San Francisco Law Library's Law Practice Management Collection

www.plaintiffmagazine.com

MARCH 2009

San Francisco Law Library’s law practice management collection Here’s a wealth of information on starting and maintaining a plaintiff’s law practice.

BY MARCIA BELL technology, the ups and down in the economy and various legal trends, the San Francisco Law Library One of the San Francisco Law Li- Law Library and Bar Association update brary’s special collections is the law prac- the LPM collection to reflect these shifts Brief summary tice management (LPM) collection, in style and focus. available for in-library use or for check Specific resources of collection, out by attorneys who live or have an office in San Francisco. The LPM collection One of the most indispensible re- is a joint project between the San Fran- sources in this LPM collection is The Es- database and cisco Law Library and the Bar Association sential Formbook: comprehensive of San Francisco Law Practice Manage- Management Tools for Lawyers. It is a Interlibrary Loan ment Section. four-volume set with accompanying CD- ROMs. The bland title conceals a wealth What’s in the collection? Retrieval program of practical information and forms; such This very specific collection of texts as model partnership and organizational and CD-ROMs addresses the challenges agreements, client intake forms, diverse The collection of the San Francisco Law of opening and running a solo, small or fee agreements and engagement letters Library may be searched through our online midsize law practice. Materials cover along with coverage of hiring, billing, col- catalog at www.sfgov.org/sfll by title, author or many practical topics, such as law firm fi- lections and the very useful disaster plan- keyword. When you find the item you need, the nances, client development, attorney fees, ning strategies. computer will display the location and the avail- billing, marketing your practice, rainmak- Other outstanding re- ability of the materials, as well as listing the ing and issues related to life and work sources in the LPM col- date that the materials were last updated or the balance. lection include Flying date that last volume was received. You can ex- Solo: A port your search results by e-mail and renew Benefits to plaintiff’s lawyers Survival materials online. The Law Library maintains an The main function of the LPM col- Guide for extensive and circulating print collection of lection is to provide important resources the Solo state codes, professional practice sets, restate- to support the substantive work of lawyer- and Small ments and other core legal resources such as ing – legal analysis, advocacy and the Firm law reviews, texts and materials on a wide many other issues associated with repre- Lawyer, 4th edition by range of subject areas in American law. senting clients – along with the day-to- William Gibson; How To If there is a resource that you need that day and long-term management issues of Start and Build a Law the San Francisco Law Library does not have, running a viable law practice. As these is- Practice, 5th edition by Jay Foonberg; See Library, Next Page sues change with the development of How To Get and Keep Good Clients, 3rd

MARCH 2009

the library staff can arrange for loans from other libraries, locally from the to assist where the old citation given in relevant cases no longer corre- Hastings Law Library, and farther afield from such other collections as the sponds to the newer edition. As a privilege of ILL membership, reference Los Angeles County Law Library. staff will e-mail or fax selections from these non-circulating archived materials. Free electronic databases The San Francisco Law Library provides patrons with FREE access How ILL will help to Westlaw, Lexis, Shepard’s, CEB’s OnLaw (an online version of all of the The program is formally called our Interlibrary Loan Retrieval pro- CEB practice guides), HeinOnline, PACER, Fastcase, Martin Dean’s Essen- gram, or ILL, for short. By becoming an ILL member, you will receive a tial Forms and Dissomaster. range of services, including reference assistance and the timesaving abil- HeinOnline is an enormous online database of law reviews, historical ity to call in requests for materials and have them packed up ready for pick Federal Registers, the Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Agency deci- up. sions and other resources. All of the materials are in PDF format, making When someone from an ILL member firm calls the Law Library them easy to e-mail and save electronically. with a request, the library staff checks if the material is on the shelf, The CEB OnLaw database provides online access to all CEB practice pulls the materials from the shelf, checks them out to the attorney and materials, forms and action guides. OnLaw has a search capability across packages them for pick up by the attorney’s messenger or courier serv- all materials, making searching for what you need quite simple. Members ice. For larger practice sets, or for more complex research issues, the of the San Francisco Law Library’s Inter-Library Loan Retrieval Service reference staff can also assist in selecting the particular volume for the (ILL) can telephone the Law Library and request a librarian to search the subject at issue, or e-mail or fax the tables of contents or relevant index CEB OnLaw database to determine which CEB texts will best address the pages for the attorney to review. issues needing to be researched. (Information about the ILL service is de- All law firms that have an office in San Francisco are welcome to scribed below.) participate in the Law Library ILL program. The fee schedule for membership is based on the number of attorneys in the San Francisco office of the Archive Collection firm and is renewable each year. Sole practitioners and smaller law firms The San Francisco Law Library collection also includes an archive of (firms with fewer than nine attorneys in San Francisco) may join by simply earlier editions of materials, including codes, regulations and a historical contacting the library and completing an application. collection of California Chapter Statutes, California Administrative Registers, The Law Library’s ILL services are provided FREE to sole practition- the Uniform Building Code and related codes, the Code of Federal Regula- ers and small law firms as a courtesy and without charge. Taking advan- tions and San Francisco municipal codes. The archive also includes earlier tage of the San Francisco Law Library’s vast resources through this editions of works now reorganized, such as Witkin or Corbin on Contracts, fabulous program will certainly benefit plaintiffs’ lawyers.

edition, by Jay Foonberg; Again, 3rd edition by p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to and the Law Office Pro- Henry W. Ewalt and An- 4:00 p.m. cedures Manual for Solos drew W. Ewalt. and Small Firms, 3rd The San Francisco Law Marcia R. Bell is a licensed California edition by Demetrios Library always welcomes attorney and serves as the Director of the Dimitriou. Another pop- suggestions and propos- San Francisco Law Library. The library is a ular publication is How als for the LPM collec- private non-profit corporation that provides to Build tion, housed in the Financial District services to the City and County of San Fran- and Man- Branch location of the San Francisco Law cisco and is open to the public. As is the case age a Personal Injury Library, located in the Monadnock for all California law libraries, the San Practice, 2nd edition by Building at 685 Market Street, Suite 420, Francisco Law Library is not part of the pub- K. William Gibson. There San Francisco, CA 94105. To accommo- lic library system and obtains its funding are also materials on date trial lawyers, the Financial District from a small percentage of filing fees. building client relation- Branch Library is open nights and week- For more information, e-mail at ships, such as Through ends. Hours are Monday through Thurs- [email protected]. To find out more the Client’s Eyes: New Approaches to day from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Friday about the Law Library’s resources, visit the Get Clients to Hire You Again and and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 Web site at www.sfgov.org/sfll.