The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Most solo and small firm attorneys think of their law firms as a salary replacement for a full-time law firm job, with some upside: both on income, and freedom.  But, that’s it.  Lots of lawyers are looking to run out the clock on their practice, and then ride off into the sunset – or , work until they die.  I know I’d prefer the former ; and, if you do, too – why not ride off into the sunset with some loot, like the hero (or villain), in a Western movie?   Now, for sure, your law firm is a valuable asset to you throughout your career.  But, a law firm can be a valuable asset for sale, as well – even if many attorneys never consider that option.  A whole host of attorneys are out there optimizing their law practices for current revenue – but, far fewer of those lawyers are looking to create a saleable asset.  Yet, that can b ecome a significant chunk of revenue, for when you retire, or if you decide to move on + try something new, one day .  Your...

Most lawyers treat referral sources as a set-it-and-forget it sort of thing.  They’ll work really hard to build up that referral arrangement; and, once the referrals start coming in – things get set to auto pilot.  And, the referrals may continue coming in; but, the question is whether those referrals remain consistently good.  Because, as it turns out, referral quality can degrade over time; and, there’s a specific culprit.   Having an elevator pitch is one thing; but, your client work is more nuanced than that.  There are a number of different factors related to the types of client work you want.  So, when you talk to your referral sources, you’ll need to keep reminding them of the type of work you want, and whether and how that ask changes over time.     Referral maintenance is a real thing; and, if you don’t do it, it’s like skipping the barber shop or the salon: things can get hairy.  And, you’ll end up turning away clients from the fo...

Law firm account s receivable can be gnarly, sometimes extending into the six figures .     Now, there are a couple of responses to that.  The preferred option is to eliminate accounts receivable altogether, which can be done using epayment options, and potentially evergreen retainers combined with stop work order s .     Of course, you may not ever get to 100% collection rates – that’s a tall order – and, you may have some accounts receivable to deal with already.  And so, you’ll need to establish a collection process – and, that should flow from your engagement agreement.   The components relating to money that you need in your engagement agreement, aside from your rate(s) and/or basis of your rates, would be: An escalating series of penalties for non-payment.  An arbitration clause, potentially including access to a state bar’s fee arbitration board.  That stop work order.  This will allow you to put pressure on non-paying client...

When lawyers get excited about content marketing prospects, they get really keyed up to add social channels.  And, that’s a great idea.  Because it’s true that, the more social channels you have, the better – since the more places your profile and content exists, the broader your reach becomes.     That being said, you don’t need to add social channels for the sake of adding social channels – especially when you’re getting started.   Instead, focus on the social media programs you already use.  If you’re active on Facebook, start there.  Or, if you like Twitter best, tweet away.  Even moving forward, if you can identify a primary social channel, that is extremely useful, because you can use it to earmark help ful content f rom others that you can repost later.  That, and you can also reshare your own content to other platforms, by designing your posts in the one platform that you prefer most.  And, with tools like HootSuite and Buffer...