Last week I turned sixty-five and realized that I am not far off being eligible for Social Security and Medicare. The problem is I don't feel old enough to be eligible for either, and I have no desire to retire. Sixty-five used to be the milestone that people kept in mind as the date when they got the gold watch and started drawing their retirement from their employers defined benefit pension. Very few of those exist anymore and most of them have been turned over to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) as part of a corporate chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Now for many of us it's just another birthday with no meaning greater than any other. This thought string got me thinking about lawyers and retirement generally.

The world has changed a lot over the past forty years, and the legal profession is no exception. When I joined my first firm I didn't buy in, I just made a commitment to participate in the buy-out of senior partners when they retired. It was neat, clean and easy. I didn't get hit coming in when I didn't have a lot of money and had a young family to care for. I had some years to get my practice better established and my financial situation a bit better situated before the first senior partner retired. It worked well and the buy-out represented little more than his share of the receivables as of the retirement date and it actually worked out that paid monthly over a period of years, I came out net ahead as the receivables covered the early payments. In talking with firms today, they have different mentalities (varied) which include buy-in, no buy-in, no plan, and a whole bunch more options that I don't understand. Today, firms seem to be more worried about lawyers leaving early and who owns the clients and how do we deal with defections. These are indeed different times. Retirements in mid- to large firms generally go pretty smoothly, with little or no buy-out, but a well-funded 401(k) plan to make the golden years comfortable.

As the old saying goes "old layers never die they just lose their appeal." I am beginning to think "die" should be replaced with "retire," at least as far as for those in solo practice or small firms of 1, 2 and 3 person(s). Where economics remain tough and available, retirement plans consist of IRAs and not 401(k) plans. Sure you can incorporate a solo practice and set one up, but if you do you have to fund for employees and the headaches become much more difficult with safe harbor rules and the like. Besides, if you fully fund it every year you will be taking it out of your own pocket and somehow that seems harder to do than when you take it out of the firm's collective pocket.

So how do solos and small firms manage the transition? I find that mostly they ignore it until they have to deal with it and then it usually means breaking things up. The lifelong practice of bringing younger lawyers into a practice so you could turn over clients seems to be waning as fewer and fewer young lawyers want to take on solo practices and many of them have so much debt going in that they can't support themselves and make the debt payments. I know of several cases of small town practices just closing because the lawyer at age 75-80 decided he or she needed to give it up. They can't even give their practice away. It would seem that some young lawyer would want such a situation; you have a mentor, a built-in client base and an office setup. Okay the office setup lacks all the gadgets and toys that you had in law school and would have if you went to a big city practice, but you can get those. The clients are generally older and not of your generation, but the will and probate and real estate practices could be pretty good. The mentor deal is the real steal in this equation. Today you just don't find good mentoring going on in many firms. The partners don't have time to spend (waste) teaching a new lawyer all the things about practice that they don't teach in law school. In a small practice with a retiring attorney you have a gold mine, a virtual mother lode if you will. They aren't trying to build a practice, their economic needs will be considerably smaller and they will want a place to come to the office and have coffee for a number of years so they will be around when you have questions or need help or even to fill in so that you can take a vacation. I can go on for hours about the benefit of taking over an existing practice, in a city or a small town, but I think you get the picture. It's about getting started on the right foot, learning the ropes from a pro and not having to take everything that comes in the door to survive.

Why do I care about transitioning practices rather than closing them? I have a lot of reasons, but mostly it's about continuity for clients, and finding a way for older lawyers to slow down and still remain useful in their own eyes (big one here) and able to make a huge contribution to the future of the profession. I know a lawyer right now in his eighties that still comes to the office (all alone) every day that outsources his clerical work and handles non-court matters for his clients. He enjoys the clients, but he wasn't a good planner and still needs the money to supplement his social security and Medicare. His practice (I know it very well) could easily produce enough to support a young lawyer and a secretary if he didn't refer the court matters out of the office and he could probably work less and have just about the same income if he had a younger lawyer helping him with the office administrative stuff. In addition I can't think of a better mentor for a young lawyer than this particular gentleman.

My point of this particular ramble I am not really sure, but I guess I want to bring focus to an ever growing issue. Being a Baby Boomer, I have an army of brothers and sisters at the bar that will be facing practice transition in the next ten years and I see it as an opportunity for law schools and law students to make a difference. The law schools could start focusing on pairing graduating students with these opportunities rather than settling to post them on an employment board in the student lounge. They can develop mentoring guidelines and suggestions that give order to the transition and give a little thought to how they might assist older lawyers frame or posture their practices to make them more attractive to a young lawyer in the coming years. The local and State Bars might look at what they can do to help make the generational connections work better and promote the advantages of small firm practice.

I don't know where the practice is heading; I wish I did, but I can tell you it will change. The signs from the large firms indicate a struggle to make the economics work, and the signs from the small firms indicate insufficient structure to make them attractive to new lawyers. We probably should have been thinking about this a few years ago, but we didn't so now we get to crunch and try to catch up with solutions.

As always if you want any information about ALPS or have a comment on this blog post, please e-mail me at: rminto@alpsnet.com or call 1-800-327-2577. ALPS policyholders can also call or e-mail their Account Manager to discuss what this sort of future could mean to you and your firm. The rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, mjpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com), or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577, kfichtner@alpsnet.com).

In addition if you are a LinkedIn participant you might join us in "ALPS Talk" our very active discussion forum on all topics legal. You might even find a few comments about various topics from The View From The Corner Office

It's hard to believe that ALPS has been around for twenty-four (24) years as of this past March 1st. Over that time we have amassed a lot of experience, mostly good and some not so good, but on the whole it allowed us to become the best prepared Lawyers' Professional Liability Insurer in the country to meet the needs of lawyers in rural areas. During that time we've gotten very good at defending lawyers when malpractice claims arise and to quote Kenny Rogers, "We know when to hold-em and we know when to fold-em." I don't mean to sound glib, but this experience has allowed us to produce some of the highest quality live CLE events in the country for our affiliated Bars and thousands of lawyers throughout the country.

At ALPS we take pride in listening to our insured attorneys, paying attention to the needs of the legal community and adapting to the times. In the recent years it has become abundantly clear to ALPS that lawyers lead incredibly busy lives and the demands of the practice seem to be ever-increasing. Juggling court cases, multiple deadlines, all while managing clients, can make otherwise important things fall off the radar. Case in point: Continuing Legal Education. While not all bars have mandatory CLE requirements, staying current on issues that can expose lawyers to risk or assist in more effectively serving clients can help decrease stress levels and improve practice satisfaction and economics.

In 2011, to make life easier for our insured attorneys and affiliated Bars, ALPS took the next step in its commitment to legal education and risk management with the creation of ALPS Educational Services (AES). It's not new; it's just taken a new name and expanded its scope by now offering CLE programs in both webinar and on-demand formats. With AES, getting CLE credits can be as easy as logging onto the ALPS educational portal and picking a program. Like everything else we do we work out the kinks before we go live with it and we are still in the process of final testing and perfecting access, but you can take a peek at what to expect right now. This past October, we offered our first on-demand CLE program, "Managing One's Self," to a test group of Virginia lawyers, both insured attorneys and non-insured attorneys. As our first foray into on-demand programming, we were hopeful to have, perhaps, 25 participants. You can only imagine how pleased we were when ultimately 79 viewed the program. The Virginia State Bar apparently liked it because they approved it for CLE credit for 2012 as well. To get a taste of the future of CLE with ALPS and what to expect from AES just visit /attorneys/cle/virginiacle.aspx#undefined to view this and two other AES produced on-demand ethics courses for Virginia lawyers.

