Hostage Situation: Lawyers, Not Staff, Should Run Law Firms

In many law firms – especially the small ones – managing attorneys are held hostage by their staffpersons.  And, when the staffpersons are aware that that is the situation – things can quickly turn toxic.  There are plenty of law firms, where staff are doing whatever they want, and dictating process and strategy to the attorneys they work for – because the lawyers believe they can’t let go of the staff, since they’re too important to the running of the law firm.  It’s something of a vicious circle.  But, as a lawyer, you’ve got to maintain control of your business, in part because any ethics-related issues that arise, can cost you your license to practice. 

 

So, if your staff is treating you in a dismissive way, and you feel like you’ve been removed from the management of your own law firm – or, even if you simply don’t want that situation to arise – there is a way to dig out.



Here’s what you need to do: 

 

Understand How Your Technology Works. One of the more common excuses I hear, for allowing a situation like this to continue, is that the lawyer needs to keep the obdurate employee, because that person knows how to use the office technology.  While it might seem like a convenient solution: to offload the setup and management of your software, to someone else – that also means that there is then only one person who understands how to use your technology; and, it ain’t you.  So, as a law firm owner, the more you understand the technology you use, the more freedom you have in moving on from employees, who don’t work out – or, keeping the ones who do stick around, in line.  Your own knowledge of your technology stack is a convenient way to make someone dispensable.  And, in most jurisdictions – those that have adopted Comment 6 or 8 to Rule 1.1, respecting a lawyer’s obligation to keep up to date with modern technology – it’s a competency requirement. 

 

Record Your Processes. This is related to the question of technology usage; but, if you’re also setting your staffpersons up, as being the only ones who understand how administrative, intake and/or case processes work within the law firm – you’re really only just setting yourself up for trouble.  The answer to generating more independence from your staff, in this regard, is to record all workflows, preferably in a task or project management software – so that that’s not a mystery box for you, anymore.  Now, your processes are transparent to everyone else – including, potentially, the person you would hire, to follow those processes, in replacement of the staffperson, who created them. 

 

Nip Dissension in the Bud. Oftentimes, these situations devolve into a battle of passive-aggressive behaviors – wherein, both lawyers and staff are committing such actions against each other, to the detriment of the business as a whole.  It starts with employees ignoring requests, and seeing how far they can get with that strategy, before becoming openly hostile; meanwhile, attorneys are avoiding confrontation, and entrenching a situation, where staffpersons get to control every process, and every narrative, within the business.  But, this all starts somewhere – before it grows like a weed; and so, it’s imperative to curb any dissension immediately, as it happens.  You’ll need to set the tone right away – and, keep setting it, to ensure that things get done the way you want them to be done, not the way your staffperson choose to do them.  If you meet these challenges in a proactive fashion, it becomes easier to do over time – and, is an important way to maintain control of your own law firm. 

 

. . . 

 

If you feel as though you’re losing the rope, in terms of managing your law firm, how you want to, there is a path out.  Give us a call, to get some help, in finding your way. 

Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia's Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors' Bar Association members have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discount rate.

To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.

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