To hear law office management guru Jay Foonberg tell it, the hoary standard of treating others as you want to be treated is obsolete in terms of the profitable practice.

“The Golden Rule is dead!” Foonberg told the responsive audience in the opening plenary of the ISBA Solo and Small Firm Conference last October (ISBA Bar News, November 2005, page 9).

The keynoter offered a new standard, “The Platinum Rule: Treat others, especially clients, as they want to be treated.” He followed with a series of marketing tips in his presentation, “How to Practice Law Profitably and Successfully from Womb to Tomb.”

Foonberg will update that message during the ISBA Annual Meeting next month with a fresh look at “The Seven Habits and Two Rules of a Successful Law Practice from Womb to Tomb.”

The Law Ed program will take place from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, June 16, at The Abbey on Lake Geneva. It will be followed at 1 p.m. with the companion presentation, “Balancing Your Professional and Personal Life: Keys to Financial Success and Happiness” (see details below).

A nationally known author and speaker, Foonberg has received American Bar Association Lifetime Achievement Awards from the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section and the Law Student Division.

Other national honors are the Harrison Tweed Award as Most Outstanding CLE Educator and the Louis Goldberg Award as Most Outstanding Attorney-Certified Public Accountant.

His published ABA books include “How to Start and Build a Law Practice,” “How to Get and Keep Good Clients,” “How to Draft Bills Clients Rush to Pay,” and “The ABA Guide to Lawyer Trust Accounts.”

The ISBA Committee on Law Office Management and Economics and the Lawyers' Assistance Program are co-sponsors of the Annual Meeting program, “Balancing Your Professional and Personal Life: Keys to Financial Success and Happiness.”

ISBA Assembly member Carl R. Draper of Feldman, Wasser, Draper & Benson, Springfield, who serves on the LOME committee and the Administrative Law Section Council, is coordinator of the Law Ed program from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Friday, June 16, at The Abbey.

Draper also is a member of the Special Committees on Strategic Marketing and Image Advertising, and secretary of the Committee on the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

At 1 p.m., considerations of Managing Your Business and Personal Finances for Greater Satisfaction will be discussed.

They include liability planning, insurance needs, life and disability issues, investing and banking, and retirement planning.

At 1:45 p.m., the subject of Paying Attention to Personal Satisfaction will be reviewed, with emphasis on how some lawyers find happiness, and the personal and family life issues that need to be balanced.

The ISBA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section will conduct the Law Ed seminar, “Hot Topics in Legal Developments for the General Practitioner,” from 2:45 to 4:45 p.m. Friday, June 16, at The Abbey.

Program coordinator is section council member Julie Ann Sebastian of the Cook County state's attorney's office. She also serves on the ISBA Assembly, the Bench and Bar Section Council and the Committee on Continuing Legal Education, and is associate newsletter editor for the Administrative Law Section.

The first hour will consist of a Civil Practice and Procedure Panel: Top Ten Issues and Developments, beginning with Pre-Trial Issues: The Shotgun Complaint and Over-Pleading.

Other topics are Trial Tactics Based on Lessons Learned, and Appellate Practice Pointers.

At 3:45 p.m., the program will switch to Criminal and Traffic Panel: Top Ten Issues and Developments, starting with court decisions and legislative enactments.

Traffic law topics include office interviews, service, motions to vacate, non-alcohol moving violations, expungement, local court rules, evidentiary issues, and recognition of trial issues versus pleas.

The ISBA Family Law Section is the sponsor of the Law Ed seminar, “New Supreme Court Rules and a Review of Legal Separations,” from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. Friday, June 16, at The Abbey.

Program coordinator is section council member Roza Gossage of Belleville, who also serves on the Elder Law Section Council and the Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

At 2:45 p.m., the topic is New 900 Series of Supreme Court Rules Applicable to Family Law Cases.

At 3:45 p.m., Cook County Judge Jeanne Cleveland Bernstein will discuss Legal Separation.