To our clients and to our many friends:

We thank you and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

The words of President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation ring as true today as they must have in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War:

“It has seemed to me fit and proper that the gifts of God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Veterans Day

by Cheryl Dyson

On Veterans Day we honor all,

Who answered to a service call.

Soldiers young, and soldiers old,

Fought for freedom, brave and bold.

Some have lived, while others died,

And all of them deserve our pride.

We’re proud of all the soldiers who,

Kept thinking of red, white and blue.

They fought for us and all our rights,

They fought through many days and nights.

And though we may not know each name,

We thank ALL veterans just the same.

Veterans Day is celebrated on 11 November, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. The main hostilities of World War I ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) dated 13th May, 1938, made the 11th of November “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”  Congress modified this act in 1954, replacing “Armistice” with “Veterans”.  In 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved Veterans Day to the fourth Monday of October, and in 1978 it was moved back to the 11th of November.

It happens every year. My doctor’s office, calls to tell me I need to schedule an appointment. Why?  Because it is time for my annual check-up. I always forget.  That’s ok, that’s why my doctor’s office is calling me. I make the appointment and I appreciate the reminder.

So, where am I going with this?  No, I’m not suggesting that every one of my clients call to book yearly appointments with their attorney. What I am suggesting is that, if it has been some time since you have taken stock of the legal matters affecting your life, perhaps it is time for that legal checkup.

Doctors recommend periodic checkups. While it might not seem as important, a “legal checkup,” which is often called “preventive law” is also improtant. Getting a legal checkup can keep you in good legal health and save you money by identifying small legal problems before they become large ones.  A legal checkup is a review, with your lawyer, of your most important legal matters, papers, and areas of your life.  Like illnesses, many legal problems can be cured or even avoided if found early.

There are several steps in a legal checkup. The first is collecting important legal papers (see below for more information on which papers to keep). Just locating important papers can help prevent future trouble. So can discovering that one or more is missing. Reviewing papers can remind you of things you’ve forgotten to do or of questions to ask.

The next step in your legal checkup is analyzing your current legal situation in light of your goals. Some areas you will want to pay particular attention to are:

Will and estate planning

Do you have key estate planning documents like a will and living trust?  Having these documents helps you make sure your property will go where you want when you die and that your heirs will receive the property in the fastest and least expensive manner.  It also provides other benefits, including letting you select who you want to be guardian of your children in case you and your spouse die while they are minors, and letting you select the person to administer your estate when you die.

Proper estate planning includes more than just having a will and living trust. It also includes making sure you have the necessary documents to make sure your medical and financial decisions are made by the people you want if you become incapacitated, and that your wishes regarding the use of life-prolonging equipment will be known in case it’s ever needed.

Even if you have all necessary estate planning documents, it is important to make sure they are up-to-date. If your will and other documents were made a long time ago, changes may be needed due to increased wealth, changes in your marital status, the addition of new children or grandchildren, death of heirs, changes in your wishes about who should receive your property, and changes in tax laws. For example, reviewing a will you made long ago could reveal the need to make an amendment which can be done at low cost. However, if you die without updating your will, an expensive dispute could arise between family members.

Insurance

Do you have enough and the right kinds of insurance coverage? Liability, casualty, property, life, long-term care and disability insurance provide more than just peace of mind. They provide you money to soften the blow of a disaster. They help pay your legal defense costs if you are sued. Good insurance is key to good legal health.

Closely related to insurance is the need to keep good records of your personal property in the event you suffer a fire or other disaster.  Your personal property records should be kept in a safe place, and should include as much information as possible about the property, including descriptions, purchase receipts and photos.

Property Ownership

How you hold title to property has important consequences. It affects what happens to the property if you separate, divorce or die, it controls who has power to make decisions about the property, it has important tax consequences, and it determines whether or not creditors can reach it.  In many cases, people hold property in a form of title that is contrary to their goals. A key part of a legal checkup is making sure title to all your assets — including your home, car, stocks, bonds and bank account — is held in the proper form.

