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Dan Pinnington, director of prac- ticePRO — which "helps lawyers take proactive steps to avoid legal mal- practice claims and shows them how to grow a successful and thriving law practice" — says all lawyers should have a basic understanding of practice finances, management issues (manag- ing, marketing, and technology), and know how to handle retainers. They should also know how to deal with clients, particularly in regards to the expectations and collection of fees and other accounting issues that are part of a law practice. "Lawyers who make quick transitions — to a new area of law or into private practice after being in-house, for example — without suffi- cient preparation have greater exposure to claims." William Trudell, a sole practitioner and chairman of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, has seen a lot of troubled lawyers over the years. A criminal lawyer for the better part of 40 years, Trudell now spends 90 per cent of his time representing lawyers who need help. He says practitioners can get into trouble quickly (clients complaining to the law society) or it can happen over time, where mistakes and debts are compounded and sometimes addictions begin or are triggered by the difficulties. Dangerfield agrees. "When someone is in financial trouble, often it is only one part of the puzzle. They may have marriage or addiction issues or they may have a marginal practice or too many financial commitments. They may not honour their statutory remit- tances or have problems with taxes, and before they know it, they are behind the eight ball and it is very difficult to bring themselves back." The reason most lawyers run into Client's IP at Risk? Our bite is even worse than our roar. We are accomplished trial lawyers with years of study in science and engineering and we have the courtroom successes to prove it. It's treacherous out there, so if your client's IP is threatened – talk to us. problems, says Trudell, is improper bookkeeping. "I don't mean stealing money or even borrowing it, simply not accounting for it." In Dangerfield's experience, the first sign of trouble for a lawyer, and the subject of the major- ity of complaints to the Manitoba law society, is his or her failure to respond to the client, either by ignoring phone calls or not providing updates on the status of their cases. "Sometimes law- yers reach a point where they are not engaged in their practice any longer, so they aren't able to deal with matters in a timely fashion." Kenneth Atlas lectures at McGill it all starts somewhere www.ridoutmaybee.com Editors of the Canadian Patent Reporter University and is a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP specializing in lending and bankruptcy and insolvency law. He says lawyers can get into finan- cial trouble by trying to keep up with the Joneses, but not in the way most people would expect. Lawyers get into financial difficulty not by keeping up with com- peting law firms or their fellow lawyers, but often by trying to maintain the same lifestyle as their clients. "It is less that the lawyers want to keep up with their clients and more 'this is my peer group. I have to have the same kind of stuff as they do.' However, often lawyers don't have the same kind of income as their wealthy entrepreneurial or investment 34 M A RCH 2011 www. CANADIAN Lawyermag.com dout_CL_July_10.indd 1 6/17/10 3:10:05 PM