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Legal technology is great, but it can feel overwhelming for lawyers who aren’t sure how to maximize the benefit of the features of the software — especially those who are more comfortable storing their information in Excel spreadsheets or in Microsoft Outlook.
If you’re new to legal practice management software, you may have noticed that you can manage almost everything under the sun. With features to oversee everything from employee productivity to client satisfaction, you can also manage individual cases and matters as they relate to certain employees or the law office as a whole.
With all the ways to collect metrics and analyze case information, you may be left wondering what’s the difference between them all? One of the most common questions is the difference between case management and matter management solutions and the benefits your law firm can derive from them.
Matter management and case management are not the same thing, but they’re related. Many people are confused by these two terms because they’re used interchangeably. After all, sometimes lawyers refer to cases as matters and vice versa.
It’s easiest to think of these two concepts as an umbrella. A law practice’s business is made up of individual clients who have cases that form the bulk of the work. Lawyers and staff manage these clients and cases on a micro level, keeping track of the discovery, communications, and billables per case and client. But the cases exist under the security of the larger umbrella.
Matter management is the larger umbrella. It governs the practices and processes that makeup case management and the business of the law firm relating to a particular case or client (or set of cases and clients). It is more complex and higher-level than case management because it involves more moving parts.
Matter management is overseeing the business processes of the law firm for individual cases. It involves managing both external and internal processes. Law firms can also use matter management to manage complex litigation with multiple clients and related cases progressing simultaneously.
For law firms with multiple practice areas, matter management may include analyzing the productivity of multiple lawyers working in particular practice areas or the billable hours spent on certain types of cases. It can also involve tracking budgetary and financial metrics by practice area or by cases with a similar feature. Matter management gives partners the opportunity to review spending and productivity-related to a matter as a whole and the impact that it has on law firm resources.
Legal matter management isn’t just about tracking internal processes but also managing external processes as well. It often involves overseeing any external providers working on a case, like expert witnesses or local counsel. This can mean assigning internal and external lawyers and administrative staff to cases and specific tasks and examining the overall operational efficiency of the case management process.
When a matter management system is used to manage complex litigation, multiple attorneys can upload their legal documents, work products, and data into the cloud-based system so that they can review and download documents from anywhere. Plus, the system serves a useful project management function because each contributor can see the work that their colleagues have completed in real-time through task lists and collaborative features, like a comprehensive calendaring system.
Case management is managing everything that relates to the lifecycle of a particular legal case or client. It is internally focused and is more about the processes of managing a case than the implications that the case has for the larger business of the law firm.
Think of a case management system as a single source of truth for a digital case file. Legal case management software usually includes managing appointments and court dates for a particular case, storing and organizing documents and discovery, managing client and witness communications in a client portal, time tracking, and billing and invoices for a particular case or client.
Case management is a great way for lawyers to manage cases that involve other attorneys, administrators, and clients but that don’t quite rise to the level of complex litigation. Unlike matter management, case management collaboration is more limited to the case at hand rather than a larger matter. It is less of a tool for law firm management because it isn't designed to provide the same high-level insights into workflows related to case management.
Legal operations professionals can leverage practice management software to streamline almost every business process, like billing and payments, metrics reporting, and client intake. Certain key features can also be used to organize workflows related to matter management and case management in several ways.
Increased automation is the number one way that legal technology streamlines legal processes, including those related to matter and case management.
The benefit of automation is that you don’t need to recreate the wheel every time you do something. Instead, you can rely on legal technology to do the legwork for you. You also don’t need to hire a dedicated employee to perform tasks that can be automated and can rely on the legal operations team to oversee the use of the technology.
Automation is handy for case and matter management. Instead of having an administrator draft, print, and send out a bill, the software can automatically create an invoice for a case or a matter. Then the technology automatically sends it to the lawyer for editing and then to the client for payment. This process reduces the time that administrative staff spends collecting payments and following up on delinquent accounts.
Legal matter management software and case management solutions are also highly intelligent. They can automate the timekeeping process by detecting billable hours from appointments on a calendar and correspondence sent to a client through the system. This eliminates the time that a lawyer needs to spend tracking billables and inputting data.
For matter management specifically, the software can automatically pull data and generate helpful reports that allow law firm management to keep an eye on the firm’s profitability and overall health. This means that stakeholders and timekeepers can spend less time digging around for the right data and metrics and more time being productive.
Legal technology can also help legal professionals standardize administrative tasks, like invoicing, calendaring, and organizing discovery. Standardizing routine tasks gives your legal team members more time to direct their efforts elsewhere and minimizes human errors made in manual tasks.
While lawyers still need to understand, research, and apply the law, they can lighten their workloads from administrative tasks that are time-consuming when they are standardized by technology.
For example, instead of conducting an in-person client intake, case management software can automate the client intake process and send out standard templates without needing a lawyer or paralegal to set up an appointment. This cuts down on the need to have an intake appointment for every new client, which saves time. It also reduces the need for administrators to print out intake documents, schedule intake appointments, and correspond with the client.
Legal technology has revolutionized the processes related to document management, especially for case and matter management.
With legal software, lawyers can upload and organize discovery and documents as part of a case or matter management system. This feature streamlines the discovery process by giving users (including clients) 24/7 access to the documents and incorporates useful features like the ability to search for frequently accessed documents. That means no more sifting through a cluttered desktop or irrelevant discovery when you’re only looking for one particular document. It also helps facilitate a remote work system where employees need to access documents from home.
Case and matter management software also make it easier for teams to collaborate on documents. Lawyers and administrators can review changes and past versions of work products and opt into notifications when documents are accessed by certain parties. This makes follow-up more immediate and keeps the discovery process moving. It also gives clients the ability to upload emails directly into the case management or matter management system, so that they can be easily produced in the future.
Intuitive document management can increase the overall productivity of the law firm by cutting down on time spent managing documents.
Case management and matter management undeniably play a role in financial management since the revenue stream starts and ends with cases. Legal technology makes it easy for legal operations professionals to streamline financial management practices and implement a comprehensive financial management system.
With the right technology, lawyers can easily track their billables and nonbillables on certain cases and invoicing for a case. Management can then track billables and nonbillable hours on a larger scale as part of their matter management and employee productivity analysis. This provides insights into larger financial trends that may affect the law firm as a whole.
Technology does more than just track hours and generate invoices. It also generates financial reports and can inform management about how a particular case or set of cases is affecting the law firm’s bottom line. It helps management track financial trends, allocate resources, and get a picture of the firm’s overall financial state. This makes it easier for the firm to stay on top of key performance indicators and achieve long-term financial goals.
If you’re looking for new ways to simplify your workload and manage all of your cases, you need a better system than Excel spreadsheets and a desk full of clutter. If you’re ready to look for a technological solution, look for a matter management and case management system that helps you keep every important detail in one place.
