Recent News

Raise your hand if you are in a firm of ten or fewer attorneys. Now look around you at all those raised hands.

 

Almost three-quarters of all practicing attorneys are in private practice. Of those, seventy percent are in a small firm or solo practice setting, defined as having ten or fewer attorneys. Yet it often seems that this majority is ignored by organized bar associations. That’s a shame, since the organized bar can offer so much to the small-firm attorney. The Columbus Bar Solo/Small Firm Committee is working to change that feeling of being ignored.

 

The Columbus Bar recently conducted a survey of its members who fit the small-firm profile. The results of the survey show that there is a need for a community within the Association to provide the practice management resources, practical tips, and personal support available to those in big firms. Working with the results from this survey, our goal is for the newly reinvigorated Solo/Small Firm Committee to provide that community to its members.

 

The first step you can take to utilize this community is attending committee meetings. Solo/Small Firm Committee meetings are a great place to network with attorneys practicing in a wide variety of specialties and to hear speakers discuss issues pertinent to solos and small firm attorneys. We are in the process of creating a diverse list of topics for the year, focusing around the theme – The Missing Member of Your Firm.

 

October’s speaker is Jim Culbertson, founder of LightBulb Interactive, Inc., a Grandview company devoted to helping increase companies’ web visibility. Jim was recently featured in Business First describing how picking the rights words in online marketing can maximize your accessibility to potential customers and clients. He will be taking on the role of your firm’s internet marketing specialist, discussing tactics to drive more visitors to your website.

 

Other community benefits we are looking to provide include a redesigned committee website with committee news and links to online practice management resources, member discounts, and CLE offerings of interest to solo and small firm attorneys. In the planning stages for this spring is a one-day Solo/Small Firm CLE conference. The conference will feature topics especially relevant to small-firm practice and will give you the ability to take care of much of your annual CLE requirements.

 

We look forward to seeing you at our kick-off meeting at noon on Wednesday, October 17 at Columbus Bar offices. Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP (donna@cbalaw.org), and there will be a business card drawing for some fabulous prizes, including free CLE! If you are interested in getting involved with the Committee, or if you have ideas for benefits we can provide or speaker topics you would like to explore, you can email us at bmiller@bradleymillerlaw.com or ben@benparteelaw.com.