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10 Ways to Run Your Law Firm More Efficiently
#EfficientLawFirm
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About Our PresenterStacey E. Burke‣ Licensed Texas Lawyer Since 2001‣ Works with lawyers and legal industry vendors
around the country‣ Speaks and is published nationally on legal
technology, marketing, and law firm efficiency‣ Favorite when practicing law: working with
clients and their families‣ Favorite when consulting: helping small to
medium sized firms learn to own and control their own marketing
‣ Text NEWSLETTER to 38470 for free legal marketing news
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Business Efficiency: How to Build Your Best Law Firm
Building Your Best Law Firm
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Systemization
Training
Accessibility
Assessment
Biz Dev
All Systems Go: Law Firm Systemization
What is systemization? Office Phones Answering Service Computer Hardware and Software Servers and Backups Documents and Scanning Remote Access Finances
1. Creating processes for handling repetitive tasks and functions.
• Automate non-attorney tedious tasks to achieve consistency, speed, reliability, and cost savings.
• Example: Case-related document generation.
2. Documenting these processes in a real and meaningful way.
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Internal Best Practices for the Intake of New Cases
Law firms need to adjust their internal processes to handle the increased intake associated with both marketing and
formal business development efforts.
All Systems Go: New Case IntakeWhat do you need?• People• Software• Hardware• Transmission Methods
Procedures:• Lead Tracking – What are your lead
sources? How are leads entered?• Lead Qualification – Does the caller
meet the firm’s requirements to become a client?
• PNC/Intake Nurturing – Automate
follow-up sequences.• Lead Conversion – How do you
convert leads into clients?• Remarketing – Monetize your entire
database not just qualified leads.
Universal merge documents and forms:• Sign-up paperwork• Authorizations• Employment Contract
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CALL ASSIGNED
ATTEMPTS CALL
CONTINUES INTAKE
RATES LEAD
SELECTS FUNNEL
PNC EMAIL 1
PNC CALL 2 PNC EMAIL 2
PNCFINAL CALL
REJECTED
LVM – Left VoicemailNA – No Answer
REJ – Rejected (Red)
System will automaticallysend rejection email and
queue for snail mail
QUALIFY NMI
NEEDS MOREINFORMATION
NAC
NEEDSATTORNEY CALL
REFER OUT
All Systems Go: New Case Intake
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Communication is KEY between intake, bookkeeping, attorneys, and marketing vendors.
Weekly meetings regarding intake, conversion, problems
Quartlerly marketing meetings with partners to discuss ongoing campaigns and spends
Monthly or Quarterly Communications with Referral Attorneys regarding joint ventures, existing inventory, maintaining relationships, future campaigns
All Systems Go: New Case Intake
Poll Slide #1Does Your Law Firm Have A Procedure Manual?
1. Yes, it is printed out and lives in a three-ring binder.
2. What is a procedure manual?3. We have checklists for certain tasks.4. We have an internal portal with links to download
various items, videos, and more.5. No.
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Building Your Best Law Firm: Training
Training employees often begins and ends at the time of hiring. Much can be learned about one’s business by continuing the
training process on an ongoing formal basis.
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Building Your Best Law Firm: Staff Training
Why Train?1. Is your business experiencing problems or being held back in
some way? Identify problems and roadblocks in your existing internal processes.
2. Do you receive customer complaints? Improve your customer service.
3. Is part of your business underperforming? Improve your productivity.
4. Do you rely on one or two key people for critical business functions? Cope more easily with retirement, resignation, and termination.
5. Do you have a shortage of a particular skill set or a likely future skills shortage? Identify where your real internal needs are so you can meet them and keep your staff happier.
Train First, Train Last, Train AlwaysEssential Training Objectives:1. What are our needs?2. What are management’s expectations?3. How will training move us closer to meeting those expectations?4. What will the training require logistically?5. Will the training improve employee performance and how will we
measure that?6. How do we continue to cultivate a corporate culture of
improvement?16
Training Preserves Intangible AssetsHuman Capital
• Tacit knowledge• Education
• Work-related know-how• Work-related competence
Customer Capital• Customer relationships
• Customer loyalty
Social Capital• Corporate culture
• Management philosophy• Management practices
• Informal networking systems• Coaching/mentoring relationships
Intellectual Capital• Intellectual property
Making Work Accessible: Cloud Computing
Why focus on new technology? Professional responsibility in the context of new technology should
be considered on a proactive basis. Do we have a duty to ensure that we stay informed of new technological options in order to provide the most cost-effective, efficient, and high-quality representation for your clients?
Profitability and business survival can be bolstered by innovation in one’s law practice.
Legal practice in general has become more reliant on e-discovery, electronic documents, and digital sharing of files.
Lawyers must ensure that client information is protected and so we must understand the “terms of service” in our contracts with our technology providers and hosting services.
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Make Work Accessible: Practical Considerations
Accessibility:Mobile devicesRemote accessTo cloud or not to cloud
Advantages: Less expensive Flexibility Disaster recovery Ease of updates Less operational issues Better use of resources Scalability
Considerations: Ethics Service Interruption Security Data Ownership Work-Life Balance
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Poll Slide #2When Do You Train Your Employees?
1. We have a formalized staff onboarding process and our em-ployees are trained when they join the firm.
2. We train new employees only and do not train existing staff.3. We offer quarterly training on our case management software.4. If an employee brings an issue to our attention, we train as
needed.5. We never train anyone.
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Building Your Best Law Firm: Ongoing Assessment
The needs of your law firm will change over time. The technology and staff members you use to accomplish your goals will also
change over time. An ongoing assessment of your key business functions will help your law firm stay on track.
Ongoing Assessment
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You will need to periodically audit your systems.As you make updates, you should log changes – who
and why.Areas to Assess
Employee Training Systems Productivity Work Flow Employee Satisfaction
What to Do After Assessment
Analyze Information Highlight Areas Needing Im-
provement Create Game Plan Develop Timeline for Implementa-
tion Retrain
Ongoing AssessmentAny successful business should undertake continuous
improvements to adjust and update education and training materials.
The findings from the evaluation process need to be used to make meaningful changes to the law firm owners’ business
objectives.
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Poll Slide #3What Is The Top Complaint Of Law Firm Owners?
1. I cannot measure the return on investment of my marketing ex-penditures.
2. I don’t know what my staff members’ job duties are.3. I don’t have time to [fill in the blank].4. I can’t find or retain good people to work for me.5. I know we need to make changes, but I don’t know where to start.
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Business DevelopmentBusiness development is often confused with marketing, and the
concepts are incorrectly used interchangeably. Marketing and business development complement each other and depend upon
each other.
Business DevelopmentWhat is Business Development? Making connections with referral sources and potential clients Identifying prospects and new areas of business Converting prospects into clients or other valuable
relationships Understanding industry dynamics Making personal connections easily Being innovative and resourceful
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Business DevelopmentI could find potential clients/referral sources by:1. Attending networking events and social engagements2. Raising my individual brand profile (i.e. speaking
engagements)3. Making phone calls4. Being active in my community5. Maintaining and cultivating existing relationships6. Sponsoring local and community events
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• Know your audience• Who are the decision
makers and influencers?• Speaking engagements for
lawyer associations• Legal article publication
and subsequent promotion• Direct mail, Email, Case
Studies, Testimonials, Public Relations
How to Market to Other Law Firms
Stacey E. Burke, P.C.Website: www.staceyeburke.com Email: [email protected] Phone: (713) 714-8446Twitter: @staceyeburkeNews: www.bit.ly/SEBPCnews or
TEXT NEWSLETTER to 38470
Contact Us
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Thank you
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