Check out a free demo so you can see for yourself how Centerbase is the one system to rule all of your case and matter details.
We’ve talked before about the importance of legal analytics and legal technology for law firms. If you’ve already made the leap to using a cloud-based legal management system, you might be overwhelmed by all the data it’s collecting. After all, most lawyers don’t moonlight as statisticians.
It’s difficult for leaders to know what metrics are the most important for the firm’s success in the long term and how to use those metrics to make higher-level decisions that help drive law firm profitability. The best way to start is by tracking the metrics with a convenient and easy-to-use tool that keeps them organized all in one place.
That tool is called a dashboard. Every law practice can use dashboards to easily track financial metrics, make informed decisions, and grow their business.
A dashboard is a customizable page that uses simple graphs and visuals to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) in real-time.
Usually, a dashboard is a landing page and part of a larger cloud-based law firm management platform. Dashboards provide law firm management with an easy-to-digest snapshot of the metrics and relevant data for their goals. Instead of struggling to understand the big picture, dashboards provide much-needed perspective and turn raw data into actionable information.
Dashboards are a tool to help law firms increase productivity and stay on track. They empower law practice management to monitor progress and make informed decisions that drive firm strategy, hiring, staffing, pricing, and more.
Dashboards aren’t just for law firm management. They can also help lawyers and staff monitor appointments, tasks, and individual metrics. Access to dashboards helps employees stay on task and improve their collaboration while allowing management to do a deeper dive into individual employee productivity.
Data points are raw numbers without any context. Data points are the building blocks for the information that is displayed on the dashboard. Data informs metrics and KPIs and the graphics that appear on your screen.
Legal technology platforms constantly collect data. For example, when timekeepers input data (like their billable hours or completed tasks) into a case management system, it is automatically populated and incorporated into other aspects of the software and may also interface with other technology solutions.
A great example of a data point is the number of employees in your law firm, the number of daily website views, or an employee’s time spent on a particular task, like billing. Data points are different from metrics because you can’t influence them. Data is data, no matter how you spin it.
Metrics add meaning and context to data sources and inform KPIs. Metrics measure the overall health of a law firm. Law firms track key metrics to create KPIs that measure progress toward achieving a larger business goal.
Some examples of metrics are the actual minutes or hours that lawyers spend on particular billable tasks per week (instead of just a raw number), the lawyer turnover rate in the office, or the percentage of new clients who view the website and request a consultation.
KPIs reflect a law firm’s progress (or lack of progress) toward achieving a particular goal. They are forward-thinking data collected to analyze productivity.
KPIs are based on specific metrics related to different aspects of a law firm’s functionality, including budgeting and billing, education and training, overall client satisfaction, and internal processes. The law firm’s leaders identify a goal based on the metrics and then use KPIs to measure progress toward that goal.
KPIs based on our example above include reducing the time that lawyers spend on billing processes by 25% each month, generating 30% more clients in the upcoming year, or retaining employees for at least 3 years.
Data points are the foundation for a metric, which gives data meaning. Then the metric (or multiple metrics) are used to create a KPI and monitor progress towards a particular goal.
Dashboards are only as helpful as the information that they display. Even though they are simple, dashboards require some forethought to set up. Legal practice leaders should take time to customize their dashboards to be the most practical and effective.
Before using your dashboard, you’ll need to have KPIs. A clearly defined KPI helps you achieve your business goals. It keeps everyone in the office on the same page and makes your dashboard more useful. A well-defined KPI is SMART: it is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound, meaning that it has a specific deadline.
A great example of a KPI is to bill 25% more hours in the first half of the fiscal year. This KPI is clearly defined so that every timekeeper can get on the same page. It is a realistic goal that can be measured and tracked throughout the designated period.
A dashboard is designed to be a snippet overview of your progress toward reaching KPIs and the health of your law firm. Most law firms have many different business goals that change over time. It is important that you declutter your dashboard and only focus on the most important KPIs for your purposes.
If there is too much information on your dashboard, it takes away from the tool’s simplicity. The more data that’s displayed, the harder it is to quickly digest important trends and track progress. As time passes and you reach certain goals, you can re-evaluate your dashboard and add or subtract KPIs as necessary.
The great thing about dashboards is that you can have more than one. Instead of having a dashboard that tracks everything under the sun, you can set up different dashboards for each area of the business. For example, you should have a dashboard dedicated to financial metrics and a separate one dedicated to client metrics.
Using multiple dashboards also lets employees track the metrics as they relate to their own performance and responsibilities. To reach your law firm goals, you’ll need to rely on your staff. By giving timekeepers access to their own dashboard and the ability to track their own metrics, it keeps them focused and sets clear expectations for their work. Instead of nagging lawyers about how they spend their time, they can self-monitor and make adjustments along the way.
Your law practice can use a legal dashboard to track just about any metric. Law firms should consistently track financial, learning and growth, client services, and project management metrics for every practice area. Each of these categories should have a dashboard that reflects the KPIs related to them.
Of course, many of these metrics tend to relate to a law firm’s financials. After all, streamlining internal processes, increasing lawyer productivity, and having happy clients all affect revenue. An easy way to start is by creating a dashboard to track financial metrics.
Small and mid-size law firms that want to grow will benefit from tracking some combination of the following financial metrics:
Just because law firms should track all of these financial metrics doesn’t necessarily mean they should all be included on the same dashboard. Law firms need to take the time to identify the metrics that are specific to reaching their financial KPIs. Law firm management may opt to have multiple financial dashboards that subdivide these metrics even further.
A well-thought-out dashboard can benefit a law firm by driving productivity and helping the overall business development. Dashboards help law firm leaders turn data into usable information to inform decision-making. They are an excellent tool to track financial performance and monitor the firm’s finances without wasting time staring at meaningless numbers. Dashboards can also be used in conjunction with other best practices, like reporting, to increase the bottom line.
Well-organized dashboards can also keep law firm management focused on the big-picture goals for the business instead of getting bogged down in the minutiae. Plus, dashboards can help keep everyone in the office on the same page about firm performance and give them the business intelligence they need to focus on their role in growing the firm.
Innovations in legal practice management software have changed the way that law firms do business. Technology is an incredible tool for law firms looking to streamline workflows and increase productivity, but how do you know which one to choose? While some software is fully integrated, others can only perform one function, like billing and accounting, client management, tracking metrics, or generating reports.
Sometimes the options can feel overwhelming, and many law firms find that their workflows end up fragmented across multiple platforms.
This fragmentation defeats the purpose of using practice management software, which is to make your life easier by managing all areas of your law practice. Law firms that use multiple platforms to manage distinct parts of their business end up creating more work for employees. For example, lawyers may be required to enter data multiple times in different systems, so you fail to reap the full benefits of the technology.
