Chapter 14 Law Office Administration Flashcards
A form of business that does not have a separate legal identity apart from the one person who owns all of the assets and assumes all debts and liabilities.
Sole Proprietorship
Liability that can be satisfied out of an individuals personal assets
Personal Liability
Restricted liability; liability that can be satisfied out of business assets, not out of personal assets.
Limited Liability
An attorney who practices alone- without partners or associates in the office.
Sole Practitioner
A professional who handles any kind of case
General practitioner
A firm that specializes primarily in one area of the law.
Boutique Law Firm
(1) an employee who is still in law school or who has completed law school and is waiting to pass the bar. (2) One who provides research and writing assistance to a judge.
Law Clerk
a student in a law office seeking practical experience
Legal Intern
Attorneys who are sole practitioners share the use and overhead costs of an office.
Office Sharing
The operating exposes of a business (e.g. office rent, furniture, insurance clerical staff) for which customers or clients are not charged
Overhead
A voluntary association of two or more persons to place their resources in a jointly owned business or enterprise, with a proportional sharing of profits and losses. Partners make the ultimate decisions on how the business or enterprise should be managed
Partnership
An attorney who brings fee generating cases into the office due to his or her extensive contacts an/or reputation as a skilled attorney.
rainmaker
a partners advance against profits or net income
Draw
an attorney employee of a partnership who hopes to eventually be promoted to partner.
Associate
anyone hires from another law office
lateral hire
an attorney who has been passed over for partner statues but who remains at the firm.
Senior Associate
A special category of partner who does not own the firm in the sense of an equity or capital partner.
Nonequity partner
A full owner partner in the firm
Equity partner
a full time attorney employee who has no expectation of becoming a full partner.
Staff attorney
an attorney who is semi retired or has some other special status in the law firm.
of counsel
an attorney hired to work for a relatively short period of time, usually on specific cases or projects
contract attorney
a corporation of persons performing services that require a professional license
Professional corporation (PC)
A company or partnership whose owners are taxed like a partnership and have the limited liability of a corporation.
Limited liability entity
a law office within a corporation containing salaried attorneys who advise and represent the corporation.
Corporate Legal Department
the chief attorney in a corporate law department
General counsel
a partner whose primary responsibility is management of the law firm
managing partner
an individual, usually a non attorney, who has responsibility for the day to day administration of a law office.
Legal Administrator
a paralegal who helps recruit, rain and supervise all paralegals in a law office
Paralegal Manager
paying an outside company or service to perform tasks usually performed by one’s own employees.
Outsourcing
recording time spent on a client matter for purposes of billing and productivity assessment
timekeeping
A form used by some law firms that is the source document for the creation of all necessary accounting records that are needed when a law firm begins working on a new client case or matter.
New File Worksheet
A case applying a special statute that gives a judge authority to order the losing party to pay the winning party’s attorney and paralegal fees.
Statutory Fee Case
a paper form on which timekeepers record how much time they spent on particular client matters.
Daily time sheet
existing or occurring in the same period of time; pertaining to records that are prepared on events as the events are occurring or shortly thereafter.
contemporaneous
time spent on tasks for which clients cannot be asked to pay
nonbillable time
concerning or involving legal serves that are provided for the public good without fee or compensation. Sometimes also applied to services given at a reduced rate.
Pro Bono
Impoverished; without funds to hire a private attorney.
Indigent
A single hourly rate based on a blend or mix of the rates normally charged by different individuals, e.g, a partner, a senior associate, a junior associate, and sometimes a paralegal
Blended hourly rate
A method of charging for legal services based on factors such as the complexity of the case or the results achieved rather than solely on the number of hours spent on the clients case.
Value Billing
A flat fee for services regardless of the amount of time needed to complete the case.
Fixed Fee
An hourly rate leading to a final bill that will not exceed a predetermined amount.
capped fee
all tasks needed to represent a client; all-inclusive legal services.
bundled legal services
appearing furor representing oneself;
pro se (on ones behalf)
discrete task representation.
unbundled legal services
charging a specific amount for each legal task performed.
task based billing
an hourly rate charged until the nature and scope of the legal problem are known, at which time fixed fees are charged for services provided thereafter.
Hourly plus fixed fee
an hourly or fixed fee that is reduced because the volume of business the client gives the office.
discounted hourly rate
a fee that is paid only is the case is successfully resolved by litigation or settlement
Contingent fee
a fee that is increased if a designated target is met; an increased fee for achieving an exceptional result.
incentive billing
a fee received by the defendants attorney that is dependent on the outcome of a case.
defense contingent fee
a client bill that is finalized after the services are rendered
retroactive negotiated fee
charges or fees imposed by the court directed related to the litigation in that court.
court costs
a form used by an office to indicate that an expense has been incurred for which the client may or may not be billed.
expense slip
a position taken on behalf of a client that the attorney cannot support by good faith argument based on existing law or the need for a change in the law.
Frivolous Position
(1) the act of hiring or engaging the services of someone, usually a professional. (2) the amount of money (or other property) paid by a client as a deposit or advance against future fees. costs, and expenses of providing services.
Retainer
A billing memorandum prepared by a law office on a particular client case stating expenses, costs, time spent and billing rates of attorneys and paralegal working on the case.
Draft Bill
deduct an amount from the bill
write down
add an amount to the bill
write up
determining whether there should be a write up or write down of a bill to be sent to a client
valuing the bill
A bank account controlled by an attorney that con taints client funds that may not be used for office operating expenses or for any personal purpose of the attorney.
Client Trust account
A program that helps fund legal services for the poor with funds that attorneys are required to turn over from interest earned in client trust accounts containing client funds.
IOLTA program
mixing what should be kept separate, e.g., depositing client funds in a single account with general law firm funds or with an attorneys personal funds.
commingling
someone in charge of files in a large office
record information manager
a method of storing client files in alphabetical order by the clients surname or organization name
alphabetical filing system
a method of storing client files by numbers or letter number combinations.
Numerical Filing System
A sequence of numbers and vertical lines of different shapes that can be read by an optical scanner.
bar code
the file of a client whose case is no longer active in the firm.
closed file
