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15 FOR 15 15 WAYS TO SEIZE A BETTER 2015
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The year we finally move past the endless rounds of cutting “fat” and get back to flexing our profitability muscles.
The year we reawaken our inner optimists, put a touch more bounce in our steps and, dare we say, even get a restful night’s sleep every once in a while.
So what have we learned in these difficult years past?
That the old days are now behind us and the new ways were actually better all along: lean, lithe, agile and more reliant on the technology advances that help us see our way to a new ROI.
So what’s next?
We asked 15 of our most forward-thinking colleagues in the legal world just that: attorneys, administrators, owners and back office folks, of course. But we also talked to others not quite so obvious, including specialists whose business model includes helping law firms be more profitable and their clients
more confident in the way their matters are handled.
Read on. Exciting days ahead…
Let’s make 2015 the year of a new law firm order.
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Heidi S. Alexander, Esq. Law Practice Management Advisor MassLOMAP
Tyler Chapman, MSF Juris Field Consultant LexisNexis Legal and Professional
Penn Dodson Attorney AndersonDodson, PC
Frederick J. Esposito, Jr., CLM Executive Director Rivkin Radler LLP
Kendra Gebhart Business Development Manager LexisNexis Legal & Professional
Ann Guinn Practice Management Consultant and Author G&P Associates
Glen Malia Attorney Malia Law LLC
Lynn M. Myrick Attorney at Law Grants Pass, Oregon
Cordell Parvin President Cordell Parvin LLC
Bradley Randall, JD Attorney Randall Law Firm, PLLC
Deborah J. Schaefer, CPA Computer Consultant Woodbridge, Connecticut
Ben M. Schorr Chief Executive Officer Roland Schorr & Tower
Betty J. Stone Controller Hunsucker Goodstein PC
Michael J. Wasco, CPA Juris IT Consultant Kinol Sharie Leyh & Associates
Nadine Weiskopf Director of Product Management LexisNexis Legal and Professional
Contributors
The more practitioners rely on technology to manage their law offices, the more important it is to have a solid understanding of how these systems operate and how they can be used to streamline office operations. Resolve to make this a priority in 2015.
First, you’ll need to review your current systems. Are they working for you? Are those systems/applications working together in a seamless manner?
Take a hard look at all the different technology that you use on a daily basis. Do you store your data in a variety of locations (i.e. local drive, USB, cloud-storage)? Do you scan data directly to your document management system or is it a multi-step process? Are you backing up your data on a regular basis and testing it with periodic restores? Is your master list of clients readily available and does it include all necessary information for conflict checking purposes?
How about your time and billing system; does it integrate with your financial management program? Where do you track appointments, deadlines, and tasks, and does that information sync with all your devices and is it shared among staff? These are just a few of the questions that you should consider.
From a law practice management perspective, a technology audit is essential to ensuring that your systems are operating effectively, thus allowing you to spend more time billing and less on administrative work.
Ideally, you should have a robust law practice management system that brings together client, contact, and matter management; calendaring; time and billing; and document and financial management. An all-in-one system, such as LexisNexis Firm Manager, should include many of the aforementioned components and integrate with other systems. Integrations are key to law office efficiency.
If you use Quickbooks for financial management, for example, you should ensure that your law practice management program can export into Quickbooks. When it comes to document management, your workflow should require the immediate naming of data and then scanning directly into client file folders. Using, for example, the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500, you can scan directly to cloud-based storage providers such as Dropbox and Evernote. If you use Dropbox for your client files, you should ensure that Dropbox can integrate with your law practice management program, of course taking care to secure your files, and so on and so forth.
Once you’ve conducted your review, you should have a better understanding of how your systems work and where you need to invest time and resources. Make a list of what is working for you and what is not. Then, prioritize the changes you’d like to make over the course of the year. Work with your IT provider to connect applications and troubleshoot integrations. Empower your staff to develop technology protocols to maintain consistency.
If you start now to streamline your systems, you can look forward to ringing in 2016 with a clearer mind and more productive practice.