While QuickBooks is a popular option for managing legal accounting and timekeeping, it isn’t the most efficient option for exactly that reason: it doesn’t always play nice with other technology designed specifically to address the needs of the legal industry.
There’s no point in using legal accounting and billing software if it makes your work harder. It needs to have enough features to streamline your workflows and simplify your workload. You don’t need to invest in software that only functions as a glorified clock that tracks time.
Fortunately, legal accounting and billing platforms have a variety of features that can help your law firm manage finances, even for small law firms that may grow and change significantly over time. Sometimes this means that the software includes features you never knew you needed or those you thought you could live without until you tried it.
Given the number of financial accounts in a law firm’s financial ledger and the potential number of firm clients, it can be daunting to track them all in a standard bookkeeping system. Law firms must track assets, retainers, receivables, revenue, equity, expenses, and much more. A centralized repository that puts all of your bank accounts, operating accounts, and related information at your fingertips in real-time is essential.
Every lawyer knows that closely managing client trust accounts is an integral part of ethical (and legal) law firm billing. Billing and accounting software must be able to effectively manage lawyer trust accounts that hold clients’ funds before they are earned. This includes tracking interest-bearing accounts (IOLTA) and three-way reconciliation with the asset sheet, trust asset account, and trust liability account.
Legal accounting and billing software must be able to accurately track billable hours and support LEDES e-billing practices. It’s even better if the software has features to automatically detect timekeepers’ billable hours, such as the ability to capture time for appointments or communications sent through the same platform.
Some law offices use flexible fee arrangements, depending on the client or type of case. To be effective, the accounting software should recognize various fee arrangements like fixed fees, contingent fees, and subscription-based payments.
Generating invoices and collecting payments is one of the most time-consuming parts of legal billing. Software that can generate and send automatic invoices to clients, facilitate edits and changes to bills directly within the system, and collect credit card payments through a secure system will cut down on the time that administrative staff spends on billing.
It’s important for billing and accounting software to synthesize data and generate reports that give law firm management insights into the efficacy of billing procedures. These reports may include billable and nonbillable hours per timekeeper, client, or case as well as measures of attorney profitability.
Law firm billing and accounting are important because they tie directly to the financial success of the business. Legal practice management software must be able to track metrics related to big-picture finances like expenses, overhead, and cash flow so that management can pinpoint areas of success and opportunities for improvement.
Perhaps the most important feature of legal billing software is that it can be customized to support your unique business goals. For example, a legal billing solution might offer add-ons like billing templates, a customizable dashboard to track relevant billing and accounting metrics, or the ability to create one-of-a-kind financial reports.
There’s no doubt that your legal practice management software should include billing and accounting features within the larger platform. In fact, this is one of the most common reasons that law firms choose to implement cloud-based software.
Law firm employees spend time tracking billables and nonbillables. Management spends time reviewing revenue statements, budgets, and law firm expenses. Billing administrators spend time generating invoices and following up on delinquent accounts. By having legal practice management software that includes billing and accounting features, you can streamline some of the most time-intensive, manual processes at your law practice. This software also lets management review billing and accounting data within the larger context of other law firm metrics.
Legal practice management software without any billing or accounting features leaves a gaping hole that management usually needs to fill with multiple platforms. This can confuse the data and your employees, and it typically creates more work for everyone. Plus, it usually results in an added expense for the law firm.
QuickBooks is billing and accounting software from Intuit. It’s primarily marketed toward small businesses, including small and mid-sized law firms.
Intuit has developed two different versions of its subscription-based software package: QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. Depending on the subscription and version of QuickBooks that you choose, it may include features like automated invoicing, expense tracking for mileage and receipts, payment collection, and payroll tax management.
QuickBooks wasn’t designed to be accounting and billing software purely for law firms. Because of this, it must be integrated with other cloud-based legal management platforms. This means paying for more subscriptions and integrating multiple systems just to manage what should be run-of-the-mill billing workflows.
There’s no reason to use QuickBooks for law firms when you can have legal practice management software that streamlines more than just billing and accounting processes.
Law-focused software does more than just track finances. It also lets you integrate your billing and finance data into a larger system. This means you can use the platform for billing processes and better understand your data as it relates to other parts of the business. You’ll get a leg up in increasing productivity and your bottom line when you have one system that can do it all.
Legal practice management software is a better choice for law firms than QuickBooks for many reasons, but the principal reason is that it’s designed for lawyers. That means you won’t need to worry about facilitating integrations with other legal platforms or pay extra money for multiple subscriptions. It also means that there are features specifically designed for law practices, like supporting alternative fee arrangements and pricing models. Instead of generating an invoice that is designed for any type of business, you can create a custom invoice and incorporate legal-specific best practices, like LEDES coding and an attorney-review process, that increase efficiency.
With legal practice management software that includes billing within the larger system, your data is also stored conveniently in one place. This cuts down on the need to double enter data or cross-reference information in multiple platforms. It also makes comprehensive financial reporting easier since one system can pull data from different areas to make useful reports that go beyond the basics of billing and accounting.
While QuickBooks has a dashboard feature, it’s limited to billing and accounting metrics. It isn’t as comprehensive as the dashboards included in fully integrated systems that can track billing as it relates to other areas of the business. This means that you can make more progress on achieving your key performance indicators, even if they aren’t purely related to financials. For example, it might be helpful for law firms to track what attorneys regularly have clients who aren’t paying their bills or the amount of time that timekeepers spend on particular clients or matters.
At the end of the day, legal practice management software is superior to QuickBooks because it’s full-service technology with heightened functionality. It doesn’t fragment your processes and create more confusion. Instead, it streamlines workflows and incorporates billing and law firm accounting data to give unparalleled insights into your law firm’s overall health.
The Pareto Principle is the theory that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort. This principle applies to client retention, meaning that 80% of a law firm’s revenue comes from just 20% of its clients.
This principle is incredibly powerful for law firms that want to use minimal resources to maximize their profits. By focusing on retaining and improving the client experience for the top 20% of your current clients, you can significantly increase your revenue and grow your law firm.
One way to start the client experience off on the right foot is to offer a new client welcome kit.
A new client welcome kit is a collection of documents that you give to new clients after the intake process or initial consultation. The welcome kit introduces the client to the law firm and its employees, provides practical and necessary information for reference throughout the case (like billing processes and key contacts), and sets the client’s expectations for the representation.
Client welcome kits will look different depending on your law firm’s practice area. Some law offices create a physical welcome kit, while others prefer the ease of an electronic version. Either way, the kit should include, at a minimum, the following six items.
Your welcome package should include a billing document outlining your fee schedule and expenses, invoicing and billing practices (such as whether you accept credit cards), and the signed retainer or engagement letter. It should also include an introduction to the client portal, plus instructions on how your client can use it, and a list of the common questions that a typical client has.
