Laura Stone, Author at OAMIC: Legal Malpractice Insurance

Maintaining Professionalism While Working From Home

Maintaining Professionalism While Working From Home Whether your office has shifted to a partial or mostly work-from-home model, or you’re temporarily quarantining, you’re still a working professional. It can be difficult to maintain that professionalism when you don’t have the regular “get up, get dressed, go to the office” routine. So, how do you prevent the slow (or maybe not-so-slow) slide that turns work-from-home into work-from-bed? 4 Tips to Maintain Professionalism Have a Workspace This affects most of the tips below. If you haven’t...

Setting & Keeping Resolutions (or Other Goals)

Setting & Keeping Resolutions (or Other Goals) According to every survey out there, the top new year’s resolutions are fitness related – usually “lose weight” coupled with or followed closely by “exercise more.” Unfortunately, these are also the most abandoned resolutions too. Interestingly, it’s not just those types of resolutions though. They say somewhere around half of all resolutions are abandoned. Remarkably, one-third don’t even make it past January. In fact, a study by Strava even pinpointed Jan. 19 as “Quitters...

10 Tips for Avoiding the Scariest Thing in the World

10 Tips for Avoiding the Scariest Thing in the World For most lawyers, horror movie villains and things that go bump in the night can’t hold a candle to the heart-stopping, terrifying thought of a malpractice claim (or even a bar complaint). Because, while werewolves or menacing grifters chase unsuspecting teens through dark forests and haunted hallways, the sun eventually always comes up and the hero always makes it out. However, complaints or legal malpractice claims – even meritless ones –...

Avoid Ethical Missteps in Your Law Firm’s Social Media

Avoid Ethical Missteps in Your Law Firm’s Social Media I’ll spare you the introduction about how ubiquitous social media is because, well, it is. Love it or hate it, social media is vital in modern communication. Since we last covered “Why Your Law Firm Needs a Social Media Presence,” not much has changed in the landscape of social media platforms. For Americans, YouTube and Facebook are still the most-used social media platforms, followed by Instagram in second. Others, like LinkedIn, Twitter and...

Looking at Oklahoma’s Most Common Bar Complaints

Looking at Oklahoma’s Most Common Bar Complaints The Oklahoma Bar Association publishes Professional Responsibility Commission Annual Report (PDF). It includes disciplinary actions taken by the commission as well as grievances filed by members of the public. As interesting as the first one is, we’ll be exploring the latter. Although a claim of malpractice is very different than a bar grievance, and one doesn’t always correlate to the other, they do share some important traits. First, an unhappy client doesn’t necessarily mean you...

Nuts and Bolts: Understanding the Parts of Your Policy

Nuts and Bolts: Understanding the Parts of Your Policy Insurance is what we do. We live and breathe it, so we understand it. However, like lawyers talking to nonlawyers, sometimes it’s easy to forget not everyone knows the terms and phrases associated with our industry. To be sure you understand your policy, we’ve broken down its parts as well as some of the most common insurance terminology for which we receive questions. As always, if you have questions about your policy, your...

What is Cyber Liability Insurance & Do I have It?

What is Cyber Liability Insurance & Do I have It? You know cybersecurity is important. We know you know cyber security is important. It feels like the whole world preaches the importance of cybersecurity because – well – it’s important. But although it’s vital for everyone, it’s even more so for law firms because they handle sensitive client information. We’ve provided articles on how to avoid phone scams, wire transfer fraud, phishing emails and other common technology-related crimes law firms often face....

Ready for a Vacation? Tips for Lawyers Looking to Get Away

Ready for a Vacation? Tips for Lawyers Looking to Get Away We learned all the hobbies, we baked all the breads, we watched all the Netflix – but even with all that, 16 months is a long time to be cooped up. As the world begins to reopen, we’re all eager shake off this cabin fever. For lawyers, however, being away from the office can be a little more complicated than other professions. Whether you’re planning an actual getaway or just taking...

Don’t Be Someone’s Big Catch: Tips to Avoid Phishing Scams

Don’t Be Someone’s Big Catch: Tips to Avoid Phishing Scams Scam emails have been around nearly as long as email itself, and unfortunately they’re not likely to go away any time soon – or maybe ever. What Exactly Is Phishing? There are a lot of scams, and phishing is just one type. Phishing is a technique to obtain information like login credentials, credit card numbers or other sensitive data by impersonating a trustworthy business or person. One very common example is a would-be...

Court Bonds 101 (and How to Get One)

Court Bonds 101 (and How to Get One) As most lawyers know, a court bond is a tool to ensure a party will fulfill their responsibilities as ordered by law. Probate attorneys, for example, must often post a bond on behalf of an executor, administrator or conservator of an estate. However, the need for a bond also arises in a wide variety of other matters, such as appeals, injunctions, TROs, replevin actions and more. History of Surety Bonds Although the seemingly modern concept...