The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

In a recent episode of pop culture phenomenon ‘ Game of Thrones ’,  a stray Starbucks cup showed up on a table in a medieval castle .   This, among other things, has negatively affected Game of Thrones’  critical reception for its  last season .   But, that’s nothing compared to the personal hit that your reputation could take if you rely on Starbucks wifi to access confidential  client  materials online.   At this point ,  every state has a data security law of some type on the books, and law firm ethics continue to  move toward a national consensus  of  data competency, including with respect to data security management.   Lawyers  who  have a minimum level of competency respecting technology and its uses in the practice of law  are not using free, open wifi networks to access client data.   And, that’s  because it’s staggeringly easy for even mildly motivated hackers t...

You know that to effectively manage your law firm finances that you need to create revenue projections, to establish goals for what you want to make.  You also understand that in order to establish revenue projections in a coherent way, you have to establish a figure for your overhead, i.e. — the costs that go into running your law firm.  Of course, you are acutely aware that your costs to operate equal business expenses, and that some of those business expenses, the larger ones (like malpractice insurance and your office rent) are easier to keep track of than others.   But, w hat if you treat somebody to lunch?  Or ,  you gas up a rental car?   Tracking business expenses admits of the same issue as tracking time spent on client matters: If you’re not diligent, you may miss out on some items, especially the smaller items.  It’s also a good idea to contemporaneously track business expenses, just as you would contemporaneously track time on the client matters yo...

Most lawyers think of ‘virtual law practice’ as an all-in sort of thing:   Either you’re completely virtual, or you’re not virtual at all.  Only, that’s not the case.  Even virtual law practices intending to be totally virtual don’t ever  really  get there.  For one thing, law firms (due in part to jurisdictional limitations) are almost always physical entities, in some sense, even if the physical entity is a home office and  the physical network is  a limited number of local referral sources.  So, at least in this day and age, it’s almost impossible to be  completely  virtual.   And, that notion changes the complexion of this entire conversation .    I f a virtual  law  practice doesn’t have to be  totally  virtual -- what percentage  does  it have to be virtual?  95%?  92%?  4 7 %?  3%?  The fact of the matter is that it is really hard to def...

Modern law firm consumers  seek out  and engage with law firms in new ways.  Younger law firm customers, especially, look less and less to other persons for referrals  --  which in-person referrals have  traditionally driven law firm revenue  --   but, they’re not necessarily  searching exclusively on Google any longer, either.  With the rise of mobile search, many modern legal consumers are performing ‘in-app’ searches for professional services -- such that, if they want to find a lawyer, they’re going direct to LinkedIn, or Facebook, or Twitter, etc.  So, if your law firm is still focused exclusively on Google search ranking, and paying lots of money for privilege of ranking  (kind of)  highly,  it’s time to consider the expansion of your marketing efforts.     Not that it’s  ever  been a good idea to focus on just one outlet for marketing your business.  It’s made sense to diver...