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The world of insurance for law firms can be confusing, and difficult to navigate. We've created this glossary because these common insurance terms should be easy to understand.

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law practice management

1 min read

Debut Demo of the first-of-its-kind Virtual Ethics Risk Assessment at the ABA’s 46th Annual National Conference on Professional Responsibility

Missoula, Montana, June 3, 2021 —ALPS, the nation’s largest direct writer of lawyers’ malpractice insurance, today launched a free virtual resource for law firms looking to improve their practice and mitigate risk. The idea for the ALPS Virtual...

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2 min read

Why Documenting What You’re Not Retained to Do Can Be Important Too

In my experience, too many lawyers appear to be quite comfortable running with an assumption that their client’s understanding of what the scope of...

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3 min read

Buying Insurance For A House Already On Fire

On February 23, 2021, the Montana Supreme Court issued an opinion delivered by Justice Laurie McKinnon in ALPS Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Keller,...

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3 min read

Why It’s Worthwhile to Look for the Learning with Problem Clients

When it comes to problem clients, we all have a story or two to share; but what if it becomes more than that? What if a lawyer comes to realize that...

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1 min read

A Malpractice Avoidance Checklist

If you were to collect everything I (and many others like me) have written on risk management for lawyers, I suspect the collection would fill a...

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8 min read

To Arbitrate or Not To Arbitrate? That Is the Question

Many states permit lawyers to include in their engagement agreements arbitration provisions which would require potential clients to arbitrate...

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2 min read

Why There is No Such Thing as a New Normal

I’ve been telecommuting for over a decade now, so when a COVID-19 stay at home order finally made its way to Montana, not much changed for me...

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10 min read

ALPS In Brief – Episode 55: Estate Planning Gone Wrong

In this episode of the ALPS In Brief podcast, Mark Bassingthwaighte offers some insights in the arena of estate planning that are commonly...

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1 min read

Mindfulness Means Not Hitting Someone in the Mouth

I recently read an article that was a Q & A with a wonderful meditation teacher/writer/thinker, Sharon Salzburg (also, a co-founder of the Insight...

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1 min read

People Are Strange, When You're A Stranger

As I stood, hip-deep in a snowdrift retrieving my dog’s poop, I heard a man start yelling and looked up to see that I had let go of the leash while...

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2 min read

How to Deliver Bad News

Difficult conversations can be, well difficult; particularly if the purpose of the conversation is to pass along bad news. After all, who looks...

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1 min read

Don't Be Nixin' Niksen

“Dare to be idle”, advises Caroline Hamming — not as easy as it might seem. It sounds a bit like mindfulness, and it sounds a bit like meditation,...

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2 min read

We Don’t Keep Client Personal Info, So We Don’t Need Cyber Coverage, Right? Wrong!

Lawyers often share with us that, as they see it, they really don’t need a cyber liability policy. They seem to base this conclusion on the fact...

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