8:00 a.m.

The Future of Lawyering:  Embrace the Possibilities
Richard Susskind (by video)

Join Richard Susskind (by video), the best-selling author of The End of Lawyers? and The Future of Law as he predicts fundamental and irreversible changes in the world of law. What Susskind sees is eye-opening: a legal world of virtual courts, Internet-based global legal businesses, online document production, commoditized service, legal process outsourcing, and web-based simulated practice.

The British Are Coming, The British Are Coming!
Victoria Vuletich

The U.K. recently followed the growing trend of nations liberalizing their legal services marketplace by adopting alternative business structures (ABS).  The U.K. allows lawyers and non-lawyers to conduct business together, offer both legal and non-legal services to their clients, and share fees. Ms. Vuletich just returned from five weeks in England studying the ABS marketplace.  In this session, she'll share how the ABS model is working and her predictions for its entry into the U.S.

Virtual Practice in the 21st Century
Diane Ebersole

Virtual practices are all the rage, but what are they? Find out what it means to practice virtually, the costs and benefits of adding virtual services, technology that may be required, potential enhanced confidentiality concerns, how VLP can impact the practice of law, and other issues to consider before starting a virtual practice.

Online & Social Media Marketing for Lawyers
Robert Aicher & Samantha Meinke

Understanding the ins and outs of online and social media marketing is instrumental in today's world to attract and keep clients. In this session, you'll learn how social media and the State Bar of Michigan's new online legal marketplace can help clients find you, and how it enables you to connect with your peers.

Malpractice Insurance 101
JoAnn Hathaway

When it comes to buying legal malpractice insurance, many lawyers simply seek out the coverage and deductible they want and buy the policy with the lowest premium.  In this session, you'll learn the policy features, coverage options and other factors you should consider when purchasing LPL insurance. We'll answer the many questions you may have never known to ask about your insurance policy.

Building a Paperless Practice
JoAnn Hathaway

In this session, you'll learn the fundamentals of law firm recordkeeping and how to establish a paperless practice. You'll learn how to develop and implement policies, procedures and workflows to effectively implement your paperless practice, and help you avoid the traps that are inherent in a weak and undeveloped system. We'll explore the many hardware and software options to help you be less reliant on paper.

Your Technology Toolbox: Hardware & Software for Your Firm
Diane Ebersole & JoAnn Hathaway

Understanding the many hardware and software options available to lawyers today is key to creating a law firm that is a well-oiled machine.  In this fast-paced session we'll overview the latest in technology and help you understand why less is more and how to find your legal technology "sweet spot."

Financial Benchmarks for Business Decisions
Diane Ebersole

Generating and using financial benchmarks enables law firms to make knowledgeable business decisions.  In addition to standard monthly accounting reports, measures of revenue capacity, billing realization and turnover rates, receivable collection turnover rates and attorney leveraging need to be captured. In this session, we'll learn how to create these reports that will enable better business decisions for your firm.

Billing & Trust Accounting:  Getting it Right
Danon Goodrum-Garland

While the billable hour is alive and well, more and more lawyers are incorporating flat and blended fee structures into their practices. Understanding trust accounting and proper fee management is key to safeguarding client funds and ensuring compliance with ethical obligations. This session will provide the ethical foundation for handling client or third person funds to ensure that you get it right.

Speakers

Richard Susskind
Professor Richard Susskind OBE is an author, speaker, and independent adviser to major professional firms and to national governments. His main area of expertise is the future of professional service and, in particular, the way in which the IT and the Internet are changing the work of lawyers. He has worked on legal technology for over 30 years. He lectures internationally, has written many books, and advised on numerous government inquiries.

Richard lectures internationally and has been invited to speak in over 40 countries and has addressed audiences (in person and electronically), numbering more than 250,000. He has written and edited numerous books, including Expert Systems in Law (OUP, 1987), The Future of Law (OUP, 1996), Transforming the Law (OUP, 2000), The Susskind Interviews: Legal Experts in Changing Times (Sweet & Maxwell, 2005), The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services (OUP, 2008), Tomorrow's Lawyers (2013), and has written around 150 columns for The Times. His work has been translated into 10 languages.

Robert Aicher
Robert Aicher is a 1976 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He is a recently retired partner of the Manhattan office of Sidley Austin LLP and currently resides in Lake Leelanau, Michigan. He is a co-founder and CEO of CloudLaw, Inc.

Diane Ebersole
Diane Ebersole is a practice management advisor for the State Bar of Michigan. She serves on the ABA TECHSHOW Board and State & Local Bar Outreach Committee. Diane strives to empower attorneys and their staff with the technology tools and training to maximize the efficiency of their firms while developing sound legal business practices.

Danon Goodrum-Garland
Danon Goodrum-Garland is the professional standards division director for the State Bar of Michigan. Previously, she was in private practice for 13 years focusing on litigation matters. She is a past president of the D. Augustus Straker Bar Association, and formerly held the positions of National Bar Association deputy chief of staff, chair of the SBM Membership Services Committee, and member of the SBM Character and Fitness District H Committee.

JoAnn Hathaway
JoAnn Hathaway is a practice management advisor for the State Bar of Michigan. She is active in the ABA Law Practice Management Division, and is a frequent speaker on law firm technology, and risk and practice management topics. She is an Adobe Acrobat Certified Expert, and is certified in Time Matters and Billing Matters software. Previously, Ms. Hathaway worked as a legal liability claims director and risk manager.

Samantha Meinke
Samantha Meinke is the communications manager for the State Bar of Michigan. She regularly consults with lawyers, bar associations, and law-related groups on using social media to their best advantage, and has been a featured speaker on social media at ABA TECHSHOW for the last two years.

Victoria Vuletich
Victoria Vuletich teaches professional responsibility at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. She also has a private ethics practice, serving Michigan lawyers and law firms, including a private hotline for quick resolution of ethics questions. Previously, after practicing privately, she served as staff ethics counsel at the State Bar of Michigan, supervising the PMRC, counseling attorneys on ethics issues, and prosecuting unauthorized practice of law matters. A national expert in the law of professional responsibility and the business models of law practice, she is a fellow of the Michigan Bar Foundation and the ABA, and active in the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility.