The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

As the pandemic grinds on, law firms continue to see fewer opportunities to meet clients and referral sources in person.  With no clear end in sight, law firms should be prepared to hunker down for the long-term.  And, that means, in part ,  that attorneys should be moving as many analog processes as they can to digital processes.   Law firms that are used to, or only willing to, manage in-person events have been required to reconsider that stance.  It’s time to rethink every process in your law firm to c reate  online option s  for what have traditionally been offline events.  Every offline transaction you utilize in your law practice, can be shifted to an online transaction.  And, if you’re not making those moves now, the question is when will you?  If you’re not making the transition to a modern law practice during a global pandemic, then when will you?     It was important even before the coronavirus changed everyone’s life...

Imagine if Henry Ford had tried to create  massive  efficiency within the automotive industry, and just hired people, before he started building assembly lines.  It would have been a disaster.  At that point, one of the greatest innovations of the 20th Century becomes  just  another Hindenb u rg disaster.   Yet, law firms try to do this all the time!  They onboard  staff and associates without any sort of processes or workflows in pla c e.  That’s part of the reason why law firms, especially small law firms, tend to shy away from the  hiring process: they’ve had bad experiences  --  because they can’t effectively onboard new employees ,  because those new employees are dropped into the middle of a hurricane.     Imagine now a world in which you built the assembly line first.  As a solo or small firm business owner,  you too should add the  processes  before  you hire.  And, in t...

There are legal consumers out there who don’t want you, you know.     There is a subset of DIY legal consumers that want legal information, advice  and  services -- but, they don’t want to pay a lawyer for those items, because they think  that  lawyers are too expensive, and because they think  that  they can do a passable job on their own.   In certain instances, they’re probably right -- on both counts.   At the point at which most lawyers understand  that , the common reaction is to throw up one’s hands, and assert that such clients aren’t wanted  by law firms, either .  For other attorneys, it’s a reason to gripe about services like LegalZoom and  RocketLawyer , that provide documents to legal consumers, as well as links to lawyer ly  advice.     Very few attorneys take the middle way, and decide to sell products and alternat iv e services to DIY clients.  Most attorneys will complain about a s...

Many people have a vision of white collar workers sitting in comfortable office spaces  . . . when they’re not golfing.   Small business owners cry foul.     The fact of the matter is that most small business owners are working all the time: at night, before dawn, on the weekends.  Running a business is hard.     But, eventually, everybody runs down.  Either you give yourself time and space, or your body forces you into it.   Statistically, the more you work past the traditional number of weekly work hours, the more negative  effects you  accrue .   The fact is, if you work too much, if you work too often, you’re less effective.     Of course, it’s tough to get started  down another path , because there’s always the next thing to do -- that’s how high achievers are wired.     So, where do you begin?     Start by scheduling one day off a week.  Your goal will then be to make that a ha...