The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Working from home ain’t the same as working in the office.  I mean, you can’t do your laundry at the office – unless you have a really nice office setup .   Now, the thing that’s interesting is that most law firms – most employers, I would go so far as to say – treat in-office and virtual employees the same way .  That’s a combination of inertia, and a failure of imagination .   But, that’s not the only problem .  Remote employees also require law firms to adopt additional policies.   The most obvious, bedrock policy in that regard is the remote work policy .  But, it also makes sense to build a data security policy (also known as a written information security program ( WISP)) , which does not have to be a huge document (1-2 pages suffice), and which may be required by state law .  That would cover your data protection guidelines, inside of and outside of the office .  If your outsourced staff are contractors, you should also have an independent contractor agreement, with ea

It’s easy to get keyed up on a new paid advertising campaign you’re about to launch – especially if you’re one of the bold solo or small firm practitioners to actually be brave enough to launch one!   But, if you haven’t built a formal intake program, through which you can track those online leads – it’s gonna be tough to measure the value of what you’re doing .  Now, I get it: this sounds like the obvious thing to do; but, I still see law firms trying to launch paid advertising campaign s, while simultaneously trying to create reliable intake program s , with the correct reporting methodology – and, that’s even in some cases, where those law firms are working with digital marketing agencies (who should really know better).     There are two major components you need to be aware of, in order to do this the right way .   First, you have to design an intake workflow before you launch it via a software program.   Second, you need to understand the software you’re using , for wh

Niche practices are successful, in part, because these effectively reduce competition for law firms, and also because it’s easier to market just one thing, rather than several.   Now, it’s easy to build a niche practice right from the start of your law firm , because you can just pick what you want to do .  But, if you’re already running a law practice, and want to niche down – the calculation becomes a bit more complex .  Specifically, in order to niche down, you need to give something else up, as you take on more work in another category.  So, if you want to focus more on estate planning, maybe you need to back off of your real estate work.     And, that may be enough of a challenge to make you want to avoid the whole endeavor .  But, as with most things: if you make the change over time, it becomes easier .  So, you can begin to wind down one practice – when cases age out, and as you convert fewer leads – as you ramp the other up – by putting in some additional marketing effo