Section
National Small, Solo and General Practice Forum
Date
June 11, 2016
Location
Sheraton Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Submitted by
BC Branch Representative: Megan Olson (Co-Chair, General Practice, Solo & Small Firm - Prince Rupert Section)
Report
The Small, Solo and General Practice Forum met for the day in Ottawa on June 11, 2016. Representatives were present from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, as well as the the National Officers of the Forum. A number of CBA staff were also present.
Karin Galldin, Project Director and Emily Alderson, Consultant, both of the CBA Legal Futures Initiative and Access to Justice met with us to discuss collaboration of the "Small Practice of the Future" tool.
For the last two years, the Small, Solo and General Practice Forum has been discussing producing a Toolkit on how to start and manage your own practice for small and solo practitioners. CBA Futures Initiative is starting a similar project and has funding to start a website tool.
The Forum executive agreed to work with the CBA Futures Initiative and contribute to the "Small Practice of the Future" tool. Forum President Robert Shawyer, Secretary-Treasurer Kathleen Robishaud and BC Representative Megan Olson volunteered to work with the project to provide ideas and feedback.
We also discussed bringing forward a motion to the CBA Council to bring up our concerns regarding Entity regulations and the unique circumstances of small and solo practitioners. We consulted on writing a resolution urging the Federation of Law Societies to consult with small and sole practitioners, and to ensure that any regulations consider the unique practice circumstances of small and sole practitioners.
We discussed the activities in the different provinces and agreed to share information on our respective programs. We discussed increasing communication with the Forum and articles to be written by the Forum Executive. We also discussed having a continuing professional development event next year.