The General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section
of the State Bar of Texas

This section devotes its energies primarily to the interests of lawyers who practice as solos and in small firms. We have been active for more than 35 years. Our section publishes a Digest and co-sponsers an annual institute for general practitioners as well as other CLE programs. Our section has played a leadership role in several State Bar initiatives. Members of our Council are active on State Bar Committees, the Starting Practices Task Force, and the State Bar Board of Directors. We are active and serious advocates of policies important to small firms, and we report on issues important to all lawyers.

We show up. Join us.
Go to
this page, follow the instructions and links and sign up online. Or download this form from the State Bar and send it in.

The General Practice Digest
Our 28th year to cover the essentials of 16 areas of law.

Practice Tips

Issues
Policies and politics that affect the small firm.

Calendar
Important dates for the section and the Bar.

Chair's Letter

Council
Members of the Section Council are listed
here. Please contact us and let us know your concerns.

Links

Contacts
e-mail the Chair
e-mail the Webmaster

The Spring 2008 General Practice Digest is online
Please Note: If you are a member of the section with an email address listed with the State Bar, we have sent a notice to you, BUT if you use spam blocking software that requires a response from the sender for approval (such as Earthlink uses), you will not get messages from the Section unless you approve email from the domains gpsolo.com or gpsolo.org. We cannot do individual requests for authentication from your ISP. Please Also Note: we do not get automatic membership updates from the State Bar. If you joined the section after April 8, 2008, we do not have your name in our database. Please notify the State Bar Sections Department and have them notify us that you are a new member.

State Bar Convention CLE
Again this year, the GPSolo Section will present a half day of free CLE. This will be at the George Brown Convention Center in Houston. Please be sure to come by. We will also have a booth in the Hall of Sections and a hopitality suite on Thursday afternoon and evening. Come by our booth for more details.

Updated! Task Force on Mandatory Insurance Disclosure
As most of you know, the State Bar president has appointed a Task Force on mandatory Insurance Disclosure. This task force's job was to evaluate the notion that State Bar members should be required to disclose whether the member has professional liability insurance. The Task Force has passed a resolution recommending against mandatory disclosure which will be presented to the State Bar Board at the Annual Convention. Go here for more details.

What would you do if...
... you were defending a nursing home and your opponent referred to a Nazi extermination program in oral argument. Do you have grounds for a reversal? The answer is in the Digest.
   For more tips remember to go to our
Practice Tips page.

Lawyers' Confidential Information Protected
The open records request for your personal information has been rebuffed from two sources. First, the legislature passed HB1237 which on September 1 became Sec. 552.1176 of the Government Code. However, you must opt-in to confidentiality. Go to this page on the Texas Bar website and download this PDF. Then send it to the Bar. The Bar's general counsel is working on making this easier but for now you need to send in the form. Second, the Court of Appeals has ruled in Greg Abbott v. State Bar of Texas that this information is exempt from open records disclosure because it is being held on behalf of the judiciary.

Digest | Issues | Calendar | Chair's Letter | Council | Links | Tips