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.
Issues
Policies and politics that affect the small firm.
Calendar
Important dates for the section and the Bar.
Council
Members of the Section Council are listed here.
Please contact us and let us know your concerns.
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.