A short document summarizing the client’s legal matters and the legal services that you plan to offer goes a long way. It shows your client that you were listening to them and planning to meet their needs and should include details beyond those in a standard retainer agreement.
It’s a good idea to include a short bio and key contact information for each lawyer, paralegal, and support staff member working on the case. You can also outline the best ways to communicate with each person and list an emergency contact option for after-hours or urgent legal issues.
A clear flowchart describing the different steps in the legal process is a great tool for your client to reference throughout different phases of the representation. This helps keep your client informed every step of the way.
Lawyers do a lot of work on clients’ behalf, but some responsibilities lie squarely with the client. A concise checklist gives the client an idea upfront of what their responsibilities will look like throughout the case. These may be responsibilities like acquiring and producing documents in a personal injury matter or the timing for making important decisions in an estate planning case.
We all love automation, but sometimes a personal touch is what you need to show clients that you care. Include a handwritten or digitally personalized welcome letter to thank each client for hiring you.
Unlike other practice areas, family law firms handle similar matters over and over again. The client welcome packet is a great way to focus on the specific nuances of family court cases and prepare clients for the road ahead.
One option is to include an overview document explaining the basics of common family law topics, such as divorce, child custody, or the mediation process. If you create a few different documents for each topic, you can easily include something relevant for new clients.
Discovery is also particularly important in family law cases, but it can be daunting for new clients. Including a specific intake checklist in the welcome packet helps family law clients begin to track down the documents that they need to disclose at some point. This makes discovery go faster and also helps clients manage the process in an organized way.
A well-prepared welcome kit builds trust between the new client and the lawyer, which benefits the overall attorney-client relationship.
A welcome kit is an important tool to communicate with the client and one that presents the law firm in an organized and professional manner. A welcome kit can help manage client expectations so that your clients feel satisfied and don’t become overwhelmed. It also serves as a great point of reference for clients throughout the legal process, leading to happier, less-stressed clients who are more likely to hire you again.
Additionally, clients who trust their lawyers and have a past positive experience with a law firm are more likely to rehire and give you referrals. A new client welcome kit starts representation off on the right foot because it signals to the client that their case is important to the law firm. It also gives new clients a sense of transparency about the law firm and legal process.
When clients have realistic expectations, they are less likely to be disappointed in their lawyers. This keeps clients coming back time and time again.
Since 80% of profits are typically made from 20% of clients, retaining that top 20% is essential. Finding new clients is also expensive, so keeping clients on board is a great way to maximize profits and decrease costs.
By spending too much time trying to turn unsatisfied clients into satisfied ones, law firms ignore the happy, easygoing clients who make them money. A better business model is to maximize revenue from happy clients by keeping them on in the future. This doesn’t mean ignoring other clients and their needs but instead using thoughtful business practices that allocate resources to get the most bang for your buck.
The welcome kit is a great way to increase client retention, but it’s not the only way. It’s best to use a welcome package in conjunction with other practices designed to create happy clients. Some other tools to increase client retention include streamlining the intake process, implementing easy-to-use legal technology, and generating retention reports to monitor your progress.
When law firms use all of these tools together, they can have a huge impact on client retention.
As a lawyer, you’re no stranger to legal research and analytics. Data drives your practice and law firm as you review dockets, draft briefs, search SEC filings, and find deeds. But is your firm intelligently conducting research on and reviewing the analytics related to its bottom line? If not, it’s time to get started.
Your law firm likely already has some kind of reporting system, or at least a CRM, in place. The question to ask yourself now is whether your system is working and whether you’re taking full advantage of and properly reviewing all the data it produces. By putting the right tools and systems in place, your law firm and its administrators can have aggregated key performance indicators (KPIs) on important data at their fingertips. Reporting and legal analytics will give your law firm real-time, actionable insights into your productivity and profitability.
We understand that these concepts may be new to you. That’s why this article offers helpful tips that will help your firm maximize the value of your law firm data with the right legal analytics tools.
Legal analytics is the process of collecting, organizing, and then applying data to the practice and business of law. The goal is to use the data you have to make more informed decisions that enable you to better manage your firm’s performance.
With the right analytical tools, your law firm can assess its own data and numbers to create helpful reports on all aspects of its business model and then take actionable steps to streamline workflows and increase its profitability. In sum, data analysis is a magic wand that can help your legal practice sort through the chaos and drive toward better performance.
Analytics gives your firm a competitive edge because you’ll be able to unlock the value within your data and gather business intelligence that you otherwise wouldn’t have. Your administrators will be given that magic wand to help maintain, improve and, if needed, transform your law firm.
For example, legal analytics can help you, your law firm, and your legal professionals and administrators forecast the ebb and flow of certain matters, strategize financially based on facts, and manage internal resources and teams more intelligently. You can view user-friendly data visualizations that graphically represent billable hours, money going in and out, and invoices.
We already know your next question. This all sounds great, but how does it apply practically to the nuts and bolts of my law firm’s practice and operations?
Legal reporting software offers adaptive, real-time reports. Basic data points for legal reporting include billing, accounting, productivity, and compensation.
Through reporting and analytics, your law firm will be able to identify, for example, its highest paying clients and matters, figure out where the money is being made and where it’s being lost, manage staffing and track lawyers’ billable hours, ensure accuracy in origination credit and compensation matters, and use other raw data points to build complex spreadsheets and pivot tables to aid your firm’s decision making.
This translates to using legal analytics and reporting to set pricing, stick to realistic financial performance standards and targets, make informed hiring and employment decisions by knowing which specialty groups are growing and need more help and which are falling behind, track key client relationships, and allocate resources between departments appropriately. Financial reporting helps your firm reduce risk and identify cost-saving opportunities.
By reviewing internal data and creating customized reporting, law firms can use analytics in nearly all of their day-to-day operations, improving their profitability and functioning in both the short term and long term.
Each law firm has unique needs. A real estate boutique will need something different than a large litigation firm, and the types of reports run will vary based on those individual needs (and also show why customization is so very helpful).
Below is a list of examples of the types of reports your firm should consider when building out your reporting structure across all departments and practice specialties. For more detailed information regarding what these reports include and how often to run them, check out our legal analytics and reporting guide.
The right reporting and analytics will help your law firm administrators evaluate the health of your firm. They must be able to identify KPIs that speak specifically to the firm’s unique needs and determine how often these metrics should be monitored: weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. Firm leaders will be empowered to make more strategic decisions because they’ll know just where the firm can and should grow and where it should scale back.
Legal reporting and analytics will undoubtedly help your law firm optimize its performance. Choosing smart legal analytics solutions and reporting tools makes it easy to develop a competitive advantage and keep your firm running smoothly all year long.