Heidi S. Alexander, Esq. is a Law Practice Management Advisor at the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program (MassLOMAP), where she advises lawyers on practice management matters and provides guidance in implementing new law office technologies. She frequently makes presentations to the legal community and contributes to publications on law practice management and technology. Follow her on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
HEIDI S. ALEXANDER, ESQ. | LAW PRACTICE MANAGEMENT ADVISOR | MASSLOMAP
Ready, Set, Get Your Systems in Check
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Perform a “Health Check” When Growth Out-Paces Your Firm’s Processes
With the economy finally easing back into optimism mode, many law firms are now in the enviable position of having to cope with a welcome shot of growth. That’s good news in every way for an industry that has suffered its share of turmoil.
The only twist is that fast growth can overwhelm processes that simply can’t keep pace with the new realities of meshing more people and matters with a need for greater productivity from everyone across the board.
If your law firm has grown to the point where you have several staff attending to the back office transactions of client/matter setup, accounting and physical file management, it is critical that the managing partner/committee understand how tasks are being performed and that they are consistently being done properly.
While constant audits of procedures will make employees feel like they aren’t being trusted, an annual review of your firm’s operations manuals helps you know that if anything were to happen to an employee, the firm would still be able to function with nothing more than a temporary decrease in efficiency.
From a firm operations standpoint, it’s also important to make sure job descriptions reconcile with the type of job you expect and what you are willing to pay for. For example, while you may be seeking CPA-level accounting knowledge, you may discover that your salary offer is a better match with that of a bookkeeper. In such circumstances, neither you nor your hire will be happy because your job expectations don’t line up. More reasonable would be to hire a bookkeeper while retaining an accounting firm to review and manage your books from a higher level.
When having your firm’s work reviewed, approach it from an efficiency standpoint. Tell your staff that you would like to bring in outside thinkers to help analyze the firm and review workflows for missing efficiencies. By doing this, you can make sure that the work is documented for the way it is being performed and the staff might be able to reduce workload by having a new set of eyes view the situation.
It shouldn’t come across as a lack of trust, but that you are performing a “health check” on firm operations to make sure you can handle growth without having important matters fall through the cracks.
Tyler Chapman, MSF may be reached at [email protected].
TYLER CHAPMAN, MSF | JURIS FIELD CONSULTANT | LEXISNEXIS LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL
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We often hear the question, “If it is just me or a few people in the firm, why does a policy and procedure manual matter?”
Because no matter the size of your firm, people respond well to structure and consistency.
But first, let’s break down the difference between policies and procedures.
A policy is considered more external, i.e. one which might define the relationship with the client.
A procedure is something that will apply more internally, i.e. one which would define the relationships and how things are done within the firm.
The need for a policies and procedure manual is important, because if they’re not written down, they really don’t exist.
How to Get Started
It can seem intimidating to start a policies and procedures manual, but the most important needs usually present themselves in the form of consistent “pain points.”
For example, if every day you’re showing your admin how to do the same task, start there. Outline it, write it down, then be sure to ask for feedback along the way to verify you’re explaining it in a clear and concise matter.
Even if you have no staff, it’s important to establish your system from day one. Time invested now will pay off huge the minute you hire your first assistant or admin.
The key to making sure it works long-term is allowing for opportunities to improve on your process. One caveat: take care not to allow TOO much input and constant changes, otherwise it could turn chaotic with too many generals. An easy way to avoid this is to add a suggestion box to solicit input, and then get buy-in from everyone else.
PENN DODSON | ATTORNEY | ANDERSONDODSON, PC
Setting Policies and Procedures
Smart firms continue to embrace the changes in the legal profession and in doing so, have opened the doors for increased business development opportunities.
According to the 2014 Law Firms in Transition Survey from Altman Weil, a large majority of law firm leaders report that greater pricing competition, practice efficiency, commoditization of legal work, competition from nontraditional legal service providers, and non-hourly billing arrangements are all permanent changes in the legal landscape.
In the new landscape, finding opportunities in the changing market will prove difficult for firms resistant to change. But these changes also present many opportunities to improve law firms’ competitiveness, both long and short term.
