Law Office of Joshua A. Lowenthal, PLC

The Law Office of Joshua A. Lowenthal represents clients from all walks of life throughout the State of Michigan.  My firm has experience in all Estate Planning, Business, Tax, and Tax Controversy matters.  I represent taxpayers in civil litigation against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state taxing authorities.

Owner

myruck

General Counsel

Clark Hill Law

Associate Attorney

KPMG

Associate

Plante Moran

Tax Staff, National Tax Office

WHAT I DO: I help entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small business owners protect their brands and businesses, allowing them to protect their business, grow their customer base, and do what they do best. . . run their business. 

HOW I DO IT: I do this by advising my clients on legal structuring, and tax planning and helping my clients form business entities to protect their assets. 

WHY IT WORKS: When a business owner forms their legal entity and has lawyer-approved contracts with their employees, contractors, and vendors, the business can operate with confidence and purpose. In turn, this positions the business as a legitimate company ready to serve its customer base. Separation of personal and business provides authority and legitimacy. 

WHO I WORK WITH: I’ve worked with businesses of all sizes, new start-ups, companies with 5-50 employees, and Fortune 1000 Corporations. I provide clear, actionable ideas using my relatable approach to business formations and tax planning.

READY TO TALK? Reach out to me directly here on LinkedIn or visit my website www.joshualowenthal.com

 Areas of Practice: Business Formations / Tax Controversy / Tax Planning / Tax Structuring / Corporate Governance / Mergers & Acquisitions 

Social Links
•	Website: www.joshualowenthal.com
•	X: www.x.com/joshualowenthal
•	Facebook: www.facebook.com/mivirtualatty

Josh Lowenthal

On Saturday I'm wrapping up my three-part series on entity selection. 

Be sure to get on the list so you don't miss it:

➡️ smb.joshualowenthal.com

Lawyer ⚖️ | 💰Tax Planning | 🚀M&A | Helping you build your business empire by acquiring your next SMB.

Open article: The Law Office of Joshua A. Lowenthal, PLC by smb.joshualowenthal.com

The Law Office of Joshua A. Lowenthal, PLC

Just a friendly reminder that not all tax planning is good tax planning.

LeanLaw - Legal Billing Software

LeanLaw is legal billing software that customizes QuickBooks Online for midsize law firms. We are the top-rated legal app in the QuickBooks Online app store.

LeanLaw makes running a profitable law firm straightforward and simple.

Spend less time on time tracking, trust accounting, and billing — and more time on your clients.

Your team will love you…
For giving them a platform they actually enjoy using
LeanLaw’s automation shows off your team’s value and professionalism to your clients, no matter their technical skills, their thirst for data, or their roles.

Realtime, two-way sync with QuickBooks Online

Timekeeping:
Anytime, anywhere, any device – pushed automatically to your Invoice

Automated trust accounting:
A true integration with QuickBooks Online, ensuring compliance

Sophisticated invoice workflows:
For pre-bills, partner review, batch invoicing and much more

Knowledge is power:
Meaningful, data-driven understanding of your law firm’s finances at your fingertips.

One click access, no matter where you are in the world
Get real-time data for the attorney, the clients and the firm. All the reports that a mid-sized law firm needs.

LeanLaw Accounting Pros
Need a trusted advisor who knows both LeanLaw and QuickBooks Online? We've got you covered.

Founder & Thought Leader

Givens Pursley LLP

Just two years into my practice, the law firm I was working for imploded. A few years later, it happened again at a different firm. 

One Saturday, the lead partner called me and told me there had been a dispute over overhead, and the office was closing. Our first child was 6 months old, and I didn't have a job. So much for that Stanford Law degree!

Fortunately I landed at a firm that understood the business of law.

All the BS I had experienced in my other law firms disappeared on Day 1.

Our managing partner Ken helped me understand how to build a great practice.

I built a million-dollar practice, and was inspired to help other lawyers experience the benefits of working for a great business.

From early on, I understood that clunky, disconnected software was holding law firms back. Later, I learned three secrets to lead any small to midsize law firm to become a better business:

      –Build on the shoulders of giants: Integrate tightly with market-leading platforms like QBO, MS365 and/or Google

       –Create a seamless & customized core financial workflow to make it easy to get paid and produce the insights you need to run your business

       –Tie in niche applications for all your specialized needs e.g. NetDocuments or Epona (which configures MS365 for case & document management)

This is how LeanLaw was born. Now hundreds of law firms have joined us on a mission to transform law from a 19th century cottage industry into a modern 21st century profession. What is holding your firm back?

