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The Friday Five

Efficiency Killers in Your Law Firm

By Rosemary Kupfert

Your firm’s main phone line rings and you reach to pick it up. It’s force of habit. But if you’re a partner, it can lead to lower profits for your firm.

The difference between a thriving law firm and a law firm that fails can come down to one thing: efficiency. If you cling to old habits and fail to use more efficient methods of managing your practice, you risk sacrificing profits. Here are five common efficiency killers — and tips to help you become more productive.

1. Staffing and task assignment errors. Productivity problems arise when people step outside their scope of responsibilities. If a partner is sorting through the daily mail or answering unscreened phone calls, staffing is not being optimized and potential fees are being sacrificed. Many lawyers, particularly those in smaller offices, are accustomed to handling these types of functions. Tasks that don’t produce revenue, however, should be performed by a non-billable staff member. When you delegate properly, you can focus on fee-producing work or client development activities. Likewise, lawyers with specializations or higher billing rates should be brought in only when the client’s needs justify using those resources.

Tip: Periodically review your staffing resources to ensure people are handling tasks best suited to them. If partners are spending too much time on associate-level or administrative tasks, find out why. If adding or replacing staff isn’t an option, consider automating certain functions to reduce the inefficiencies of manual processes, or do  additional training to make the most of the technology in place.

2. Manual billing. Bad timekeeping and billing habits can lead to catastrophe — uncollectible invoices, cash flow problems and unhappy clients. Manual billing processes are error-prone, time-consuming and tedious. They’re expensive, too, since mistakes lead to lost revenue. Today plenty of affordable yet powerful timekeeping and billing tools are designed specifically for law firms. They make it simple to track time electronically instead of manually re-creating hours at the end of the week or case.

Review your timekeeping, invoicing and collection procedures for bottlenecks. Consider upgrading your manual or generic system to one designed to handle legal processes: retainer management, billing against hours, tracking hours, trust accounting and recurring billing. Look for a system that automates the collection of billable time from multiple timekeepers — including adding appropriate billing rates based on the timekeeper, matter or client-specific billing arrangement.

3. Clinging to paper. Paper is inefficient, takes up physical space, is difficult to share and wastes time. Moving from paper to an all-digital workflow can be a challenge. By transitioning to a paperless practice, however, you will be able to find, share and deliver documents, case files and other data more quickly and efficiently — which means less time spent in a file room, over a photocopier or searching for a file and more time performing billable work. If your firm is supporting both a paper and digital workflow, consider whether it is time to switch to a strictly paperless practice.

4. Tethering work to the office. Face it, the practice of law can’t be restricted to a law firm’s physical space. Lawyers who ignore the potential benefits of anytime/anywhere access are losing billable hours and throwing money away. You must have access to your firm’s resources on demand or you are restricting your efficiency and productivity. Also, since cloud-based case and document management systems can be tied into the firm’s billing system, you can easily capture time on the go using your smartphone, tablet or laptop. Expenses can be captured via mobile devices, too, ensuring better record-keeping and more accurate billing.

5. Settling for outdated or “out of the box” technology. Outdated technology forces you to conform to poor workflow models, creating bottlenecks that hold you back instead of empowering you. Compare your current software’s capabilities to the features offered by newer systems. For example, can your current system allow you to easily set up new matters, onboard clients, calendar tasks and deadlines, search and locate records, share information, manage workflow and status with triggers and alerts, and customize reports? Features like these are standard in most cloud-based systems today. Technology that truly enhances your efficiency can be customized to fit the needs of any practice or practice area.

A Better Use of Your Time

If you want to increase productivity and make more money, start by identifying and zapping the efficiency killers in your firm. Deploy smarter technology and make sure people are working at their highest, best level. Explore the options and you are sure to find a better use of your firm’s time. 

Rosemary Kupfert is a legal technology consultant for BQE Software with more than 25 years of experience in legal billing and case management. She handles business development for BillQuick Legal as well as analyzing software requirements and working hand-in-hand with clients.

Illustration ©iStockPhoto.com

Categories: Daily Dispatch, Friday Five, Lawyer Productivity, Legal Technology, Managing a Law Firm
Originally published December 4, 2015
Last updated September 24, 2020
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