As a start, firms should start small, take risks, learn some valuable lessons, and grow from the experience – in short, encourage innovation. For example, some firms have invested significant time and money in developing customized financial reporting producing performance metrics based on client billing, collection, realization, and costs associated with producing work – from task to timekeeper – then used those metrics to determine where the firm can offer more competitive alternative fee, or non-hourly, arrangements.
For those firms looking to get started down the path of exploring strategic opportunities and addressing the challenges of the new landscape, it is important to have useful, and particularly, responsive analytics and meaningful data to draw from, and that information is usually right in your backyard – your time and billing systems. Within your time and billing system resides all of the performance and historical data information that you will need. The historical data can be analyzed in many different scenarios, with varying assumptions, and in most cases, with relative ease, for making the most informed financial and strategic decisions for the firm.
Most important, before most firms can take these initial steps, I would add that law firm principals need to understand their firm’s performance. While internal systems and software can generate information, that information must be reviewed and analyzed with an understanding of how and why the firm performs as it does. For example, do law firms know how much it costs to produce a billable hour? By practice? By timekeeper? By client or matter? Are your alternative fee arrangements generating profit?
Improved understanding of these economics will assist firms greatly in their pricing and strategic business development initiatives – both of which are critical to remaining competitive, and profitable, under the new legal landscape.
Frederick J. Esposito, Jr., CLM, is the Executive Director of Rivkin Radler, LLP in Uniondale, NY. He can be contacted on Twitter: @lawmgtguru or on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/FJEsposito/.
A version of this article originally appeared in the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today webzine in June 2014.
FREDERICK J. ESPOSITO, JR., CLM | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | RIVKIN RADLER LLP
Transforming from Within? Or Waiting to Have Change Imposed on You?
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Good reporting is at the heart of improving profitability in every law firm. Until firm leaders have access to the data they need in the form that helps them see the big picture and all the smaller brushstrokes that make it up, it’s almost impossible to understand the current financial situation, much less create a plan for putting the right pieces in the right places for the future.
Sadly, far too many firms pay little or no attention to the importance of their financial data until there’s a mad rush to pull it all together for the yearly partner retreat or for end-of-year.
Never mind the stress of pulling together a year’s financial data in one big push, as hectic as that can be for the back-office team. The real harm to the larger firm is only having the partners take a comprehensive look at their financial data once or twice a year, when information overload can glaze everyone’s eyes over and allow potentially performance- and profitability-changing opportunities to slip through unnoticed.
Now that firms are (finally) finishing up end-of-year, this is the time to reexamine firm reporting capabilities and take a look at automating the process so you can alleviate the frenzy next year, and from now on.
From a bigger-picture point of view, think about how much more relevant reporting data would be if it were delivered more frequently to the partners, say, on a monthly or quarterly basis, or even on-demand, potentially at a moment’s notice, with the right reporting and analytics software in place.
I can already hear the objections. “What is requested changes year after year.” “It takes so much to put it all together, I would never have time to do anything else.” “Creating custom reports is always costly and still there are changes.”
Since we all have either just completed or are in the process of completing putting this type of information together, now is the best time to assess just how much time and effort was expended and analyze the full benefits of automating reporting, when the memories (and stress) are still fresh in your mind.
Kendra Gebhart may be contacted at [email protected].
KENDRA GEBHART | BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER | LEXISNEXIS LEGAL & PROFESSIONAL
Make the Move to Automate Reporting Now, When the Pain of Doing it Manually is Still Fresh
Do you think it’s possible to build a full-service practice, serve your clients more fully, and develop a new income stream – all with no outlay of cash?
It’s as simple as forming alliances with other attorneys who have expertise you can’t provide.
For example, a business attorney could form an alliance with an estate planning attorney who has tax law experience to insure clients that their businesses will transition properly to the right people upon the client’s death, with minimal or no taxes.
The business attorney may know nothing about estate planning, and the estate planning attorney nothing about business law. The two together, however, are a dynamic duo who can collaboratively insure that their clients’ wishes can be lawfully executed at the appropriate time.
That’s a win-win-win, particularly to the two attorneys who share in the fees and can work together on other clients’ matters in the future.
