Counselors for the Profession®

As Counselors for the Profession^®, we advise lawyers and law firms on every aspect of the law governing lawyers, encompassing:

• Bar Admissions, Discipline and Reinstatement
• Law Firm Creation, Merger, Withdrawal, Dissolution, Business Model/Structure advice
• Law Firm Internal Investigations
• Managing all aspects of technology and cyber risk
• Mergers and Lateral Movement, Compensation Structures
• Professional Responsibility Advice
• Risk Management (including reputation management, hotline counseling, forms drafting, opinion work, audits, policy and standards, CLE training, and management counseling)

We are thought leaders nationally in the law governing lawyers. We leverage our national knowledge to partner with our clients to proactively manage their risk, and when events arise, we guide them through stormy seas. Our clients range from the AMLAW100 to small/solo practices. We are:

• 1 past president of the Association for Professional Responsibility Lawyers
• 1 of us has served as Chair of the State Bar of California's Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct
• 3 Certified Specialists in Legal Malpractice Law by the California State Bar's Board of Legal Specialization (all through grandfather procedures)
• 4 professors in nationally recognized law schools 
• 5 of us serve on the County or City Bar Association ethics committees in the cities in which we practice
• Our attorneys have co-authored the leading treatise in the field, "Legal Malpractice" (5th Ed., West Publishing), and have written the leading book on risk management, "Risk Management: Survival Tools for Law Firms" (American Bar Association), as well as the "Practice Manual Attorneys Legal Liability" and "New York Attorney Discipline: Practice and Procedure"
• 2 of us serve on advisory boards to national industry level content providers in the law governing lawyers
• We have handled over 6500 hotline consultations in the areas of risk management and professional responsibility
• 5 of us publish regularly in industry recognized third party publications
• 7 of us speak regularly for nationally recognized third party CLE providers other than WestLegalEd Center
• We are exclusive content providers for WestLegalEd Center webinars for ethics and professional responsibility
• Our publication, the Lawyers' Lawyer Newsletter, is a leading publication in the area of ethics/professional responsibility
• For the past 15 years, we have hosted the Legal Malpractice & Risk Management Conference (LMRM), which has become the premier annual event focused on important and current developments in the law and litigation of malpractice claims, legal malpractice insurance and risk management strategies

News

Affiliations

• Represented acquiring firm in an affiliation with a firm in another state. Affiliation agreement addressed issues such as wind down of acquired firm’s accounts receivable and WIP, real estate leases, capital account payouts, etc. The engagement also involved amending the acquiring firm’s partnership agreement to accommodate the newly-added attorneys.

Dissolution

• Represented departing partner in dissolution of a law firm. In addition to drafting primary documentation, we also represented the partner in a mediation which successfully resolved the dispute.

General Transactional

• Multiple engagements advising law firms on amendments to partnership agreements, including those relating to compensation, management and other operational issues.
• Engagements also include advising and drafting documentation for joint ventures between law firms and related businesses (such as lobbying firms and consulting practices), with a special focus on the applicable jurisdictional regulations affecting lawyers.

Merger

• Represented an AmLaw 200 law firm in its acquisition/merger with a prominent 50-attorney regional firm.

Sale of Practices

• Represented firms and individuals in purchase and sale transactions involving sale of a legal practice. Engagements include assessment of regulatory issues, and drafting agreements to address collections.