Once you implement the right analytics tools, you’ll find your firm is running smoothly and efficiently. To accelerate your progress, download our legal analytics and reporting guide, which will give you a deep dive into different types of reporting so you can choose the right reporting options for your firm.
Lawyers live and die by billable hours. If you don’t meet expectations for billable time, you won’t generate revenue and grow as a firm. If you go overboard, you risk losing clients.
Since billing is arguably the most important administrative process in the legal profession, it’s a great place to start when you’re looking for ways to increase your firm’s productivity and profitability. In this blog, we’ll discuss some steps you can take to improve your firm’s productivity and accelerate client payables.
The standard billing process in the legal industry usually looks something like this:
This process might get the job done, but it’s not very efficient. In fact, it leaves an opportunity for law firms to target the billing workflow as a way to increase their productivity and realization rate.
A clear billing policy gets everyone on the same page when it comes to billing at the law firm. Without a clear policy, timekeepers may have inconsistent and ineffective billing practices that contribute to lost profits. A clear policy cuts down on billing errors and streamlines the process to increase billing productivity across the board.
It’s no secret that lawyers tend to work more nonbillable hours than billable hours per day. That’s because, between court appearances and client meetings, many lawyers are spending time on tedious administrative tasks. By automating administrative workflows with legal technology, law firms can decrease the time that lawyers and paralegals spent on nonbillable tasks and improve billing productivity.
eBilling software streamlines billing workflows to help law firms generate bills faster and get paid sooner.
That’s because admins won’t need to print multiple pre-bills and spend precious time sending drafts back and forth. Instead, lawyers can edit the bill directly in the system after being automatically notified that a pre-bill has been generated. Everyone on the billing team can review it contemporaneously and quickly send it up the approval chain without printing a single document, sending an email, or picking up the phone. Once the bill is approved, the billing team is notified, and the bill is immediately sent to the client or uploaded into the client portal.
eBilling software also makes it easy for clients to pay their bills online, so there’s no lag time. They support different types of billing arrangements like split billing, consolidated billing, and project billing and can be customized to allow partial payments or custom amounts. eBilling software can also send automated reminders to clients with delinquent accounts or payments coming due so that an administrator doesn’t need to waste time following up. The optimal eBilling system will have built-in integrations with other practice management systems, making it easier for lawyers to understand their law practice at a glance and simplifying tasks for small firms that don’t have a large administrative team that oversees all of these processes.
The client experience is directly tied to billing productivity because happy clients pay their bills and give referrals. Dissatisfied clients are more likely to balk at invoices and request adjustments that affect your realization rate. That’s why it’s important to make new clients feel confident that your work is worth the cost.
Law firms with a great intake process are well-positioned to cut down on billing disputes. The client relationship starts the moment a client contacts your office, so firms that set expectations related to billing from the beginning ensure that clients aren’t blindsided by the price tag and avoid debates over billing rates. Not only is this a great way to increase billing productivity and realization rates, but it also keeps clients coming back for more.
You’ll need to delve into the analytics to make sure the billing process stays on track and actually increases the law firm’s bottom line. The best way for law firm management to understand the raw data is to use legal reporting software to generate reports about the various workflows related to billing. These reports can provide key metrics that help managing partners understand the bigger picture.
Collection reports help law firms identify delinquent accounts and observe patterns related to nonpayment. For example, a specific attorney may have several clients who aren’t paying their bills, which could be a sign of poor client relationships or a lack of detail in their descriptors. This data and other key performance indicators help law firm management address why a client isn’t paying and track whether automated billing reminders are having an impact.
Lawyer productivity reports are a great way to identify the timekeepers billing the most hours and those billing the least. These reports let law firms specifically track billing productivity and provide an opportunity to target less productive lawyers and turn their nonbillables into billable hours. A firm’s productivity reports can be run monthly, yearly, or at a custom interval of your choice.
High-revenue client reports help law firms identify which clients consistently bring in money for the firm. These reports help law firms understand what clients bring the most value to the office and those that detract from it. With this data in hand, law firms can work to keep clients that are directly tied to billing productivity and law firm profitability and cut loose the others.
Every law firm operates differently, so custom reports are a great way to grab data that is directly related to your billing workflow and might not be captured in a standard report. With custom reports, law firms have the freedom to innovate their own billing process and track exactly what is most significant for them.
Of course, there are many more reports that can keep your billing processes on track. Check out our Legal Analytics and Reporting Guide for more information on how specific reports can be helpful to your firm and when to run them.
To get paid regularly, you have to bill regularly. Billing your clients according to a schedule (usually monthly) helps to consistently bring in revenue. Clients will pay you more frequently and are less likely to dispute their bills.
That’s because sporadic billing signals that your firm is disorganized. Clients are more likely to think that a disorganized lawyer made an error on the bill. Not only that, but clients will likely also remember certain line items on the bill (like that 30-minute conversation you had a few weeks ago) in the short term, but as time passes, they might forget about it and raise a dispute.
Irregular billing is simply asking for a client to dispute charges, which affects your realization rate and how quickly you get paid.
Allowing clients to use a credit card to pay and allowing them to pay their bills in installments are great ways to get paid faster, even if it’s not in full. Lawyers are expensive, and many clients are making financial sacrifices to hire one. They might not have enough money for the full bill every month. By allowing clients to use credit and payment plans, you’ll be more likely to collect your fees and garner favor with your clients.
eBilling software identifies delinquent accounts and sends automated reminders to encourage clients to pay overdue bills. These reminders gently nudge clients (or not so gently, depending on how late it is) to make a payment they may have forgotten about. This software also cuts out the need for admins and lawyers to spend time hassling clients about payments so that they can focus on higher-value work instead.
Insurance defense firms have it harder than most law firms in other practice areas when it comes to billable hours and realization rates.
That’s because insurance defense firms are usually hired by an insurance company to represent the insured according to the terms of the policy. Sometimes the insurance company and the insured have the same interests, but usually, they don’t—especially if the behavior in question might fall under the policy.
When insurance companies scrutinize a firm’s billing processes, it puts stress on the billing department and can result in a low realization rate that seriously affects your bottom line. That’s why insurance defense firms need to work harder (and smarter) to make sure they are paid in full on time.
Every law firm should be generating itemized bills that specifically describe the basis for each charge, but this is particularly important for insurance defense firms. That’s because insurance companies are notorious for arguing that line items are ambiguous. Billing software that supports LEDES billing makes it easier for individual lawyers to describe their time and standardizes codes for each task so that insurance companies can’t argue ambiguity.
It’s common for insurance defense firms to have multiple attorneys assigned to the same case. Usually, they are working together but in slightly different roles. It’s particularly important for co-counsel to have consistent and accurate time entry practices so that there are no discrepancies. Otherwise, insurance companies might use the inconsistencies in timekeeping as a basis to negotiate their retainer or fee.
