Each week we’ll give you the summary of ONE course. You can begin the course any time you want. Once you register for the series of sessions, the courses will be delivered to you one at a time over an 8-week period.

Looking back over the past 20 years that the Academy has virtually invented the services, coaching, marketing, legal education and legal documents estate planning attorneys deserve to build their practices with has been fun and exciting. We’re honored to make these sessions available in an effort to celebrate our two decades of support with attorneys in every state!

CLICK HERE to Register for Our Free 8 Week Course, “The Academy’s Greatest Hits”

YOU ONLY NEED TO REGISTER ONCE (If you previously registered for this course, you were already added to the class schedule. No need to register again.)

Session 1: Presented by the Academy’s first keynote speaker, Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth, Why Most Small Businesses Fail and What to Do About It

Session 2: Top 10 Estate Planning Legal Questions (and Answers) that Come in From Around the Country Steve Hartnett

Session 3: Mastering 1st Consultations – Controlling the Economy in Your Conference Room, Sanford M. Fisch, Academy CEO

 (2 hour audio session with slide images, MARKETING)

This session is presented by Co-Founder of the Academy and CEO, Sanford M. Fisch

Of all the systems offered by the Academy few have more immediate impact on the satisfaction your clients have, the energy of your staff, your revenue and your own state of mind than mastering how you conduct initial consultations. Each consultation is handled the same way. Every time. There is an agenda, a clear way to work through the meeting… and the client is never pressured or pushed. Helping clients do what is in their own best interests and having them feel relief and appreciation in the process is an art and a discipline.

Your initial consultation should be enjoyable for you as well as the attorney. Controlling the meeting with questions that expose the real concerns clients have is the best way to make sure every need is addressed and to keep clients from procrastinating!

Practice makes this meeting perfect. This session is a must!

Stay tuned, we’ll feature another session in the next few weeks! We hope you enjoy the series and share the registration link with the attorneys you feel would get the most out of this instruction.

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

An interesting article that was published on the Law Technology News website recently looked at a number of different threat categories. The first one was that of human error.

Loss of a Mobile Device

People sometimes lose their cell phones, tablets, or laptops, it’s as simple as that. Many attorneys spend a lot of time on the go, and their mobile devices are extraordinarily useful on multiple levels as they are conducting day-to-day business.

At the same time, you have to ask yourself what data would be available to someone who found the device if you were to leave it behind somewhere. It is important to do everything possible to limit access to this information.

If a device is lost the firm should be contacted immediately because the information technology team may be able to remotely remove sensitive information.

Overt Attempts to Steal Data

In other cases individuals or entities overtly attempt to steal data by compromising mobile devices. There are different types of information that hackers can use for different purposes.

If a hacker was to somehow gain access to confidential attorney-client communications the consequences could be devastating for the attorney and his or her client.

This information could be used for extortion purposes on a personal level. On a business level stolen data could include trade secrets, proprietary information, access to networks and databases, etc.

Preventative Measures

Firms should take certain preventative measures in the age of digital mobility. One of these would be to create a security policy that everyone in the firm must adhere to with regard to the use of mobile devices.

This would include exactly what types of information can be accessed, the types of devices approved for use, and steps that members of the organization must take if a device is lost or stolen.

In addition, a mobile device management system should be implemented to ensure adherence to security best practices.

You should also prohibit people in the firm from using cloud-based commercial backup services. All data should stay secure within your own well-protected systems.

Our last suggestion would be to raise awareness by educating users about the consequences that could come about due to a single loss of focus or lapse in judgment when traveling with a mobile device.

We thank Steve Fletcher, who serves on the Law Technology News advisory board, for inspiring this post. You can read his article on the subject by clicking here: Confidential Data Threats.

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

Each week we’ll give you the summary of ONE course. You can begin the course any time you want. Once you register for the series of sessions, the courses will be delivered to you one at a time over an 8-week period.

Looking back over the past 20 years that the Academy has virtually invented the services, coaching, marketing, legal education and legal documents, estate planning attorneys deserve to build their practices with has been fun and exciting. We’re honored to make these sessions available in an effort to celebrate our two decades of support with attorneys in every state!

CLICK HERE to Register for Our Free 8 Week Course, “The Academy’s Greatest Hits”

YOU ONLY NEED TO REGISTER ONCE (If you previously registered for this course, you were already added to the class schedule. No need to register again.)

Session 1: Presented by the Academy’s first keynote speaker, Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth, Why Most Small Businesses Fail and What to Do About It

Session 2: “Top 10 Estate Planning Legal Questions (and Answers) from Attorneys Nationwide” presented by Steve Hartnett, Academy Associate Director of Education

(1 hour audio session, Legal Department, BASIC ESTATE PLANNING SESSION)

Find out what the most commonly asked questions are in estate planning. Attorneys across the country think those questions are often obscure, esoteric questions… you may be surprised at the questions attorneys want to be clear on! Steve Hartnett, Associate Director of Legal Education has been here at the Academy working with attorneys across the country on basic as well as advanced legal questions asked since 2001.

The legal department is available to all members for any legal question they have. The department functions as a “senior partner” for members in every state. They author the Academy’s comprehensive estate planning documents as well as teach Webinars and provide face-to-face training for the membership. They are frequently published nationally in Money Magazine, and quoted in a wide variety of estate planning publications.

As a part of this session, we are also offering one legal consultation on the topic of estate planning or elder law. Contact information for the department is provided upon completion of the course.

Stay tuned, we’ll feature another session soon! We hope you enjoy the series and share the registration link with the attorneys you feel would get the most out of this instruction.

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

Each week we’ll give you the summary of ONE course. You can begin the course any time you want. Once you register for the series of sessions, the courses will be delivered to you one at a time over an 8-week period.

Looking back over the past 20 years that the Academy has set the stage for the services, coaching, marketing, legal education and legal documents, estate planning attorneys deserve to build their practices with has been fun and exciting. We’re honored to make these sessions available in an effort to celebrate our two decades of support with attorneys in every state!

CLICK HERE to Register for Our Free 8 Week Course, “The Academy’s Greatest Hits”

YOU ONLY NEED TO REGISTER ONCE (If you previously registered for this course, you were already added to the class schedule. No need to register again.)

Session 1: Presented by the Academy’s first keynote speaker, Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth, Why Most Small Businesses Fail and What to Do About It

(1.5 hour audio session, no materials, BUSINESS STRATEGY)

The Academy systems made available to members are absolutely the systems outlined in the best-selling book, The E-Myth. Michael Gerber’s relationship with the Academy founders brought about the collaboration it took for Robert Armstrong, Sanford M. Fisch and Michael Gerber to co-author a version of this book for attorneys, called “The E-Myth Attorney.” During this session you’ll shine a light on every area of your practice that could benefit from establishing or revisiting your systems.

By working “on” your practice, not just “in” it – you can develop the practice and quality of life that you really want. Establishing systems and procedures for literally everything that needs to be done in your practice allows you, the attorney/owner, to be the CEO and counselor in your law firm. Once systems are established, you and your team have a track to run on. Many of our members have set goals to work “normal hours” or perhaps work 4 days a week, or vacation 10-12 weeks per year… and they achieve these goals while growing a thriving law practice. It’s not magic. It’s discipline, strategy and execution.

You can have the life and practice you dreamed about.

Stay tuned, we’ll feature another session soon! We hope you enjoy the series and share the registration link with the attorneys you feel would get the most out of this instruction.

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

I have it on my laptop, my iPad, and my iPhone. I haven’t gone crazy inventing folders or tags because the search is so amazing. I have the Skitch and also a food app that goes with it so that all of my recipes are in Evernote and can be sorted and search easily.

The other Evernote app I *love* is the CLIPPER app that allows me to clip whatever I have been looking at online and put the entire page into whatever folder I want to store it.

My favorite folder is the READ LATER folder. All the blogs, articles or sales oriented emails that I want to peruse at my leisure…. I click ONE LITTLE EVERNOTE BUTTON in my Outlook and send it directly into that folder.

That folder has turned into my “morning paper.”

I do have a “Travel” folder for airplane or hotel reservation info that has been very handy, as well as a “Project” folder with sub-folders for active projects, forms, reports, etc.

It’s great to be able to email from Evernote or better yet, send ACCESS to a particular folder to someone else at the office if I want them being able to check in and add to, edit or update project or other info I’m storing there.

I must confess I did upgrade to the pay version and a New Year’s Resolution I made (the resolution is alive and well so far), is to really figure out the capabilities of the program.

What are some features that everyone else is using? I know I’ve just hit the tip of this iceberg, so please share!

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

When Members asked why we didn’t alert them to the publicity (which helps with their credibility), the answer was simple. We had no way of knowing the Forbes research team would use Google to gather opinions about this recent tax law change—and when they did, they found Steve’s timely blog on the very subject which interested them. (http://www.aaepa.com/blog/2013/01/fiscal-cliff-averted/)

1. We hope attorneys are able to read about law firm marketing, practice management, estate planning or elder law techniques and find the blogs valuable… and develop an interest in knowing more about what we offer attorneys excelling in estate planning.
2. But also, we want to be ranked by Google. So we try to regularly (3 times per week) write blogs that contain keywords that our future readers and future members may be searching for online so we are constantly introduced to more attorneys we would like to get to know.
3. And… what the heck, if journalists and writers around the country find us and quote us – there’s more publicity for Academy Members nationwide!

Just a reminder that if you’re blogging –

• BE VERY DISCIPLINED about the number of times per week you blog. Otherwise readers won’t get to know you; they certainly won’t be waiting for the next blog you have coming out.

• RELEVANT TOPICS. You won’t please everyone each time with interesting topics, but do try to provide information for which you want to become known.

• USE KEYWORDS. Make sure if your audience tends to search “Madison Estate Planning Attorney” you include those words in your blog, if your desired audience is likely to search, “Pennsylvania Probate,” make sure you have articles on that topic and you also find ways to mention the very words you expect prospective clients to use in search engines.

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

Law Practice Blueprint: 11 Core Systems for Total Estate Planning Success*

*Attorneys on this Webinar will focus on the practice management and growth opportunities they have, following the Webinar we will send the participants a link to the training call conducted by the Academy’s Legal Education Department on the topic of THE RECENT TAX LAW CHANGE.

The Webinar is intended for entrepreneurial attorneys interested in creating increased revenue and quality of life in 2013. It will be conducted by the founders of the Academy, Robert Armstrong and Sanford M. Fisch. These attorneys also co-authored the book, The E-Myth Attorney which will be given to all non-member attorneys registering for this Webinar.

This Webinar will help you discover:

• What’s really happening in your law practice and how it’s contributing to your current state of affairs (We’ll walk you through our simple attorney audit to help you discover where you are now, where you WANT to go and why you aren’t there yet, in a matter of minutes).

• The number one thing that comes between EVERY attorney and the next level of success they have their eye on. No matter how drastic the problem, we’ll show you how the solution is stunningly simple.

• The easiest way to maximize your income while working minimal hours.

• Highlights of the 11 Essential Systems to Dominate Your Market this year.

• How you can go deeper in your training at the 2013 American Academy Boot Camp in Philadelphia…and attend with absolutely NO-RISK and no obligation (details will be shared on the Webinar).

It’s easy to get used to working in your business rather than working on your business. This Webinar will help you take a step back to assess where you really are right now in order to change the trajectory of where you are going in 2013.

In addition to an eye-opening hour with Robert Armstrong and Sanford M. Fisch and a copy of The E-Myth Attorney, Webinar attendees will receive:

• Our exclusive Attorney Audit. We will use this resource interactively on the Webinar to help you start mapping out your course to success.
• A video recording of the Webinar so you can replay and watch again at your convenience.

Click here to register now – you’re just one step away from creating a blueprint for the law practice you always envisioned.

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

In a previous blog post, I mentioned that our Associate Director of Education, Steve Hartnett, presented a substantive course on the topic of planning for Blended Families at our recent Fall Summit. The favorable response from our Members and Guests was overwhelming! Due to the evaluation forms turned in by all of the attendees of this session, we felt this would be one of the most popular and beneficial sessions of our Summit to offer the recording and materials to our FACEBOOK FANS.

We are just now wrapping up the editing of the audio recordings and posting the materials … If you’re *not* a fan of the American Academy Facebook page, you may want to head over to Facebook and “like” our page before the end of the week when we plan on posting the link to this great session!

If you know other attorneys who would benefit from the course as well, be sure to tell them we’re giving the course (at no charge) to all of our fans!

Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services, Marketing & Recruiting
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

Thursday through Sunday you’ll find a couple of hundred attorneys and their staff milling around at the Catamaran here in San Diego for a variety of speakers and sessions. Most states offer between 10 and 13 CLE hours for the agenda being offered.

I think I’m most excited about the Thursday keynote speaker, Steven Kotler, co-author of the book, Abundance… AND the “Women Attorney Lunch Meeting” is going to be really interesting. About 35 or 40 women attorneys will be attending and discussing unique opportunities they have as women attorneys or women law firm owners.

Our week promises to be really full – members not coming this time can count on all the materials and recordings to be available 10 days or so after the event. Non-members not attending should write down our Philadelphia Spring Summit dates! It will be our 20^th Anniversary event April 24^th—April 28^th!

Have a great week everyone, we’ll post pictures and try to share at least ONE substantive course with our Facebook fans and blog subscribers next week!

Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services, Marketing & Recruiting
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

1) Review resumes and cover letters for writing skills, formatting skills and some basic communication skills.

Anyone with spelling errors or formatting problems will not be invited to the group interview.

2) You get to witness the candidates idea of “prompt” based on what time they arrive for the group meeting (I usually have the receptionist note the time of arrival as she puts them in the conference room with an application).

Anyone arriving late is automatically removed from my list for a second interview.

3) You get a chance to see how they interact with each other.

4) You get a chance to see them speak in front of a small group of people they don’t know.

5) You also have narrowed down the introduction of your firm (usually made by the attorney), the introduction of the position (made by a senior staff person) and the introduction to your culture (made by someone else in the firm)…. One time instead of individual meetings covering that information

6) The next thing I like to do, is to offer up a chance for candidates to have 2-4 minutes to say something about what they loved and didn’t love about their last position and what interests them about this position.

If they say anything negative about a former employer, they’ll say it about you. Pay attention to the wording used. If they mention that they noticed something on your website or fan page on Facebook, take note that they were serious enough to do some homework before coming in.

Have all staff in your office attend so that after the meeting everyone can vote on the top 2-3 people to come in for a private interview or testing.

Tell each candidate that they will be contacted the next day and either thanked for coming in and showing an interest in the firm, or be invited back for a second interview. Explain your process to them.

Collect the applications and make reference checks for the people you intend to bring in for an additional interview.

We highly recommend testing new hires, using tests similar to what is offered by Personnel Profiling. Everyone in your firm should be tested so when new hires are brought on, your Personnel Profiling consultation will cover information about how strengths of your new candidate will work or not work with your existing team members.

In the event that you are suddenly left with a hole to fill, it’s tempting to hire too quickly. Don’t. I always have the number of Robert Half handy, so we can have a temp come in if necessary to help out through a transition.

Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services, Marketing & Recruiting
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com