Contracts

Contract disputes can be expensive and time-consuming. However, there are easy preventive measures to reduce the risk of being involved in them. One is to put all important agreements in writing. Though the law allows both oral and written contracts, certain kinds of contracts must be in writing to be enforceable. Also, oral contracts are riskier, because there’s no clear evidence of the terms or that they were even made. Putting key agreements in writing — and making sure any oral modifications to existing written agreements are also put in writing — can help avoid costly legal problems.

Another easy way to help avoid legal problems from contracts is to read and understand every contract before signing it. Because of time constraints, or for other reasons, many people do not follow this rule. Unless there’s a legal basis for canceling a contract (such as fraud or misrepresentation), a court usually won’t change a contract, even if it has many one-sided provisions in small print. When you read a contract, if you are unsure about anything, seek legal help.

Important Papers

Keep your important records in a safe location, like a bank safe deposit box.  In addition to you (and your spouse) knowing where these documents are, you should inform someone you trust, like your lawyer. Some of the main documents you should have in a fireproof location are:

• birth certificate

• adoption papers

• marriage and divorce records

• military discharge (DD-214)

• immigration records

• insurance policies

• deeds to property

• stock certificates, bank and retirement account records

• income tax returns

• will, trust, living will and other estate planning documents

Finances

Financial problems are at the root of many legal problems. If you are having trouble paying bills, you should consider available options for getting a fresh start.  A lawyer has the skills to negotiate debt settlements on your behalf.

Small Business Books and Records

Articles of Incorporation/Organization; Certificates of Limited Partnership: Are they still accurate? Do they provide maximum protection from liability?

Bylaws/Operating Agreements/Partnership Agreements: Do you have them? Do you follow them? Should they be revised to conform to your actual practices? Have all owners signed off on them?

Buy-Sell Agreements/Shareholder Agreements: Do you have one? Do you need one? Have all owners signed off on it? Is it current? Does the valuation mechanism still work? Does it require annual valuations? If so, is your valuation current?

Stock/Membership Certificates/Registry: Who has the original certificates? Do you have an accurate current registry?

Meeting Minutes (including Annual Minutes) and Biennial Reports: Do you have periodic meetings and keep written minutes? Do you have annual minutes? Are they current? Have you filed your most recent Biennial Report?

Certificates of Authority to Transact Business: Do you have one? Do you need one? Is it current?

Subsidiaries and Affiliates: Do you need any? If you have any, do you keep separate books and records and financial statements?

Registered Agent/Registered Office: Do you have one? Do you need one? Is it current?

Like checkups for your physical health, a regular examination of your legal health can keep you fit as well. If your legal affairs are in good condition, your checkup will involve recommendations to keep them that way.  If your legal affairs are in poor condition, Huddleston Law Offices will alert you to problems you might miss on your own.  Attached is a LEGAL HEALTH CHECK-UP CHECK LIST I have prepared to help you assess whether you need to schedule a legal checkup.

A few weeks back, my six year old son and I were fishing in the Canadian Outback for a week.  I used my iPhone to post photos and Facebook status updates about landing the float plane safely on the lake, the lodge accomodations, and the fish we caught.  My wife and daughter, who have no interest in “roughing it,” really enjoyed the updates. 

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are one of the most interesting and popular innovations on the Internet in the last few years.  Almost everyone I know uses one or more social networks. Even my mother is on Facebook and no doubt will soon be sending me tweets from the farm in Arkansas. These social networks depend upon the interactions between the users. The first thing you do is connect with people you know, and then you start sending out status updates (Facebook) or tweets (Twitter) to all of your friends.  Most status updates and tweets leave much to be desired. But then there are those times when life is more exciting as you leave home for more exotic climes in search of sun, sea, surf, and perhaps some other ‘S’ words.

The problem is that informing the world of your excursions out of town could have serious consequences.  For example, what if my whole family had gone fishing?  Would I have been doing the cyberspace equivalent of putting a big sign on the front lawn saying, “Come on in, burglars! We’re not home.” Before you call me paranoid, consider the following recent events.

The burglary of an Arizona video editor made headlines last month because he thinks that his Facebook and Twitter update habits may have led to it. He not only told his network of social media friends that he was going out of town but also shared some adventures of his road trip to Kansas City. While he was away, someone broke into his home and stole his video editing equipment. From the AP story:

Most people wouldn’t leave a recording on a home answering machine telling callers they’re on vacation for a week, and most people wouldn’t let mail or newspapers pile up while they were away. But users of social media think nothing of posting real-time vacation photos on Facebook showing themselves on beaches hundreds of miles from home, or sending out automatic e-mail messages that say, “I’m out of the country for a week.”

Similarly, police in Alabama arrested two men who allegedly burglarized the homes of Birmingham residents they tracked on Facebook.  Police say the suspects used the popular social networking site to glean personal information about residents, including summer travel plans.  Police believe the men worked together to steal jewelry, television sets, computers, cell phones, guns and other items from five homes of people who were either friends or “friends of friends” on Facebook between July 12 and July 22. 

Of course, for you to be burgled as a direct result of updating your Facebook status or tweeting on Twitter about an upcoming holiday, you would have to have a potential burglar in your friends list or amongst your followers. Moreover, the criminal masterminds would have to find out exactly who you are and where you live. The point is that it could happen and, we all know there is information about all of us on the Internet.  So, the next time you are on vacation, or even when your house will be empty for several days, consider NOT telling all of your Facebook friends and Twitter followers that you are leaving. Just to be on the safe side, be a little vague on the details of your holiday until you get back.

After all, the last thing you need is to come home to a ransacked house:

“You don’t have to say much to set off an avalanche in the blogosphere,” observes James M. Beck, counsel in the Philadelphia office of Dechert, in a post yesterday at the blog Drug and Device Law, which he co-authors with Mark Herrmann, a partner in the Chicago office of Jones Day. In this case, the TNT that set off the avalanche was Herrmann’s observationin an earlier post that of the 10 U.S. firms with highest profits per partner, “only one has any connection to a blog. And that ‘connection’ is pretty remote.”

What prompted Hermann’s observation was the recent post at LexBlog on the state of the Am Law 200 blogosphere. It showed that 41 percent of the 200 largest firms now have blogs, a 110 percent increase from LexBlog’s first survey two years ago. But none of these blogs is published under the name of a top-10 firm. The closest tie any blog has to a top-10 firm is that one was founded by an associate at Kirkland & Ellis but is now written by a number of non-Kirkland contributors.

Herrmann’s observation brought any number of suggestions from readers as to why big firms don’t blog. Beck’s post sums up six of them:

1. Lawyers at the most profitable firms are stupid.

2. Lawyers at the most profitable firms are too busy.

3. Lawyers at those firms won’t stoop to blog.

4. Lawyers at those firms don’t want to give away their product for free.

5. Lawyers at those firms lack the necessary skill set.

6. Lawyers at those firms believe that blogging is unlikely to yield a decent return on investment.

Beck and Herrmann opt to report on the fray but stay out of it themselves. “Although we have a pretty strong opinion on this subject, we’re keeping it to ourselves,” Beck writes. But at the blog Strategic Legal Technology, Ron Friedmann is more than happy to weigh in with his take, “that blogs are among the most cost-effective approaches to marketing for lawyers.” In light of the current legal market depression, he says, “BigLaw will have to grab for market share.” When that time comes, he suggests, we’ll see how long it takes for the hold-outs to hop on the blogging bandwagon.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on July 7, 2009 at 01:14 PM

By: Alfred K. “Kent” Morlan

When I entered law school in 1969, the legal world was about highly cross-referenced books, electric typewriters, fax machines and telephones.  Law libraries were the intellectual warehouses of the legal world and Corpus Juris Secundum, Digests, Annotated Statutes, Reporters, etc. were the units of storage in which lawyers delved to find the law that they needed to practice.  Nothing much had changed for nearly a century and nothing much would change until about 10 years after I graduated from law school and began practicing law.  The development of the personal computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the beginning of the end of what had become an accepted operational paradigm for the legal profession.

In 1983 or 1984, I, like many others, became aware of the marketing of the IBM PC.  While on a trip to California, I was a guest in an old friend’s house and he had recently purchased a Compaq computer.  It looked like a portable Singer sewing machine when it was closed up for transportation and weighed in at 33 pounds or so.  It had two 5.25 inch floppy disk drives and 64 megs of memory.  My friend let me play with his new toy and by the end of the weekend, I was convinced that the personal computer was going to change everything.  While passing through John Wayne Airport on the way back home, I bought every computer magazine that they had and began re-educating myself about computers that I had been trained to repair by the United States Air Force in the 1960s.

Eventually, I asked my law firm to buy me a computer and they looked at me as if I were suffering from a mental illness.  In their collective opinions, no lawyer would ever directly use such technology to practice law.  I eventually used my own money to buy a computer and began using some software products called PFS to write letters, store data and build spreadsheets.  I still use one of the software programs that I bought in the 1980s but will probably not be able to do so with the next version of Microsoft’s operating system.  By 1991 when I left the firm, some of the lawyers and all of the secretaries and paralegals were on a network of personal computers and the firm was upgrading and expanding its computer system on a daily basis.  By that time, legal materials were available via dial up systems and CD-Rom libraries were beginning to become available.  The 33 pound Compaq had been replaced with a 13 pound Toshiba.  Most lawyers were still essentially tied to desktops.

A lot has changed since I left that firm to start my own solo practice in 1991.  One of the most significant was, of course, the Internet.  It has changed almost everything.  In the science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy written by Douglas Adams, Ford Prefect, an alien, who befriends Englishman Arthur Dent and saves him when the Earth is destroyed to make way for a galactic highway. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was an electronic encyclopedia about everything. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy originally aired as a radio show on the BBC in 1978 and everyone found the idea of a device that could hold everything known about everything to be amusing and preposterous. Well, as I said, a lot has changed.

Today, with a Wi-Fi equipped laptop, a cell phone and one of the smaller inkjet printers on the market, it is literally possible to practice law anywhere in the United States, if not the world.   For example, I ran into an oil and gas lawyer at the courthouse recently and he told me that he took a vacation to Vietnam and was able to sit on the beach and write oil and gas title opinions.  I now have two laptops that are capable to connecting to the Internet in airports, restaurants and a lot of other hotspots or can access the Internet via a wireless cell phone card at DSL speeds about anywhere my cell phone can communicate while sitting still or traveling down the Interstate at 70+ mph.  In addition, I recently purchased a SIP phone that will allow me to make and receive telephone calls anywhere the phone can acquire an IP.

Back in the 1980s, I proposed to the Bar Association that it recommend that the Legislature enact a statute authorizing the filing of pleadings faxed to a courthouse in lieu of having to file an original document.  The Bar and the Legislature both concurred and the statute can be found in Title 12.  The Federal Courts resisted claiming that they had to have documents signed with ink pens by the sponsoring lawyer.  How times have changed. The Federal Courts now insist that pleadings be filed electronically and that no paper be filed at all with a few exceptions.  While the state courts have not kept up in this regard, it is still possible to fax a pleading to the law libraries in Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties and they will, for a fee, file your pleading with the clerk for you.

So, what has the modern era produced that now makes it possible to practice law out of a back pack?  Wi-Fi and the Internet!  Unlike a lot of other areas, where Oklahoma ranks at or near the bottom of the economic/social pile when compared to other states, Oklahoma ranks “Number One” when it comes to access to legal information online.  OSCN.net is clearly the best web site of its kind in the United States.  That Oklahoma elected to incorporate every appellate court decisions ever rendered in Oklahoma in the site makes it unique among the jurisdictions for building a free integrated legal information system for everyone to use.  Having access to the court dockets, statutes, rules, etc. via the Internet, when combined with other free public access legal information, makes it possible for a lawyer access the information that is essential for the successful practice of the law.

The laptop computer and the cell phone are the two essential ingredients for the mobile or virtual practice of the law.  Laptops are available in various configurations starting at about $800 or less for a reasonably configured machine that is capable of doing most of what an attorney needs to do, other than play.  While laptops cost more than desktops for equivalent power and features, they lend themselves to the practice of law because they go where the lawyer goes.  The practice of law is, of course, an intellectual function and except for the work products, e.g., letters, pleadings, motions, briefs, etc., everything goes on in the lawyers head.  It is, therefore, possible to effectively practice law anywhere if it is possible to communicate with clients, opposing counsel, the courts, etc. and to produce work products digitally or on paper.  A laptop can have a keyboard, mouse, monitor and printer plugged into it in the office and can be unplugged and transported anywhere any time.  Even if one elects to use a desktop model in one’s office, a laptop can be used as a backup device connected to an office network and can have everything on it that a lawyer’s desktop computer has on it at the end of the day.  The new thumb drives that are now available can be used to backup and move information from one computer to another so the computer upon which work product is produced is not terribly relevant any more.

Padded back packs and brief cases with and without wheels are now sold in most office supply stores.  I recently bought a Swiss Gear computer back pack at Sam’s for $40.00.  The same bag is available from Office Depot at about $80.00.  Targus deluxe leather notebook cases with wheels costs $83 and any traditional brief case can be converted into a suitable laptop bag with the addition of some foam rubber.

Another element of a mobile law office is the ability to print documents locally.  Canon and HP both make compact printers designed for road warriors.  The Canon iP90v portable inkjet Photo Printer is priced at $260.00.  While pricy for an inkjet printer, it will fit in a back pack or brief case with a laptop.  Similar products are available from all of the major printer manufacturers at similar prices.

A cell phone is also an essential for any lawyer who wants to stay in touch with his or her office, clients, wife and/or kids.  Nearly everyone who is anyone has a cell phone.  I recently stopped by a local AT&T store to check prices on new phones and with rebates, etc. on a two year contract, could get a cell phone at a cost of from $10 to $500.  Almost every cell phone now comes equipped with a camera and the G3 models can perform all kinds of functions including acting as a wireless access point for your laptop for about $50 a month or you can purchase a wireless card for laptop and access the Internet at DSL speeds for the same $50 per month on a two year contract.  I have looked at the IPhone, Blackberry and the new Palm Pre.  Many of my techie friends love the IPhone but business people seem to still like the Blackberry.  The Palm Pre is so new that there isn’t much being said about it.  I read an article recently that basically said that the IPhone is the smart phone of choice in the market today.

Once you have selected your laptop, your printer, your cell phone and a back pack or brief case in which to tote your office around, you will need to be connected to the Internet.  At home you probably already have a DSL or cable connection to the Internet but just like a traditional office, you can only use it at home.  You can, if you are cheap, use AT&T’s dial up system to access the Internet is you can find a phone to use or want to attached your laptop to your cell phone using a cable.  AT&T has access points about everywhere in the United States.  I use to use these numbers to get on the Internet when away from home before free Internet access became available in about every motel in the country.  For the really frugal, many coffee shops and other public places provide free Internet access to attract customers.  Visit any Paneras, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc. and you can probably get online for free using the Wi-Fi built into your computer.  If you are going to be really mobile and want to be able to get on the Internet anytime and about anywhere, you will want to look at the subscribing to one of the wireless access services provided by AT&T, Sprint and Verison.  With a two year commitment and a small upfront charge for the wireless card that is required to utilize one of these services, you can have access to the Internet about anywhere a cell phone works for about $50 a month.

If you want to fax directly off of your laptop, consider subscribing to eFax or one of the other fax services.  eFax Plus costs only $16.95 (USD) a month, with a one-time $10.00 (USD) fee to activate your number. You get 130 pages of incoming faxes and 30 pages of outgoing faxes free each month. After that, incoming faxes cost $0.15 (USD) a page and outgoing faxes cost $0.10 (USD) a page to numbers in the U.S.  Other services are available from other vendors for about the same cost per month.  This is much less expensive than having a dedicated line with a fax machine attached to it and you get your faxes by eMail anywhere in the world. For about $30 you can add a web camera if you have clients who want to talk to you face-to-face over the Internet.

If you do not want to answer your own phone, the telecommunications industry in rapidly coming to your rescue.  A number of services have sprung up recently that offer to have a real human answer your phone for you and transfer your calls to you’re your home office and/or cell phone or into a voicemail box that will send you a copy of the voice mail message as an attachment to an e-mail.

Oklahoma lawyers are blessed with OSCN and the outstanding access that it makes available to everyone.  The Oklahoma Bar Association is now supplementing what the Supreme Court Net is providing access to Bar Association members to FastCase® free of charge.  “Fastcase® is the premiere American provider of online legal research. The company’s patent-pending research software helps busy legal professionals sort through the clutter, ranking the best cases and statutes first, and enabling users to re-sort search results to find answers fast. Fastcase® puts the whole American law library on the desktop — providing online access to millions of cases, statutes, and regulations, and at a fraction of the cost of existing alternatives. Fastcase®  is an American company based in Washington, D.C. and founded in 1999. It was built by lawyers for lawyers, with the input of specialists in legal research, library science, and law.”

If you want more legal resources available from your laptop and OSC and the Oklahoma Bar Association provide for free, WestLaw®, LexisNexis® and LoisLaw® all stand ready and willing to provide you with at value added extra research edge that you may think that you need to make your legal research complete.  A LoisLaw® subscription to its Oklahoma Library plus of the federal circuits and federal materials is currently $110 a month.  LoisLaw’s national library is currently priced at $140 a month.  West and LexisNexis are more expensive and have various kinds of plans to suit individual attorney’s needs.

The marketing of legal services, like everything else, is migrating from paper to the Internet.  Martindale-Hubbell, which has never been a good marketing strategy for the solo or small firm practice lawyer, no longer even publishes books to my knowledge.  LexisNexis developed Lawyers.com to complete with Thomson’s FindLaw.com.  Switchboard  and others Internet companies provide of local online advertising solutions and Internet-based yellow pages, interconnecting consumers, merchants and national advertisers. These services claim to make it easy for consumers to quickly and easily find and compare local businesses offering specific products and services, while creating revenue opportunities for merchants. Switchboard is a wholly owned subsidiary of InfoSpace, Inc.  Marketing digitally can cost nothing via the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Find-A-Lawyer service, on MoreLaw.com and other places on the Internet.  Other services like Martindale, FindLaw, Lawyers.com, etc. vary in price but generally cost more than $100

As you have probably concluded, it is my opinion that it is possible to practice law out of a back pack or a brief case without any problem.  All of the technical and research resources that you might need are readily and inexpensively available off the shelf in about any office supply store in the United States.  It is also possible to have an office without having an office.  There are various reasons for not telling your clients that you office out of a back pack or your home.  This is not seen as being “professional” by some and there are certainly reasons for not having some clients come to your home office.  A number of years ago, my wife and I created a legal executive suite in Tulsa where we rent real and virtual offices to lawyers and other legal service providers.  More than half of our tenants are “virtual tenants” which means we make it look like they have real offices with us with when they do not, in fact, rent an office.  They rent the use of the common areas in our office including the reception area, kitchen, conference rooms, etc.  We make it look like they have a physical office in our office by listing them on the roster of the building and treating them and their clients just like we treat the lawyer who rent physical offices and their clients.  For a very reasonable monthly fee, Beacon 400 LLC d/b/a MoreLaw Suites will provide the office façade that the home office based lawyer needs to project the professional image that they want to their clients.

The legal playing field is leveler today for the solo and small firm practice lawyer.  Technology continues to become less and less expensive over time and the Internet has made information, including legal research materials, easy and inexpensive to access.  Place is becoming less and less important to the practice of law and there is no reason why a solo practice lawyer should have to pay thousands in overhead costs for a traditional law office just for appearances.  You can now pack an entire law office into a back pack and practice law just about anywhere.

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