ANN GUINN | PRACTICE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT AND AUTHOR | G&P ASSOCIATES
Build a Full-Service Practice Without Spending a Penny
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The client has the confidence of knowing that his trusted attorney is overseeing the estate planning process to insure the business transfers properly. The estate planning attorney has the assurance that the business will transfer successfully because it was properly set up by a business attorney. The business attorney is comfortable in the knowledge that her client will successfully pass his business on according to his wishes.
Do you do family law? Think estate planning. Everyone divorcing needs a new estate plan, and you want to make sure that the plan doesn’t go against anything in the final order. Other possible alliances include bankruptcy or criminal defense (if domestic violence is an issue), real estate, or even civil litigation.
A personal injury attorney might work with an estate planning attorney to set up a trust so the injured client’s settlement is secured to provide money for medical expenses and long-term care for the life of the client. A tax attorney could form an alliance with a real estate attorney, an estate planning attorney, a family law attorney, and so on.
What other attorneys do your clients need? Think outside your own skill set to add value for your clients by associating yourself with other attorneys who have skills you don’t. You’ll not only provide an additional layer of care for your clients, but you’ll also increase your firm’s profitability and gain access to a whole bunch of new potential clients – without spending a penny!
Ann Guinn is a practice management consultant to solo and small firm lawyers and the author of Minding Your Own Business: The Solo and Small Firm Lawyer’s Guide to a Profitable Practice. You can email Ann at [email protected], or phone 253.946.1896 to receive her complimentary newsletter.
Build a Full-Service Practice Without Spending a Penny
Solo and small law firm attorneys often struggle with why and when they should bring people in to help, and the answers really aren’t as hard as they need to be.
First, the why: You bring people in to help you so that you can make more money than it costs you to pay for their services.
Then, the when: You bring in people to help when you are doing lower-value work that someone else should and could be doing.
It might sound counterintuitive, but the best time for extra help is right from the very start of your business. Many functions of a law office, like answering phones, can be outsourced at a reasonable fee. Your time is much too valuable to be doing things that can be outsourced.
For those that need a specific trigger, look for the time when you’re doing more of someone else’s job than your own job of being a lawyer.
Common Excuses, Real Answers
Here are some common traps that attorneys fall into; followed by the reasons they don’t hold water.
“It’s just me in the office, why should I pay someone else to do what I can do myself?”
It can be terrifying hiring staff or associates. If it’s not done correctly it can really damage your law firm. The reason to do it is so that you can build a system-based business that you run and that doesn’t run you, and so that your firm can be MORE profitable. And by profitable, I mean more money, more free time and less stress.
“I don’t trust them to do it the way I need it done, so I do it myself”
Again, we come to high value work vs. low value work. All too often, it seems easier to hide behind the tasks you feel comfortable doing, but shouldn’t be doing.
“It’s easier to do it myself, what’s wrong with that?”
If it’s easier to do it yourself, it means your haven’t invested the proper amount of time in your staff. It’s critical you define the processes and procedures for them to follow so that it is impossible for them to do the job any way other than how you want them to do it. You need to also figure out how each new position will make you more profit (in either time, money, less stress, or all of the above).
This is a critical step to enable them—and you—to succeed.
GLEN MALIA | ATTORNEY | MALIA LAW LLC
Why—and When— To Get Help at Your Firm
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For many law firms today, much of the emphasis is on constantly updating and improving technology, and with good reason. Between case management software and cloud computing, I’m able to respond to clients from any remote location and that has made me exponentially more efficient. It’s hard to even imagine operating a productive and efficient firm today without the latest technology at hand.
But without the right staff to back me up, that technology can be a trap, making me a slave to answering email, scheduling meetings and court dates and all the million or so other day-to-day tasks that can easily take my time and attention away from practicing law if I allow them to.
That’s why I depend on my staff members to act as extensions of me. They have their case notes with them. They can send me a message and update me, then go on without waiting for me to talk about it with them in person.
Because I know them well, I have full confidence in my people to act on my behalf. They’re well-trained. They’re tremendously professional. And I know my clients can and do depend on them to ease the stress in difficult situations.