On March 27 of this year, AES premiered its first ever live webinar, "Getting from Here to There: Retirement." Again, looking at things conservatively, we tempered our expectations and hoped for a handful of participants. And, again, we were pleasantly surprised when 118 lawyers viewed the program across several states where the program had been approved, including: Virginia, Kansas, Washington, and South Dakota. We also had a few participants from Idaho, Wyoming, and Oregon. As the accreditation process continues, the recording of this program will soon be available on-demand across most if not all ALPS jurisdictions.

So, what else does AES have in store for 2012?

1. We will deliver first class education and risk management programs by developing topics and content by assessing each program based on the following criteria:
   * What are the pressing issues in the legal community?
   * Why are the issues important and how do we best convey the information?
   * How will lawyers address these issues in their practice or their lives?
2. We will expand the delivery channels of our programs to offer "a have it your way approach" so attorneys can access AES via live CLE, interactive webinars and webcasts, our online and on-demand CLE video library and social media channels.
3. We will tailor content for specific target markets including younger attorneys and solo practice attorneys.
4. We will grow our presence in the CLE market while continuing to foster our relationships with Bar Associations through collaboration and consultation.
5. We will continue to serve our attorney clients by providing outstanding CLE programs at an affordable price.

For those of us that still like to do our research in books (dinosaurs) and get our CLE in large crowded rooms with poor ventilation, ALPS will continue to work with our Bar affiliates and offer programs the old fashioned way with our Risk Managers being tapped to speak at professional conferences and events across the country. In addition to our new commitment to Risk Management online (log on to our blog ALPS 411), our traveling Risk Management Team will still be available for in-office or on the telephone consultations just as they always have. The advent of AES won't do away with anything we have done well in the past; we have just grown and evolved by finding and perfecting new ways of fostering professional growth to reach a broader spectrum of the legal community through a larger number of touch points.

This gives our ALPS insured attorneys who have viewed any of our live or on-demand programs more ways to get a 10% credit applied to your individual premium when completing the application for the new policy year. Contact your ALPS representative or underwriter for more information.

For questions regarding ALPS Educational Services and upcoming programs across the U.S., please contact Christine Blackstun, ALPS Educational Services Director: cblackstun@alpsnet.com or 1-800-990-3412. Or feel free to check out /attorneys/cle/ to see if live webinar or on-demand programs are already available in your state.

As always if you want any information about ALPS or have a comment on this blog post, please e-mail me at: rminto@alpsnet.com or call 1-800-327-2577. ALPS policyholders can also call or e-mail their Account Manager to discuss what this sort of future could mean to you and your firm. The rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com), or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577,kfichtner@alpsnet.com).

Acknowledgement:

I want to give a special thanks to Kiffin Hope, ALPS Social Media Manager and Chris Blackstun, AES Manager for their invaluable contribution to this post. Kiffin provided both the idea and some heavy duty development of the post and Chris Blackstun authored the AES concept and provided significant background for both AES development and this post.

I received more public comments on "The Practice of Law is Dead" blog post than any other I've written and they covered the waterfront as to cause and cure. Clearly, lawyers have concerns about the future and much of that concern revolves around lawyer population control. Apparently, Time Magazine was so impressed with my post that they published an entire article, written by Bill Saporito, on the subject entitled The Law vs. Supply and Demand - Is becoming a lawyer a bad investment? The article is so well written and so on point to my earlier blog discussion that I encourage you to read it so you can get the full impact without having to read my paraphrase of it in this post. Unfortunately, you may have to pay to read the article (it's worth the price). I would have loved to have included some of it here, but it is copyrighted and even though I don't copyright my stuff, I am a stickler about protecting the copyrights of others who choose to. The Blogosphere netted a similar article that won't require a subscription: The Job Outlook for Lawyers: Projections from the BLS. While this article is more fact driven and flows more by the number it still raises the issue of population control within the legal profession and provides great perspective on my discussion.

The Time article really gets to the heart of the whole lawyer population, what is legal work, and how does the average person afford legal work when they really need it. The article points out what we already know; in the majority of cases, lawyers could have made as much with a BS or BA in another occupation. Sure we still stand in the middle of an economic down turn and the troubles on Wall Street have made life lean for big city practices, but it doesn't explain the problems in small cities and towns. We have developed a national mentality of "get it on the Internet." That, if nothing else, suppresses the pricing of local commodities and services. Many of the Internet legal service clearing houses advertise hourly rates that wouldn't support the infrastructure of a small general practice. The fact that "Legal Zoom" and others offer no face time in your locality, and may or may not have any understanding of local court rules and statutory schemes, seems to make no difference. We have become a consumer society where price drives everything. Needless to say this is not good for the legal profession or the consumer.

I am all in favor of making legal services affordable for everybody, but I am also in favor of delivering quality legal services. Perhaps the answer lies in leveraging technology to further reduce costs so that price and quality can peacefully co-exist. I'll leave it to my tech folks at ALPS to publish blogs on that in our other blog ALPS 411. They are younger and more up on the latest time savers and efficiency tricks with the iPad, iPhone, and other devices, and that seems to be where business is headed-smart phones and tablets.

On the subject of legal education, I wonder if the overpopulation issues the profession faces won't self-correct. One of the comments to my initial blog suggested that reducing the cost of public legal education might force the for-profit players out of the game, thus reducing the number of new graduates for the profession to absorb. I applaud the suggestion not for the reason of putting private law schools out of business, but rather for reducing the cost and limiting educational availability. It would put the graduates in a better position to find good jobs and it might increase the quality of the graduate population. Don't read me wrong; there are a lot of really good lawyers coming out of law schools today, but there is also a bunch that went to law school because they couldn't find a job and it looked like it might be fun. Well, law school is not meant to be fun; it's meant to challenge the mind and train law students in the art of critical thinking, the basics of the law, problem solving and how to find answers and solutions where there might not be obvious ones. Let's face it, creating competition for fewer slots in law schools just might help get people entering law school who really want to be lawyers for the right reasons. The risk in the process of natural selection comes with the quality of the education. We came across an interesting site in the Blogosphere dealing with this very issue. While I don't endorse the information as factual (I have not verified it personally) " Nine Law Schools to Avoid" makes a good read for people interested in the subject and students looking for value in a legal education to start the process of figuring out the right choices and the right questions to ask.

As pointed out in the Time's article, the law of supply and demand may solve the numbers problem for us, but it still doesn't address the question of the economics of lawyers in small places. Maybe it does in a way, but lawyers who can't find the high paying jobs in the cities may opt for the life of a country lawyer and settle in small towns and cities. While the practice may seem far more mundane than the specialty practice of the large firm, the satisfaction of helping people may be enough. I fear that the pay scale may deter the most determined. I spoke with a lawyer from a town in an upper plains state who posted a notice at the only law school in the state offering to give a new lawyer the practice and stay with the practice as a mentor for up to three years. He didn't even get a single call. What happened to him is not uncommon; rural practice is not sexy or exciting. The fact that several thousand people depend on this practice for all their legal affairs isn't enough. Times change on a continuum and right now the Big, Big Firms continue to lay off lawyers and not necessarily replace them. And an article on Law.com (Bye-Bye Big Firm; Is the Exodus from Big Firms to Mall Firms here to Stay?), gives a lot of perspective to the whole issue of the changing playing field. The big question still not answered by that article remains where do the small firms open up, in the cities or in the small towns? For the most part it appear that the new small firms simply morph off a practice group from a big firm and stay in the same place, sometimes even in the same building or part of a big city.

