The National Creditors Bar Association Law Practice Management Blog

Efficient law firms return the most revenue, by a wide margin.  Yet, much of what law firms do cuts against efficiency: Attorneys tend to avoid modern technology.  Attorney like to do things themselves, and so they avoid effective delegation.  Attorneys want manual processes, which they feel they have more control over.   Of course, this is not the way to practice at the top of your law license: billing at your highest rates, or acquiring more work that you can  bill  at your highest rates.   Too often, lawyers are trying to pilot the plane, and hand out the pretzels.   While it’s true that delegation is a proven method for driving efficiency, law firms need not always delegate from managing attorneys to associate attorneys or staff.  Automation of rote tasks and processes is often more effective.  Consider the chain of events reflecting on law firm lead intake: scheduling, emails, contact forms, chat or text com...

Remember  that scene from the ‘Wizard of Oz’, where the guard at the gates of  the  Emerald City is very reticent to let Dorothy and her friends in, until he realizes who they are, and changes his tune ?  Well, consider yourself the green- moustachioed  guard, and your law firm clients  Dorothy Gale .  The only problem is, by the time you figure out who’s at your gates, and when you’re ready to help them, they’re already long gone.   The point is that most law firms unconsciously set up barriers between themselves and their clients.  Lawyers don’t like to pick up the phone, and talk to existing clients, let alone potential clients, thereby driving a wedge between them and their business.  Clunky contact forms at law firm websites   don’t always work.  Well, that’s another barrier.  Believe it or not, voicemail is a barrier.  Anything that stands between you and engagement with a potential client is a barrier.  And, more than anything else...