The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Especially in the current job market, it’s important not to overextend yourself in hiring for new attorneys or staffpersons .  But, since lawyers aren’t very good with math or data, hiring often becomes a real ad hoc adventure.   Most attorneys hire like they do everything else = they guess about what they can afford, and what they can take on.  That, however, can be dangerous, when it comes to hiring, because law firms can overpay (and waste money) or underpay (and risk losing a candidate , or good employee) ; and, if you spend beyond your means, it may mean that you need to move on from an employee you don’t want to move on from, because you’ve gotten way out over your skis .   So, it makes sense to perform, at least, a basic financial analysis – before making a new hire.  And, for attorney hires, this can be simpler than for staff hire s , since staffpersons may not bill directly.  For those staffpersons , this is a bit more of an art than a scie...

A lot of attorneys, new and seasoned, volunteer for everything under the sun, until they’re so busy, they just wanna puke.  Now, that’s not the goal of volunteering.  When it comes to working with organizations, legal-specific or otherwise, the idea is not to overwhelm yourself – but, to actually generate business, based on your in-person networking and referral marketing efforts.   But, it’s hard to do that if you can only spend a microscopic amount of time on your commitments, or n one at all.     Of course, there’s a simple solution, here – that’s maybe easier said than done – which is not to over commit.  But, it is difficult to turn down opportunities, when you feel like, as a young lawyer, there may not be all that many others.  And, as a more experienced lawyer, you might feel like everybody wants a piece of you.  In either case, it’s hard to say ‘no’.  But, one of the most important things you can do as a businessperson is to train ...

Law firms have developed workflows in much the same way for years and years.  And, those are standard task lists, with timekeepers and reminders attached.   For someone who is trying to learn a workflow – or , even , to better understand them – that can be kind of daunting.     Like : ‘Hey , learn this new thing’ – and: Wall of Text!     Now, most people are visual learners.  And, the text-based model for workflow management doesn’t work for everybody. Fine, okay.  But, what’s the alternative?     Video is a good option: it’s the most visual of formats.  And, for visual learners, it’s a bonanza + the easiest way to learn.     And, there are a million different ways to create video content (phone, tablet . . . camcorder?) , as well as an equally significant number of methods for publishing video (including privately) via media like YouTube and Vimeo.     But, perhaps the best option for allowing your team ...