A clear billing policy and automation with legal technology standardizes the billing process and removes human error so there are fewer errors in timekeeping.
It’s pretty common for insurance defense firms to provide legal services for multiple clients all tied to the same matter. Split-billing is an easy way for law firms to divide and send bills to multiple different clients without adding additional work for the staff. Insurance defense firms should also explore other fee arrangements and pricing schedules, like project-based, subscription, and contingency fees, to make the billing process easier and cut down on the need to waste time arguing with insurance companies.
Billing isn’t rocket science. But it’s not why you went to law school. And, while it ensures you get paid, it’s not value-added work that improves your profitability. Law firms that use technology to simplify the billing process are better able to track their receivables, improve their lawyers’ productivity, and raise their bottom line.
When it comes to tax season, there are generally three types of law firms. Those that maintain meticulous accounting records all year long; those that leave tax prep to the last possible minute; and those that fall somewhere between the two. For law firm leaders and administrators who find their practices at less than their desired level of preparedness, this time of year can be extremely stressful. But, there are some steps that law firms can take to help alleviate that stress for a more seamless approach to tax season.
First, it’s important to know all relevant dates, deadlines, and filing requirements. For instance, firms that operate on a fiscal year that differs from the calendar year may have different tax return due dates. Also, limited partnerships have different filing responsibilities than limited liability partnerships. These may seem like small distinctions, but they are extremely important for ensuring compliance.
The next step is organization. For firms that have maintained accurate financial records throughout the year, this will likely not be a huge problem. But other firms may have to put in a little work to get everything in order. Records like previous tax returns, expense receipts, income statements, and balance sheets need to be compiled and organized into a system before being handed over to the firm accountant. Disorganized and incomplete files can lead to inaccurate filings with unnecessary tax liability.
The final preceding step involves recognizing the firm’s responsibility as a business entity and as an employer. For instance, what tax obligations come along with operating as an S-Corp law firm? Which employees require W-2 forms and which are actually independent contractors requiring 1099- Misc. forms? By what date does the firm have to provide these forms to firm members? There is a lot to think about, but it is all necessary as law firms plan for tax season.
At the bare minimum, business expenses must be both ordinary and necessary for a legal practice in order to be claimed. Let’s take a look at a list of the most commonly used law firm deductions, along with some precautions to consider before claiming them as business expenses:
An increasing number of law firms accept credit card payments from clients, and many credit card processing companies charge firms a per transaction or monthly flat fee in exchange for transferring those payments. The IRS has determined that the fees associated with these transactions may be deducted as businesses expenses.
In addition, fees that law firms incur while using their own business credit cards may also be deductible, including finances charges, annual fees, monthly fees, and late fees. There is a caveat though - the fees must be actually paid or incurred by the practice. Fees stemming from a firm member’s use of the firm’s business credit card for personal expenses may not be deductible.
The rules around deducting office expenses can be somewhat confusing, so it’s important to consult a tax professional before filing. However, some of the most common tax deductions related to law office expenses include:
Most law firm marketing expenses can be deducted, including website costs and print advertisements. For firms that include networking within their marketing strategies, a percentage of meal and entertainment expenses may also be deductible as long as the event was primarily related to firm business.
Legal professionals can typically deduct education expenses that are deemed “ordinary and necessary” to the profession. As stated in IRS publication 535: “For example, an attorney can deduct the cost of attending classes that are required by the state bar association to maintain his or her license to practice law.”
Under some circumstances, legal conferences may also be eligible deductions if they are targeted towards improving the law practice in some way. It’s best to notify the firm accountant about all educational expenses so they can determine which are appropriate deductions.
Dues paid by law firms to professional associations on behalf of firm members may also be deductible as business expenses. This includes bar fees, trade association dues, and chamber of commerce fees. Public service organizations may also qualify as long as their main purpose is the provision of community services.
Law firms may also be able to deduct a variety of insurance premiums. As stated by the IRS, this includes malpractice insurance covering personal liability for professional negligence. Premiums for property insurance to cover damage and liability for incidents inside the physical law office may also be fully deductible.
In order to stay on top of legal industry trends and changes to the law, firms need to purchase a variety of resources for members to utilize. While most firms have moved to virtual library options, many still maintain a collection of physical books. For those firms, the depreciating value of these books may be deductible, much like any piece of office equipment.
There is a caveat to this deduction though. The only tax-deductible items are those that can be utilized for longer than a year. That leaves out periodicals and resources purchased on a monthly or annual basis, as well as those with yearly volume additions. There may be other deductions available for those resources though, so it’s always best to consult an accountant for clarity.
Travel on behalf of a law firm may also be tax-deductible. That includes travel that occurs outside of a regular radius to handle a specific case or research a particular matter. Travel cost deductions may also include air travel and hotel accommodations to conferences or out-of-state meetings, as long as they are substantially related to the business of practicing law.
The most important components of tax preparation are deadlines, organization, and documentation. With an awareness of potential tax deductions and guidance from a skilled accountant, law firms can successfully navigate tax season.
This is the time of year when we set—and, for some of us, quickly break—our New Year’s resolutions. But some resolutions are more important than others.
As we enter our third year of living with the coronavirus, facing continuous uncertainty and unpredictable market fluctuations, the resolutions that prioritize our well-being are vital. Financial well-being is an important piece of that puzzle and one, thankfully, that we, and our law firms, can plan for.
Try as they might, law firms aren’t immune to market changes. If anything, firms must adapt more quickly and more efficiently than businesses in other industries. While pivoting fast is typically not a hallmark of the legal industry, law firms must be able to anticipate market conditions, how these conditions might impact the law, and what their clients can do to best prepare and protect themselves. Lawyers need to turn all of this introspection and planning inward for themselves.
To continue to serve your clients most effectively, your firm must be operating efficiently. You must have a consistent cash flow that allows you to continue marketing campaigns, acquire clients, and hire new lawyers to do the work.
The key to this is a comprehensive financial strategy. Here’s how you should get started building yours:
Start with informed planning. Though the way the pandemic will continue to affect our lives may change, the financial information you have gathered over the last couple of years, along with the lessons you’ve learned, will be vital in preparing for what’s to come.
We know that COVID is here to stay, so your law firm must adapt to thrive and grow. Think both short-term and long-term and keep a careful eye on law firm funding. Get in the habit now of monitoring your cash flow and capital every week. This is one resolution that must stick.
Improving your firm’s short-term finances starts, like all great projects, with a spreadsheet. The hard numbers are most important here. What is your law firm’s cash flow? Cash on hand? Available lines of credit? What expenses do you have? Have you paid yourself and your team, and if so, how much?
If you’ve kept close track of these metrics over the last few years, begin analyzing these figures to discern short-term patterns. If you haven’t, there’s no time like the present to start!