Gary Allen

If I could wave a magic wand and redesign AI reporting for law firms in 2026… here’s exactly what it would do.

Law firm reporting is still too slow, too manual, and too scattered.

 But 2026 should look different. My wishlist:
🚀 1. Real-time “gas gauge” dashboards
 WIP → Billed → Collected → Cash flow, continuously updated.

🚨 2. Automated Warning Lights
 AI should alert you when realization dips, a trust balance looks off, or AR spikes before month-end.

🧭 3. Performance Tuning Recommendations
 Not just reports—AI suggesting “Here are the 3 actions that will improve profitability this week.”

 (Imagine a system that tells you: “You’re leaking $400K/year in unbilled time; here’s where.”)

🔍 4. True Role-Based Reporting
 Partners, admins, associates, finance—each sees only what they need, when they need it.

🎯 5. Narrative Insights
 AI that writes a 2-minute monthly summary:

 “Here’s what changed. Here’s why it matters. Here’s what to do next.”

Question:
 If you could fix ONE part of your reporting workflow, what would it be? Respond in the comments.

LegalTech Thought Leader | LeanLaw Founder | Sharing What Made My Law Firm and Practice Profitable

This graphic perfectly captures what worries me about where AI is going...

Founder & Principal at Strategic Allocations AI | Helping Businesses Leverage AI to Drive Growth, Automation & Efficiency | Marketing & Sales Automation | Chatbot Integration | AI-Powered Analytics

Everyone wants AI superpowers.

But no one wants to clean the data closet.

We glamorize GenAI, digital twins, and AI agents like they’re silver bullets.

But behind the curtain, most enterprises are drowning in → messy data → legacy systems → manual processes → app chaos.

That’s not innovation. That’s technical debt wearing a new suit.

Here’s the hard truth.

Most “AI failures” aren’t about the AI.

They’re characterised by poor data hygiene, weak integration, and a lack of governance.

You can’t automate chaos.

It’s like strapping a jet engine onto a car that’s never had an oil change.

You’ll move fast for a second, then everything melts down.

Before you chase AI glory, fix your foundations:

→ Map and simplify your core processes
→ Build a clean, connected data layer
→ Tighten governance and security
→ Modernize integrations

Then start small.

One use case. One win. One proof point at a time.

AI doesn’t reward hype.

It rewards hygiene.

What’s the first foundation your organisation needs to fix before scaling AI?

♻️Contact me for a free no-obligation business evaluation and free "Playbook" on how AI can drastically improve employee productivity, Lower operational costs, and increase profits!

#ai #genai #digitaltransformation #data #governance #automation 
#businessstrategy

My latest thought leadership piece is out! Read it at Forbes Finance Council.

Open article: Why AI May Make Fixed-Fee Legal Billing Inevitable by forbes.com

Why AI May Make Fixed-Fee Legal Billing Inevitable

💡 What are the biggest business or tech pain points in your firm?

 Here’s what I see again and again:
 1️⃣ Manual, disconnected processes
 2️⃣ Attracting and retaining great talent
 3️⃣ Aligning your products and services with what clients actually value
 4️⃣ And of course… what the heck to do with AI

Did I miss anything?

 What keeps your firm from running like the business you know it could be?
👇 Add your thoughts in the comments — I read every one.

🤖 AI is changing how firms bill — and how clients perceive value.

If AI helps you draft faster or analyze better, should your client pay less — or should you charge based on outcomes instead of hours?

Best-in-class firms are experimenting:
 ✅ Flat-fee “health check” packages
 ✅ Subscription models for repeat clients
 ✅ Value-based pricing for high-impact work

Your billing software needs to track and report on these models — not fight them.

LeanLaw gives firms the flexibility to evolve.

How is your firm approaching this shift?

Most of us are now used to using "Large Language Model" AI tools, like ChatGPT or Claude. They are really cool in that they seem to understand ordinary language and give useful information in response to a huge breadth of requests. 

This information is useful but so far has failed to move the needle on productivity. Why is that? The way I see it, AI eliminates lots of busy work but doesn't significantly boost the important work that actually feeds most companies' bottom lines. LLMs also hallucinate, repeat misinformation, do math poorly, and really can't produce anything beyond what it has learned from other sources. Thus, LLMs are valuable, but have not been shown to be game-changing except perhaps some specific applications like coding.

We are promised that specialized AI will help solve all kinds of problems that LLMs cannot. This is because the AI will be trained on specific data relevant to a narrow set of problems, and will receive specific instructions relevant to solving them, similar to a chess computer. These capabilities will be augmented by agentic AI, which will make the AI capable of correcting its own errors and acting autonomously. 

I have a lot of questions about this. Given that it took decades to build good chess computers, why do we think specialized AI will develop faster, especially as so much capital is being sucked into LLMs? Silicon Valley has a history of focusing on huge, disruptive technologies to the detriment of the useful, boring ones a level below. They seem to be doing that in spades with AI. My first experience with a specialized AI tool related to law firm financial reporting is it was dumb as a stone.

Can somebody just make it easier to build WIP, billed, collected reports?

Admins are the difference between “billing happens” and “billing hums.”

Here’s what great administrators tell me they want from partners:

 A plan. A process owner. And a workflow the lawyers actually follow.

Admins: If you're drowning in:
 • Draft invoices
 • Timekeeper cleanup
 • Manual trust entries
 • Collections follow-up
…then odds are you need to clean up your processes and work on adoption.

 🚨 Which workflow is slowing you down the most — time entry, billing, trust accounting, or reporting?” 🚨 

Comment below — I’ll reply with a fix.

Delaware lawyers: Would your trust records survive a surprise audit tomorrow?

Delaware’s rules demand crystal-clear:
 • Client-level reconciliation
 • No co-mingling
 • Complete audit trails

Implication: When trust accounting breaks, firms lose time, money, reputation — sometimes even licensure. The partners I work with say it’s the #1 “silent risk” they underestimate.

Want a quick check? Grab our Delaware trust/IOLTA summary and benchmark your firm in 3 minutes.

Open article: Delaware IOLTA and Trust Accounting: A Comprehensive Guide for Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

Delaware IOLTA and Trust Accounting: A Comprehensive Guide for Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

Maine’s trust accounting rules: simple, but unforgiving.

 Every client trust account must be reconciled monthly — no exceptions. Miss one, and you could face disciplinary action.

Most firms mean to stay compliant. The problem?

Disconnected tools and too many manual steps.

LeanLaw syncs trust transactions with QuickBooks in real time — so you never wonder whether funds were properly transferred.

➡️ Read LeanLaw’s summary of Maine IOLTA rules to make sure your firm stays in the clear.

Open article: IOLTA Compliance and Trust Accounting Best Practices for Maine Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

IOLTA Compliance and Trust Accounting Best Practices for Maine Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

New Hampshire requires lawyers to maintain detailed, up-to-date records of every client trust transaction — including running balances and three-way reconciliations.

 It’s not hard… if your systems talk to each other.

If you’re still doing manual reconciliations or tracking trust accounts in spreadsheets, it’s time to modernize.

➡️ Check out LeanLaw’s summary of New Hampshire IOLTA rules and see how automation keeps your firm compliant and sane.

Open article: IOLTA and Trust Accounting in New Hampshire: A Comprehensive Guide for Small & Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

IOLTA and Trust Accounting in New Hampshire: A Comprehensive Guide for Small & Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

💰 What’s your firm’s compensation system — and does it drive the right behavior?

 Incentives shape culture.
 If you reward only origination, partners hoard clients.
 If you reward only hours, associates burn out.

Best-in-class firms balance work, client management, and origination — then use real-time data to keep it transparent.

What do you like (and dislike) about your current system?

 Drop a comment — this conversation always gets people talking.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Legal admins, if your billing week feels like a fire drill, you don’t have a billing process — you have a billing free-for-all.

Disconnected, manual  systems are often at the heart of it: The legacy billing system produces a paper draft, manual changes are inputted, a paper invoice is sent, a paper check is received a month later and all the entries go manually into QuickBooks.

 It's a recipe for errors, delays, and write-downs.

These inefficiencies don’t just cost time — they cost the firm real money.

Streamlining billing (even modestly) often saves 5–10 admin hours per month and speeds up collections. What are you waiting for??

Attorneys who understand their numbers make more money.

 Not theory — data.

From the compensation survey (ATL/Matterly) the attorneys earning $250K–$500K+ have one thing in common:

They manage time, collections, and niche positioning with intention. 

Things to think about: 
✅  Do you know your utilization and realization rates?
✅  If not, how can you price, prioritize, or negotiate effectively?
✅ How much money do you leave on the table every month because you're flying blind?
✅ What would it mean to your compensation if your firm could track the right metrics?

What will AI bring in 2026? Check out my article in Legal Management Magazine, the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) publication. 

What do you think AI will offer to midsize law firms in 2026? Answer in the comments.

Open article: Unwrapping AI: What Law Firms Should Expect — and Prepare For — in 2026 by alanet.org

Unwrapping AI: What Law Firms Should Expect — and Prepare For — in 2026

Montana Trust Accounting

One small bookkeeping error can snowball into a bar complaint.

Montana lawyers: How airtight is your trust accounting?

Most firms I talk to struggle with:
 • Manual reconciliation
 • Duplicate entries in QuickBooks
 • Unclear client ledgers
 • Missing documentation during audits

Situation → Problem: If your trust process relies on “the way we’ve always done it,” you may already be out of compliance and not know it.

I put together a simple summary of Montana’s IOLTA requirements — grab it here and audit your own process before the bar does.

Open article: IOLTA and Trust Accounting in Montana: A Comprehensive Guide for Small & Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

IOLTA and Trust Accounting in Montana: A Comprehensive Guide for Small & Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

Most firms have some kind of financial “gas gauges” and "warning lights". 

Managing partners tell me their real issues aren’t so much the numbers — it’s the timing.

 If it takes 10+ days to get a clean P&L or WIP report, you're flying blind.

Ask yourself these questions:
 ✅ How long does monthly close actually take?
 ✅ What does that delay do to compensation or cash decisions?
 ✅ How much does every week of lag cost you?
 ✅ What would it mean if you had instant visibility on your most important numbers?

Rhode Island’s trust rules aren’t complicated — until the month you skip a reconciliation.

Here’s the question I ask admins:

“How confident are you that every trust transaction this month is reconciled, documented, and audit-ready?”

If the answer is anything short of 100%, there’s hidden risk. And the longer it hides, the more painful the correction.

Check out our Rhode Island IOLTA quick-guide and see if your workflow passes a simple 3-question test.

Open article: Rhode Island IOLTA and Trust Accounting Compliance Guide for Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

Rhode Island IOLTA and Trust Accounting Compliance Guide for Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

South Dakota’s IOLTA compliance is simple — but only if your systems actually support it.

Many firms still use spreadsheets or multi-step QuickBooks workarounds. That’s when reconciliation gaps appear.

Firms that modernize trust workflows report fewer write-offs, fewer errors, and dramatically faster audits.

Download the South Dakota IOLTA checklist and see where your gaps really are.

Open article: IOLTA and Trust Accounting in South Dakota: A Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

IOLTA and Trust Accounting in South Dakota: A Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

North Dakota firms: How confident are you in your trust accounting… really?

Trust accounting rarely breaks slowly.

 It breaks silently—and then all at once.

For many firms, the Existential Data Point is simple:

 ➡️ How many days does it take to reconcile your trust accounts?

If the answer is “longer than it should,” you may be carrying avoidable risk.
What I see often:
 • Manual trust accounting
 • Delayed reconciliations
 • No audit trail
 • Tools that weren’t designed for legal trust compliance

Question for you:

 What part of trust accounting slows your team down the most? (Drop it in the comments.)

📌 Want a clean, easy summary of North Dakota’s trust accounting rules? Check out the LeanLaw state guide:

Open article: North Dakota IOLTA and Trust Accounting Compliance: Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

North Dakota IOLTA and Trust Accounting Compliance: Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

Managing partners, your firm’s biggest expense isn’t payroll or rent — it’s underutilization.

Most firms don’t realize they’re losing revenue between:
 • Capacity → time worked
 • Time worked → time recorded
 • Time recorded → time billed
 • Time billed → time collected

The average attorney loses 5–10 hours/month to leakage. Multiply that across the firm and you have your existential data point.

How much billable time never makes it to an invoice at your firm?

If you don’t know, the answer is too much.

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Josh Lowenthal's LinkedIn Performance

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