Smaller law firms don’t have the luxury of robust support staff to manage the administrative details of the practice. Nonetheless, they face the same tasks and pressures as much larger firms. As a result, managing the firm can feel chaotic or overwhelming. Moving to a legal practice management software can make all the difference.
Measuring the productivity and profitability of your timekeepers is rarely straightforward. There is, of course, the hourly rate and total billable hours for any given matter, but that fails to look at all the different variables: differing rates by matter or client and time spent on the matter that can’t be billed to the client (or is eventually written off).
If you’ve been looking for better ways of collaborating with clients, you’ll have likely come across the benefits of legal practice management solutions and how they address the day-to-day challenges you’re running into. However, cloud consideration does not come without some challenges. Law firms planning on moving to the cloud — or those expanding their use — should consider not only the benefits of cloud services but also the practical, technical, legal, and ethical issues of cloud computing and the implications of such a decision.
Law firms have traditionally been slow to pursue new legal technologies, even when they potentially offer substantial cost savings and productivity improvement. And as all lawyers know, low costs and high productivity equal improved profitability. More and more law professionals are recognizing that innovation is necessary to survive and thrive as the legal world changes.
Any time you undertake a project that involves your computers, it is a good idea to have your IT team involved.
Software developers have long been focused on customer-centered innovation, continuously improving the user experience (UX). Lawyers looking to improve their law firm growth strategy should consider doing the same, creating the best possible client experience by leveraging the latest legal tech. This legal experience (LX) is the sum of all interactions a client has with your law firm – the entire journey – from hearing about your firm to closing their case. An improved LX enhances client relationships and leads to internal efficiencies that improve the bottom line.
Electronic, or LEDES billing is a necessary, and often dreaded, process at many law firms. Between enforcing timekeeping with the appropriate LEDES codes, generating invoices that are in alignment with the client’s requirements and successfully submitting these invoices to various clearinghouses, e-billing can be time-consuming and downright frustrating for the back-office.
As consumers we buy online, bank online, grab an Uber, and transfer our share of the dinner bill to our friend’s account, using Venmo, Apple Pay, or another digital payment app.
We all agree that the primary source of revenue for law practices is client billing. However, plenty of the activities required to operate, invoice, and make money are examples of non-billable hours. Often considered as the nuts-and-bolts of a firm’s operation, firms should reevaluate these tasks – this is a business, after all.
Who would have guessed that more than half the energy devoted to effectively managing a law firm has nothing to do with practicing law? According to the 2022 Thomson Reuters report on the State of Small Firms,