Your law firm’s matter management systems matter. In fact, they’re the lifeblood of your law firm.

It’s taxing to try to maintain multiple manual systems to track all of the details about your law practice. Why subscribe to several platforms to manage different aspects of a matter — from document management to practice management and client intake solutions — when you could just pay for one that can do it all? Why risk noncompliance with a time-consuming, manual approach to tracking all of your case details and documents?

Why not look to tech to help achieve operational efficiency by moving to an all-inclusive legal technology platform?

The future of the legal industry lies squarely in innovative tech solutions that integrate matter data with essential client intake, client service, billing, and legal operations details. Upgrading your firm’s matter management systems will help your firm keep humming along — and we don’t mean that annoying buzz in your head from constant worrying about what work hasn’t been done or what information you don’t have at your fingertips.

So, where should you get started? Fortunately, this guide on matter management systems can walk you through the benefits of matter management and help you start moving forward to improve your practice.

What is matter management?

Put simply, matter management is overseeing all of the business processes of a law firm for individual matters. It may sound straightforward, but it’s anything but.

Matter management encompasses the ways that your law firm reviews, tracks, and administers data, documents, emails, meetings, tasks, all-important deadlines, statutes of limitations, filing requirements, client records, billing, financials, and more for each and every matter. It involves managing both internal and external processes and information.

Your firm’s matter management systems track each aspect of the lifecycle of a matter. For example, your firm’s matter management system might track a complex legal case with multiple parties and claims, keeping track of expert witnesses and filing deadlines. If your firm has multiple practice areas, your matter management system might also analyze the productivity of various practice groups and which matters have the most time billed and by whom.

In essence, matter management solutions keep a finger on the pulse of your firm and ensure it remains steady.

Why does my firm need a matter management system?

Effective legal technology solutions, including legal matter management software, are crucial to every law office. There is no other way to sift through and manage the chaos. The more time you spend integrating and updating your firm’s matter management processes, the less sifting through spreadsheets and stacks of paper you’ll have to do. Your legal operations professionals can leverage matter management software to streamline almost every aspect of the firm and allow your lawyers to get back to lawyering.

A firm may bring in hundreds or even thousands of new cases every year. Your legal operations teams need to have the tools to properly manage those matters, and your lawyers must be able to keep track of the intricacies of them all. It sounds like a lot, and it is. Proper matter management might be the most important function of your law firm: it’s how your firm stays afloat.

Imagine an integrated digital workspace where your legal operations professionals can run the firm’s daily operations, manage matters and projects, and collaborate seamlessly across practice groups and clients. The good news is that this magical digital wonderland exists.

While this guide focuses on matter management systems, it’s important to also consider your firm’s case management systems and how technology might help you optimize them too.

Our recommendation? A comprehensive, one-stop-shop technology solution that can handle it all.

What features and capabilities should I look for in matter management software?

If you’re looking for a way to simplify your team’s workload and handle your firm’s matters more efficiently, we’ve got you covered. Managing the lifecycle of a matter in a single, integrated system is the key to suffering fewer headaches while searching for information as well as less duplicative data entry. We recommend streamlining operations by moving to a technology solution with a range of dynamic capabilities so it will become your firm’s single source of truth.

Enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing

Your law firm is a team, and legal teams work best when they’re able to collaborate seamlessly. Your matter management system should work to enhance teamwork and eliminate friction in communication.

Features like shared task lists and comprehensive calendaring systems boost organization and make sure your lawyers never miss another deadline. It’s especially helpful when your matter management system seamlessly integrates with your calendar continuously, such as with Microsoft 365, so you’re always on top of your schedule. And the most advanced systems can automatically populate deadlines in your calendar based on court rules. All you have to do is choose your jurisdiction, and your deadlines will appear on the appropriate date.

Additionally, matter management software can make it easier for legal professionals in your firm and corporate legal departments to collaborate on legal documents by providing access to shared documents with the ability to review and compare previous drafts. These features and more, like keeping track of the contact information for all parties, make working with outside counsel and other external partners more effortless and faster.

Some platforms also reduce the tedium of your email inbox with chat features. Real-time conversations help you get work done faster because you can get answers to pressing questions or immediate feedback on the work you’re doing. To make sure your team members are up to date, you can mention them and send an immediate pop-up notification. You can also keep track of your conversations by matter rather than going on an endless hunt for the needle in the haystack of your inbox.

Increased visibility through comprehensive reporting

Your matter management tech should do more than just track billable hours and generate invoices. It should also create comprehensive, usable reports to give you critical insights into the functioning of your law firm.

The alternative is sorting through spreadsheets and hundreds of emails from various timekeepers and case files to locate essential data, reconcile gaps and inconsistencies, and then manually create reports, which will cost you both time and money. Reports generated in your matter management system make it easy for your firm to break down spending, gaining visibility into each legal practice area and individual biller. With this information, your business team can analyze budgets, set realistic pricing, and forecast future needs. More reporting through an integrated matter management system means greater access to data and gives you deeper insights into the health of your firm.

Improved savings in costs and time

Time is money, and at law firms, this saying proves even truer. The minutes that timekeepers spend on time-consuming administrative tasks are minutes they aren’t spending on valuable client matters.

By centralizing your firm’s matter management system, your lawyers can access the documents and information they need more quickly and efficiently, serving both your clients’ purposes and your firm’s bottom line. A better matter management system allows your firm to track filing deadlines and statutes of limitations, helping you meet deadlines as well as avoid malpractice claims and compliance risks. Automated reminders about impending filing deadlines sure beat those sticky notes that are likely to get buried on your desk or fall off your computer.

Tech also allows your law firm to manage all types of costs proactively. When you centralize matter data, you improve your visibility into your workload as well as your costs. And you can wind up optimizing the allocation of your resources, which can help you save your clients — and your firm — money.

Effective matter delegation

Your law firm has a lot of moving parts. Matter management software will help you keep track of those parts by assisting in effectively delegating and keeping track of those delegations, both internal and external.

You can create cross-functional workflows within your matter management system to assign tasks to your team members, including other lawyers, paralegals, service providers, and outside counsel, thus increasing efficiency and reducing the possibility of errors. The right software can help your firm oversee any external stakeholders working on a case, such as local counsel or expert witnesses. And general counsel will really enjoy the real-time visibility they have into matters and their timelines and budgets as well, improving their client experience.

Increased security

Your law firm has an ethical obligation to protect client data and numerous incentives to protect its own. Firms considering a cloud-based matter management system for the first time may feel some trepidation — it’s a big transition, with lots of moving parts to coordinate.

The long and short of it is that cloud-based matter management systems offer your law firm improved security and compliance practices for both data and document handling because that’s their key focus. However, not all cloud-based legal service providers are created equal.

When choosing a cloud-based solution for matter management, look for a variety of features, including physical security measures, certifications, disaster recovery and business continuity plans, user authentication and authorization, infrastructure security, and data ownership. Although you won’t be able to see all of these security features, they’ll be vigilantly safeguarding your firm against threats every minute of every day.

Stronger automation and more streamlined workflows

Sound matter management tech will give your firm the gift of automation so you don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel. This is particularly helpful when it comes to opening and managing matters. Without a standardized template, it’s hard for a law practice to both establish and enforce matter standardization, which is the linchpin of enhanced efficiency.

With an integrated matter management system, your firm’s administrator won’t need to manually move data between systems, reducing the risk of human error. Tech will help to automate matters from open through close and can automatically assign or complete tasks for you while also keeping information up to date using a workflow system (and freeing up your lawyers for billable activities). It’s also easy to keep clients in the loop with automatic updates. Automation in matter management is your friend.

How can my law firm get started with matter management?

Lacking a reliable matter management solution can have a ripple effect throughout a matter’s lifecycle — and the profitability and productivity of your timekeepers and the entire firm. That’s why it’s important to start putting the proper systems in place to open matters effectively and track them throughout their lifecycle with customized reporting.

Centerbase matter management puts everything you need to know about every matter at the touch of a button. And what’s better is that you’ll be able to stop worrying about details that you’re forgetting or those sticky notes cluttering your desk with tidbits of information. Not only will a comprehensive matter management system like Centerbase serve both your firm’s and your clients’ needs, but it will also help you get out of the office in time for dinner and help you get a better night’s sleep.

In short, Centerbase can help your law firm reach its full potential with better matter management — with just one simple move to a comprehensive, easy-to-use technology solution. Sign up for a free demo on our legal matter management software and learn more about how Centerbase can help you streamline your firm’s operations.

If you’re the administrator of a small or midsize law firm, you’re probably wearing a lot of hats. In fact, you probably have a closet full!

You’re overseeing the bookkeeping, ordering supplies, managing the budget, and running payroll. You’re handling equipment and facilities issues. You’re creating and implementing policies and procedures and setting long-term goals. You’re probably also handling the human resources side of the firm for non-lawyers, including recruiting, onboarding, training, and managing administrative assistants and paralegals.

In short, if it’s part of day-to-day legal services operations, and it doesn’t involve the practice of law, it lands on your desk. (There is a desk somewhere under all of the piles, right?) That means when your firm’s leadership team wants to find new ways to increase efficiency and drive law firm profitability, those tasks are automatically yours too.

It’s a daunting task, no doubt. But fortunately, there are legal technology solutions that you can implement quickly so you can demonstrate progress toward your goal. Here’s a list of typical efficiency problems that plague law practices along with some suggestions for how to solve them:

Getting paid by clients

Legal billing is the lifeblood of a law firm. Because it’s so important, it often becomes a tedious process with many steps and approvals. But just because billing is critical doesn’t mean it has to be cumbersome.

Law firms can take the pain out of the billing process with an automated system that streamlines the billing workflow. Look for an e-billing system that allows lawyers to edit bills online — not in hard copy — to avoid the need to print and reprint or track versions of pre-bills. A system that allows reviewers to see previous markups means that bills are approved in less time and eliminates friction in the approval process, getting money into your accounts faster.

Tracking time

No one likes to measure their life in minute-by-minute increments, and lawyers are no exception. But, as you know, time tracking is essential if your firm wants to stay out of the red.

While you can’t eliminate the need for billable hours, you can take some of the pain out of the time-tracking process. Lawyers often don’t record all their time. Sometimes that’s because they’re writing down what they’re doing and don’t remember to note down every detail. Other times that’s because they’re on the go and don’t have their computer open, so they can’t recall the work they did when they get around to recording it later.

To make it easier for your timekeepers to track every billable minute, choose a billing system with a timesheet that integrates with the technology you use. Look for a platform that integrates with your firm’s software, such as tracking the emails that lawyers send in Outlook or the documents they work on in Word. And some platforms have mobile apps that automatically record phone calls, texts, and calendared appointments as billable events.

Spending too much time on administrative tasks

Lawyers regularly complain that their administrative workload takes too much of their billable time. In addition to billing, lawyers are spending too much time on non-legal work such as looking up matter information for clients and tracking deadlines. It’s difficult to manage a matter when information is stored in hard copy as well as in multiple systems online.

A matter management system can keep every matter detail in one place, from details for parties to all documents, emails, meetings, and calls. The most comprehensive platforms can track the outcomes of calls and meetings and the current budget status of a matter. They can also alert lawyers about upcoming milestones and deadlines. Additionally, they provide a searchable place to store notes about matters, substantially reducing the time it takes to find pertinent case information.

