Evans' Book on "Estates Practice" Updated

In January, 2008, the American Bar Association published the Second Edition of How to Build and Manage an Estates Practice (232 pages), by Daniel B. Evans, Esq., of Philadelphia, PA.

The ABA's web store describes Dan's updated book as follows:

Specifically tailored to the unique needs of the estates and trusts lawyers, this updated second edition of "How to Build and Manage an Estates Practice" focuses on making your practice better.

Written as a "book of ideas," you'll find guidance on marketing, effective client communications, fee agreements, and ethics, including the updates to the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

Whether you're a solo practitioner or a lawyer at a large firm, you'll find the tools you need to make a difference.

Authored by Daniel B. Evans, a veteran attorney focusing on the areas of estate planning and estate and trust administration, this edition highlights constructive ways to apply ideas that have worked for him to your own practice.

Organized logically, the book starts with deciding what kinds of clients you want, to finding those clients, to choosing clients and establishing fee agreements, to doing the actual legal work. Inside, you'll find:

• Strategies in defining your practice to bring focus and growth
• The best ways to communicate with your clients
• How technology and ethics have changed the practice area
• Analysis of the Department of the Treasury Circular 230 issued in 2005
• Innovative ideas for finding new clients
• Ethics issues, including the challenges of marital and inter-generational representation
• Fee agreements, including ideas on alternative billing in estate planning, administration, and litigation
• Optimum strategies and practical ideas for billing
• Tips on hiring personnel

Sample forms, checklists, and questionnaires, such as an Estate Planning Questionnaire, Estate Administration Schedule, and Will Execution Instructions, are included on an accompanying CD.

Dan is indeed a "veteran" estate & trusts attorney. He is the former (2006-2007) Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section, an active contributor to our RPPT Section listservs, a regular author of articles for our RPPT Section Newsletter, and a frequent speaker at Pennsylvania Bar Institute courses. He is also involved in the Philadelphia Bar Association's Probate & Trust Law Section, and in the American Bar Association's Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Section, which sponsored his book for publication.

A representative of the ABA recently requested that I write a review about Dan's revised book. I am familiar with his first edition, having used it as supplemental material in the teaching of law students in an "Estate Planning & Administration" course at Widener Law School (Harrisburg Campus) for a few years. I agreed, and the ABA sent me a copy.

So, in the near future, I will post a more detailed review of How to Build and Manage an Estates Practice. Since I still have my copy of his first edition, I will compare the two, and note the updates; and I will also consider what I believe to be the highlights.

We are proud that our fellow Pennsylvania practitioner, Dan Evans, "wrote the book" on this subject for a national audience -- again.