I’ve seen studies estimating that it can cost companies 20 percent or more of a good employee’s salary to replace him or her. It’s important to keep in mind, too, that keeping and retaining highly skilled staff takes more than money and benefits. Maintaining a positive office environment, encouraging education and skill enhancement and respect and appreciation go a long way in keeping staff in place and loyal.
While the last few years of high unemployment may have caused some companies to take their employees for granted, it’s important for law firms to keep in mind that sometimes personal relationships can have a bigger impact on getting or keeping a good client than any kind of technology.
Whether it’s economics, productivity or maintaining good client relationships, it’s simply good practice to make a good-faith effort to keep your best employees on the team.
Lynn M. Myrick can be reached by email at [email protected]. You can find out more about his firm at www.MyrickLawFirm.com.
LYNN M. MYRICK | ATTORNEY AT LAW | GRANTS PASS, OREGON
Technology, Sure. But Don’t Overlook the Role of Good Employees in Improving Productivity.
I’m often asked about the most effective approach to take when building a law practice. While there are many different ways to go about it, my answer is always the same: the best thing you can do is find what will work best for you.
To figure that out takes some introspection and, of course, hard work to see it all come to fruition. But it’s a powerful and usually eye-opening way to learn who you are and where you want to go as an attorney and a practice owner.
These are the questions I asked myself when starting my own practice, and I think they’ll work well for you also.
1. What is my target market? In other words, who do I want to hire me? When I first started my construction law practice, my target market was large contractors in Southwest Virginia. I did not want to target small subcontractors or home builders. However, as the firm and my experience grew, so did my target market. By the end of my career, I was focused on the Top 100 transportation construction contractors in the United States.
2. What do I want to be hired to do? At first I wanted those contractors to hire me to litigate their contract disputes. I did not want to handle construction accident cases or anything else covered by insurance. Later in my career I wanted transportation contractors to hire me to negotiate, arbitrate and litigate their contract disputes, help them avoid contract disputes, help them with design-build and innovative financed projects, help them with ethics programs, help them with disadvantaged business enterprise issues and a variety of other day-to-day issues. Again, as your experience grows, so do the reasons you’ll be hired.
CORDELL PARVIN | PRESIDENT | CORDELL PARVIN LLC
Five Critical Questions to Ask Yourself When Building a Law Practice
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3. What do I need to learn to best serve my clients? By knowing every aspect of your target market’s business, you’ll be better able to serve—and anticipate—their needs. When I first began my practice, I focused on gathering cases. I had notebooks filled with every highway, bridge, rail and airport construction contract case I could find. I also focused on construction management and built a library, and I learned how scheduling was done on big projects. Later I learned how highways and bridges were designed, bid and constructed and what caused failures. Finally, I learned about innovative financing and design-build issues to round out my skill set and knowledge base.
4. How can I become visible and credible to my potential clients? My first step was writing a law review article and speaking at an ABA Annual Meeting. Soon after, I began speaking at state and local contractor association meetings. That led to speaking at national construction association meetings. That led to me being asked to write a monthly column for Roads and Bridges magazine. By the end of my career, I was clearly known by every contractor in my target market. With today’s growing world of social media, blogs and thought-leadership opportunities, it’s becoming easier—and more important—than ever to make yourself known.
5. What are my best referral sources? The best referral sources for me were association executives. Thinking outside the box, I also focused on equipment dealers, bankers, accountants and surety brokers who focused on transportation construction. That group became my network.
As you can see, growing a successful practice is as much about asking the right questions as it is having all the right answers for your clients. I sincerely hope this approach to planning can work for you as well.
On his Blog, cordellblog.com, Cordell writes about career and client development. There is a place on his Blog where you can subscribe by email or choose to receive the blog through RSS feeds.
Cordell is also on LinkedIn, Twitter, and has a coaching group page on Facebook, where he posts materials he thinks you will find helpful. cordellparvin.com linkedin.com/in/cordellparvin facebook.com/cplawyercoaching twitter.com/cordellparvin
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To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
That’s why goal setting is paramount to success in the law and any other area of life. The process doesn’t have to be complicated; it just needs to be followed.
Six practical tips:
1. Determine what you want. Is it more income? To expand your practice into other areas? The ability to spend more time with your family?