Improving the client intake process

There’s a lot of competition in the legal industry. The firm that responds faster to the inquiry of a prospective client is often the firm that wins the business. Two out of three prospective clients say their decision to hire a firm is influenced by a firm’s responsiveness to their first contact. And when clients are impressed from the get-go, they’re much more likely to stay with your firm.

But manual intake processes create roadblocks to bringing in new matters. And all too often, form submissions from your website may not be a priority in an overflowing inbox.

An online onboarding process can expedite the conflict check process and ensure that you get the right information in the right hands, so you can contact a new prospect more quickly. Some platforms allow you to customize the intake form. Then not only can you route the collected information to the appropriate staff, but you can also automate workflows. This way, you ensure that no steps are missed, assign and follow up on tasks, track the progress of the matter, and smooth the intake process for the client.

Keeping clients informed

Clients often complain that they don’t know the status of their matters. When lawyers don’t keep in touch, clients get frustrated. They call and email your firm’s lawyers, asking them to give them an update. That means lawyers have to drop the work they’re doing and comb through their files to inform their clients. And that means extra frustration for your lawyers too.

A system can make it easier for your lawyers to remember to send emails—without the need for the clutter of sticky notes or calendar reminders. Matter management systems can automate client emails whenever a matter moves to a new stage, so your clients are always in the loop. And they can also meet your clients’ expectations for 24/7 digital access to their case information via a client portal. Happier clients have stronger ties to the firm and are more likely to refer new business your way.

Ensuring your legal professionals are busy and engaged

In this environment, it’s critical to make sure your people are happy at work. That means they can’t be stressed with too much work, nor can they be twiddling their thumbs at their desk. Striking the right balance means you need insight into their workload and productivity.

A platform that offers productivity tracking and timekeeper budgeting tools can give you critical insights into your team’s upcoming assignments and deadlines. You’ll be able to see how much time people are billing on certain tasks and projects. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll be able to ensure that tasks are being distributed fairly throughout the firm and reallocate work to avoid overload.

Generating standard documents

Though no two matters are alike, they still have many documents in common. From retainer agreements to settlement agreements and from requests for production to interrogatories, there’s often no need to recreate the wheel.

A document management system can make it easy to get even greater value from work product by organizing it for creation and reuse. You can set up templates and auto-generate documents with client information built in. Or you can search for a prior work product for a client or a similar project that you can repurpose for a new matter.

Managing collections

Hounding clients about overdue bills is a serious pain point for many firms. Accounting or billing staff have to send manual reminders and call clients who are overdue.

An automated billing system can send out reminders once a bill is overdue and then periodically until the client pays off the balance, eliminating that headache from your billing team’s workflow.

Simplifying reports

Law firm managers and partners often want quick access to reports so they can make decisions. Pulling together a report that collates all the data and metrics they need is easier said than done when you have multiple systems that store firm accounting and matter data separately. Before you can create a report, you have to gather, sort, and compile that information into a readable form.

But a system that integrates accounting, billing, and practice management software enables you to assemble comprehensive reports at the push of a button. Better yet, the right system will give your firm’s leadership team a dashboard view that offers real-time insights into how the firm is performing.

How can practice management software help improve a law firm’s operational efficiency?

Modern law firms would love to hire a professional to drive innovation, efficiency, and profitability within their firm. But for many small firms, that just isn’t in the budget. Instead, they have to look for other ways to improve case management and your law firm’s productivity. Enter legal tech management tools: namely, practice management systems.

While a practice management platform can’t replicate all the functions of a legal operations guru, its automation of time-consuming tasks and simplification of workflows can take some of the burden off a law firm administrator’s plate.

A practice management platform that integrates matter management, timekeeping, calendaring, billing, accounting, reporting, document management, and more in one system can serve as a resource for quickly increasing a law firm’s efficiency. And, in turn, it can help you improve your law firm’s bottom line, alleviate the bottlenecks of manual work, and help turn your law firm into a pillar of productivity.

Benjamin Franklin famously said that “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” If he had been talking about law firms, he would have also added: “and time entry.”

We all know how tedious and frustrating time entry is, but it’s, unfortunately, a necessary evil for nearly all lawyers at firms. Your law firm must bill to be paid.

The key to minimizing the frustration and allowing the lawyers at your firm to cut back on nonbillable time so they can get to higher-value work is to implement legal tracking software that actually works. Your firm administrators and bank account will also thank you for the heightened efficiency and accuracy.

As always, we have you covered on how to start making changes for the better.

Why are attorneys hesitant to change how they’re tracking their time?

Change is hard! Many attorneys, particularly more senior attorneys, are reluctant to modify their time-tracking ways. “Why fix what isn’t broken?” they might ask as they keep handwritten time-entry diaries.

There are a number of reasons why lawyers stick with tried-and-true ways of manual time recording: simplicity, efficiency, and accuracy. We understand that convincing holdouts to stop tracking time offline isn’t an easy task, but we promise you that it’s easier than deciphering your legal professionals’ handwritten scribbles and going through call logs and calendars to manually enter their time at the end of each billing period.

Simplifying the time-tracking process and offering your attorneys a streamlined, integrated time-tracking tool may help to convert even your most adamant holdouts. At a minimum, it will make the process easier and less painful for administrators and staff who assist with time entry in your billing system.

What are some common time-tracking mistakes that attorneys make?

For lawyers, time is always of the essence. But when you have court in the morning, a filing for another client in the afternoon, and a conference call for yet another client in the evening, simultaneously tracking, keeping, and entering time understandably slips.

