The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Legal is a tough game .   Especially in traditional law firms, attorneys are out there, trying to get their billables on .   Just grinding .   In an environment like that,  it’s  hard to get somebody to try to help  along  a less experienced peer .   And,   that’s  even true in firms that offer value-based billing – because every hour is  most  valuable  to the biller  when  they ’re  trying to meet production goals.     Neither is this a legal-specific problem.     In sports, good luck getting Aaron Rodgers to mentor your young quarterback that you just drafted .   In sales, coffee is for closers .   In home improvement, only one driveway can be the smoothest.     OK – you get the idea.   So, the question becomes: How do  you  incentive more senior lawyers, who have billing and revenue expectations themselves, to mentor you...

A lot of law firm owners I know  don’t  look at any sort of financial reports at all, when it comes to their business – which is straight up madness .   Frankly, if you  don’t  look at  any  other reports, you should be looking at your financial reports .   The good news is that there are some basic  ones,  that are  usually available  by default in either your case management software and/or your accounting software .   Now, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of the financial reports you need for your law firm – but, if  you’re  not  looking  at  at  least these  five , for starters:  you’re   essentially  flying  blind.     Accounts Receivable  – This report  identifies  how much total money is owed to your law firm by clients; this figure can be broken down on a per client basis.     Aged Accounts Receivab...