2. Dream big. Make sure it’s a big enough goal or important enough to keep you excited and invested. It’s always good to get some quick wins to build momentum, but too many goals go unaccomplished because they aren’t big enough, and the goal setter loses interest.
3. Be specific. The more specific you make your goal, the easier it will be to visualize and take concrete steps toward it. For example, set financial goals after figuring out how much it would really cost to live the way you want to live. Don’t set a goal to get more clients, set a goal to get 5 more clients a month.
4. Write down your goals and review them daily. A goal is really just a dream written down. Focus on results and don’t let yourself off the hook.
5. Start with the harder things first. What are the things you’re looking forward to the least? Take action to get them done right away, and the rest will seem easier.
6. Commit to your goal. Motivational expert Grant Cardone recommends taking 10 times the amount of action and effort you originally think it will take to accomplish your goal.
But don’t let Cardone’s message prevent you from starting your journey. You’re not alone, and have something on your side that gives you an edge—technology.
Apps for smartphones and tablets have come a long way and there is an app for just about anything. Legal specific practice management has come a long way, too. Find the systems that work best for you, then let them do what they’re supposed to—sweat the small stuff so you can do what you’re supposed to: practice law.
BRADLEY RANDALL, JD | ATTORNEY | RANDALL LAW FIRMS, PLLC
Setting Personal, Fiscal and Professional Goals
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Dig Deeper Than the Bottom Line to Understand Your Firm’s Total Financial Picture
Lawyers are expected to learn what they need to know about practicing law in law school. Looking at the course offerings from any law school you will find Criminal Law, Torts, Administrative Law, Business Law, Family Law and so on.
What you will not find are courses on accounting or the financial administration of a law firm. This very important part of managing a law firm is left for on-the-job training, yet it is one of the most critical components of a successful law practice. Many law firms consider themselves profitable if they are able to pay all of their expenses and are able to put money in their own pockets during the year.
However, that is not the only measure of profitability.
A successful law firm or lawyer understands how he or she is actually making money. Just because there is a number in black at the bottom of an income statement it doesn’t mean you’re seeing the entire picture.
Profitability is measured not just on the income statement, but by analyzing matter and timekeeper profitability. Controlling overhead costs cannot be dismissed and should be reviewed yearly at a minimum. However, in order to control growth and increase bottom line profits, it is imperative to evaluate profit on a case-by-case basis or at a minimum by a particular type of law. How many hours were required to derive the fees generated?
Not all cases are winners and it is important to understand which ones are worth pursuing and which ones are draining profits.
The same is true of timekeepers. Obviously in the smaller firms where there are only principals doing the work, it is easier to follow the productivity of the timekeepers. As firms grow and additional timekeepers are hired, it is important to be sure that each timekeeper is generating enough revenue to substantiate his or her employment. Are certain timekeepers entering a large number of billable hours that have to be reduced at the time of billing?
The real success of a law firm or lawyer is the result of a strong understanding of the firm’s total financial picture.
Deborah J. Schaefer is a Certified Public Accountant and Computer Consultant in Woodbridge, Connecticut. She can be reached at [email protected]. Her website address is www.DeborahJSchaefer.com.
DEBORAH J. SCHAEFER, CPA & COMPUTER CONSULTANT | WOODBRIDGE, CONNECTICUT
1. Styles2. Styles3. Styles
Almost every week I have clients send me Microsoft Word documents and plead for my help in fixing them. In almost every case the documents have serious formatting issues that no amount of clicking and deleting can resolve. In every case the person who created the document did not properly use Word’s Styles…or didn’t use Styles at all.
Styles can solve all of your problems – at least if all of your problems involve how text appears in Microsoft Word.
Two Flavors of Formatting
In Word there are two basic kinds of formatting: Direct and Indirect. Direct formatting is what happens when you select a piece of text and apply Bold, Italics, a different typeface or some other kind of formatting to that text. Indirect formatting is what happens when you apply a style to your text, then apply that formatting to the style. The magic of styles is that everywhere you apply the style the formatting will be consistent…and you have a single, central, place to update that style if you decide your text should be 12 point Segue instead of 11 point Times Roman.