The first figure to check out is your cash reserves. You should have enough in your account to cover a month of expenses, but it’s best if you can cover three or more months’ worth of expenses.
To infuse your firm with cash, consider whether there is a way to accelerate your collections process. If possible, shift away from contingency fees so you earn more of your fee upfront. If not, consider how you can take steps to reduce collections and receivables.
Additionally, make sure that you’ve paid yourself and your people. With the pandemic, the last thing you need is for your staff to worry that you aren’t able to cover their salaries. Give them peace of mind, if possible, that their job is secure and stable.
Pay close attention to the story that the numbers tell and evaluate the figures realistically and regularly. We recommend having a firm grasp on what these metrics are on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. Learn just how often you should be tracking what with our reporting guide. You won’t be able to realize the big payday that you anticipate in Q4 if your firm runs out of capital in Q2.
Adjust your budget as needed and work toward building reserves. If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that we need a rainy day fund. Building those reserves and continuing to cover monthly operating expenses will likely require revisiting your budget and jettisoning unnecessary expenses, such as printing costs. It might also require re-evaluating and improving your current billing and collections methods.
Also, don’t forget that you’re not a nonprofit. Clients expect good work, and you should be paid for that good work. Accurate and timely billing, availability of pre-bill approvals, and transparency of the process benefit all parties. Improved technology around billing and collections can reduce possible friction with clients and, in turn, give you more time to focus on case strategy. Considering your law firm’s short-term finances is invaluable in continuing its day-to-day operations, acquiring new business, and preparing for long-term expansion.
The key to your long-term financial strategy is simply to have one! Start thinking and documenting your plan now—you can always adjust it as you go along to account for changes in the market.
Here are some important questions to ask yourself when creating your firm’s long-term plan:
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be”: if you operate your law firm like this line from Hamlet, you’re not running your law firm like a business. Like your short-term and long-term goals, your law firm’s need for funding will be specific to your firm. The way you access that funding will also vary.
Some ways that you may be able to finance your firm’s growth include loans from private lenders, financial institutions, or government lenders, like the Small Business Administration or private equity. Some lenders will help you with litigation funding, which will cover any costs you incur while you’re defending a client. Others will help you cover your day-to-day operations or marketing costs. As with any transaction, you should conduct your due diligence and ask around for referrals from your financial advisor and other firms that you trust.
You may also be able to tap into your personal savings or loans from friends and family to start or maintain your practice. Other options include financing your firm through credit cards or lines of credit. Keep in mind that accumulating credit card debt is inherently risky and that you and your firm should carefully consider these risks.
Revenue-based financing once your firm is up and running is a great option. With this option, you pledge a percentage of your future revenue in exchange for an investment of cash.
We also recommend researching whether your firm qualifies for various loans such as those targeted specifically to small businesses or to provide financial relief due to the ongoing pandemic. No matter which method of funding you choose, ensuring your firm has adequate capital is important to continuing your operations, paying yourself and others, and achieving your long-term growth.
Keeping accurate, comprehensive records is key to running your firm smoothly and achieving any long-term goals. Well-organized law firm accounting records are a must, including a detailed budget and financial statements. Keep track of capital in and out and stay on top of your income statement.
The optimal practice is the most consistent practice, and technology can be your best friend here. There are important insights to be obtained by reviewing your budget: Which cases are the most profitable? Which drain the most resources? Where is money being spent but not made? Pay close attention and adjust regularly as needed.
Capital is important in continuing to run and grow your law firm. This requires regular and timely payment from clients, which can be difficult to stay on top of when you’re also busy handling the day-to-day demands and operations of your firm.
Here are a few tips:
Increasing profitability doesn’t hinge on billing. Firms must create long-term client relationships through excellent work, and it’s easier to do excellent work when you’ve minimized administrative friction and improved accessibility to your firm’s information.
Technology can truly transform your law firm’s operations. From billing and case management to integrated platforms for one-stop access for your clients, tech can help you run your law firm smoothly and allow you to focus on your long-term growth. Choosing the right technology makes it easy to invest intelligently in your law firm — smart tech investments should be a yearlong resolution too.
While modern technology has changed the way that many lawyers connect with their clients, it hasn’t changed the fact that confidentiality is key when it comes to the attorney-client relationship.
In fact, the American Bar Association (ABA) has addressed the rise of cybersecurity threats (like hacking) with an attorney’s ongoing obligation to safeguard confidential client information and communications. Not only do lawyers need to stay informed about the benefits and limitations of new technology, but they also need to try to prevent unauthorized and inadvertent access to their clients’ information.
So, how can you take advantage of the benefits of modern technology to optimize the client experience at your law practice and maintain your clients’ confidentiality at the same time?
There’s an easy answer: it’s called a client portal.
A client portal is cloud-based legal software that creates a secure space for lawyers and clients to connect and share information about their cases while automating administrative tasks. It’s a tool that helps you standardize representation so that you can consistently provide an excellent experience for every client, every time.
In the portal, both the attorney and client can upload, store, and share documents; calendar appointments; set reminders for court dates; send bills and make payments, and communicate easily via chat features and automated text messages. Using a centralized client portal also creates a digital client file that is easily referenced in future court hearings or meetings and ensures that all of the information shared is stored securely away from hackers and accidental exposure.
A client portal is a means to streamline and improve the client experience from beginning to end, to keep client data completely confidential, and to cut down on the overall cost spent on administrative tasks related to managing clients.
If you plan on staying competitive in the modern legal world, your law firm needs to start using a client portal to better manage current clients and increase client conversion through automation. You’ll turn more potential clients into actual clients by looking at the data collected by the client portal, and you’ll save money by making your staff’s job easier and faster.
A client portal is one of the easiest ways to get clients coming back for more because, aside from providing valuable analytics, it makes being your client easy. For example, it’s a lot easier for a client to upload standardized intake forms and documents in a secure portal online rather than dealing with encrypting an email to their lawyer or sending confidential information without it. It’s also easier than coming into the office, especially in the era of COVID-19. This makes a better overall client experience and saves time and effort on the part of the lawyer and administrative staff.
Portals also make it easy for clients to communicate with you, and that makes them more likely to have a positive experience. The client portal creates one place to easily send and receive messages to one another 24/7, so they won’t need to call at inconvenient times or leave messages with administrative staff. Plus, lawyers won’t need to give clients their private cell phone numbers. You and your clients can also easily review past conversations to quickly find information and maintain a record for the future.
With a client portal, law firms can streamline workflows, like legal billing and payment, which saves money for the firm. It’s an easy way to send invoices to your client and to receive payments through a secure online system without needing the assistance of staff. Clients can download the bills at any time and send questions directly in the portal instead of calling the office and leaving messages. This leads to happier clients who feel informed about billing and organized at all stages.