The real issue is the culmination of those slips and delays that results, usually, in the attorney and their admin playing detective at the end of the week (or worse, month) and trying to piece together the story of their billable time from fragments in your legal billing software. This method almost always results in underbilling and loss of productivity (not to mention stress, frustration, and other headaches too).

Other offenses include simply not tracking time accurately or efficiently, which is a problem that tends to plague junior attorneys. They might lose track of the time spent on phone calls, forget to start their timer, forget to bill for time emailing or texting with clients, or underbill for a meeting that went long. These attorneys are trying their best but need a little help on the back end with better tech.

Luckily, all of these mistakes are easily remedied with time-tracking software and integrations.

How can legal technology help my law firm track time more efficiently?

We’re so glad that you asked! Legal technology can transform the way the lawyers at your firm track their time, and a comprehensive, integrated legal tracking system is the best way to do so.

With so much on their plates, it can be difficult for lawyers to remember every time they perform billable work. In the middle of deadlines, they may lose track of the time they spent on research, emails, text messages, or phone calls. Travel time may slip through the cracks. An organized system helps prevent this chaos from occurring.

Additionally, productivity tools take the tedium out of billing, so lawyers feel more engaged. When your professionals feel better about their work, they do better work — which, in turn, affects your profitability and client satisfaction.

Not only can these tools help lawyers capture more of their billable time, but they can also help lawyers understand where they’re spending most of the time. If that time happens to be nonbillable, they may need to rethink their workflow or approach to matters.

What are some tools for improving time entry?

Consider the following tools and features courtesy of tech:

It's time to take your timekeeping to the next level

With the right tech, your legal practice will be off to greener pastures, both literally and figuratively. We know the process of getting the lawyers at your firm to bill in a timely and accurate manner can be a struggle.

By getting the right legal practice management software in place, you’ll minimize friction in workflows, help lawyers enter time more regularly, and save the administrative staff at your firm time and headaches. Plus you’ll increase your firm’s profitability. It’s a win-win-win-win.

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.

Are matter management and case management the same?

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.

What is matter management?

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.

What is case management?

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.

How can legal operations professionals leverage software to streamline processes?

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.

Increase automation

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.

Standardize routine administrative tasks

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.

Intuitive document management

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.

Comprehensive finance management

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.

Look for a tool that offers the best of both worlds

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.

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.

What is 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.

What should a client welcome kit contain?

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.

Administrative information

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.

Case synopsis

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.

Key contacts and bios

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.

Summary of the legal process

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.

Client responsibility checklist

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.

Personalized welcome letter

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.

Is there anything specific a family law firm should include in a client welcome kit?

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.

Why is a new client welcome kit important?

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.

Why is client retention important?

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.

Best practices beyond the welcome kit

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. 

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.

What is a law firm 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.

Why does your law firm need a client portal?

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.

What features should a client portal have?

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.

How can a client portal assist with client intake?

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.

Standardizing intake forms

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.

Targeting ideal clients

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.

Automating conflict checks

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.

Setting up client portal software

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.

You know that your law firm is a business. But only recently have firms started focusing on how to improve their business. (After all, the leading legal industry organization dedicated to legal ops, the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), has only been around since 2016.) To date, few firms today have hired dedicated legal operations professionals, much less created a formal legal operations function.

An easy first step on the journey toward more effective legal operations is hiring an experienced legal operations manager. A driven and dedicated legal operations manager can make all the difference for a law firm that is looking to optimize business processes to increase revenue and productivity.

What is legal operations?

Legal operations is the business of running a law firm.

While lawyers may spend the bulk of their time engaged in the practice of law or strategic planning for matters, the legal operations department works behind the scenes to make sure all of that is done as efficiently and profitably as possible. Strong legal operations departments work to streamline processes within the law firm to maximize operational efficiencies, helping lawyers work smarter and faster so they can earn more revenue.

Day to day, this might look like monitoring lawyer productivity, identifying new legal analytical tools, budgeting for the firm, and managing third-party providers. Over time, it means implementing new processes and practices that will guide the law firm along the path to becoming a thriving business.

A legal operations team is no longer a luxury reserved for large firms. It’s now a valuable resource for small and midsized law firms that live and die by the bottom line. Legal operations should be a priority for law firms of all sizes, especially those looking to grow.

What does a legal operations manager do?

You can’t have an effective legal ops department without a fearless leader. That’s why near the head of the table in the legal operations department sits the legal operations manager.

A legal operations manager oversees various legal ops team members’ day-to-day activities and ongoing projects. Depending on the size of the law firm, the legal ops manager might report to a director of legal operations and be responsible for a larger team or just one or two legal operations specialists or analysts.

Either way, the legal operations manager must take stock of the current state of affairs of the law firm and come up with ways to make it better.

Handles the law firm budget and billing

Legal operations managers take a deep dive into the firm’s budget. They break down where money is going within the firm and where money is coming from. They also provide stable financial planning for the future.

Legal ops managers use past yearly spending to build forecasting models and proactively identify new, creative ways to optimize financial resources within the firm. Many legal ops managers will also analyze processes related to e-billing to streamline outdated, tedious, and repetitive workflows. They study peer law firms as part of benchmarking exercises, always looking for innovative ways to price work and trim expenses.

Evaluates lawyer productivity

But legal operations managers do much more than just budgeting! They also look at individual lawyer productivity and identify ways to make everyone at the firm work smarter. Sure, legal ops managers can’t step into the shoes of the managing partner, but they’ll have valuable input on staffing questions that firm leaders will want to listen to. Among other metrics, they analyze data related to billable hours, assigned cases, and revenue generated as a result of each lawyer’s work.