Additionally Word uses heading styles to automatically build a table of contents and to populate the extremely popular Navigation Pane that can help you manage long documents.
Finally, styles are the best way to do robust and reliable paragraph numbering, something that has driven too many attorneys to throw staplers across the room.
Using Styles
Using styles is actually easier than you think. Word has a Styles gallery right on the ribbon that lets you select from pre made styles. Simply select the text you want to apply the style to and click the style. If you want to modify a style – to change spacing, alignment, font, color, etc. – simply right-click the style in the gallery and choose “Modify”. All text with that style applied will update to match your new formatting.
Want to create your own style? Simply type a few words, apply the formatting directly to that text that you want, select it and then click Create a Style from the menu at the bottom of the styles gallery.
Styles WILL make your life easier. At least that part of your life that happens in Microsoft Word.
BEN M. SCHORR | CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER | ROLAND SCHORR & TOWER
The Three Most Important Things Attorneys Can Learn About Microsoft Word
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I think the key to doing things better in 2015 is to streamline, streamline, streamline.
At one point our accounting department had three full-time employees and one part-time. When the part-time accounting clerk gave notice, we looked at replacing her, but we all came together and discussed the current division of duties and how we could adjust each individual’s responsibilities. We also discussed the current workload and how we could streamline certain tasks.
Here are a few of the projects we tackled:
Invoice Cover Letters – At one time, our firm produced a separate cover letter for each invoice in a Word template. Each month our billing clerk would take quite a bit of time changing the date of the letter, the month the services were performed, and a few other items. We streamlined by inserting a cover letter for each of our clients in Juris® Core that automatically populates with the invoice number and other information that changes each month.
BETTY J. STONE | CONTROLLER | HUNSUCKER GOODSTEIN PC
Streamline Small Processes and Tasks for Big Impact
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Photocopy Charges – Our firm has three offices, each with multiple copiers. Previously we would print the reports from each, combine the quantities by matter and manually enter them in our financial management program. To streamline, we developed a master spreadsheet that calculates the totals for each copier. Once the input is complete, we then import charges into Juris. What used to take almost eight hours now takes two at the most.
Audit Responses – Our firm has several cases that are billed to insurance companies. Previously upon receiving their audit, we would generate a very detailed letter outlining our objections. Once again we streamlined by using Juris BX to create a text file before we post the invoice. We then convert it to Excel® and put our objections to disputes in a line-by-line format, which we submit with a generic cover letter. Depending on the size of the invoice this saves a tremendous amount of time and energy.
Expense Reimbursements – Employees from our three offices often asked if we could add their expense reimbursements into their paycheck. I don’t like doing this for various reasons, so we developed a system to reimburse employees through ACH using our online banking. The employees are happy and it saves time and money on checks and postage.
Yearly Vendor Reviews – Another thing I think every firm should do every year is review all their vendor contracts. Last year, we saved roughly $15k from this one task.
These are just a few of the streamlining ideas that we have developed. I’m happy to say our accounting department runs more smoothly because of the adjustments and we have reduced our gross payroll.
You can learn more about Hunsucker Goodstein at www.HGNLaw.com.
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One concept that my CPA firm is working with several law firms on is adopting an objective way to gauge and compare the profitability of individual producers, all the way from paralegals to partners.
For obvious reasons, most firms attempt to measure individual profitability, but many end up including overhead expenses in their calculations, which is really just a numbers game and tends to put lower-level timekeepers at a disadvantage in calculating their profitability contribution.
The fact is, if a law firm generates sufficient gross profit from revenue to cover overhead (minus direct employee expenses), there’s really no value gained in allocating those expenses.
We advocate instead that law firms determine each producer’s profitability ratio using only his or her direct expenses. At the end of the year, any producer who generates revenue equal to or greater than twice his or her direct expenses is contributing to overhead, meaning that everyone in the firm is earning net income from that person’s work.
