Planning for Life

By Harry S. Margolis

Lawyers are trained, and legal ethics rules require, that they represent a single client or more than one client only if there's absolutely no differences in their interests with respect to the legal matter at hand. In addition, lawyers must do their best to represent the interests and goals of clients with diminished capacity.

The concept of zealous advocacy for a single client was expressed early in the 19th century by Lord Brougham who said "an advocate, in discharge of his duty, knows but one person in all the world, and that person is his client."

By Harry S. Margolis

Lawyers are too expensive to be affordable by most Americans. The result is that most people who need legal advice and representation don't get it. This can have dire consequences with people losing their homes, getting less than adequate care and even having their lives put at risk. A recent story on National Public Radio described the plight of political asylum applicants who are unrepresented by counsel. Most lose their cases and rather than going back to life-threatening situations, going underground, joining the masses of undocumented immigrants who fear their next traffic stop.

By Harry S. Margolis

The recent announcement the Big Four accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) that it is opening a law firm in Washington, D.C., could be the harbinger of revolutionary change in the practice of law. In the United States, law firms operate under archaic rules that limit law firm ownership to lawyers. This is why all law firms are partnerships rather than corporations. It's also why most law firms are under capitalized since they can't raise money from non-attorney investors or have an IPO like other businesses. As a result, they do not have the resources to invest in the systems and personnel that would permit them to modernize more quickly and provide more efficient and cost effective services to clients.

By Harry S. Margolis

A financial planner recently asked me the following:

Second, because this question comes up from time to time, what organization of estate planning attorneys do you recommend I use as a general resource?  I just googled "estate planning attorney organizations", but I found several:

• NAEPC
• AAEPA
• ACTEC
• NNEPA
• NAELA
• AATEELA

Which one should I start with?  Assume the clients have assets of $1-$3M - not enough to worry about federal estate taxes, but big enough to be somewhat complicated, and definitely worth updating the will, doing the business and health care POAs, etc.

By Harry S. Margolis

I had lunch the other day with Vincent Bonazzoli of the Family Estate Planning Law Group in Lynnfield. He has a different approach to estate planning representation that may work better for many attorneys and their clients than more traditional forms of estate planning.

By Harry S. Margolis

In a survey that it acknowledges is unscientific, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly asked subscribers "When do you foresee yourself retiring from the practice of law?" More than a third responded that they would work at least part-time "until I literally no longer can." Almost a quarter plan to retire between ages 70 and 80. A quarter will retire between 65 and 70 and the smallest group, 16 percent, plan to retire before age 65.

By Harry S. Margolis

I recently heard Chas Rampenthal, the general counsel of LegalZoom, the legal forms site, speak at Suffolk University Law School on how the practice of law needs to be modernized and made more efficient, accessible and affordable. He joined many commentators, most notably Richard Susskind who wrote The End of Lawyers?, in describing the practice of law as being behind the times, lawyers crafting single solutions for individual clients, which by its nature is expensive and inefficient.

By Harry S. Margolis

Whether you are hiring an attorney for estate planning, a litigation matter, criminal defense or for a corporate negotiation, there are a number of attributes to the legal representation that you should be able to expect. While the list could be much longer, here are five:

By Harry S. Margolis

A Boston estate planning attorney recently received a public reprimand from the Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) for overcharging an estate and stretching out its administration for more than seven years. In 2003, Kenneth L. Harvey, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Boston, met with an elderly client and two of her sons. The client executed a will and a trust naming Attorney Harvey as trustee and executor. She passed away later that year.

By Harry S. Margolis

Under the professional ethical rules governing the practice of law, law firms cannot have non-lawyer owners or investors. The theory behind this restriction is that nonlawyer owners would not be bound by the professional rules of lawyers and could influence their lawyer employees to violate those rules. Of course, lawyers already work for nonlawyers as in house general counsel to corporations and non-profit organizations, but in those cases their employer is also their client, so no conflicts arise.