I'll close this post with a simple question: "Is the problem with the small practice all economics or is it something that can be fixed through education?"

As always if you want any information about ALPS or have a comment on this blog post, please e-mail me at rminto@alpsnet.com or call 1-800-327-2577. ALPS policyholders can also call or e-mail their Account Manager to discuss what this sort of future could mean to you and your firm. The rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com), or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577, kfichtner@alpsnet.com).

Okay so it's a bad paraphrase, but it makes a point. At some point in life every lawyer realizes that the practice culture, practice rules, client demands and expectations have changed drastically from what they knew oh so may years ago, and for many not for the better. I think this probably holds true for most lawyers who entered the practice in the last century, but I suspect it applies more for those of us that started practice just before the beginning of the information age. Population growth and concentration, inflation, speed of communication, ease of research and economic expectations all played a role in the meteoric change. The future of the practice of law belongs to the younger generation of lawyers and they face a daunting and at times unfriendly future.

I think it fair to observe at this point in history the Civil and Criminal Justice systems don't work well for either the providers or the consumers and there does not appear to be any silver bullet in the offing to solve the problems. In our country today we need to recognize a few hard realities:

The poor can't even think about civil or adequate criminal access to our courts.

Middle income folks can't access it without mortgaging everything they have.

The economics of the law practice can't be rationalized based on the public need for the affordable legal services and the sheer expense of running a law practice and supporting a family.

Salaries for new lawyers coming out of law school can't justify the cost of a legal education.

Salaries for seasoned lawyers in small towns and middle sized cities have plateaued while the cost of maintaining a practice continues to rise.

Legal services aren't seen as essential services like medical care, and consumers don't see the need to the degree that they are willing to buy "prepaid" legal services.

Prepaid Plans don't offer choice of counsel or much coverage.

Large firm practices cater to businesses and individuals that really don't care what their services cost, but rather buy the brand for the influence factor.

Lastly, consumers lack confidence in the legal profession to the degree that the entire judicial system is looked upon in the worst possible light.

With these problems in mind how do we fix the system? Glibly, much like you eat an elephant, one small bite at a time. We should first start by recognizing that the civil and criminal justice systems are public institutions and that by our oath we are first officers of that institution. We did this before we became members of a firm, before we became judges, before we joined a corporate legal department, so as officers we must step up and lead the repair of the system. Clearly, the practicing Bar can't wave a magic wand and poof the problem goes away. I wish it was that simple. We need to start by educating the public, the legislature and our own members about the needs and deficiencies in the current processes. We need to get prospective lawyers and current members of the Bar to be realistic about their economic expectations in choosing to become a lawyer.

Lawyering is a learned profession founded on a principle of public service not on wealth accumulation. There is not a "Plaintiffs Bar" and a "Defense Bar." There is just one Bar encompassing all those admitted to practice before the courts. We need to be realistic about what cases get brought and we need to be more vigilant about how much expense we run up in discovery and pretrial tactics. I've often wondered if we wouldn't be better practicing under the old Field Code (trial by ambush) rather than dragging disputes out forever. In short, we need to make ourselves more affordable and available to all our citizens. Think about it; if we had to do less work on cases, they would take less time, they would cost less and we could take on more cases (even a few Pro Bono). I realize that I have not proposed a perfect or even great solution to this tiny piece of the equation, but it's a start and the dialogue needs to begin somewhere.

My Senior Partner, Donovan Worden (now deceased), once told me that "It is not a lawyer's job to prove a client right, but rather to help them solve a problem even if that means telling them that what they believe is not accurate and they are wrong." Lawyers should make the best of their client's bad situation and help them get the best possible result given the facts they have to work with. In representing a client, lawyers shouldn't bend facts, manufacture them or try to hide them; they should just use them to come out with the best possible outcome that the facts justify. As Officers of the Court that is our ethical obligation. I think that some of us may have lost sight of this simple proposition along the way. We have become zealous advocates to the extreme - out to win (beat the other lawyer) at all costs. Zeal has its limits in the execution of our duties to the court.

We need more lawyers in the legislature. We need more around the legislature to advise lawmakers about the needs of the legal system and the demands society continues to place on our courts. Some will say "I pay State Bar dues for the State Bar to do that for me," and I concede the point with the qualification that doing so does not relieve each of us from our duty to the courts to get personally involved and make our positions known. After all, not all lawyers agree on everything. I know that may come as a great shock, but while lawyers sometimes get paid to disagree, we are never supposed to be disagreeable in the process. Many times our State Bars get caught in the middle and just don't take a position on an issue that really can impact judicial case loads, compensation, and the speed of the system.

We need to encourage older lawyers (I am one) to consider second legal careers as volunteers in the courts. I took a Pro Bono case to hearing the other day and found that in the session of court, I was the lonely lawyer in the room. All the rest of the litigants were appearing pro se - all divorces coming out of our family law self-help clinic. I sat there and watched while the Judge took a lot of court time being lawyer for each side just to make sure that the record was protected with all the right testimony and representation. A retired lawyer could find a home as a "Barrister" just showing up a little before the hearing and getting pro se litigants documents in order. Move now to the court room, put litigant one on the stand, ask the right questions, and then move on to the next one. It would speed up the process and resolve a huge problem for the judges. The concept is not all that different from what we see in health care today with the use of "Hospitalists" who only deal with patients while they are in the hospital. I concede that my idea of daily "Barristers" has a few holes in it, but the seed is planted and with nurturing by a few more members of the Bar, we can see it grow into a healthy improvement to the civil justice system.

I think I've made my point: our justice system is close to needing life support and only we can fix it. I see little we can do about our costs, but we certainly can reduce client costs and assist in streamlining the judicial processes. Take your local judge to lunch and just ask what they need and what you can do to help. But be prepared, it may take all afternoon just to hear what your local courts need from you, as well as other lawyers and the legislature. If we don't try to fix the system we have, the legislature will find us a new system that may put many lawyers on the outside looking in.

Disclaimer: This post is based on my experiences and personal observation of the justice process over forty years, and I must be clear it is not an observation about or condemnation of the tireless individual effort that individual lawyers, judges, court staffs and Bar Associations put into keeping the process functioning. Most are dedicated to the civil and criminal justice system and work hard every day to make it function for the citizens that find their way into the system. Many lawyers could make more money in other occupations, but do what they do for the love of the profession and the understanding that our citizens need lawyers to do all the things they do in order for the Rule of Law to continue and remain strong. I applaud the individual effort of every one of them and truly believe that our younger generation of lawyers will figure out how to keep the system working - "Long Live the Practice of Law"

As always if you want any information about ALPS or have a comment on this blog post, please e-mail me at rminto@alpsnet.com or call 1-800-327-2577.ALPS policyholders can also call or e-mail their Account Manager to discuss what this sort of future could mean to you and your firm. The rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com), or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577, kfichtner@alpsnet.com).

It usually follows that when the wind blows the insurance market acts accordingly. Bracing itself the market hardens and prices go up. It's logical; repairing wind damage costs money and insurance prices increase to cover those costs. The wind blew in 2011 and early 2012 so we should see firming in property and casualty pricing in the next renewal cycle. What does the wind have to do with Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance (LPLI)? Technically nothing, but practically everything. LPLI is a subset of Casualty Insurance and is dependent on the same reinsurance sources as the general casualty markets. In other words, the industry as a whole floats on the same tides.

In Theory

The economy and the insurance industry are intertwined in so many ways that it is hard to look at the latter without analyzing the former.

The insurance industry depends on investment returns for that portion of its income that allows it to keep premiums down. When investment income drops, premiums must go up to cover the cost of losses previously subsidized by the investment side of the business.

