Update of ABA book helps firms establish a revenue mindset and leave less money on the table
"The Lawyer's Guide to Increasing Revenue, Third Edition," a new book published by the American Bar Association, provides a straightforward, logical guide to increasing profits without cutting costs. Authors and consultants Arthur G. Greene and Peter D. Roberts reflect on their breadth of experience coaching law firms to give attorneys simple approaches to improving revenue.
Rather than raising billable hours or rates, "The Lawyer's Guide to Increasing Revenue" describes specific managerial strategies to strengthen client satisfaction, improve firm morale and enhance revenue so law firms can maximize profits. This third edition provides clear, comprehensive instructions to understand and master financial data, client expectations, fee arrangements, partner compensation and more.
Greene was a partner with a 70-lawyer New Hampshire firm, where he practiced law for more than 30 years and served as managing partner. He later founded a small firm before transitioning his career to consulting with small and mid-sized law firms. Greene's consulting practice focuses on both practice management and the strategic and financial aspects of maintaining a healthy firm.
Roberts holds an M.B.A. and was a legal administrator for 18 years. He established and grew the Law Office Management Assistance Program at the Washington State Bar Association over 13 years, serving law firms of all sizes as well as individual practitioners. He serves on the executive committees of the Solo and Small Practice Section and the Low Bono Section of the Washington State Bar Association. Roberts now offers private consulting services to lawyers.
New ABA book offers planning steps for ensuring lawyers' financial stability into retirement
Just published by the American Bar Association, "Hire and Retire: A Plan for a Continuing Income Stream in Retirement from Any Practice" by Gary P. Bauer shares practical advice for everyone, from the new law school graduate to the seasoned lawyer looking to retire.
"Hire and Retire" is the second book in Bauer's "Solo Lawyer" series for the ABA's Solo, Small Firm and General Practice (GPSolo) Division. For more than 20 years, he has been actively involved in helping students better understand the business of law and how they might use their law degree to their greatest advantage.
Many older lawyers have no plan in place in case of their untimely death or disability, despite their ethical obligations to their clients. Because of this, more and more state bar associations are being called on to close out the practices of solo practitioners who have made no provisions. Instead of transferring work to others, lawyers end up slowly reducing their practices. Delegating the workload to a new associate means a continued stream of income as the senior attorney cuts back. In his latest book, Bauer offers valuable tools and transition options for lawyers' advancement and well-being.
Making plans for the future of your career takes hard work and preparation. With "Hire and Retire," Bauer hopes that older lawyers will see new lawyers as collaborators that can energize their practice and continue its success.
Bauer has been on the faculty at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School since 1998. He has worked as a criminal defense attorney and is the director of the school's Sixty Plus, Inc., Elderlaw Clinic, where he teaches estate planning to third-year law students. He has served as chair of the Practice Management Section of the State Bar of Michigan and the Legal Educators Committee for the ABA's GPSolo Division. He is an accomplished author, public speaker and educator with a desire to help all lawyers find success in practice.
Update of guidebook to SEC's executive compensation disclosure requirements
The American Bar Association's newly released "Executive Compensation and Disclosure Rules, Third Edition" is a valuable resource for lawyers, practitioners and others who are responsible for compliance with federal securities laws that require full disclosure of compensation for executives of publicly held companies.
The guide provides an in-depth analysis of the rules, their interpretation and application to various common situations, drawing from both the language of the rules and the related Securities and Exchange Commission releases, which contain significant commentary on how the rules are to be construed and applied. This book also discusses the supplemental guidance that has been issued by the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance since the rules were adopted.
A useful tool to aid registrants and their advisors, this guide provides:
A history of the executive and director compensation disclosure requirements under the federal securities laws, as well as the evolution of the 2006 rules and their progeny
Concepts of general applicability - the registrants that are subject to the rules, the executives and directors whose compensation must be disclosed, the compensation that must be reported and the SEC's overarching mandate of "principles-based" disclosure
An examination of several additional compensation-related disclosure requirements under the federal securities laws, including the various shareholder advisory votes on executive compensation required by the Dodd-Frank Act
An extensive discussion of the newest Dodd-Frank provision: the CEO pay ratio disclosure rule
Appendices are provided that contain the current version of the executive and director compensation disclosure rules as set forth in Item 402 of Regulation S-K, various speeches by officials of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance on the rules and various compliance matters and the most recent guidance from the Division of Corporation Finance on the application of the rules.
The book's author, Mark A. Borges, is a principal with Compensia, Inc., a management consulting firm providing executive compensation advisory services to compensation committees and senior management of knowledge-based companies. Previously, Borges was a principal for Mercer in the firm's Washington Resource Group in Washington, D.C., and he was a special counsel in the Office of Rulemaking, Division of Corporation Finance with the SEC.
Published: Mon, Aug 19, 2019
