Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Author Archives: greg.froom

Coach’s Corner: Finder, grinder – or minder?

For law firms to be successful they must be more than a collection of single practitioners. Success in the law, like success at sports, is a team effort - if the team isn't firing on all cylinders, it gets away from what made it successful and people no longer play their true roles. No law firm can be profitable and growing without a range of skills and abilities. Not every player on a sports team is expected to be a star, and not every lawyer in a law firm should be expected to play similar roles in the life of the firm.

Read More »

Scribner’s Error: May I see your papers? The humiliation of a border crossing

Strike "international contraband smuggler" off my list of alternative careers. I'd never get the first kilo over the border. I've known for a while that I have an innate distaste for authority, which I attribute to some residual ornery genes inherited from the West Virginia branch of my family tree. But I wasn't aware that I had such an irrational fear of authority until last month's episode at a Canadian border crossing.

Read More »

Coach’s Corner: Politicians, lawyers and ‘protecting the public’

Lawyers nationwide increasingly face state and federal government actions to implement a whole new regulatory structure aimed at what is in fact a growing problem: companies that charge consumers an up-front fee to modify the terms of a mortgage or deed of trust they can no longer afford, then either fail to deliver results or actually abscond with the fee itself. In an early effort, New York banned upfront mortgage-modification fees but explicitly exempted retainers to lawyers. Later, reports that mortgage companies were using relationships with lawyers to get around the fee ban led to passage of another law, this time banning retainer and escrow collections by lawyers unless the fee is collected as part of ongoing, regular legal counsel.

Read More »