The Mini MBA for Attorneys

Carla Landry, Principal | LawVision | Advisory Board Member – LMP Institute

Carla Landry is a Principal with LawVision where she coaches legal teams on implementing legal project management and legal process improvement techniques into their matters. She leads the LawVision legal process improvement practice.

Carla has spent over 25 years working in the legal industry, focused on helping lawyers manage their matters effectively and efficiently to enhance client relationships and improve financial performance. She was an Adjunct Faculty at the George Washington University teaching Economics and Profitability of Law Firms as part of a master’s program in law firm management and is an Advisory Board Member of the Legal Project Management Institute. In addition, Carla co-created the first legal project management certification program and launched the first online eLearning courses in legal project management and two online e-learning courses for the Practising Law Institute (PLI), including a Telly Award winning one on process improvement and another on law firm profitability.

Susan Lambreth, Principal | LawVision | Chair and Founder – LMP Institute

Susan Raridon Lambreth is a founding Principal at LawVision Group and is internationally recognized as one of the top project management and practice group consultants for the legal industry. She has authored seven books on law firm management, including three on practice group, four on LPM, and one on legal operations. She has trained over 5,000 law firm leaders in practice leadership skills and over 6,000 legal professionals in LPM skills. She also has co-chaired for the past 11 years the largest annual conference in the world on legal project management for the Practising Law Institute in New York, which regularly attracts 400 to 550 attendees. She recently co-chaired the first annual Global LPM Summit (GlobalLPMSummit).

Prior to co-founding LawVision, she was a partner with Hildebrandt International or its successor firm for 20 years. She received her JD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and an M.B.A. from Villanova University.

Annette Fadness, MBA | JurisBookkeeping

Annette Fadness is the president of JurisBookkeeping, a boutique accounting firm specializing in law firm bookkeeping and trust accounting. Annette spent eleven years at the mid-sized firm of Greenberg, Glusker in Los Angeles, and earned her MBA at UCLA. Over the past ten years, Annette has helped hundreds of law firms set up accounting systems to properly manage their trust accounts and to have understandable, tax-ready financials. A recognized expert in her field, Annette holds certifications in QuickBooks, Clio, and LeanLaw.

Paul Swegle | Business Law Seminar Group, LLC

Paul Swegle helps entrepreneurs build, fund, launch, and market innovative products, services, and technologies. He has written two best-selling books that are used widely in law and business schools, “Startup Law and Fundraising for Entrepreneurs and Startup Advisors” and “Contract Drafting and Negotiation for Entrepreneurs and Business Professionals.”

Paul has served as general counsel to sixteen companies and has guided exits to Capital One, Abbott Laboratories, ING, and Nortek. He has been involved in more than $13 billion of financings and M&A deals, and recently helped Porch.com through its SPAC IPO. Paul currently serves as in-house GC to four startups in the virtual health, pharmaceutical, and retail technology sectors. He is currently co-founding a biotech startup focused on a promising Alzheimer’s therapy with a team of university and pharma industry scientists. Paul also serves as outside counsel to companies in e-commerce, consumer products, fintech, financial services, and technology security. He began his legal career with the U.S. SEC and Department of Justice.

Paul is an Adjunct Law Professor at both Seattle University School of Law and Gonzaga University School of Law, teaching “Counseling Startups: Law, Regulation and Fundraising.” He speaks frequently to law, MBA, and entrepreneurship classes around the country, and to other business, legal, and investment groups. His business law blog can be found at www.StartupGC.us.

Michael J. Ryan, Jr. | MJR Legal and Business Consulting, LLC

An attorney, accountant, and operations executive, Michael has more than 30 years’ experience, principally focused on capital markets and the federal securities laws. He earned his BS in accounting from Villanova University and his JD from Catholic University where he also served as Associate Editor of the Law Review.

He is a member of the Maryland Bar and is a certified public accountant (inactive). Michael’s career has included positions as senior accountant with Price Waterhouse (nka PwC), senior attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, general counsel of the American Stock Exchange, president, and COO of PROXY Governance, Inc. and several positions with trade associations focused on public policy concerning capital markets, corporate governance, and financial services.

Session I – Introduction to Managing Your Matters Effectively Using Legal Project Management | 12:00pm – 1:40pm
1. Framework for Legal Project Management | 12:00pm – 12:15pm
2. Defining Matter Scope | 12:15pm – 12:30pm
3. Risk Management Planning | 12:30pm – 1:00pm

Break | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

4. Navigating the relationship of LPM and process improvement | 1:10pm – 1:40pm

Session II – Cracking the Code: The Lawyer’s Guide to Understanding Financial Statements | 1:40pm – 2:50pm
1. Financial statement overview | 1:40pm – 1:46pm
2. P&L deep dive | 1:46pm – 1:52pm
3. What the P&L can tell you about your firm | 1:52pm – 1:58pm
4. Tips for getting the most out of your P&L | 1:58pm – 2:04pm
5. Balance sheet deep dive | 2:04pm – 2:10pm

Break | 2:10pm – 2:20pm

6. What the balance sheet shows you about your firm’s health | 2:20pm – 2:25pm
7. Common mistakes in structuring financial statements | 2:25pm – 2:30pm
8. Tips for getting better metrics from your reporting | 2:30pm – 2:35pm
9. Three-way trust reconciliation deep dive | 2:35pm – 2:40pm
10. Avoiding three most common mistakes attorneys make in their trust accounts | 2:40pm – 2:45pm
11. Q&A | 2:45pm – 2:50pm

Session III – Forming a New Company on a Solid Foundation – Best Practices in Entity Selection, Entity Formation, and IP Protection | 2:50pm – 4:00pm
1. Pre-entity-Formation Best Practices for IP Protection and Dispute Avoidance | 2:50pm – 3:05pm
2. Entity Selection: LLC versus Corporation | 3:05pm – 3:20pm

Break | 3:20pm – 3:30pm

3. Entity Formation Best Practices | 3:30pm – 3:45pm
4. Structuring Key Relationships in New Business Entities | 3:45pm – 4:00pm

Session IV – Securities Law 101 | 4:00pm – 5:10pm
1. Overview | 4:00pm – 4:15pm

a. Purpose of the Capital Markets
b. Understanding Key Terminology
c. Meeting the Market Participants
d. Statues, Rules and Regulations from 35,000 Feet

2. The ABC’s of the Principal Federal Securities Laws | 4:15pm – 4:30pm

a. Securities Act of 1933
b. Securities Exchange Act of 1934
c. Investment Company Act of 1940
d. Investment Advisers Act of 1940
e. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
f. Dodd-Frank Reform Act of 2010

Break | 4:30pm – 4:40pm

3. Constructing a Practical Framework of the Business | 4:40pm – 5:00pm

a. Following the Money
b. Fundamentals of an Efficient Market
c. Intersection of the Business and Regulatory Structure
d. Inside the Beltway – “SEC Law vs. SEC Lore” + Capitol Hill

4. Summary & Conclusion | 5:00pm – 5:10pm