From that data, a strong legal ops manager comes up with ways to assign certain cases to lawyers who are more or less productive, depending on the needs of the firm and the ideal legal spend per case. They might also plan training for lawyers and staff and develop policies designed to increase firm productivity. Some legal ops managers even go as far as making recommendations on hiring and firing decisions.

Manages third-party vendors

Legal operations managers oversee third-party vendors, such as alternative legal service providers, freelance lawyers, and other professionals, like experts and consultants, who provide services to the law firm. In the past, firms might have relied on word-of-mouth recommendations or professional connections to decide where to outsource work rather than choosing the best, most efficient vendor based on objective criteria.

Proactive legal ops managers challenge traditional sourcing models. They also look for opportunities to rethink pricing arrangements and work to negotiate favorable rates from third-party vendors to maximize the value for every dollar spent. They scour the job boards and vet candidates to ensure that their firm avoids wasting money in the recruitment and onboarding process.

Collects and analyzes data

At the heart of it all, legal ops managers must collect, analyze, and translate the firm’s data. That means breaking data down for partners in the firm who might not be so business inclined.

Legal ops managers are responsible for data that extends across many different areas of the law firm. Their most common focus is the budget, scrutinizing data from their e-billing system to understand their revenue by practice area or case. They also collect data about lawyer productivity and translate that into smart hiring practices and case-assignment strategies that save money.

To collect this data, a legal ops manager will spend time researching and trying out innovative technology to choose the best tech for the firm. They’ll need to understand the latest trends and the opportunities to expand and incorporate new platforms into their work and the work of others in the office. This technology is important to optimizing processes and saving time (which means saving money) throughout the firm.

What background is ideal for legal operations manager jobs?

Most legal operations managers have a bachelor’s degree and at least some experience in legal project management or operations, whether in another law firm or in-house. Optimal candidates often have a blend of corporate legal department and law firm experience, which will ensure they have a deep knowledge of the inner workings of law firms along with the know-how and skills to position the firm as a leading outside counsel capable of addressing the needs of even the most demanding general counsel.

A job description for a legal operations manager will focus on competencies such as analytical skills, problem-solving skills, and communication skills that enable ops managers to speak to a variety of stakeholders at all levels of the firm. They should also have experience managing projects, developing policies, and collaborating with legal teams to deliver results.

Successful legal ops managers often have strong backgrounds in vendor management and change management initiatives. Extensive knowledge of technological solutions, including contract management, knowledge management, and matter management, will help the legal ops manager harness the inherent value in the firm’s data and inform their recommendations for procurement and service delivery strategies.

How can a legal ops manager increase law firm efficiency?

Hands down the best way for a legal operations manager to increase their firm’s efficiency is to leverage technology.

Legal technology has dramatically improved over the years. Instead of toiling away in the law library, lawyers can find relevant cases and statutes with just a few keystrokes. There’s no need to struggle to estimate the likelihood of winning a case because artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can do that for you. And - let’s not forget technology that helps with client recruitment, management, and correspondence.

Not only does a legal operations manager need to understand how to use these types of technology to make lawyers' work more efficient, but they must also understand how to leverage technology to make the entire law firm more efficient as a business.

Luckily, there are platforms that can help legal operations managers monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like legal spending as a percentage of the firm’s revenue, the cost of a case per matter, and the cost per lawyer. This technology can also crunch the numbers so that legal ops managers can see whether the firm is optimally productive. Platforms can track the percentage of cases resolved vs. litigated, staffing and paralegal spend by lawyer, legal hours vs. administrative hours, and deadline compliance. Legal ops tools can even track the amount of time that a case takes at each pivotal point and the overall satisfaction of each client.

By leveraging innovative technology and continually re-evaluating the firm’s current processes, legal ops managers can get a clearer picture of the firm’s financial status and use the data to come up with new ways to make things run smoother, make the lawyer’s jobs easier, and make the law firm more profitable.

What is the future of legal operations management?

The future of legal operations management is constantly evolving.

Law firms’ financial, strategic, and internal decision-making is increasingly based on quantitative data instead of guesswork. That data is valuable for legal ops managers who need to evaluate productivity and streamline efficiency within the law firm. Instead of merely reporting on the data to firm leaders, future legal ops managers will play a vital role in redefining how law firms can work smarter and build a better business model.

This is a tremendous opportunity for legal ops professionals to engage in the business management of a law firm and to take part in the legal technology revolution. It is also a chance for law firms to differentiate themselves from competitors by creating value and to leap headfirst into the modern era.

Of course, there will be challenges: changing the status quo in a law firm can be difficult at times. But once law firm leaders see the value created by a great legal operations team, headed by a strong legal ops manager, it won’t take long for them to get on board.

By spending time now to build a strong legal operations team headed by an experienced, tech-savvy legal operations manager, you can modernize your firm and situate it to capitalize on future trends in legal operations.

A recent study from Bloomberg suggests that a third of law firms don’t have a dedicated legal operations function. But is that true?

To paraphrase Shakespeare, we think it’s a case of a rose by any other name smelling as sweet. Even if firms don’t have a formal legal operations team or use specific job titles like “director of transformation” or “manager of service delivery,” they’re still engaging in at least some operations-related activities. For example, they’re probably:

If you’re dabbling in these activities or considering whether your firm needs a dedicated legal ops professional, you may be wondering how deep to go down the rabbit hole in forming your team. Let’s take a closer look at what a legal ops team does and how you should go about building yours.

What is legal operations?

In a nutshell, legal operations is about running the business side of a law firm. It includes managing law firm productivity, avoiding risks, monitoring compliance, handling department budgeting, implementing technology, studying data from legal analytics tools, and sourcing and managing third-party providers, among other things.

