The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Every lawyer I've spoken to in the last month or so, has been talking about ChatGPT , which has sort of captured the societal zeitgeist.  And, whenever the concepts of machine learning or artificial intelligence are brough t up – they’re two very different things, actually – attorneys always start asking: Is this new tech going to take my job?     Well, if recent use cases respecting ChatGPT are any indication : the answer is a resounding ‘no ’.   At least, it appears that a tool like ChatGPT will not be taking over for ‘real’ lawyers any time soon .  So, let’s examine some of the use cases.   A friend of mine who is an ethics attorney used ChatGPT to find caselaw on an ethics issue - just one problem, ChatGPT completely made up three cases, that didn't actually exist .  Another lawyer asked ChatGPT to create a legal brief - it was great with the case cites (this time), but the narrative was wonky: it wasn't written like a lawyer.  One of my current c...

Law firms have traditionally been built on the back of referral marketing .  You know, lawyers going to events, meeting other attorneys and business owners, and thus generating inbound leads to their firms .  That’s pretty much how it’s always been.  And, that focus exists for a number of reasons: First, it’s a free (mostly) form of marketing – talk is cheap, right?  Second, lawyers are effectively limited in direct client outreach models due to non-solicitation rules .  Third, attorneys are never actually ever taught any marketing tactics – so, they gravitate to the easiest and simplest option .   But, a funny thing happened on the way to 2023 .  The pandemic had everybody locked in their homes, which meant that lawyers retreated to web marketing tactics, in the absence of in-person events and gathering .  Also, more and more digital natives are entering the legal space, including as law firm owners; and, those folks may be more likely ...

Seriously, I mostly stopped practic ing law because of the inane, interminable meetings .  Now, that’s a problem in most offices – but, law firm meetings seem to me to be particularly meandering and aimless .  Now, the pandemic change d how and where people met, in fundamental ways .  But, the meetings still sucked.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that law firms meetings have to remain so bogus.   There’s actually lots of different tactics you can use to eliminate unnecessary meetings, reduce the time spent in meetings you need to have and/or better organize those necessary meetings.     Let’s begin:     Technology-Base d Workflows Reduce/ Eliminate Status Meetings.     The majority of law firm meetings are centered around case updates .  Now, that’s important, of course – because , if there’s one thing a law firm needs to do, it’s to keep cases moving through the pipeline, and prosecute those effectively .  B...