When the economy goes into recession, claims frequency tends to rise for a period of three to four years, as troubled business ventures attempt to find deep pockets to avoid failure.

When the wind blows and the insurance industry pays claims, it creates jobs in all sectors of business as communities rebuild.

When the economy declines, insurance premiums generally decline as people and businesses try to cut expenses, which puts a heavier burden on insurance company investment income to support claims cost.

In an economic downturn, interest rates generally fall, putting pressure on the insurance industry's investment income which in turn drives premiums up (theoretically) to cover the cost of claims.

In any case, I think you get the picture that the relationship between the economy and the fortunes of the insurance industry can't be separated, nor can they be easily predicted. In a way I like this tangled relationship, because as ALPS CEO and an insurance industry leader, it requires me to think, speculate and project just to keep ALPS in the game. The good news is that most years I'm right and ALPS continues to be a strong player.

Right now the broad professional liability industry faces real challenges as we see the claims prognostications coming true, investment returns declining and the softest market many of us can remember. The soft market needs to end in order to keep the industry as a whole viable. Competition is good and I believe that a single insurer can't meet the needs of all risks. Accordingly, those insurers who recently entered the market hoping to grab significant market share need to get realistic about pricing or they will not survive. Let's face facts, loss costs for professional liability and LPLI in particular have risen in the past two years and there doesn't seem to be any end to that trend in sight. The Wall Street Journal ran a good article a week or so ago that really thoughtfully addressed the whole issue. Here is the link so you can dig deeper if you like. It portents a need for greater sanity in the market place and a greater understanding by professional liability insurance consumers of what they really want and need  from their insurer. For so many, for so long it has been about price. In these economic times price can't be King. Particularly in this market, consumers need to understand the coverage they need (certainly) and that all policy forms don't provide the same protection or the same service. It's not simply about premium. It's about how you want to be treated not only at renewal and when a claim occurs, but throughout the entire relationship. The other day one of our staff, Kiffin Hope, came across a blog on what to look for when purchasing malpractice insurance and shared it with me. As a blogger, I was impressed and decided to share it with my readers as well. I'll be interested in what you think about it.

In Practice

This whole thought string took me back to the inception or conception of ALPS when we set out to create a fairly priced stable market for LPLI. It still amazes me what we accomplished and how far we have come in the past 25 years:

ALPS remains the most stable market in the country for LPLI. We don't leave markets when claims issues arise; we price to the cost and work with our insured lawyers to reduce the risk and keep the cost down.

We price our risks based on the profiles of every lawyer in the firm so that just because one lawyer in the firm has a high risk practice, the whole firm doesn't pay for one lawyer's risk factors.

When you call ALPS you will be greeted by Nancy or Kristine (real people), not an auto attendant, and you won't get dumped into voicemail unless you want to go there. I still believe in the personal touch.

Surprisingly, you will hear from us throughout the year in a number of ways, not just when it's time to collect more premiums.

Our technical services (Web presence, social media, blogs, etc.) far outpace the industry as we work to bridge the age range of all our insured lawyers. Our website (www.alpsnet.com) serves as your electronic portal to all our services and information.

Our Risk Management services set the standard with our live CLE events, ALPS 411 blog, online CLE and most importantly your ability to have one of our Risk Managers actually come to your office and do a confidential risk assessment at a very nominal cost.

Our personalized claims service is individualized to each firm's needs on a claim-by-claim basis.  Our claims attorneys don't just manage the claim; they provide invaluable assistance to you and your firm in returning you to productivity.

It's all good stuff. ALPS has grown in many ways and I still have a vision of how to make it better, stronger and more responsive to our customer needs, even in this amazing time of instant gratification, text messaging, social media and digital handshakes. It all centers on what ALPS customers want us to be. We want to do it your way on your timetable and without creating additional stress or time pressure. Stay tuned as you see ALPS evolve in the next couple of years.

The Future

To a great extent the economic crisis of 2008 changed the world forever in that for the first time we got a glimpse of what Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) and George Orwell (1984) predicted relative to corporate control and intrusion into government and economic controls. We finally admitted that in order to avoid a total meltdown we had to recognize that some corporate institutions were "too big to fail" and that the populace and small business would bear the burden of restoring the economy, not the corporate giants. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but the reality of what it means for the future actually gives our governments and the people an opportunity to face realities sooner and on a more micro level that will help us avoid repetition of the drastic meltdowns of the past.

Interestingly, the property, casualty and surety insurance industry faired pretty well through the last three and a half years. There were only a couple of problems ­- the flight to capital from other sectors into the insurance sector, and an increase in claims frequency and severity for the professional liability industry as a result of the downturn in the general economy. All the additional capital put a damper on the natural industry trend of increasing premiums to reflect the increased loss expense. It was sort of a double whammy; on one side losses cost rose and on the other investment income went down due to the government forced interest rate environment designed to stimulate the economy. Four years later, the loss costs have eroded some of the capital base and the industry will need to move its pricing up to make sure that it doesn't become a late casualty of the 2008 economic crisis.

Across the industry, pockets of leaders recognize the need for stronger pricing to cover losses and have raised prices to prevent negative solvency impacts. I am happy to say that I am one of them. ALPS stands for stability in coverage. We must be in a leadership position if we want to maintain our position as the industry stabilizer. ALPS has also been the leader in its use of technology allowing us to target the increases to the segment of our book (areas of practice, firm size, limits profile) where the losses occur rather than just a blanket across-the-board rate increase. Some of you won't notice the difference; some will see a slight increase and others will see increases that may seem high. Our customer service staff and underwriters work tirelessly to make sure that before a quote goes out of the office we get it right for the firm based on the information we have.

What you Can Control and how ALPS helps that process

The cleaner the application, the more complete the information, the better the quote reflects the risk of an individual firm. I have always viewed ALPS's relationship with our firms as a partnership where ALPS takes the stress and concern off the backs of our insured firms for all the potential risks that the policy form and its endorsements anticipate. Whether it the stress of a claim or the stress of making sure that the LPL policy fits the firms practice profiles and client mix, ALPS commits to stand with you and support you to get it right. We understand that policy forms don't all look the same and can be modified to add coverage or remove coverage by endorsement to make sure our insured firms get the best fit. All this happens within the annual application process. The more robust the discussion between our customer service folks and you, the more complete the application becomes and the better our underwriters can fit coverage and cost to the needs of the insured firm.

Bottom line, I believe that the insurance market is firming (moving toward a hard market) and we can all expect our insurance costs, all P&C lines, to increase over the next year. The good news for our insured lawyers is that we have prepared for it and you can be assured that you will get the best, most stable coverage at the best price from ALPS. Like anything else, you may find LPLI coverage cheaper, but you won't find ALPS's quality coverage anywhere at a lower price.

As always if you want any information about how ALPS calculates rates and ultimately individual firm pricing, or just want to comment on this blog post, please e-mail me at <rminto@alpsnet.com> or call 1-800-327-2577. ALPS policyholders can also call or e-mail their Account Manager to discuss what this means to you and your firm. The rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com), or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577, kfichtner@alpsnet.com).

I've been thinking a lot lately about leadership, both in the context of businesses and communities. At times the concept makes me crazy, because many business leaders I know won't get involved in community leadership as they lack the patience to try to drive consensus. In truth when a friend suggested that I run for the legislature, I rolled my eyes and made some comment about not having the time to devote; this from the guy that drives corporate civic involvement home as being so important. This really got me going on an internal dialogue about what I have personally done in my community, and the importance of contributions, large and small.