Legal operations’ mandate is to ensure that the firm provides legal services efficiently and in a profitable way that stimulates the firm’s growth. In short, legal ops is tasked with optimizing a law firm’s performance.

What are the key functions of a legal operations team?

According to the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), there are 12 main functions of a legal operations team:

  1. Business intelligence: Making better decisions through data
  2. Financial management: Maximizing your firm’s resources
  3. Firm and vendor management: Developing strong relationships that deliver value
  4. Information governance: Designing information policies that fit your business and minimize risk
  5. Knowledge management: Tapping into the knowledge and capability of your entire firm
  6. Organizational optimization and health: Building effective, motivated teams
  7. Practice operations: Enabling your lawyers to focus on what they do best—practicing law
  8. Project and program management: Launching and supporting special programs and initiatives
  9. Service delivery models: Matching the right work to the right resource
  10. Strategic planning: Setting meaningful goals
  11. Technology: Innovating, automating work, and solving problems using technology
  12. Training and development: Supporting your team with targeted professional training

CLOC explains that addressing these 12 functional areas leads to operational excellence. According to CLOC, operational excellence is “a philosophy that embraces problem-solving and leadership as the key[s] to continuous improvement and a mindset that embraces certain principles and tools to create sustainable improvement within an organization.” It involves the execution of a business strategy to reduce risk, lower operating costs while increasing productivity, and raise revenue through tactical and strategic objectives.

Given the breadth of these functional areas, it will be difficult for a single legal ops professional to oversee and optimize all of these areas. That’s where a legal ops team comes in.

Why do midsize law firms need a legal operations team?

As law firms feel greater pressure to do more with less, they need to find new ways to trim their bottom line and optimize their productivity. Midsize firms are already lean, so they can’t meet their goals by simply reducing headcount and raising their billable hours targets.

Legal operations helps midsize law firms find new ways to deliver better service to their clients. Not only can it help lawyers attract more clients by developing alternative fee arrangements that are beneficial to both sides of a transaction, but it can also ensure that law firms are maximizing their profitability by staffing properly. That means assigning the right work to the right level resource, whether that’s a paralegal, junior associate, senior associate, or partner.

Adding technology to the mix can simplify the practice of law and improve the quality of life for lawyers in midsize firms. And, most importantly, the data that tech tools, such as e-billing, matter management, contract management, document management, and data management tools, collect for firms can help them ensure compliance with client billing guidelines as well as understand opportunities for the firm to improve. Analytics from these tools help increase the firm’s transparency with clients and allow lawyers to better predict case budgets and outcomes.

Who is on the legal ops team, and what are their job descriptions?

You don’t need to be a lawyer to work in legal operations—but a legal background, whether as a lawyer with a law firm or in an in-house corporate legal team, won’t hurt. Legal operations professionals must be able to understand the law firm’s business model and be able to add value in conversations with law firm leaders.

The optimal candidate is likely someone with business acumen and possibly a financial and data analytics background. Someone with a law degree and MBA may offer the right blend of expertise for the role. But don’t be afraid to tap someone inside your firm if they’re already contributing to work on your firm’s processes, vendor management, technology, or data analysis.

Director of Legal Operations

The director of legal operations, sometimes called the head of legal operations, runs the legal ops team and usually reports directly to the firm’s managing partner.

The director is responsible for managing the entire legal ops team and for making higher-level decisions. These decisions might include the final opinion on resource allocation, vendor procurement, personnel matters, or leadership initiatives. The director of legal operations might also recommend whether to implement new technologies, advise on pricing structures, or suggest ideas to streamline processes that are wasting money. Usually, these recommendations are based on a synthesis of data and information provided by the lower-ranking members of the team.

It is important to hire someone with a demonstrated ability to identify and implement changes in legal technology, people, and processes. The director should also have well-developed change management and leadership skills, especially since they will be leading and acting as a role model for the rest of the team.

Legal Operations Manager

The Legal Operations Manager is the second in command of the legal operations team. They oversee all legal operations projects and manage team members’ day-to-day activities.

The manager should have strong leadership and communication skills since they will be guiding the team directly and interacting with a variety of stakeholders, including law firm leaders and possibly even a client’s general counsel or other department leaders. They should also have a strong sense of judgment, knowing when to share information with the director and with firm leadership. You should look for someone with years of experience managing people, driving process improvement, and collaborating across multiple departments.

A strong legal operations manager will understand the ins and outs of the law firm, including its hiring needs and the intimate financial details of the firm’s daily operations. They must be highly organized and detail-oriented with extensive experience in project management and streamlining processes to maximize operational efficiencies.

Legal Operations Specialist

A legal operations specialist generally focuses on identifying areas of need and optimizing workflows. It is a highly collaborative role that requires strong communication skills and the ability to understand how other departments function. Examples of their work might be following up with legal operations analysts or researching new technology.

A legal operations specialist works directly under the legal operations manager. This position is usually generalized and a catch-all for the remainder of the work that falls under the purview of the legal operations manager.

It is important to hire someone who can handle a variety of projects and thrives in a fast-paced work environment with minimal guidance. A self-starter and easily motivated legal operations specialist is an excellent addition to round out your team.

Legal Operations Analyst

A legal operations analyst is a more specialized role than that of a legal operations specialist. Unlike a specialist who (somewhat paradoxically) performs more generalized tasks, an analyst collects and synthesizes data specific to the legal team’s metrics.

The analyst does a deep dive into the functioning, caseload, work habits, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for each lawyer. This helps the legal operations manager decide where to allocate resources and how to better manage the legal department to increase profitability. Their work might affect the number of cases that each lawyer takes on, influence decisions about whether to hire additional local outside counsel or improve attorney management practices to boost productivity.

