Positioning lawyers and law firms to compete and prosper while confronting dramatic changes in the practice of law will be the focus of a program at the State Bar's Annual Meeting in Lansing. Entitled "Back to Your Future - Ensuring Your Success," the presentation will be held on Thursday, September 13, 2001 from 2 -5 p.m.

The program will address the future direction of some of the most important factors impacting legal practice, including: multi-disciplinary practices, marketing legal services, practice management and law office technology.

The multi national panel includes lawyers and CPA's whose experience and vision uniquely qualifies them to discuss the future of the practice of law. They are: Michael Simmons, Esq. a solicitor with Finers Stephens Innocent of London, England who recently completed his term as Chair of Committee 10 of the International Bar Association; Kent J. Vana, Esq., Varnum, Riddering, Schmidt & Howlett, Grand Rapids, Michigan, the firm's former Managing Partner and Chair of its Marketing Committee; Joseph V. Walker, Esq., President of Polk North America, R.L. Polk and Company, Southfield, Michigan and former Managing Partner of the Plunkett Cooney law firm; Milton W. Zwicker, Esq., Managing Partner of Zwicker, Evans & Lewis of Orillia and Barrie, Ontario, Canada and the author of the only law firm management guide used by the Chinese legal community; Linda Klein, Esq., Managing Partner of Gambrell & Stoltz, Atlanta, Georgia, a former President of the State Bar of Georgia and the Chair of the Georgia Bar's Multi Disciplinary Practice Committee, and Michael J. Cleland, CPA, of the Cleland Consulting Group, Ann Arbor, Michigan, a former Managing Partner of the Deloitte & Touche Ann Arbor office and a member of the State Bar of Michigan's Multi Disciplinary Practice Committee.

The program is sponsored and coordinated by the State Bar of Michigan's Law Practice Management Section. For more information please contact Vincent A. Romano at (313) 824-6426 or e-mail him at vinceromano@aol.com.