It may surprise some of you to know that at one point in my life I was a registered Girl Scout. When my children (all girls) were younger my wife got involved as their Brownie Leader and later Junior Scout leader. I don't remember exactly what happened, but my wife needed to give up the leadership role and no other mothers from the group stepped up to take on the job. Faced with the choice of letting the troop dissolve or taking it on myself, I talked another father into co-leading the troop with me. To make a long story short the state and national scouting organization didn't know what to do with two men from Missoula, Montana who wanted to be Girl Scout Troop Leaders. After we got over the hurdles of ulterior motives of an unsavory kind we got down to making it happen and I had to become a Girls Scout to do it.

I had no idea what I had taken on. When I agreed to this responsibility I really had to juggle being a scout leader with growing my practice and finding time for myself and my wife. Interestingly this troop led by dads became the largest and most active in Missoula and everybody had a blast. It also ate a bunch of time. But to the positive it stands as one of the greatest leadership learning experiences of my life. I had to plan the impossible schedule, manage the unmanageable (thirty pre-teen girls) and organize an untrained sales team (contrary to popular belief cookies don't just sell themselves).

There is a family moral here that may well become an entirely different Blog post, but it's not the point of this one. While the time I spent helping set up wall tents for winter camping, teaching wood working, fire building, compass reading, outdoor cooking skills, knot tying and the like didn't contribute to the bottom line of my practice, it profoundly shaped my way of thinking about my work , community, civic commitment and the obligation to participate on a 24/7 basis. Giving back as a Girl Scout Leader challenged me to innovate. Along the way I rattled the cage of a longstanding institution, and in a very small way, advanced the cause of equality of the sexes. The process showed me the value of challenging conventions constructively to help people and organizations grow. Perhaps more importantly volunteering my time gave me a refreshed view of the real value of time.

Everything we do every minute of every day matters. What we do can move society and the people around us forward. Even our inaction matters. By doing nothing, we become part of the roadblock that makes up the status quo. In an era of streamlining and doing more with less, giving back gets pushed to one of the lower priorities for all of us. Especially in companies where time is money, corporate giving and community involvement seem like diversions from efficiency. In the interest of the bottom line they become a seemingly easy line item to cut. However it's times like these when charitable giving and community involvement become the most important. When times get tough, hours long, and staff short, the soul of a company gets cut in the interest of the bottom line and nobody will notice until it's too late to revive.

As federal and state budgets decline, non-profit organizations, not surprisingly end up having to do more with less and rely more heavily on private sector funding. Just as stable funding sources dwindle, the need for programs goes up. How do we promote the health of our society without promoting a level of equity in our communities? This remains a vicious circle that never ends, and at some level we all feel it. Whether it's the phone calls at dinner time asking for a donation, a massive increase in non-profit solicitation mailings or endless invitations to this gala event or that auction, at some point we all want to crawl in a hole and just not respond. That doesn't solve the problem either, individually or corporately. We must be part of the solution at some level. We as individual must allocate limited resources, and as corporate leaders we must not only do that we have to look at a public view of our organization. Even if we avoid or put off making a decision to help or be involved we make one; the decision to stay on the sidelines and not participate in society.

Despite the economic climate, corporate citizenship and charitable giving has a place. It says as much about the company as the quality of the services or products it offers. I find corporate citizenship and charitable giving, even when it's not publically recognized, builds a loyalty that transcends price and direct competition. People want to do business with companies that they trust and believe have a soul. Once you have these values fully integrated in the fabric of the company you would no more get rid of them than you would the sign on the door. Without these values the company identity vanishes.

At ALPS Corporate Citizenship and Charitable giving stand as one of the five pillars of our strategic plan. We encourage employees to volunteer their time (both on and off the clock) through our community involvement program. As a company we also give of our time collectively for various events. We provide a corporate match for our employees' private donations. ALPS also commits a percentage of its annual profits to charitable and community causes as determined by our senior management or our Charitable Giving Committee.

I have found that serving our community and serving our clients are not mutually exclusive activities. In truth, being engaged in our community helps us stay connected and creative. It keeps the staff motivated and engaged no matter what the daily crisis in the office might be. It also helps us attract people who care about people, which ultimately translates into caring about the integrity of our product and the level of service we provide to our clients.

I am proud of the difference ALPS has made over the years in the lives of people I will likely never know. In the end it is not about recognition, but rather peace of mind and soul. For me, it's about ALPS, to borrow from the Girl Scouts, leaving this "camp site" a cleaner and better place than we found it.

I look around Missoula and ALPS doesn't stand alone in this philosophy. A number of other companies, large and small step up every day to make a difference, however small. We need to get everybody on board for the benefit of their customers, the community and most of all their employees. Community involved employees have energy and drive businesses to success, which in turn drives the local economy, etc. In the end everybody wins.

As always if you want any information about ALPS corporate giving policies, community involvement policies, or just want to comment on this blog post, please e-mail me at rminto@alpsnet.com or call me at 1-800-327-2577. You can also contact a customer service team member who all have personally participated in ALPS corporate citizenship processes. They will be happy to share their experiences and provide any information you need. ALPS policyholders can call or e-mail their Account Manager and the rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (kbeasley@alpsnet.com) or Keith Fichtner (kfichtner@alpsnet.com). Toll free: 1-800-367-2577.

Author's Note: I want to give special recognition to Laura Churchman from ALPS marketing team who inspired this blog by laughing at my girl scout leadership story and prompting me with ideas for content that really made this blog post what it is - really important for society.

Few people remember Dick Holler who wrote this song that Dion made famous in the late 1960s. His words represent a tribute to a century of Icons for social change. As I sit here thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr., I find it prophetic that a song wedges him between two equally incredible and perhaps circumstantial heroes of a common cause that began with the drafting of our Constitution, got swept under the table until the 1860s and simmered until the 1960s when our nation of laws finally decided to enforce the rights of people of all races, ethnic backgrounds and beliefs. Like the times before when rights of human dignity and belief surfaced before we raced to embrace them and then back slid to a state of comfort. Today, we grapple with rights of the unborn, rights of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender individuals, but there looms in the background the underlying issue of racial equality.

I wonder what Abraham, Martin and John would think if they could see America today. The targets have changed, the tactics more sophisticated, but the issues remain. We still have groups attempting to impose their will on the nation as they really believe, delusional or otherwise, that they know what's good for all of us. In addition, the new sophistication of poll manipulation, media promotion and "thought leadership" by special interest groups in Washington, DC and our State capitals brings a greater threat to our constitution and way of life that at any prior period in history.

Abraham would likely sit in wonder at how far society has scientifically advanced, how far it has spiritually decayed and how we have so misused and abused the scientific and communicative gifts we've been given. He would laugh at how some things have not changed; the fraud and corruption of today so resembles the profiteering of the Civil War era. Our ability to move it from the business to business and business to government has only been outstripped by our new use of technology to take it global and straight into our homes. Today, those inclined to prey on others have a much broader array of tools and much fewer hurdles to touch their ultimate marks. Abraham would have looked at our congress and political processes with enormous disdain. Politics in his day makes modern political disagreements seem like child's play. The difference and the disappointment comes in our use of "sound bite politics" to make it personal. In doing so, we put up roadblocks that bar the ability of individuals in leadership to let the process of compromise work for the good of the nation. We seem to have burned the bridges of civility that allow egos to be set aside and legitimate debate on principles to craft a conversation that brings solutions. He would so wish he could participate today to bring perspective to the opportunities we squander because of ideology and ego.

