Tools for Successfully Setting Up and Running Your Own Firm
Date: May 20, 2025 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Location: Online
Member Price: $143.00
Non-Member Price: $174.00
Section Price: $134.00
Areas of Law: Solo & Small Firm
Earn up to 2.4 credits, including 0.6 in Ethics! (More Information)
Keynote
Moderator
- Monique Moreira, Esq.
- Moreira Sayles Ramirez LLC, Kearny
- Sarabraj S. Thapar, Esq.
- Law Office of Sabbagh Thapar, Clifton
Presenters
- Diane L. Cardoso, Esq.
- Brady Reilly & Cardoso, LLC, KearnyCertified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is a Partner in Brady Reilly & Cardoso, LLC in Kearney, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in civil litigation involving automobile negligence, premises liability, construction site negligence, medical malpractice and legal malpractice.
Admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, Ms. Cardoso is First Vice President of the Hudson County Bar Association and Treasurer of the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ). She is a member of the Hudson County Bar Association’s Civil Arbitration Selection and Civil Practice Committees, and is the co-founding Chair of the Association’s Women in Law Section. Ms. Cardoso is Secretary of the American Association for Justice’s Women Trial Lawyer Caucus and is a member of the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association. She is a 2017-2018 Fellow of the New Jersey State Bar Association Leadership Academy.
Ms. Cardoso was the recipient of the 2021 American Association for Justice Women Trial Lawyers Caucus Excellence in Leadership Award, the 2021 American Association for Justice Distinguished Service Award, the 2017 Professionalism of the Year Award from the Hudson County Bar Association and several other honors. She has lectured for ICLE, the Hudson and Essex County Bar Associations, and the New Jersey Association for Justice.
Ms. Cardoso received her B.A. from Seton Hall University and her J.D. and Certificate in International Law from Pace University School of Law. Upon graduation from law school she served a Judicial Clerkship with the Honorable Dennis F. Carey, III and the Honorable John C. Kennedy, Judges of the Superior Court of New Jersey.
(9/23) - Christopher J. Keating, Esq.
- Keating Law Firm, LLC, Moorestown
- Stephanie Lomurro, Esq.
- Manzi Epstein Lomurro & DeCataldo, LLC, West Orangeis Managing Partner of Manzi Epstein Lomurro & DeCataldo, LLC in Montclair, New Jersey, where she concentrates her practice in family law and is also a R. 1:40 Mediator.
Admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, Ms. Lomurro is a member of the New Jersey State, Essex County, Hudson County and Union County Bar Associations, and has been a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Family Law Executive Committee, where she is a former Co-Chair of the Young Lawyers Subcommittee. She has been a Trustee of the Hudson County Bar Association and an Early Settlement Panelist in Hudson and Union Counties. A member of the District IV (Hudson County) Ethics Committee, she is a Trustee of CASA of New Jersey and an Associate Editor of The New Jersey Family Lawyer (published by the New Jersey State Bar Association).
Co-author of Litigation Technology for the Modern Practitioner, Ms. Lomurro has lectured for ICLE, the Justice Virginia Long Family Law American Inn of Court and the New Jersey Association for Justice. She has also completed the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Family Law Trial Advocacy Program and was a member of the inaugural class of the New Jersey State Bar Association Leadership Academy.
Ms. Lomurro received her B.A. from Drew University and her J.D. from New York Law School. She was a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Sallyanne Floria, Assignment Judge, Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County (now retired).
(8/23) - Ruma Mazumdar, Esq.
- Key Esquire – Law Office of Ruma Mazumdar, Avenel
Many New Jersey lawyers want to start their own firms, but don’t know how to get started. Even if they can “hang their shingle,” they worry about how to maintain the practice, pay the bills and grow it into a sustainable business.
Join a panel of attorneys from different practice areas who have successfully started their own law firms as they provide essential steps for setting up and running your own. They will discuss: how to set up a law firm, run a law firm, navigate tricky human resource issues, grow the business and ethical guidelines to follow.
Topics include:
- Law firm setup
- What you need, what is optional, and what you don’t need
- Essential software
- How to hire staff
- Malpractice and cybersecurity insurance
- Retainer agreements
- What to charge
- Fee agreements – pros and cons of flat fees, contingent fees and less
- Conventional billing arrangements - Attorney trust accounting essentials to keep you out of ethics trouble
- Hidden or often unthought-of expenses
- Running a firm
- Billing arrangements – what should a bill look like, and how to bill in a way that gives you the best possible chance for getting paid
- Calendaring systems so you don’t miss deadlines
- Website do’s and don’ts
- Hiring and managing staff- what you should know from day one
- How to grow
- Essential tips for getting business
- Importance of joining bar associations
- Stay with a particular practice area or branch out?
- Some essential ethics tips
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