General Practice/Solo Committee 101 Series

The Young Lawyers Division is focusing its member-service project (The 101 Series) this year on providing short articles or checklists on how-to topics for young lawyers. In accordance with that theme the General Practice/Solo Committee will make several such written publications available on the GPSSF Division website. These will be basic checklists to assist young lawyers who are general or solo practitioners and will provide practical tips on how to open, manage, and make their practices successful. Below is a list of sample topics. If you are interested in submitting a checklist of 15-25 points for one of the topics below, please contact the Electronic Publications Team Leader at mbutler@nblaw.org.

1. GP/Solo 101: Malpractice Insurance-What to Do and Not to Do
2. GP/Solo 101: Trust Accounting Basics
3. GP/Solo 101: Choosing the Best Entity for Your Firm
4. GP/Solo 101: Options for Structuring Your Partnership
5. GP/Solo 101: How to Select the Best Software to Manage Your Firm
6. GP/Solo 101: The Importance of a Marketing Plan
7. GP/Solo 101: Marketing with Weblogs
8. GP/Solo 101: Referral Based Marketing
9. GP/Solo 101: Advertising Based Marketing
10. GP/Solo 101: Building a Website-Nonstop Marketing
11. GP/Solo 101: Business Planning-Accountability Based on Your Marketing Plan
12. GP/Solo 101: The Value of Joint Venturing
13. GP/Solo 101: The Art of Case Selection
14. GP/Solo 101: Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Staffing Your Office
15. GP/Solo 101: Setting Up the Telephones and other Technical Infrastructure
16. GP/Solo 101: Tax Pitfalls to Avoid
17. GP/Solo 101: Retainer Agreements and Fee Schedules
18. GP/Solo 101: Client Relations and Management
19. GP/Solo 101: Maintaining Balance Between Your Professional and Personal Life
20. GP/Solo 101: How to Buy or Sell a Practice
21. GP/Solo 101: Maximizing Collections-Good Billing Practices
22. GP/Solo 101: Maximizing Collections-Good Business Practices
23. GP/Solo 101: The Makeup of a Good Employee File
24. GP/Solo 101: Using Bar Association Resources to Maximize Efficiency

Publication Conventions

All checklists submitted must be in Microsoft Word format, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, with 1-inch margins on each side. The title of the piece is centered on the first page in bold and all caps. The authorship information is given centered and double-spaced under the title, with "by" on a single line and the author's name on a second line. The author's biographical information is footnoted at the author's name. The footnote should give the author's firm or entity affiliation, city, state, the author's area(s) of practice, and a brief description of the author's ABA and local bar involvement. Bullet points must be indented half an inch, with first line of the text indented 1/4 inch after the bullet. The text after each bullet point must be justified. The first sentence of the bullet point is bolded. Samples are under the "Litigation 101" link on the committee's website listed above.