Every interaction a law firm has with a client is a marketing opportunity, a chance to cement your value as a service provider. And there’s actually no better place to solidify that relationship than through your invoicing.
There is a pathway to make better decisions about how to run a law firm — and, as it turns out, the data’s right there in front of you.
Whenever there is a staffing issue in a law firm, the traditional lawyer response has been to throw an attorney or paralegal at it. However, that’s not necessarily the wisest strategy.
Nobody wants to read anything anymore. I mean, you’re probably struggling to get through this article already.
One thing that won’t change in 2023 is the focus on law firm revenue.
In the panic that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate legal departments went looking for their contracts to figure out which provisions were binding and which were eliminated under the “Act of God” clause. That scramble accelerated the growing trend of in-house attorneys adopting and using technology geared toward the legal industry.
“Work in Progress” (often abbreviated to WIP) is a representation of work outstanding for law firm clients. While most lawyers just let it ride and take it for granted that the work just keeps coming in and keeps getting done — WIP has some predictive powers that law firms are largely ignoring.
Yes, clients want your expertise and to talk about the legal process and state of the case, but they may not want you to schedule appointments with them, take a check from them or sit down for a signing meeting. And in reality, much of that is a waste of time for the attorney — who should be billing high value cases or marketing for them.
Managing partners often think about what the law firm needs. But even in an employer’s market, it pays to consider what your associates (and potential associates) actually do want — especially if you want those associates to stick around for a while along with all the capital you’ve invested in them.
As much as I advocate for the use of cloud software by law firms, sometimes lawyers can develop an over reliance on such tools.