The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Although lawyers often guess about what legal consumers want, there are very specific and discoverable things that legal consumers want from lawyers.  And, knowing these things  can allow you to convert more clients.   One of the things that legal consumers want from law firms is  to know  the total cost of legal services .  This doesn’t mean your hourly rate, because that’s uncapped.  And, consumer and corporate legal consumers are getting wise to the fact that hourly rates actually  promote   in efficiency.  I mean, think about it: the more hours you bill, the more money you make: So what’s the incentive for working fast?  There isn’t one; in fact, there’ a  disincentive  for doing so.     The job for modern lawyers is to meet and exceed client expectations.  So, if you  know (now you do) that clients want to know the total cost of representation before engaging a law firm, how do you provide for that?     It’s difficult to do with hourly billing, for sure.   But, it becomes easier i

If your revenues remain down, there’s a probably a simple reason for at least some of that dip.     According to  the recently-released 2020 Clio Legal Trends Report ,  23% of legal consumers think law firms are closed.  This is largely based on their knowledge of court closures leading to an assumption that the entire legal industry is shut down.  That, in itself, is a problem for lawyers.  Making matters worse is that only 2% of lawyers believe that legal consumers think law firms are closed.  That means that lawyers aren’t addressing the problem.   If nearly a quarter of legal consumers think your law firm is closed, almost 25% of your potential leads aren’t contacting you.  While it may seem trite at this point to inform your consumer base that your law office is indeed open, clearly there is a need for that to be broadcast.     What can you do to let potential clients know you’re still open, and recapture those lost leads?  Add a banner to your website.  Send an email to your list

Adding new software to a law firm is often a challenge.   But,  the reward is great.     The issue is that most law firms  stumble out of the starting blocks, and then squander any gains that they may have had.   One way  law firms screw  this  up is to  spend too little time vetting software, so that they’re surprised by what they view as limitations  during the implementation process  -- which may be actual limitations, or  just undiscovered  existing features, of which the law firm is not aware, because they did not utilize a thorough vetting procedure.  Another way that law firms screw this up is by focusing too much on the implementation procedure, with skewed expectations  with respect to speed of adoption  --   many lawyer-owners feel that a software should w or k perfectly within their environment right away;  but,  that’s the wrong expectation.  It takes time to adapt software for  your  office.  Don’t even get me started on staff training for software: law firms just don’t do

With in-office work still now a very disjointed proposition for law firms,  attorneys continue to struggle with managing a distributed workforce -- often for the first time.   One particular problem with the new system is managing phone calls.  With administrative personnel, who normally answer the phones, out of the office, and separated from the physical phone systems many law firms still maintain, solo lawyers and small firm attorneys themselves are burdened with tasks generally revolving to receptionists, on days when the usual receptionist is out of the office.  That’s a problem for  staff  (who are blocked from their normal duties), and for attorneys (who are better served delegating the task).     The answer is adopting a VoIP phone system.  VoIP stands for ‘voice over internet protocol’; it is, essentially, a cloud-based phone system.  Hardline phones are connected via PBX (‘public branch exchange’), which  makes those systems  cost more than VoIP, and force s  business phone s