Nominate a Colleague for the California Law Practice Management & Technology Awards
CLA’s Law Practice Management & Technology Section is now accepting nominations for the inaugural 2024 awards. The nomination and selection criteria for the eight award categories is provided below.
The deadline to submit a nomination is July 31, 2024.
WHAT ARE THE AWARD CATEGORIES?
Attorney of the Year for Technology
This award honors a California lawyer for outstanding achievements and notable contributions that relate to technology in the legal profession during the 2023 calendar year. In some instances, this may include unique approaches involving the innovative use of technology.
Criteria
The ideal candidate will have made his, her, or their mark on the profession, and in the law, with an achievement or collection of achievements in the past year relating to technology that goes beyond service to the client. This may be done by, among other things, bringing new ideas, skills, and challenges to norms to bring about innovation. The significance of the achievement(s) and the breadth of the impact are more important than the number of achievements. Attorney must be a practicing lawyer in California.
Attorney of the Year for Law Practice Management
This award honors a California lawyer for outstanding achievements and notable contributions that relate to law practice management during the 2023 calendar year. In some instances, this may include unique approaches of leading and starting, growing, or helping to prosper a firm through law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and time management.
Criteria
The ideal candidate will have made his, her, or their mark on the profession, and in the law, with an achievement or collection of achievements in the past year relating to law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and/or time management that goes beyond service to the client. This may be done by, among other things, bringing new ideas, skills, and challenges to norms to bring about innovation. The significance of the achievement(s) and the breadth of the impact are more important than the number of achievements. Attorney must be a practicing lawyer in California.
Professional of the Year for Technology
This award honors a California nonlawyer professional for outstanding achievements and notable contributions during the 2023 calendar year. In some instances, this may include unique approaches involving the innovative use of technology.
Criteria
The ideal candidate will have made his, her, or their mark on the profession, and in the law, with an achievement or collection of achievements in the past year relating to technology that goes beyond service to the client. This may be done by, among other things, bringing new ideas, skills, and challenges to norms to bring about innovation. The significance of the achievement(s) and the breadth of the impact are more important than the number of achievements. The legal professional must work primarily in California, but may not be a practicing lawyer.
Professional of the Year for Law Practice Management
This award honors a California nonlawyer professional for outstanding achievements and notable contributions during the 2023 calendar year. In some instances, this may include unique approaches of leading and starting, growing, or helping to prosper a firm through law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and time management.
Criteria
The ideal candidate will have made his, her, or their mark on the profession, and in the law, with an achievement or collection of achievements in the past year relating to law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and/or time management that goes beyond service to the client. This may be done by, among other things, bringing new ideas, skills, and challenges to norms to bring about innovation. The significance of the achievement(s) and the breadth of the impact are more important than the number of achievements. The legal professional must work primarily in California, but may not be a practicing lawyer.
Vendor of the Year for Technology
This award honors a California vendor unaffiliated with a lawyer or law firm who has improved the use of technology in law through the provision or usage of technology during the 2023 calendar year.
Criteria
The ideal candidate will have made his, her, or their mark on the profession, and in the law, with an achievement or collection of achievements in the past year relating to technology that goes beyond service to the client. This may be done by, among other things, bringing new ideas, skills, and challenges to norms to bring about innovation. The significance of the achievement(s) and the breadth of the impact are more important than the number of achievements. The vendor must work primarily in California, but may not be a practicing lawyer or a legal professional.
Vendor of the Year for Law Practice Management
This award honors a California vendor unaffiliated with a lawyer or law firm who has improved the law practice management through the usage of any unique approaches that assisted in leading and starting, growing, or helping to prosper a firm through law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and time management during the 2023 calendar year.
Criteria
The ideal candidate will have made his, her, or their mark on the profession, and in the law, with an achievement or collection of achievements in the past year relating to law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and/or time management that goes beyond service to the client. This may be done by, among other things, bringing new ideas, skills, and challenges to norms to bring about innovation. The significance of the achievement(s) and the breadth of the impact are more important than the number of achievements. The vendor must work primarily in California, but may not be a practicing lawyer or a legal professional.
Law Firm of the Year
This award honors a California law firm for its outstanding achievements and notable contributions to law practice management and/or technology during the 2023 calendar year. In some instances, this may include unique approaches involving the innovative use of technology and/or leading and starting, growing, or helping to prosper a firm through law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and time management.
Criteria
The ideal candidate will have made its mark on the profession, and in the law, with an achievement or collection of achievements in the past year relating to law office administration, financial management, legal ethics, time management, and/or technology that goes beyond service to the client. This may be done by, among other things, bringing new ideas, skills, and challenges to norms to bring about innovation. The significance of the achievement(s) and the breadth of the impact are more important than the number of achievements. The law firm may be of any size, including that of a solo practitioner, but its principal office must be in California and its achievements for which it is honored must have taken place in California.
Lifetime Achievement Award
This award honors a member of California lawyer who, over the course of their career, has made extraordinary contributions to law practice management (including law office administration, financial management, legal ethics and time management) and/or technology. In many instances, this will include contributions that extend to the legal community well beyond their own firm(s).
Criteria
A typical recipient would include a combination of some, but not necessarily all, of the following career achievements:
- At least 10 years in the practice of law in California;
- Leadership in an organization with its principal purpose being law office administration, financial management, legal ethics, time management, and/or technology;
- Experience teaching law office administration, financial management, legal ethics, time management, and/or technology to law students, including as an adjunct;
- Extensive writing and continuing education (MCLE) presentations on law office administration, financial management, legal ethics, time management, and/or technology;
- Experience giving advice to lawyers regarding law office administration, financial management, legal ethics, time management, and/or technology, including activity as a member of law firm management or as an outside counsel; and
- Noteworthy activity that advances law office administration, financial management, legal ethics, time management, and/or technology in a substantial portion of the profession.
The above list is not intended to be exhaustive. A nominee for the award may be living or deceased. In addition, achievement of all the foregoing is not intended to be either necessary or sufficient for conferring the award. The objective of the award is to recognize a substantial long-term commitment to advancing the law practice management and/or technology rather than any single discrete achievement.