcement Regarding Next Conference Call	In conjunction with the AIPLA Corporate Practice Committee, the AIPLA Law Practice Management Section is proud to announce the next conference call in our monthly series: Having Conversations That Turn Breakdowns into Breakthroughs Professional facilitator Ron Bynum and Patent Attorney Rich Goldstein will facilitate a conversation that discusses how to handle setbacks, breakdowns, broken promises, and circumstances that stop or stall the action. In this interactive conversation they will provide a framework and process, and develop skills for producing outstanding results. In this session, you will learn how a 'breakthrough' is simply a series of well managed 'breakdowns'. The session is scheduled for Monday, February 11, 2013 at 1 p.m. PST / 4 p.m. EST. Please note, we will be using the Maestro Conference system. You must sign up in advance for this conference by clicking HERE.
		Announcements Following January 9, 2013 Committee Call	Dear Law Practice Management Committee Members: Using the Maestro teleconferencing platform, we were able to once again have an interactive and engaging conversation. At this month's call we discussed the third critical conversation that an effective leader needs to know, namely, the "Conversation for Opportunity." Additional details about the third critical conversation can be found in the following document: 2013-01-09 LPMC Monthly Call.pdf Thank you for your continued interest in the Law Practice Management Committee. We look forward to seeing LPM committee members at the upcoming AIPLA Mid-Winter Institute in Tampa, Florida. - The Law Practice Management Committee
		Announcements Following December 12, 2012 Conference Call	Dear Law Practice Management Committee Members Happy New Year! Rich Goldstein and I would like to thank you for your continuing interest in the AIPLA Law Practice Management Committee, and for making our last month's debut Law Practice Management call a success. Using the Maestro teleconferencing platform, we were able to have an interactive and engaging conversation well beyond a typical tele-seminar. On the December call, we began discussing "The six critical conversations that every successful law firm leader must master." In particular, we discussed and practiced the first two conversations: #1: Conversation to establish relatedness and rapport #2: Conversation for possibility If you missed this call, detailed are at the bottom of this email. We are pleased to announce that the second of our monthly calls will be held on Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 10AM PST / 1PM EST. The duration of the call will be 1 hour. The purpose of this and future monthly calls is to facilitate education, discussion, and support related to law practice management and leadership issues we all face. On this next call, we will discuss the next two critical conversations: #3: "Conversation for Opportunity" #4: "Conversation for Action" On the call, you will learn: •. How to move the conversation beyond the mere discussion of ideas, to determine which idea to execute; and • How to empower people to take action to move the project forward. • How to make requests, and obtain commitments from others that they actually follow through on! We are looking forward to having you on the call! Please note: To participate in the call, you must sign up in advance to obtain your own personal call-in phone number and pin. Please click here to sign up. If you have any leadership/management questions you would like addressed on the call, however, please email them to Rich (goldstein@goldsteinpc.com) or myself in advance. Time permitting, we are happy to discuss them. For those of you that use Outlook, I have also attached a meeting invite which (I believe) you can simply open and select “add to my calendar.” Thank you again. We are looking forward to having you on the call! -Dave Divine Notes from December 12, 2012 Call: Goal for the call: strengthen relationships with clients, colleagues, and personal lives Relationship is the foundation of accomplishment Better relationships = better success in your personal and professional lives How much of our jobs are communication? Writing work product Email communications Mentoring Messaging within firm Six types of conversations we have and how to be aware of the type of conversation you are having: You can’t have a successful conversation if you are conversing in one conversation type, while the other party is conversing in another type. Listening is a huge part of all six types of conversations. Reiterating/restating the other person’s position can be helpful in building rapport and establishing a sense of common interest and common view point. Understanding the different conversations allows you to notice when you are having a different conversation than others. When you notice this you can redirect the conversation so you are both having the same type of conversation. Conversation #1: Conversation to build rapport or establish background of relatedness Purpose is simply to establish rapport and relationship: we know each other, we like each other, we have things in common, etc. A successful conversation of this type usually results in discovering some shared interest or shared commitment. This type of conversation is typically required to make any of the other types of conversations meaningful/successful. People like people that are like them, AND people like people that like them. It is critical that you show a genuine interests in the other person. People can tell if you are faking it. Conversation #2: Conversation for possibility This is almost like a brainstorming session The goal of this conversation is not to make a concrete plan, not to figure out what options are best or even feasible, but to discover what is possible. At the beginning of the conversation, It is important to establish ground rules: There are no bad ideas - don't criticize or play devil's advocate for others' ideas. Do not defer to authority (all in the conversation are equals) Make sure your ideas are related to the subject at hand We are not talking about action or execution until we get all the ideas out there Agree on criteria by which we are going to evaluate the ideas You may need to reiterate these ground rules multiple times throughout the conversation - especially if you notice people rating or evaluating ideas as they are suggested. By indicating that we will later agree on criteria by which to judge, it typically diffuses any resistance/frustration by people whose natural inclination it is to judge Group practice of Conversation # 2 regarding possible activities, educational programs, and services the LPM Committee can provide: Call participant: – Best practices guide (26 tasks lawyers have to be good at) How to train new attorneys How to manage a trust account How to best document preparation Call participant: – Suggested reading list for LPM topic Call participant: – Educational content for stated meetings Call participant: – How to have a conversation with a difficult client Dave Divine – More opportunities to get together as a group outside of the stated meetings Leadership summit LPMC summit Whole group Small groups Call participant: – short videos on LPCM microsite. Checklists and articles are great, but sometimes a short video snippet may also be useful Call participant: – Include managers in conversations Rich Goldstein: – Interviews of experts in various aspects of law practice management for call Rich Goldstein: – Guest speakers from related organizations (e.g., ABA law practice management, IPO, corporate managers, etc.) Next call is scheduled for January 9, 2013 at 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern
		Join the Law Practice Management Committee!	Law Practice Management is excited to tackle the many difficult law practice management issues given these current economic times. We are developing several programs in conjunction with other committees to cover issues such as staff management, job transition, business development and other issues. We are also starting to gear up for the next Economic Survey. One of the main functions of our committee is to publish the Economic Survey every two years. We have appointed David Divine as the chair of a new subcommittee on the Economic Survey to manage this task. We are in the process of developing other subcommittees, such as a general subcommittee to handle LPM programs and a subcommitee for small and solo practitioners. We are always looking for volunteers, and do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested.