LONE PINE, Calif. – The Bureau of Land Management Bishop Field Office would like to encourage all visitors who plan on camping in the Alabama Hills this fall to plan ahead and prepare in order to have the best camping experience possible while enjoying and taking care of public lands. Camping in the Alabama Hills from mid-September through November can be very busy, with campsites filling up on weekends.  Additionally, the main access to the Hills through Whitney Portal Road is closed and visitors must use an alternate route, which adds travel time to get to Movie Road.

The best place to camp in the Alabama Hills is the Tuttle Creek Campground, which offers 83 first come first serve campsites, with ten pull-through spaces. All sites include a fire pit, picnic table and a lantern holder. Other campgrounds near the Alabama Hills include the Inyo National Forest’s Lone Pine Campground, and the Inyo County Portuguese Joe Campground.

Camping outside of a developed campground in the Alabama Hills is only allowed in designated semi-primitive campsites. Camping in these sites requires extra time and preparation to make sure impacts are minimal. Free Alabama Hills camping permits provide information on how to find a designated campsite in the Hills, how to minimize impacts, and how to leave your campsite upon departure.

“The free Alabama Hills camping permit is a great educational tool to help visitors understand how to have a better camping experience and take care of their public lands,” said Bishop Field Manager Sherri Lisius. “We encourage visitors to arrive before dark to make sure they can find a great place to camp.”

Starting October 1, camping at designated semi-primitive campsites will require the Alabama Hills free permit.  This free permit does not guarantee a campsite, as all sites are still first come first serve.  The free permit, which is valid for one year, acknowledges that the visitor knows how and where to camp in the Hills.  

The Alabama Hills free camping permit can be found online, at the Eastern Sierra Visitor Center in Lone Pine, or issued in person by a BLM park ranger within the Alabama Hills. For more information, please contact the Bishop Field Office at 760-872-5000 or BLM_CA_Web_BI@blm.gov.

Patrick Palace is a litigator who has made some life changes. He grew out his hair, sports athleisure wear more than suits, and focuses on legal technology and systems to expand his Tacoma, Washington, firm rather than trying to be the No. 1 trial lawyer and rainmaker.  

A workers’ compensation attorney who also does plaintiffs personal-injury cases, he acquired five law practices in two years. Palace is also a former Washington State Bar Association president, and he’s trying to convince other lawyers to embrace innovation and change in the profession rather than beat it back.

His current volunteer work includes serving as vice chair of the ABA Center for Innovation and secretary of the National Conference of Bar Presidents—two groups with members who sometimes don’t agree on regulation changes in the law. “I’m a bridge,” says Palace, who supports re-regulation to allow law firm ownership by and limited licensing of nonlawyers. 

“Guys like me can show how much their own firms leveraged technology and how many opportunities are out there. So bar leaders can be megaphones of opportunity, not naysayers of fear,” adds the Palace Law founder. 

Palace grew up in Washington and attended Loyola University Chicago School of Law because he wanted to see what living in a large city was like. He graduated in 1991 and returned home the same year, initially working as defense lawyer for police misconduct cases. He switched to plaintiffs work in 1995 as a sole practitioner.

Today, Palace Law employs 11 lawyers and 27 legal professionals. Most everyone in the practice, including himself, works offsite, and he estimates that approximately 80% of the firm’s new business starts through online contacts.

“We use technology to keep lawyers and staff working at the top of their skill set and give as much of the lower-end work as possible to technology to complete, preferably without human intervention,” he adds.

The tech tools include a “Patbot,” a chatbot that uses consumers’ information to analyze their cases, create forms and write letters. The website also has a case value calculator, which is free.

“There’s plenty of money to be made in the law. I don’t have to monetize everything, and it shouldn’t be my purpose to make money off of everyone who calls me,” says Palace, 57. He sees himself as an experimenter rather than a builder and often consults Twitter when shopping for law firm technology.

“I don’t always take the company that’s producing the tool as the best source, but I often listen to those who are using it, and sometimes those who invested in it,” adds Palace, who shifted from litigation work to law firm management and strategy four years ago.

His personal life has changed too. A former student of mixed martial arts, Palace now practices yoga. He also enjoys hiking and fishing, and he has a winery, Sunken Cellars, which ages its products underwater in Puget Sound.

“I’ve gotten a little closer to my roots,” Palace says. “That helps when I’m out on the road and speaking about mindfulness, work-life balance and how to be successful by scaling or changing firm culture, so long as the culture is strong and positive.”

Legal Rebels Class of 2023

Stacy Butler

Josh Blandi

Zachariah DeMeola

Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone of Courtroom5

Natalie Anne Knowlton

Uzoma Orchingwa and Gabriel Saruhashi of Ameelio

Patrick Palace

Janis C. Puracal

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