What do we consider direct expenses? Just as it sounds, any benefits directly attributable to one producer, including all types of employer-provided insurance:
• Payroll and payroll taxes• Insurance, including: health, dental, vision, disability, long-term care, and other insurance regardless of
tax-deductible status• Retirement• Other benefits directly attributable to one timekeeper, such as: education, travel, seminars, and any
other expenses other than those attributable to overhead
For any firm that wants to make sure all of its producers are profitable, this is a great way to easily compare the entire firm without getting muddled into the whole “how do we allocate overhead” trap.
It also helps overcome the often incorrect preconceived ideas law firm owners and partners develop as to who their strongest performers are.
Once the proof is in the numbers, even the most overlooked paralegal can prove his or her worth amongst the firm’s top producers. Reaching that two-to-one ratio may also mean that producer is worthy of a bonus, no matter how high or low on the organization chart.
Michael J. Wasco is a Certified Public Accountant specializing in law firm accounting and taxation with Kinol Sharie Leyh & Associates in the greater Pittsburgh area. He can be reached at [email protected].
MICHAEL J. WASCO, CPA | JURIS IT CONSULTANT | KINOL SHARIE LEYH & ASSOCIATES
Even the Odds to Fairly Calculate Timekeeper Profitability Ratios
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Heads up, solo and smaller-firm litigators: it’s time to modernize your law practice with technology.
Unfortunately, two prevailing truths remain:
1. Too many attorneys think the acknowledgement of technology is as good as actually using it in their practice.
2. Too many others still do things manually, or using piecemeal “hacks” that are not nearly as good as available software that can do it faster, better and cheaper.
Cutting Through the Clutter
We could drag on for days about every tech tool at a litigator’s disposal, but it’s easiest to start with the bare minimums you need to become a viable counter to your opposing counsel—no matter how large their firm (or support staff), including:
• Run a background search on everyone in your case. Spending a few dollars per person will reveal things in a 15-minute search that you wouldn’t find even in an hours-long deposition. The defendant was once the roommate of the judge’s brother-in-law? Didn’t see that one coming.
• Know your judge. Speaking of judges, using a document and docket research tool is a must to give yourself the edge before a trial. By knowing his previous findings and opinions, you can strategize your case presentation in a manner you know he prefers.
• Have the latest case information. Plugins are available to update your case authorities automatically, and cover any new cases that have overruled them. They’ll also auto update case references in all your documents as well.
• Embrace e-discovery. Most information today is electronic, and you need an e-discovery tool to make sense of it all. If you’re going to go into the judge under Rule 11 and represent that you’ve done due diligence, it will allow you to be infinitely more prepared than sorting through thousands of virtual pages manually. And you’ll save tons of time with automatically created privilege logs.
• Use a transcript management tool. You’ll have myriad more options vs. reading the one that came from the court reports. You can look at live transcript feeds, look at videos while reading the text, and much more.
• Create motions in a few clicks. If you’re managing facts, evidence and people in your case with e-tools, you can automatically create motions and save yourself a lot of work.
• Today’s juries expect a show. Give it to them. Trial presentation tools let you use interactive screens to highlight key words for emphasis, rebut witnesses with their own video testimony, and much more.
Bottom line: By staying (or getting) current on tech tools, you’ll not only serve your clients better, but build your reputation amongst peers and opposing counsel by winning more cases.
NADINE WEISKOPF | DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT | LEXISNEXIS LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL
Leverage Technology, Level the Playing Field
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About LexisNexis® Legal & Professional
LexisNexis Legal & Professional is a leading global provider of content and technology solutions that enable professionals in legal, corporate, tax, government, academic and non-profit organizations to make informed decisions and achieve better business outcomes. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. Today, LexisNexis Legal & Professional harnesses leading-edge technology and world-class content, to help professionals work in faster, easier and more effective ways. Through close collaboration with its customers, the company ensures organizations can leverage its solutions to reduce risk, improve productivity, increase profitability and grow their business. Part of Reed Elsevier, LexisNexis Legal & Professional serves customers in more than 175 countries with 10,000 employees worldwide.
The LexisNexis software division develops business management and litigation technologies that enable law firms and legal departments to streamline workflow, improve collaboration, reduce expenses, improve efficiencies and drive better legal outcomes. Key offerings include legal software products for CRM, practice management, Enterprise Legal Management, eDiscovery and legal project management.
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