John would be proud of our younger generation who still hold idealistic views of being a force for change and finding ways to help others. Just as my generation did in the 1960s, today's youth represent the bright future of our country's position in the world as a leader for global change in a peaceful fashion. I know he wonders what happened to my generation and all the idealism of the 1960s and all the positive energy we demonstrated at the time. We staffed his Peace Corp, we embraced the Civil Rights Movement and we worked to put a dent in poverty and hunger. Somewhere along the way the idealism died for many of us and we checked out; why he wonders. He might conclude that the pace of life quickened, families needed to feed themselves and the modern political process sucked the life out of his young idealist. Even with that he would see today's technology for the opportunities it brings to stimulate enthusiasm across generations, marshal resources, and produce energy to further the common good. He would deplore its commercialization and use to track individuals and groups to prey upon for ideological fundraising and fear mongering. I wonder how he would view the incidents of 9/11 and the huge impact it had on freedoms in this country, and the military industrial complex's utilization of it to profiteer and create fear for fear's sake. If alive today he would build bridges between the factions and provide much more opportunity for both sides to move forward. He might even be Pro-Life, but not to a political end. He knew how to count votes to move an agenda and he would do it again.

I saved Martin for last even though it messed up the song title. He brought me a much more complex mental discussion. In his life he focused on rights for Americans of African heritage to be full participants in American life with an eye on schools, worship, housing, representation, jobs and freedom from fear. I've read most everything he's written and a lot of what others wrote about him and while a Black Preacher from the South, he represented much more. He brought a voice of hope to African Americans and the poor all over this country. He represented a voice against ignorance, racism and hate without regard for ethnic origin. Some say he was a modern day saint. History doesn't support that proposition-he was an ordinary human being, in the right place at the right time, with a compelling message and the ability to deliver it. He will go down in history as one of our country's greatest human beings. He would want it that way as he saw himself as a mere mortal with a God given gift to lead and preach. He did both with great skill and a style that even his detractors admired.

Were he alive today, he would wonder how he failed so badly. Not that the Civil Rights Movement didn't accomplish a lot but rather at how it has become part of the establishment, complete with its own profiteers. He wanted a movement that stayed the course until African Americans and even Caucasian and other ethnic minorities climbed out of poverty, got heard (even locally) and could stop making the process about catching up. He would abhor the current state of immigration in this country. We represent opportunity for all peoples and have for two hundred years been the melting pot of the world. Today, his cause lives on in even a larger scale than before. He dreamed of a society free of barriers to achievement and advancement where educational opportunities and scholarships didn't have a color, gender or language criteria. He had many dreams and today they are still mine. I will not live to see them fulfilled, but as long as I live they will remain a front burner work in process.

As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, let's remember his dreams and the dreams of Abraham and John. They and the framers of our constitution started something that remains unfinished-an America free from prejudices, with opportunities for all people to live in peace, and prosper. It's not a lot to ask,

Times do change and each generation creates a new paradigm of life expectations. I've been reading a lot lately about our current expectation that life should be fun and everybody should be happy. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against having fun and happiness. It certainly sounds like a worthy goal, but is it attainable? This whole train of exploration got me thinking about the fact that the level of PTSD (Battle Fatigue) in soldiers after WWII seems less than in current conflicts, and the large number of middle class young adults seeking help for depression, stress and anxiety has clearly increased. Why? What's different? Clearly our perspective, our life experiences, our level of formal education and, without a doubt, the advancement in medical science has given us a better vantage point from which to view the issues. In the end it raises a fundamental question for me. I wonder whether we can medicate or counsel our way to happiness without really understanding the root causes and the changes in society that may have forced us into a downward spiral to begin with.

I live in a rural city and deer make up the largest population of urban pests. Yesterday I watched a young doe with her late fawn munching on the flowers (remnants) in our front yard. She looked thin, tired and a bit mottled. I recognized her as a two-year-old who we watched as a fawn two years ago coming up and trying to eat from our bird feeders. Back then she was really cute, well fed, playful and learning everything she could about her new life as an urban deer. Life seemed exciting and fun. Her life changed every day as she learned, grew and aged toward adulthood. Yesterday I observed in her fawn many of the same characteristics, but in her I saw the responsibility of parenthood. The fawn ate, then she ate. She became protective when people came out to shoo her fawn away. She became anxious as the fawn scampered into the street, just as a bus approached. She was doing her job as instinct and nature dictated. This experience tracked me to the question of how I applied human cognitive reactions and responses to the deer as if it was human. To a great extent we do it with our family pets. I confess that I don't know how animals think and I recognize that to a degree all species have different powers, strengths and weaknesses. I do believe that we mere humans possess the power to reason and understand that surpasses the rest of the animal kingdom. If that's the case why do we so humanize animals? What does it matter how animals feel, or if they die, why are we sad? Simply; we see the whole world through our own unique human perspective based on our own unique mores and experiences.

As humans moved away from an agrarian economy and way of life so have our expectations. My grandparents would have looked at that doe as simply a source of food, with no concern about its life or what it thought or felt. That doe was no different than the chickens, pigs, cattle or sheep they kept. It was food and, to a degree, a source of income. In between the beginning of the Great Depression and the end of WWII the middle class grew very quickly and working for wages not sustenance became the norm. People moved from the farms to the cities and our agrarian roots began to disappear. We wanted more for our children, both materially educationally, and by way of life's possibilities. Before and during the Depression being a kid wasn't much better than being an adult, just on a smaller scale. Life wasn't all play and enjoyment. Kids worked, kids helped out on the farm, and when the cotton needed picking or the hay needed stacking everybody worked. Somewhere in my childhood I became a partial throwback. I had a paper route or some other job from the time I was about 10. It was peanuts stuff, but I learned to enjoy working, and play was for the weekends or the family vacation. I suspect that as the child of a WWII veteran, my life wasn't a lot different from most of my peers.

My generation wanted better for our children so we raised the bar. They wouldn't have to work like we did. They attended play school to prepare them for elementary school. They got every opportunity in sports, music, drama and dance. They went to the best colleges we could afford. They actually had a social life like many of us never did, and when they grew up they would have a better life than we did. Somewhere between 1945 and today the system slipped the rails, and in the end we created an expectation and a lifestyle that may be unsustainable. It certainly seems unattainable to many of today's youth. Along the way we raised the bar both economically and emotionally to very high levels and then exported the opportunities for jobs that could sustain even our standard of living. Nobody intended it to happen. It wasn't part of a grand plan or a great conspiracy, it just happened. By the way, it's not just our country that has the problem. It occupies the minds of much of the western world.

A quick study of the economic situation in Greece gives us a clear picture of the dangers and the damage that instant gratification brings. Before the European Union, Greece had a very sustainable economy. Extended families lived together, home ownership came with inheritance not a mortgage, cars were indeed rare in the middle class, and the economy grew as did human expectations at a slow but manageable pace. Enter the Euro and the credit and debit cards that followed, and all of a sudden life moved to the fast lane and consumer debt rose at meteoric rates. People could buy now, pay later and live the good life. Now the Greek economy is near collapse, and the middle class roams the streets protesting against having to go back to the way it was or at least having to give back some of the lifestyle that they gained with the proliferation of credit.

This is not just a problem in Greece; we suffer from it just as badly. The difference comes in the size of the national economy relative to the debt levels. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, our rate of debt growth pales in comparison to that of Greece. None the less the increase in debt subliminally wears on our people just like it does in the rest of the free world. Stress levels rise, and as a whole we become more about preserving our own piece of prosperity rather than being concerned with the common good. All this leads to a collective and an individual anxiety level above the normal curve. Hey, we all know we have a problem but are we willing to make a sacrifice to address the issue? It's pretty clear that we want the problem solved, but not at any individual or group's expense. Don't gore my ox or slaughter any sacred cows (social security, veteran's benefits, Medicare, union pensions). This new mentality brings with it a clash between values and desires that hurts us all.

