Managing a law firm is more complicated than ever before. Effective practice management demands a growth mentality and the capability to handle numerous moving elements in the fast-evolving legal landscape.
But when you learn about a few managerial strategies and use a couple of tech solutions, you will become great at what you do. And this way, you will quickly turn your law business into a place of trust where clients get the proper treatment and encourage others to seek help from you.
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Implement Proven Tech Solutions
Lawyers spend fewer than 3 hours a day on billable tasks, according to the 2019 Legal Trends Report.
Office administration, bill generation and distribution, technology configuration, and payment collection are tasks that consume almost half of the time that you could otherwise spend on billable tasks.
But with the right software solutions, you can get some of that time back and spend it in a more meaningful way.
For instance, to run your office more efficiently, you can use Office 365. Productivity suites, including word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, and email, give the essential minimum of capability needed to excel in the business world.
Upgrade that with a few new and better features that Office 365 offers, and you will feel the positive effects in no time.
You can also use Fastcase for better legal research. This tool puts the whole national law library on your desktop, with an unequaled extent of coverage. You’ll get immediate internet access to cases, statutes, regulations, court rules, and bar publications.
If you specialize in immigration law, you will also benefit from efficient immigration software. This tech solution is a centralized platform where you can access your cases, necessary forms, and even the entire CRM from one place. The best bit about it is that it is multilingual, which often comes in handy with these cases.
Invest in Marketing
Law business marketing is critical to the success of any legal practice. Your brand mainly determines the way you stand out from the competitors to clients. The goal is to understand who you are, what makes your firm unique, and what services you provide to clients and express this information as clearly as possible. If you specialize in product liability, for instance, you can use marketing to make it clear to potential clients that they can contact lawyer for product liability if they need help.
But if you don’t track your marketing, you could be wasting time and money on outlets that aren’t bringing in new clients. You should be able to do this with the help of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution.
Work on Improving Your Employees’ Skills
Your crew is the future of your company. You should seek to hire the best lawyers, legal assistants, and personnel, but you must also help them with self-development if you want to prosper in the long run.
Investing in their development and planning is a vital element of preparing your staff for success. Regular one-on-one meetings with senior business members, course funding, and sending employees to seminars are excellent options.
This also entails promoting employee well-being. This can be tough in a field where burnout and worry are common. You will be able to attract top pros if you can overcome these obstacles while still giving opportunities for professional development.
Be a Financial Wizard
It’s critical to have a thorough understanding of your organization’s finances when running a small legal firm. Law schools have a reputation for graduating lawyers who know the law but don’t manage their firm, particularly its money.
While you don’t need to be an accountant to make business decisions, you must be familiar with crucial indicators. It’s also suitable for any of your practice areas.
You need to take special care of:
- Work in progress: the hours you haven’t billed
- Accounts receivable: the billed out work that has yet to be collected
- Collectible: the number of hours captured, billed, and collected
- Trust accounts: you have to know the trust balance for all of your clients
Reviewing the above regularly (at least once a month) will help you recognize and handle problems before they become critical. This allows you to address concerns, bill clients for finished services, and analyze outstanding accounts receivable to discover accounts that may require more aggressive collection efforts.
Deliver a Great Experience
With companies around different industries upping client expectations across the board, customer service is more vital than ever. To provide excellent client service, you must understand your customers’ journey, know what they want, and deliver it simply for them.
Don’t think you know what your customers want. Instead, ask them. Inquire, read between the lines, and gain clarity about their issues. Then consider how you may have best-tackled problems by thinking outside the box.
Final Words
Lead your company through the change. Be the one to lead by example and improve the whole organization. That is the only way to make the entire firm better and more efficient.