The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

There’s been lots of talk over the last few years about law firm efficiency.  And so , some folks address the value of workflows.  And, others talk about how important it is to generate metrics around efficiency.  And, then there’s the pressure coming from clients fed up with the inefficiencies inherent in traditional law practice and law firm billing.  So, it makes sense that every law firm out there is looking to work faster, and smarter.   But, one area that can significantly add up to more efficiency is expertise; yet, it’s often ignored, as an efficiency driver.  However, one of the best ways to get faster = more efficient, at what you do, is to do it over and over and over again, until you’ v e mastered your tasks, and are massively proficient.  So, if you focus on a specific practice area, by leaning into a niche, that’s a great way to add efficiency, because you’re gonna get particularly good, at that particular thing.  It’s a similar p...

Nobody wants to spend a whole lot of time on contacts – even if they’re really important to effectively marketing a law practice.  I mean, yeah: it’s super easy to just cut and paste emails or phone numbers, as you acquire those, rather than making an extra effort to also grab additional information.  But, the more data related to your contacts that you can accrue, the better – because you’ll have more information about the kind of messaging you want to relay to those folks.  So, that begs the question: Which folks , exactly ?     Ideally, your email (and text, etc. – if you’re using a marketing automation platform) marketing will be focused on specific groups, because the messaging for each of those groups will be varied .  For example, unless all you’re ever gonna do is a basic newsletter about your law firm, it would make sense that the kind of things you want to send to your existing clients, and your former clients, and other referral sourc...

My Dad, like all dads, had some choice phrase s to impart.  One was that I shouldn’t step over a dime, to pick a penny.  (Not sure why I would do that, but . . .)  And, that you have to spend money to make money.  It’s actually pretty sage business advice – especially for budget - conscious lawyers.   You see, there are a lot of solo and small firm lawyers out there, who are heavily-focused on budget management, and cutting costs down to the bone.  It’s the leanest and meanest of lean and mean methodologies.  But, getting lean is more about becoming more efficient, rather than trying to spend as little money as possible, to run your law firm.     The reason why lots of attorneys focus on reducing the law firm budget is so that they can increase their profit margin.  But, focusing solely on that side of the equation causes many lawyer s to ignore the other side of the coin, as it were , when it comes to profit margin.  That is...

Managing people kind of sucks; it’s one of the hardest things to do as a business owner.  And, it’s hard to generate a formal employer/employee relationship, especially the first time you ever hire somebody.     You see it all the time; but, if you get too buddy-buddy with your employee, and you try to act like som e body’s friend – the next thing you know, your work ‘friend’ is taking three - hour lunches, or bagging at 3 pm, without any kind of notice.   This kind of thing is particularly fraught in a remote work environment.     Now, this can be remedied; but, it’s tough to fix (but, not impossible), once the horse is already out of the barn.  But, you also don’t need an internal HR person or COO, to make to create a professional distance between you and your staff(person).   There are several things you can do, even as solo business owner, to build in some control over your employee(s).  For one, it helps to have job descriptions.  H...