#NACBASF 2016: IS YOUR
BUSINESS A FORCE TO BE
RECKONED WITH?
By Christine M. Kieta,
The Law Office of Christine M. Kieta, PC
How do attorneys revolutionize
their practices and convert them into
high-performing, high-earning power
players? And what does NACBA’s San
Francisco 2016 Convention have to do
with that?
Business advice ranks as
high as CLE especially for consumer
bankruptcy attorneys as almost all are
entrepreneurs owning or working in
small practices. These small practices
typically manage people with consumer
debts or small businesses struggling
with bad decisions or inexperienced
leadership.
Bankruptcy balances
consumers and creditors against one
another with one element that interests
everyone: money. According to the
speakers at the NACBA San Francisco
Convention these small practices
also have the power to change the
bankruptcy legal landscape.
The Convention was designed
to give the attendees a two-fold profit:
continuing legal education in consumer
bankruptcy, and business building
strategies. Being the only association
for consumer bankruptcy attorneys
that is national in scope the attendees,
speakers, and even sponsors came
from all over the country. This eclectic
group gave the attendees the ability
to find out from other lawyers how
they built their practices, to learn
from speakers about other profitable
areas that are related to bankruptcy,
and to have venders there offering
new technology to improve practice
management.
DON’T FILE THAT BANKRUPTCY!
Consumers with unplayable
debts come to bankruptcy attorneys
with a host of complaints and horror
stories. Since they often have a real
need that bankruptcy serves the easiest
way to deal with these complaints is
through filing bankruptcy. It’s the end
all be all.
But the speakers at NABCA’s San
Francisco Convention had a different
suggestion: don’t file that bankruptcy.
Is there a violation of the Telephone
Consumer Protection Act or the Federal
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? How
about another consumer protection
law? Depending on the complaint the
creditor may have violated a lucrative
consumer protection law trying to
collect a debt that stands to bring in
attorney’s fees or other damages. And
these damages can be so large that the
consumer may no longer have a need
to file bankruptcy.
Speakers also taught the
attendees of ways to develop their
own bankruptcy practices more fully.
Attendees listened to speakers discuss
how they developed their respective
bankruptcy practices and what they
do convert one-time clients into longterm relationships by finding additional
needs to serve.
BUSINESS BUILDING ADVICE FROM
THE TRENCHES
Bankruptcy flexes a national
muscle and is backed by the power
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
Summer 2016
of numbers. It collects small law
practices across the country offering
hands-on contact with and feedback
from consumers and small businesses
in different demographics. In a way
these attorneys are on the front lines
of helping people restore their lives and
businesses so that they can return to
society with a fresh slate. Suffice it to
say that well-run, successful practices
are essential to bringing the message
of bankruptcy and the consequences
of debt to the ears of the Courts and
Congress.
For these law practices the
business model seems to be best
captured as “more clients means more
money” … and more stress, more
time at the office, more time at the
computer, more time managing client
expectations, and so forth. Hopefully,
these clients all bring in the exact same
issue so there is no need to spend
more time learning each area that
walks in the door. But no two clients
have the exact same issue. And law
practices grow around the economies
and demographics in which they sit.
Not surprisingly attorneys all clustered
together in a city have similar practices.
They also have similar limitations.
NACBA’s
San
Francisco
Convention gave hundreds of attendees
a chance to spend a meaningful amount
of time with one another learning about
each other’s practices and the areas
that make the most money. Since
the attendees were from all over the
country they brought with them a
variety of practice areas reflecting the
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
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