CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Supreme Court has issued an order of disbarment of former Buffalo lawyer Tonia R. Hanson effective immediately. The order of disbarment stemmed from two complaints received by the Wyoming State Bar’s Office of Bar Counsel regarding Hanson. Bar Counsel’s investigation of the two complaints revealed a pattern of violations of ethical rules regarding lawyer trust accounts, as well as significant breaches of Respondent’s fiduciary duties regarding elderly, vulnerable clients and other ethical violations, including misrepresentations to the tribunal and failure to comply with ..read more

Arizona has recently stricken the rule barring non-lawyer ownership in law firms from its professional ethics code.  Utah is creating a sandbox environment to explore the same option.  Mixed ownership law firms are called “alternative business structures,” and they already exist in other parts of the world, most notably the United Kingdom.  It’s only a matter of time before the traditional lawyer monopoly is broken. So if you think it’s hard to compete with the law firm across town, try working against Walmart. Lawyers have been exceptionally late adopters of both technology and ..read more

Niche businesses, including niche law practices, are so effective, in large part because those business types reduce competition.  That logic is probably obvious: any time you sell to a smaller interest group, you sell to fewer people – but, it’s really powerful in application. To new business owners, or general practitioners, that can sound dangerous = it places too significant a limitation on accessing potential clients.  You see, there’s this notion that most entrepreneurs latch onto, at first, which says that a wider pool means access to more potential clients.  But a bigger ..read more

Selecting new law firm software can be a daunting prospect.  There are so many options that attorneys are often waylaid by a paralysis of analysis, and then don’t end up making any positive changes at all.  This is why a lot of law firms end up relying on old and obsolete technologies, rather than updating to modern tools.  Once again, inertia becomes the single worst enemy of law firms. But when lawyers do end up selecting specific softwares, they often do so in a hasty manner just to ensure the painful process ends quickly.  In that case, the selected software is often no ..read more

As much as you might dread the next Zoom meeting.  And the one after that.  And the next one.  And the one after that one . . . video conferencing is here to stay. But, being at home, it’s easy to get blasé about how you treat those video conferences.  It’s no sweat to keep the sweatpants on, to half-comb your hair, to sneak an Oreo.  Of course, you’d never do that at an in-person event.  And, if you’re a lawyer who’s feeling like your in-person presence far outstrips the effectiveness of your online presence, there are four simple things you can do to up your gam ..read more

A lot of law firms know they’re inefficient, but don’t know why.  (I know, it sounds like a country song.) But the reason is pretty simple: it’s because those law firms don’t employ systems.  By default, law firms that build and apply workflows can work faster and more accurately. At that point, the discourse changes from ‘why are we so inefficient’ to ‘how do we become more efficient?’  And, answering that question, over and over again, not only engenders a mindset change, but allows for law firm operations to continually be refined.  It opens up a whole new business cultu ..read more

A lot of law firms have been sitting on hourly rates for a long, long time. But trends are emerging that are causing attorneys to reconsider that hard stance; among them the fact that legal consumers are seeking flat fees — they want to know the total cost of the representation.  Couple that with the fact that law firm rates barely keep up with inflation, and the massive changes that the rise of the convenience economy has wrought, and there’s probably no better time to reconsider your rates than right now. If you do decide to shift off of your standard billing practices, there are a numb ..read more

On the recommendation of the Wyoming Board of Law Examiners, the Wyoming Supreme Court has adopted the NextGen Bar Examination (NextGen) to be effective no sooner than July 2027. Wyoming currently administers the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) to assess minimum competency for those seeking admission to the Wyoming State Bar.  The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), which developed and maintains the UBE, is replacing it with the NextGen.  Effective July 2028, the NCBE will no longer offer the UBE.  States must either transition to NextGen or develop an independent test. T ..read more

I’m fond of telling lawyers that if they’re not making enough money out of their practices to generate a viable living, then they have a hobby, not a business. But, I don’t mean to denigrate hobbies.  Hobbies are great.  And many lawyers are far too focused on being lawyers to develop one – but, they should!  Lawyers are people, too, and need an outlet. Sure, it’s good to be a well-rounded person; but, having a hobby can also help you to drive business. Look, everybody’s got specific things they’re interested in; and some of them are weird, frankly.  But, the crazy thing ab ..read more

Car wash preferences are a thing.  Some people like to get their hands dirty (or clean) and wash their own cars; some people prefer the touchless automatic option so that they can just roll on through.  (And, then: some people don’t like car washes at all.)  The point is that consumers have different preferences and they may be different from the preferences of business owners. Lawyers often presume that leads want what they want, or they think potential clients desire things they don’t.  For example, law firms generally value ‘high touch’ professional services, but they of ..read more