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California Desert Trial Academy College Of Law
10 June
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About IOLTA Accounts

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice
About IOLTA Accounts

A strange acronym with which every attorney who starts his or her practice becomes familiar is IOLTA. This stands for Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. And this interest raises money to provide civil legal services to indigent individuals. Any lawyer who handles client funds that are too small in amount or held too briefly to earn interest for the client must participate in the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program. Such IOLTA accounts may only be kept at approved financial institutions. Attorneys routinely receive client funds that must be held in trust for future use. If there is a large sum of...

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08 June
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Some Ethical Considerations Of Billing

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice
Some Ethical Considerations Of Billing

A law practice's method of billing may directly impact the financial viability of the practice and is an important component of an individual lawyer's ethical and professional obligations. Most states grant lawyers a large degree of discretion to develop billing practices that are suitable to the law practice and beneficial to the client. However, the billing practices of a law firm are not solely important because of the necessity to ensure the firm’s financial stability, but because attorneys have an ethical duty to engage in proper billing practices. A primary focus of attorneys throughout their practice is the collection of outstanding fees....

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04 June
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Law Practice and Marketing

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice
Law Practice and Marketing

Law firms vary by practice area, location, client-type, experience, and many other facets. Each additional factor causes the marketing requirements of each business enterprise that much more distinctive and unique. While they all share the reality of operating in an overly competitive legal industry, they must find their niche within this industry, then develop and sustain this niche over time. The law is extraordinarily varied and offers law students and established attorneys a wide menu of specialties from which to choose.  These choices may become narrower based on geographic location and client-type. It is important and rewarding to know that none...

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03 June
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Identify Your Time Thieves

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, First year law students, High Pressure, Studying
Identify Your Time Thieves

While time efficiency is a daunting subject to any person, it is especially intimidating to law students. At the undergraduate level, time efficiency was less important as it related to making it to class and completing each assignment. Students improvised, adapted, and muddled through. For law students, it is important to identify those habits, tendencies, inclinations, and - whatever else you want to call them - that expend, exhaust, waste, and - whatever else you want to call it - our precious time. The idea is to identify those things that take, like thieves, our valuable time that may never be...

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02 June
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Solo Practitioners And Personal Commitment

Posted by cdtalaw
in Law Practice
Solo Practitioners And Personal Commitment

The benefits of working for yourself often seem distant when working during the 11th hour trying to finish a motion. However, this situation would certainly still occur even if you were working at a firm. Practicing law on any scale often requires hard work after hours seven days a week. For solo practitioners wishing to achieve success, the practice of law involves a deep, personal commitment that will be time-consuming beyond anything else in the practitioner’s life. At least, for some period of years. Any graduating law student considering a solo practice should address and answer the following questions to get...

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01 June
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Adapting To The September 2020 California Bar Exam

Posted by cdtalaw
in Bar Exam, CDTA, Studying
Adapting To The September 2020 California Bar Exam

The California Bar Exam has been postponed to September 9th and 10th, 2020. This will result in a delay from the test’s normal administration at the end of July. This allows graduates and other exam-takers to have more time to prepare for the exam. So how should you use it? These dates mean a relatively short six- or seven-week delay for law students, allowing them to study over the summer. These dates also allow test-takers to take the test before starting their jobs in the fall. In 2019, 7,664 took the California Bar Exam, of which 4,938 (63.6%) were first-time applicants. First...

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28 May
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Attorney-Client Privilege And Client Confidentiality

Posted by cdtalaw
in Law Practice
Attorney-Client Privilege And Client Confidentiality

As law students prepare for graduation, certain questions that relate to legal ethics and professional responsibility become more prevalent in their minds. These practical considerations are of equal importance to any other aspect of a law firm’s practice. Like substantive legal rules, they require the strict adherence of all licensed attorneys. An important question relates to protecting client confidentiality. After all, most attorneys like to talk. On one hand, there is the attorney-client privilege which, of course, contains a facet of confidentiality. This is what law students learn about in professional responsibility class as they study the ethical rules, including RC...

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27 May
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When A Lawyer Is Representing A Corporation, Who Exactly Is The Client?

Posted by cdtalaw
in Law Practice, Training
When A Lawyer Is Representing A Corporation, Who Exactly Is The Client?

A recurring question for lawyers who represent corporations and other entities is who exactly is the attorney representing? What is the scope of the attorney’s clientele in this situation? Does the attorney also represent others? Does the attorney represent shareholders? Affiliate and subsidiary corporations? Officers? Directors? In California, Rule of Professional Conduct 1.13 “Organization as Client” answers this question. A lawyer employed or retained by an organization represents the organization through its duly authorized constituents. A lawyer must conform his or her representation to the concept that the client is the organization itself, acting through its duly authorized directors, officers, employees, members,...

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26 May
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Memorization Techniques For Applied Knowledge

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Legal Research, Studying, Training
Memorization Techniques For Applied Knowledge

The California Desert Trial Academy is a progressive law school where students focus on those skills necessary to become not just a lawyer, but an attorney-advocate. Learning the skills to be an advocate gives students an expedient path to a successful and rewarding legal career. With certain memorization techniques in your toolbox, there are ways to use this knowledge to build connections between concepts and push your understanding of the material to a new level. Here are two memorization techniques for applied knowledge: *Explain what you’re trying to learn to someone else An excellent way to test your understanding of a concept in...

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21 May
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Fixed Legal Fees And Making A Profit

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice, Soft Skills
Fixed Legal Fees And Making A Profit

Of course, like any other business that charges some cost for its services, fees are the lifeblood of a law practice. Legal fees depend on several variables: the time necessary to remedy the problem; the lawyer's ability, experience, and reputation; the novelty and difficulty of the case; the results; and associated costs. A lawyer's overhead expenses such as rent, utilities, office equipment, computers, also affect the fee charged. Profit is a lawyer’s income. In the case of a law practice, it is what remains after paying the aforementioned overhead costs of the practice. Research indicates that attorneys may expect to keep...

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CONTACT INFORMATION

California Desert Trial Academy College of Law
45-290 Fargo Street
Indio, CA 92201
(760) 342-0900

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Statement of Nondiscrimination

Consistent with sound educational policy, CDTA College of Law does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, ancestry, religious creed, national origin, disability, medical condition, age, marital status, political affiliation, gender identity, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

California State Bar Standard and Required Disclosure

The method of instruction at this law school for the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree program is principally in physical classroom facilities.

Students enrolled in the J.D. degree program at this law school who successfully complete the first year of law study must pass the First-Year Law Students Examination required by Business and Professions Code 6060(h) and Rule VIII of the Rules Regulating Admission to Practice Law in California as part of the requirements to qualify to take the California Bar Examination.

A student who passes the First-Year Law Students Examination within three (3) administrations of the examination after first becoming eligible to take it will receive credit for all legal studies completed to the time the examination is passed. A student who does not pass the examination within three (3) administrations of the examination after first becoming eligible to take it must be promptly disqualified from the law school’s J.D. degree program. If the dismissed student subsequently passes the examination, the student is eligible for re-enrollment in this law school’s J.D. degree program, but will receive credit for only one year of legal study.

Study at, or graduation from, this law school may not qualify a student to take the bar examination or to satisfy the requirements for admission to practice in jurisdictions other than California. A student intending to seek admission to practice law in a jurisdiction other than California should contact the admitting authority in that jurisdiction for information regarding the legal education requirements in that jurisdiction for admission to the practice of law.

Copyright CDTA California Desert Trial Academy College of Law. All rights reserved. The Desert’s first and only Law School. Proudly serving all of Southern California; accepting applications from Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties.

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