The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Setting business goals is immeasurably important, for lawyers .  Business goals supported by data are measurable .  But, you may not be ready for that latter part right away – that may also be true of your staff.   While it’s exciting to discover new datasets, and reports – you don’t necessarily have to utilize those to build mandates within your law firm . . . at least , not right away .  If you’ve never set data-based metrics before, that’s gonna be a big change for both you and your team .  So, it makes more sense to ‘socialize’ the idea of these KPIs (key performance indicators) first .  Just run your reports, and make those available for people.  Do that for a year, if you have to.   Then, once folks are used to looking at law firm numbers, across various categories, you can align team and individual goals for your staff , with those numbers .  That’s when you begin to hold people accountable, and/or potentially tie goal-ba...

Most software products these days contain reporting features, which often include default reports, sometimes with the ability to customize, to build your own reports.     Now, if you’re not using the default reports in your system on a regular basis, test them out – you might be surprised by what you learn, about your own operations.   But, if you’ve used your default reports, and pine for more – there is an option .  Lots of softwares allow you to build ‘custom’ reports – reports that you generate using data of your own choosing, selecting the fields and information you most want to see.     Every law firm is different, so each law firm requires unique reporting.     And, if you can’t get what you need from the primary reports included in your software tools, and you don’t have the customization option, sometimes integrated programs can allow you the flexibility you need – including accounting products, like Quickbooks , which are often (and...

Most lawyers derive the most (and their best) referrals from in-person networking, with other business professionals .  Generally speaking, networking is something that business professionals (including lawyers) do naturally; and so, networking is usually not something that attorneys build a strategy around .  But, you can; and, it makes your networking far more effective.   There are three things you can do, to ramp up your networking game:     Set Some Goals. If you establish some goals around the number of networking meetings you want to have, or the number of people you want to talk – or, if you target the people you want to meet, or places you want to go, in a more formal way . . . you’ll get closer to achieving those goals than if you had never set them at all.  Make them stretch goals, and you will see improvement year-over-year.     Connect Elsewhere. Make it a point to connect with anyone you meet on social media, as well .  T...