A client portal is also a great way to give administrative staff access to all documents and a complete history of a client’s representation. This helps staff in charge of billing, legal operations, and paralegal and investigative work do their job better without needing to go digging around the office and asking questions. A client portal also facilitates remote work, which can cut down on costs associated with office space and keep your entire staff working within one system.
Basically, a client portal doesn’t just make you money because it makes clients happy. It also makes you money by cutting costs and increasing productivity across multiple different areas of the firm.
The point of the client portal is to optimize the client experience and streamline client management processes around the law firm. With that in mind, a great client portal should have the highest functionality and include the following features:
All of these elements should be included in a professionally designed portal that is customized with law firm logos and colors to create a personalized touch.
Of course, a client portal must be intuitive and helpful, but the most important feature of a client portal (or any legal technology) is reliable security and firewall protection.
Law firms are not immune to data breaches. At the end of the day, lawyers must use due diligence to keep client data, online communications, and shared documents confidential. If they don’t, they might risk breaching their ethical obligations and losing their clients’ trust.
Computers are easily hacked, and cell phones are sometimes lost or stolen. Plus, in the era of remote work, there’s a risk that lawyers and staff might opt to use piecemeal platforms or apps that you haven’t vetted for security. You shouldn’t assume that your email is secure either. Law offices are prime targets for hackers, given the valuable secrets they hold.
That’s why it is more important than ever to shift to a client management model that includes a secure client portal with top-notch protective features, like encryption and two-factor authentication. These protections will safeguard confidential information and store data securely, so you’ll never have to worry about someone stealing your client’s data or taking the hit of a dreaded data breach.
There are many ways to upgrade your client intake process, but a client portal is a great first step.
A client portal can streamline client intake and standardize the client’s first experiences with the law firm, so you’re always putting your best foot forward. It’s also a great way to automate administrative tasks and workflows related to intake while boosting productivity among other staff and reducing costs across the board. There’s no reason to rely on outdated client intake practices when you have a client portal to make it easy and cost-effective.
For example, client portals make it easy to send intake forms for clients to fill out before your first meeting and for clients to enter personal identifying information all in one place. This data is usually populated in a larger system to cut down on data-entry-related tasks around the office. It also minimizes the time that each lawyer or staff member must spend meeting with and gathering information from a client.
Certain platforms can even track the metrics when it comes to intake, which is great for a legal operations department that works tirelessly to maximize resources and save money. Since intake starts from the moment a potential client reaches out to your firm, you can use the portal to track where potential clients are coming from and customize intake to target your ideal client. You’ll also be able to look at the ROI on your marketing spend over time so that you get a clearer picture of the law firm’s finances.
Let’s not forget that a client portal can automate conflict checks that are usually performed during intake and conveniently generate a report that protects the confidentiality of your clients. Conflict checks can be costly and complicated for legal practices, but the power of computing makes it fast and simple with the right platform. Some even offer the ability to create a “virtual wall” to adjust permissions settings and prevent certain lawyers with a conflict in the office from accessing sensitive information on a particular case. This reduces the risk of accidental exposure and confidentiality breaches among coworkers.
If you’re thinking about incorporating a client portal into your arsenal of practice management software to improve your client service, you should try out a free demo for an introduction to our platform. We’re happy to show you all the features so that you get comfortable with the functionality of our client portal and can see how it will help your law firm become more client-centered and profitable.
Family law clients are in deep conflict. They’re facing some of the most trying situations in their lives, whether it’s a matter of a separation agreement, divorce, alimony or child support dispute, or child custody battle. Their nerves are likely frayed, and they need support and guidance.
So, prospective family law clients probably need a little more hand-holding and care than many other types of clients. Because their issues are so personal, they likely need an empathetic ear. They’d also benefit from a client intake process that eliminates the fear of working on personal matters with a stranger and makes it easy for them to start moving forward.
One way that family law firms can make client intake easier for prospects is to offer a questionnaire that helps prepare clients for the information they need to share, so they can organize their thoughts and documents in advance.
Here’s how an online intake form can help you make the most of the intake process, so you start your attorney-client relationship off on the right foot:
Clients create value for any business, including law firms. Since the practice of law is a client-based (and reputation-based) business, law firms need to provide an outstanding client experience from the very beginning.
Keep in mind that your family law clients are likely a source of repeat business. (Let’s hope that their disputes are one-and-done and that they instead help you grow your firm’s revenue by attracting new clients with positive online testimonials and referrals.)
Unfortunately, many lawyers are too busy practicing law to give a lot of thought to the client experience. That’s a mistake because there’s little otherwise to differentiate you from other law firms. To ensure your clients walk away with a great impression, you should communicate regularly with them and keep them updated on their case, use technology to create a client portal for ease of billing and calendaring, and of course, develop a thoughtful client intake process.
The practice of family law is different from other areas of law because it’s emotionally charged and often adversarial. It’s also incredibly personal and potentially embarrassing or terrifying— especially for victims of emotional and physical abuse.
Family law clients often feel a little shellshocked when they first walk in for an initial consultation. Not only are they going through something traumatic, but then they must share the most personal, intimate details of their ordeal with a complete stranger. That’s why it’s critical for lawyers to build a sense of trust with new clients at the very beginning— and to do so very quickly.
Without that trust, clients may not share important information that is potentially damaging to their case. Worse yet, they might run for the door and into a different lawyer’s office.
The best way for a family law lawyer to create a positive client intake experience is to prepare in advance. That way, you’ll be ready to handle any emotional discussions more productively. This might mean implementing technology for a smooth virtual intake process or giving your client a form to fill out beforehand.
A client intake form, when built correctly, can give your clients direction. It can also get them used to talking about their issues so that they don’t get so flummoxed that they clam up and refuse to talk or unload like you’re their therapist.
Streamlining the intake process also cuts down on the risk of making a bad first impression. When asking questions about personal matters like domestic disputes, attorneys at law may appear to be insensitive. A questionnaire avoids that discomfort because you’ll be informed about the client’s situation in advance and be ready to start proposing solutions.
And if you share the form before your meeting, rather than requiring clients to fill it out when they get to your office, you’ll be more prepared for your first meeting.
You’ll need more than a basic contact form to get the information you need to improve the intake process. A comprehensive family law intake online form asks targeted questions. While it may not cover every single angle you’ll need to know about your client, it will give you a baseline of information to guide your conversation during the initial consultation.
The key is to start with general information and then move to more specific details. Here are some of the things that your family law intake form should cover:
It’s also a good idea to ask a few narrative questions, such as “describe your relationship with your kids,” “explain your biggest concerns about this situation,” and so forth. Questions like these give new clients a chance to tell their stories before talking to you. You can use this background to frame your discussion.
If you don’t already have a client intake form, download our template (see the pop-up to your left?) to start building your own. Using an online client intake form can strengthen your client relationships, giving you the foundation for a better client experience from the very beginning.