You should look for a detail-oriented individual with experience monitoring and reporting on data who can also collaborate on a larger team and between multiple departments. An analytical employee with an understanding of both the minutiae and the bigger picture will be an asset to any legal operations team.

A mature legal operations function might be closer than you think

Assembling a legal operations team might feel a bit daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead, look at it as an exciting opportunity to grow your firm.

Start by identifying any gaps in your current legal operations team (or draft a plan for implementing one). Then create a plan for how you’ll start tackling the core functions we outlined above, whether it’s by recruiting new hires for the roles described here or sharing the work between existing staff. (Keep in mind, though, that legal operations responsibilities are often extensive enough to require a full-time role!)

The sooner you build out and formalize your legal operations team, the sooner you’ll start to see results in terms of more efficient processes, better client service, and more robust profits. Legal operations can also eliminate some of the headaches of practicing law, as your firm’s lawyers benefit from more organized knowledge management and accelerate their work with data-driven tech tools.

Remember that the purpose of a legal operations department varies from firm to firm based on each firm’s needs and current operating practices. Look at what your law firm needs today and strive to craft a legal operations team that can not only handle those needs but also bring your law firm into a future that you may not have yet imagined.

It’s already mid-December, and the end of the fiscal year will be here before we know it.

Evaluating end-of-year compensation for your attorneys may be the last thing (or, we’ll say it, most dreaded thing) on your to-do list as you work through closing the books for 2021.

There is some good news - you don’t have to go it alone. We were lucky enough to be joined on a webinar by Amanda Koplos, Executive Director, and Stephanie Donaldson, Controller, at Shuffield, Lowman & Wilson, P.A., a 40+ attorney, full-service law firm practicing in the areas of corporate law, estate planning, real estate, and litigation based out of Orlando, Florida.

Amanda and Stephanie have a wealth of experience in law firm operations and leadership, having worked in five firms over the course of their careers. They were gracious enough to share their own theories and best practices surrounding end-of-year compensation for attorneys. Here is what they had to say.

7 Biggest Questions

Question 1: Compensation for timekeepers is often made up of many different components. In your experience, what factors drive compensation?

Amanda: In my experience, law firms typically divide compensation for timekeepers into multiple categories. Some are based on production; others are based on intangibles that are harder to measure that take into account the overall profitability of the firm or contributions that timekeepers made such as time spent on business development, mentoring other attorneys, or working on the business in a management capacity.

Stephanie: I have seen the same thing. I basically refer to it as objective compensation and discretionary compensation. Objective compensation is exactly what you think it means: there are a series of goals and if an attorney hits those goals, they receive that objective compensation or a combination of salary and bonuses. Discretionary compensation takes into account all of the things previously mentioned but it can also have components such as “overachieving” on objective goals. For example, if billable hours are a function of your objective bonus, and an attorney were to hit those and go over, some firms might add that into discretionary compensation.

Question 2: It sounds like most law firms have formulaic compensation systems that they set up at the beginning of the year. From the administrative side, how do you keep it straight?

Amanda: Lots and lots of spreadsheets!

Stephanie: While that is true, I recommend a few different methods for gathering information. I rely on our accounting system to produce reports. However, in specialized circumstances, I am exporting data from our practice management software and manipulating it in Excel. These reports vary throughout the year and the only way I am able to keep track of them is by running reports on an ongoing basis. For example, I may give each timekeeper one report every month so they can see how they are progressing, while also running a report at the end of each quarter, and finally, at the end of the year.

Amanda: Not to mention, these reports may vary depending on who you are giving the report to. An individual report is going to look significantly different than the one given to firm management or practice group leaders. Those reports are different from the individual attorney reports because leadership needs to see consolidated timekeeping information. My advice here is that you really need to put a procedure in place at the beginning of the year, and prioritize updating and reporting monthly. We know what a time crunch the end of a firm’s fiscal year is and you don’t want to spend hours in December creating standard reports.

Question 3: How do reports differ based on who they are intended for?

Amanda: At the various firms I have worked at your “need” for information differs based on your position. Here’s an example: one firm might track collections based on who worked on the matter or by working timekeeper, meaning collections will become a driving factor for individual attorney compensation. Each attorney is going to want a basic report every month that shows the total collections on the matters they have worked on. Since it is just the collections attributable to them, they don’t need to know (nor do they probably care) what all of the other timekeepers collected on the same matter. So, you want a report that shows you “collections by working timekeeper” and you want to be able to filter it for one attorney with the ability to set date ranges such as a month, quarter, or year. You can pull those reports directly out of a good time and billing system. However, that shows only one side. You also need the ability to see how that ties to compensation for individual timekeepers by taking the raw data on collections and combining it into a report that shows the progress toward a bonus goal.

Stephanie: You need to make the report simple, yet functional. I’m a numbers person so I always want to dump a ton of data into one report. But, if the attorney can’t understand it, it’s a waste of time.

Amanda: I actually had a conversation with an attorney one time. She said, “yeah I get those reports every month but I never look at them or understand them.” I was befuddled by that because that report would help her plan how to make more money. So, I simplified the report for her, she finally “got it” and it was much more successful for everyone involved.

And that’s just reports for individual timekeepers! Then, we might have more in-depth reports for practice area chairs and for the managing partner that help leadership look at everything going on from a full-firm view. Sure, you need the individual numbers, and firm administrators need access to them, but you need to be constantly benchmarking where you are now and how you’re going to fare at the end of the year. A good controller gives you reports that are both historical and include predictions.

Stephanie: Since we’re talking about compensation in firms where there is a lot of variable compensation, (in other words: more discretionary than objective) I have to predict how much compensation we will be paying out on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, in addition to predicting how much cash we’ll need to pay that compensation and how the budget (and thus bottom line) is impacted by those predictions.