I will finally get to my point. I don't wonder that the sale and use of psycho-pharmaceuticals rises by the year. It's no wonder that American job satisfaction has dropped to an all-time low and that many of our young people today don't believe that they will be able to attain a standard of living equivalent to that of the "Greatest Generation," let alone their parents'. All this leads to an attitude of dread, fear and anxiety, which further leads, when untreated, to a depressed state. I don't know the answer, but I do know that "it's the next generation's problem to solve" - OOPS! I didn't really say that did I? Yes I did, but only to make a point. We are all in this together and every living human being has a vested interest in fighting depression, and if that means making sacrifices we all must step up and do our part. We have to fix the underlying causes and we should, along the way, work on the mental health issues that society has wrought on many of us due to the attitude change from selfless to selfish. I am not making a value judgment with this point, but merely pointing out a reality. We shouldn't and can't play a blame game (too much sex and violence on TV and a moral disconnect). Each of us needs to do a self-assessment and see what we can do to change the future for ourselves and those around us. Guilt over past sins has no place (easy to say but hard to make happen) in our future.

How do we move forward in a positive way? The path will differ for all of us and will depend on where we start. If a person starts in a dark place their path will be longer than it will be for those of us who have a level of contentment. The focus will be very different. From the dark place we must look inward and upward to get to our place of contentment (at least equilibrium). From the place of contentment we must continue to look upward, but also around to see if we can extend a hand, provide a good listening ear, and provide positive directions or just reassurance to a fellow soul on life's journey. We need to recognize that we all belong to the "Family of Humankind" for which, in some small way, we all bear responsibility. It must be in our own different way, but we all must play a part.

I apologize for not providing a silver bullet or even a suggestion of where you should start. This problem developed over a span of many years and it will take many years to resolve, if it ever does. I do know that we all need to move forward with small steps, taking each day as it comes. I could write forever on suggestions and causes, but remember that global warming, global conflict, ethnic differences and unrest, population growth, debt, loss of a sense of community, and an endless litany of issues didn't cause the problem, human inter actions did. Likewise only human action can create the solutions that bring our society and the world to a point of equilibrium and balance that can reduce the stress, anxiety and depression that plagues the developed world.

With my post "The Dreaded "D" Word," I committed to driving the discussion on mental health and lawyer impairment issues. This one tracks that discussion well and certainly raises more questions than it answers.  I hope those of you that read this post will comment either directly to me or preferably by posting your comments publically by going to the end of the post and adding a comment., If you would like to have a more personal discussion, you can e-mail me directly at rminto@alpsnet.com or call me at 1-800-327-2577. You can also contact our customer service team who all have a greater understanding of our policy form language and interpretation than their CEO. ALPS policyholders can call or e-mail their Account Manager and the rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com) or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577, kfichtner@alpsnet.com ).

No matter what you call it or how you celebrate it (or don't) it's a day that turns us all into children for just a little while and ALPS is no exception; the place looked just plain bizarre. We transformed the company offices into a ghoulish habitat with departments decorating for the occasion, dressing to the theme of the department. We awarded prizes, had a party and all in all people forgot that ALPS was work for just a little while. Sometimes we need to step outside ourselves and let the world see us in a different light; perhaps it helps us all recognize our "inner child" and even for a day be something we're not. The beauty of living in the spirit of the day really shines in the productivity we see following these sorts of events. Even yesterday a lot of work got done and productivity increased. It all happened in the same number of hours.

Even our most conservative investment types got into the act with a jab at their own industry and showing their true working class (Irish) backgrounds. On this day you couldn't tell the difference between the trading clerk, the investment manager or the compliance office. By the way, the market fluctuation on Halloween had absolutely nothing to do with our Halloween festivities.

I believe that there is a little devil and a little angel in all of us that nurtures our creative side and gives us the faith that we can succeed. It's the part of us that allows us to take risks and have hopes and dreams. In our business we understand risks and have to constantly balance the benefit of the rewards with the exposure of the risks we take. So this staff member from our claims and underwriting administrative side got it just about right when she selected her costume. Although I must confess that in her real persona she clearly comes off as more angel than devil. I wonder sometimes about how others look at their darker side as they live their lives and understand that in real life it needs to be repressed for their own good and the good of society. Days like Halloween really give us the chance to act it out in a positive way without the down side risks of real life and the potential to hurt others. Halloween provides the fantasy world that really lets us enjoy a moment.

I had a bit of a problem with my assistant Kathy's pirate costume as it seemed to me to be totally out of character in one vein and perfect in the other. On one hand she is the doer and the giver in the organization; totally selfless and ultimately caring. On the other hand she represents the perfect First Mate; she holds my feet to the fire on deadlines and others in the office know that she speaks for me and that can be pretty intimidating. The point of all this really again comes down to balance between efficiency and charity. She epitomizes the balance I like to see in business. We want ALPS to be efficient and profitable but at the same time be seen as a caring organization that puts the needs of its insured lawyers and others out front. We really care about the people and the problems they face in their day-to-day practice of law or in their business lives.

Most of the time you interact with ALPS on the phone or by mail, you get the ghostly experience of dealing with our reception staff headed by Nancy, ALPS ultimate specter. On the other hand some of you will talk to us electronically and utilize our Internet portal and social media options to do business with ALPS. Kiffin, our Indiana Jones, constantly seeks to educate our customers about the law practice's new and developing issues related to practice and practice management. He works his magic to make ALPS the industry leader that we are by providing so many connection and communication opportunities for our customers and prospective customers. As we move forward with our Internet portal and social media initiatives, contact opportunities at ALPS will remain pretty limitless. You can still call and our phone will be answered by a real person. You will be put through to real people to help you and only if you want to get to voicemail will you. On the other hand if you want to work on-line and avoid human contact you can do that with our web portal that soon will let you update information.

If you use the old fashioned method of personal contact you will principally deal with our ALPS Enterprise Marketing (AEM) Team pictured to the left. For the record they didn't dress up for Halloween; what you see is what you get, so you might want to consider using our portal (just kidding). They really let their hair down yesterday and I was not surprised that we had a very productive day. These folk are your personal tour guides for your ALPS experience. They represent you in the underwriting process, and God forbid that a claim rears its ugly head, will make sure that you get to the right people to handle the claim and make the process as painless as possible.

The team works together as a cohesive unit to make sure that all our customers and prospective customers get all the service they need and don't feel smothered or bothered by excessive phone calls or e-mail. We realize the importance of being a partner with our customers in creating as risk free an environment as possible for their law practices. It's not just about getting an application file underwritten and issued; it really involves getting to know the practice of each customer so that ALPS AEM staff can advise on coverage options, appropriate deductibles options, appropriate limits and risk management opportunities. ALPS is available for that particular client. For example, did you know that ALPS now offers on-line Ethics and Risk Management CLE for our Virginia Lawyers It's a trial project that we hope to have available nationwide later this year in all our jurisdictions. Stay tuned, there will be a lot more.

ALPS Finance Team makes up the other piece of our customer service advantage. As you can see they are a rag-tag bunch of accountants that haven't even figured out how to put a Rubix Cube together. And their costumes! WOW - the originality of all black utterly blew me away. All they needed were the green eye shades and sleeve protectors and they could have been mistaken for bookkeepers. Seriously, they deal with our customers almost as often as our AEM group as they keep the financial side of our customer relationships running like a well-oiled machine. If you need premium financing you deal with them. If there is a problem with premium crediting you deal with them. If you have deductible payments you deal with them. But most importantly, they track our statistics and at the end of the day they work with our actuaries and underwriters to make sure that we have the rate filing balanced properly to see that each insured only pays their fair share based on the risk profile of our overall book.

