The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Lawyers tend to manage in place.  They oversee staff by walking around the office, to randomly check in on people,  like  Lumberg  from ‘Office Space’ .   They can also be vicious micromanagers.  It’s understandable to an extent, of course;  if someone in the office screws up in a major way, it’s the attorney’s license that’s on the line.  I get it.  But, there is a better way; and, a way that is becoming increasingly necessary  for law firms .   In the current environment, law firms are managing distributed workforces on the fly.  Often, there’s no more  physical  office  available  to be occupied ,  to walk around  in .  No more coworkers in your physical presence to hover over.  So, what do you do  now ?     It’s time to finally rely on technology to manage your law firm.  Managing a remote staff is about  creating task-based, time-sensitive workflows , in order  to keep an eye on each employee’s progress on each case, without being in their physical space to do so.  Now, this will

The coronavirus pandemic has shaken the global health and economic infrastructure.  The legal field is still reeling; and, law firms are adjusting to a new world.  For modern law firms to succeed, it’s clear that providing virtual services is now a requirement; it’s no longer optional.  But, taking  the  ‘e’ out of things like  epayments  and  esignature , and normalizing those items as  ‘ just ’  payments or signatures is going to take a significant mindset change for the vast majority of lawyers.   Every law firm is going to have to adjust to virtual practice in a compressed time frame, in order to modernize for a  clientbase  that will require it.  It’s not the best-case scenario, of course, that it took a major pandemic to usher a new age of technology into the law firm environment.   But,  the change will ultimately benefit lawyers, too.  Now, it’s a question of how rapidly your law firm can adjust to the new world.   . . .     If you need assistance adopting new technology for yo

When it comes to engagement agreements, law firms often practice a ‘less is more’ philosophy.  Doing what is ethically required in terms of identifying rates and  scope of representation covers what you  need  to tell  your  clients; but, it may not be all that you  want  to tell  your  clients.   M odern law firms, as well as modern legal consumers, can also focus on important additional clauses.  For instance, modern legal consumers may want to know about the technology a law firm uses, as well as the data security principles to which it adheres.  Modern legal consumers expect that type of transparency from data and software companies; and, as law firms become more technically viable moving forward, there are  going to be more similarities than differences between those two (seemingly wholly different) business models.   If this sounds like a thrilling (well, maybe not) new endeavor, you can start by including a technology clause into your fee agreement.  This will allow

As the coronavirus pande mic continues to force business shutdowns and social distancing , some law firms will be forced to make hard choices about staffing and continued business operations.   But,  all law firms should now start looking at expenses, to see whether they can reduce their overhead – at least over the next quarter.   An easy place to start is with subscription services.  Lots of law firms maintain subscription services they don’t use, especially with respect to technology.  And, many law firms only use a small part of the  softwares  they have access to.    With law firms  now feeling the pressure to build   more virtual business  model s , there’s no time like the present to get  mor e lean .   And, that starts with streamlining your technology.  Determine, then, which software tools you’re  actually using , and to what extent  you’re using them .  Then, begin to eliminate subscriptions you don’t need, or move  of f of  tools  for which  you’re not using the