AttPro Special Risk

Real estate attorneys continue to be plagued by scammers hoping to score a huge lump sum payment in the sales transaction. The latest ploy? Con artists posing as sellers of real estate of which they have no interest. Sophisticated scammers are representing that they need a Power of Attorney to handle a real estate closing while they are out of the country. They provide what appear to be authentic documents, including a notarized POA, passport, and tax assessor card for the property, purporting to serve as evidence of their ownership of the subject property. Upon reliance of these documents, attorneys are executing closing documents as the POA for the alleged client/seller and then wiring the purchase price to the scammer.  https://lnkd.in/dDNhQ_KY

“If the internet has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes it’s easier to speak our minds anonymously.” – Ted Lasso Source: Apple TV Although Ted probably hasn’t studied the ethics of lawyers using social media to advertise, his risk management advice is spot on. In other words, better not to say anything to a potential client that could be construed as solicitation of their business.  https://lnkd.in/gbziRikk

Like Google, “Prime” has now achieved the enviable syntactic conversion to a verb, as in, “Can you Prime it?” Nowadays, if the shipping time for your online order is longer than two days, it might as well be a lifetime. Yet, attorneys must also expedite delivery of their services. Specifically, Rule 3.2 of the ABA Model Rules requires lawyers to make reasonable efforts to expedite litigation consistent with the interests of the client. https://lnkd.in/gGV9PaG4

The daily pressure of being a lawyer can unfortunately lead to addiction and substance abuse for many lawyers. Thankfully, there are many resources for those that may be struggling. Join us August 28th as Erica Grigg, Grigg Counseling, and Michelle Fontenot, Attorney with the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program, as they thoughtfully examine substance abuse, offer tools to help lawyers find the path to sobriety and wellness in this 60-minute webinar. https://lnkd.in/d9psEsFD

The United States Supreme Court recently decided Connelly v. United States, No. 23-146, holding that a corporation’s obligation to redeem shares upon the death of a shareholder is not a liability that reduces the corporation’s value for purposes of the federal estate tax. What does this mean for practitioners counseling their business clients? The long-time practice of advising small business clients to purchase life insurance to cover the cost of the shares in a buy/sell agreement upon the death of a shareholder may no longer make financial sense given the federal estate tax implications. From the perspective of the highest court in the land, it simply doesn’t add up. https://lnkd.in/g4V67VKG #scotusdecision #scotus #attorneys

Chalk it up as one more thing you didn’t learn in law school – time entry for client bills. Properly capturing your time and accurately describing it on your bill is how lawyers are paid. And while sending out a monthly invoice is crucial to running your legal practice, it is also a helpful way of tracking the work you perform for each client, and therefore, a good guard against a potential malpractice claim. So, how do you craft a meaningful billing entry that gets you paid and protects against future claims? It is as easy as 1-2-3. https://lnkd.in/gH9C_B6p #legalbilling #lawfirmbilling #legalethics

It is no secret that a wave of Baby Boomer lawyers are set to retire in the next few years. With approximately 30.4 million Americans turning age 65 between 2024 and 2030, America has never seen so many people reach retirement age in such a short period of time. While hopefully your firm’s strategic plan has already addressed how to handle their departure, you are not alone if you have not yet considered the impact the retirement of your senior lawyers may have on your practice. https://lnkd.in/gw27zAEy #lawfirmretirement #lawyer #lawfirmmanagement

Free CLE: Wed, Jun 12, 2024 12:00 PM CDT Conflicts of interest remain at the top of the list of malpractice claims. Conflicts take many forms and can even develop during the course of representation. Despite our vigilance, conflicts can be difficult to identify and complicated to handle once they arise. Please join J. Calhoun Watson, attorney at Robinson Gray located in Columbia, South Carolina, and Kate Gould, Risk Management Attorney at Attorney Protective, as they analyze several potential conflict of interest scenarios. Throughout the webinar, you will receive best practice tips as to how to avoid conflicts and properly address them. Our speakers will discuss the relevant Rules of Professional Conduct that can help you determine whether a conflict exists, as well as what actions to take when you are confronted with a conflict.

Scammers are increasingly targeting lawyers by sending forged emails to law firms, their clients and/ or to financial institutions, instructing that funds be wired to accounts controlled by the scammers. The scam typically involves a compromised email account (which can be the lawyer’s, the client’s or even the bank’s) which scammers are monitoring to uncover pending transactions requiring an outlay of funds – such as a real estate purchase, a loan, or the settlement of a lawsuit. At the appropriate time when the parties are expecting a request for funds, the hackers (who often know exactly how much money is being transferred) will send wire instructions to the party holding the funds requiring that the funds be sent to the hackers’ account. The funds are immediately swept from the account, and the hackers disappear. https://lnkd.in/gjNN3fxM #legalscams #wiretransferfraud #attorneys

Lawyers are in the business of communication and persuasion, and poor, imprecise, or even sloppy writing diminishes our abilities to effectively communicate and persuade. But if simply being better at two of the most important aspects of your job isn’t motivation enough, consider the costly consequences of poor legal writing. For example, one professional negligence insurer in the United Kingdom revealed that drafting errors by lawyers accounted for one out of every eight claims. And in a LexisNexis survey, 33% of respondents admitted to skipping proofreading on a regular basis. Drafting errors can change the meaning of a sentence, create ambiguities, and lead to both litigation and reputational damage for lawyers. Unfortunately, the case law abounds with cautionary tales. https://lnkd.in/giy5Nrfz #legalwriting #draftingerrors #attorneydevelopement