Sometime around here you might want to commit suicide for fear that you see our IT staff dressed up as Harry Caray with microphone in his hand. I listened to enough Cubs games as a kid on my short wave radio to last a lifetime. Truthfully, our IT staff keeps the whole place operating (except when the Internet goes down). I often wonder how often it really does. Seriously, ALPS has a level of sophistication with all our social media, web presence, paperless filing , our incomparable ALPSNET operating system and total system integration among all our operating units, that I marvel at how the IT team does so much with so few. The answer: "It's all in the proper use of technology." I wonder if they really understood my question.

Have you ever wondered how ALPS gets all the paper out of our office with a mailing list of over 50,000 potential customers and over 13,000 actual insureds. We have a back room with no windows that FedEx, UPS and USPS actually have key codes to where it all happens. It is the most mechanical room in our entire ALPS suite of offices. We use as much technology as possible and when that fails we fall back on a fishing guide to get it done. We do our own printing, mail sorting, document assembly and distribution. The responsibility for all this falls to "our Man Stan" and yes he really is a fishing guide when he isn't working for ALPS. His production center includes multiple high speed color and black and white printers, a sorter, and a postage meter that does everything but sing and dance. He has the capability to save us thousands of dollars each year by verifying mailing addresses against post office changes before we send them out. Stan and his staff of one full-time and one part-time employee keep ALPS flowing.

This blog post has been a bit of a kick to write. I don't often get to showcase the best working team in the world in a way that humanizes them beyond their job descriptions. Our insured lawyers ultimately benefit from our Halloween hijinks and the other things we do at ALPS to make it a great place to work. I am a firm believer that personal life and work life must be separable, but if one is fun and the other not, it can't help slop over. We work hard to make sure that ALPS is a happy place so as to make our employees' personal lives ever better.

This post isn't very intellectual and accordingly there won't be much meaty stuff to comment on, but just for fun if you recognize any of your friends at ALPS drop them an e-mail or post your comments for the world to see. As always if you want any information about ALPS, please e-mail me at rminto@alpsnet.com or call me at 1-800-327-2577. You can also contact our customer service team who all have a strong understanding of how ALPS works for its policyholders. ALPS policyholders can call or e-mail their Account Manager and the rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com) or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577, kfichtner@alpsnet.com).

A few days ago I heard that the Montana Supreme Court disbarred an old friend (someone I knew in my past life as a practicing lawyer) because of trust account irregularities. I felt bad for him and the fact that we had not stayed in touch over the years, so I called him to see how he was doing. Long story short, his life changed and he is moving on with his life in a positive direction. His faith has always been one of his strengths (maybe to a fault). He related that he made some bad decisions, based on personal values, intended to help others, and never intended to hurt anybody or take any money for personal gain. I believe him. Had the economy not crashed in 2008, his accounts would have likely been all right with the world and his bad decisions might never have been discovered. He tells me that he has been forgiven by his clients and most importantly by God. When I asked if he had forgiven himself, he responded "If God can forgive then I must as well." He has put his past behind him and made the decision to move forward with his life with a positive perspective and a focus on the future.

I have thought a lot about my friend and our conversation over the past couple of days and must confess to conflicting reactions: I'm happy for him as he has been able to move on, I have some confusion about how personal value-based decisions can go so wrong without raising flags, and wonder at how he has overcome the shame, despair and dread that has led others down a path of self-destructive behavior and even suicide. I have not resolved all these issues but I get enough to see a path out of the darkness that might be worth sharing.

First of all, I don't know many people with the depth and sincerity of my friend's faith. I confess that I wish I had his ability to simply dump all my troubles on a supreme power (being for the truly devout) and start over. I get the concept of Confession since I come from an Episcopal background and engage in the process of "General Confession" during services on Sundays. That however has never risen to the level of allowing me to engage in personal forgiveness to the degree that each day I can move forward without regard to past transgressions. While my transgressions pale by comparison to "significant trust account irregularities" I, like most of us, still carry my past with me into the future. On one hand I think my past helps me make better decisions; on the other hand the past can get overwhelming if we let ourselves get down over really tough current circumstances.

The point (actually two points) of all this really comes down to: (1) understanding principled decision-making as not a free pass to always being right; and (2) letting our past be a guide to our future (live in the future not the past) not a millstone around our necks that keeps us in fear of making good tough decisions on the off chance that we might be wrong.

My friend's wrong thinking came from his overriding principal of caring for others. He was a steward of money and resources from a number of sources, some clients and some not. Given the poor interest rates, his decision to place funds from one source with another (in his mind) served two purposes: improve the return on his trust funds for the benefit of the depositor and provide a source of funds for another depositor who needed a short term bridge. He stayed true to his principles and juggled resources he had stewardship over. The plan fails not because of lack of principle-based decision-making but because he failed to get sign off from the depositors, by circumstances beyond his control, the economy and his failure to remember the trust account rules. In the end, we all remain responsible for our decisions and he paid the price for his being wrong. In this case, I think the moral amounts to; when multiple principles come into play we need to understand and balance or prioritize the principles before we make decisions. Here the fiduciary obligations (principle #1) should have trumped personal principle of helping others in need. It's really pretty simple-as a fiduciary we must protect the assets we steward before we do anything else, unless and until we get relieved of the fiduciary obligation by specific and clear written instructions from the grantor of the asset and the beneficiaries for which we hold them.

My friend's ability to unburden himself and live in the future actually embodies a whole new (relatively) direction for some psychotherapy practitioners. The literature seems to indicate that unburdening oneself of guilt (so ingrained by history, churches and family) and ditching the past can get historically depressed individuals off medication and on a path to happiness. The concept that we cannot control (change) our past certainly isn't new or surprising, but focusing on the future seems to be gaining some ground. I thought about this last night and it seems to me that the concept has its underpinnings in AA's twelve step program and a lot of the chaplaincy work being done in prisons today. Giving yourself a fresh start with a clean slate makes a lot of sense in terms of reducing the stress and allowing the mind to become a productive force in the recovery process.

I don't know that I have any really good conclusions about either of these thoughts at this point, but both seem to me worthy of laying out for people to chew on. The relationship between a lawyer's (people's) mental health, their ability to manage stress, and making good decisions going forward gets complex even when the mistakes (bad decisions) are huge like my friends, and are not that easy to manage or reconcile. It takes daily work and assessment to keep priorities in perspective. For many, all they can hope for is to live one day at a time right now; what a concept if they could get a start over with a fresh, positive perspective.

A while ago in my post "The Dreaded "D" Word," I committed to driving the discussion on mental health and lawyer impairment issues. I hope this one continues that. Any comments you may wish to share about the topic, ideas, suggestions, and observations would be great. I encourage you to make your comment by going to the end of this post and making a public comment. In the meantime if you would like to have a more personal discussion, you can e-mail me directly at rminto@alpsnet.com or call me at 1-800-327-2577. You can also contact our customer service team who all have a greater understanding of our policy form language and interpretation than their CEO. ALPS policyholders can call or e-mail their Account Manager and the rest of the world can call or email Julie Patterson (1-800-367 2577, jpatterson@alpsnet.com), Kevin Beasley (1-800-367-2577, kbeasley@alpsnet.com) or Keith Fichtner (1-800-367-2577, kfichtner@alpsnet.com ).