Amanda: It’s a lot of reports and it’s important to have an organization system. We’re even developing better systems for that. We are investing in pushing information to people and building reports that are specific to users that they can access easily, ideally within their time and billing system.

Question 4: So we’ve talked a little bit about paying based on origination. How do you track origination? How do you handle it when someone leaves the firm? Do originations ever change?

Stephanie: When a firm pays based on originations, the larger the firm, the harder it is to track that manually. So, you have to use a system that is sophisticated enough to handle variables. For example, originations can change if a rainmaker leaves the firm and doesn’t take the case/client/matter with them for whatever reason. They can also change if an attorney starts as an associate and is then promoted to partner, as those roles are paid differently. There isn’t a set way that situations like these are handled; I’ve seen it done in different ways at different firms.

You also need to be able to do split originations and have origination split changes throughout the year through a combination of an accounting system and a manual system. As of now, we do find that we pull information out of our practice management software to get the raw data but still have to manipulate it a bit to line up with the actual compensation plan.

Question 5: Where do your roles overlap and how can different roles involved with origination support each other?

Amanda: At the end of the day, we’re all trying to get to the same outcome, which is getting the numbers where we need them and making sure we can all make educated decisions as a result. Stephanie functionally gets everything we need in terms of origination in place right at the beginning of the year, setting us up for success throughout the year.

Stephanie: Origination is a combination of an automatic and manual workflow. That’s why we originated the “two-look” process. Anytime in our compensation program where manual data entry is required we double-check each other’s work. It is a team effort.

Question 6: What are the biggest pain points for your firm throughout this process? Do they change every year, and if so, how do you solve them?

Stephanie: Everything changed when COVID hit!

Amanda: It’s true. Some firms place a lot of value in business development, so those compensation plans might have a component of needing to produce a certain number of business development hours or needing to attend a certain number of functions throughout the year. When everything was shut down during COVID, that was interesting because those firms had to rewrite compensation plans because they were very heavily based on that origination that wasn’t happening as much.

Stephanie: Sometimes that requires us to create a second budget based on what we think might happen because obviously, the last two years were so up in the air. There is a lot more playing it by ear now.

Question 7: What is your best advice for someone evaluating their law firm compensation model?

Amanda: First of all, make sure you can easily measure it and report it before it becomes a component of compensation, even the discretionary portion. And if you’re using a third-party system, (hopefully you are) you want to make sure what you want to measure can be reported by that system. While it’s not always cut and dry, if you manage expectations early on and keep stakeholders informed throughout the year it’s easier for everyone.

I also recently read two books that I highly recommend for anyone evaluating their law firm compensation model: Compensation Plans for Law Firms by James Cotterman and Dividing the Pie: Law Firm Compensation Systems by John Westcott, Jr.

Compensation is also so personal; I would recommend hiring a consultant or a neutral third party to review it and make recommendations.

The Takeaway

End-of-year compensation is a tough time of year. You’re pulling a lot of reports and making changes on the fly in order to deliver the best outcome for all involved. While you’re going through the process, (which you may be currently and that’s why you’re reading this) it is important to think about ways you can prevent yourself from having to reinvent the wheel next year.

Don’t lose sight of all the work you did to close out the year. Take a moment to reflect in January to make sure your team is in alignment and ready to go with smoother processes in place for the year ahead with these tips we’ve provided today.

As some semblance of normalcy returns to a legal industry forever changed, many law firm leaders are making long-term plans for their physical office spaces. In addition to traditional considerations about cost and location, safety considerations and potential business disruptions have been added to their long list of concerns.

At the height of pandemic shutdowns, virtual work became a widespread necessity, leaving thousands of expensive law offices empty. Many firm leaders began to question the value and role of the physical office space, choosing to either move to a 100% virtual business model, downsize considerably, or reconfigure the utilization of their spaces.

Law firms nationwide are redefining the traditional law office and here are some trends evolving out of these changes:

Moving to Virtual

In a virtual law firm setting, attorneys and staff perform all client and administrative services within a cloud-computing virtual environment. Tech tools, such as legal practice management software and conferencing platforms, allow firms to operate from any location without the need for a physical office.

While the virtual office has been a reality for many solo attorneys for more than a decade, more small and medium-sized firms are now moving in this direction for a variety of reasons:

Even with so many benefits, virtual office arrangements raise serious concerns about ethical compliance, client confidentiality, and the supervision of law firm staff members. In making this change, law firms must maximize their use of technology to effectively meet these demands.

Reducing the Financial Footprint

The explosive growth of virtual work arrangements has sparked conversations about the necessity of physical office spaces. Within an industry where large office buildings and prestigious addresses equate to status, law firm leaders began questioning whether a reduction in their real estate footprint could offset financial challenges brought on by the pandemic.

Even some of the nation’s largest law firms have considerably downsized their office space, doing away with expansive libraries, large corner offices, and expensive downtown views. These previous law firm norms are being replaced with standard-sized offices for all firm members regardless of seniority and the reduction of common spaces. Trendy collaboration areas and floating workspaces that entered the law firm environment in recent decades are becoming a thing of the past.

Hoteling is another office space management option garnering attention among law firms. Under these arrangements, instead of having assigned offices and workspaces, firm members schedule their use of shared workspaces such as desks, cubicles, and offices ahead of time. This technique essentially takes the finer points of residential hotels and applies them to an office setting for the benefits of a flexible workplace.

Some of the advantages associated with hoteling include:

While these tactics may result in some level of financial savings, serious questions have been raised about the long-term effects of downsizing efforts on the culture and cohesion of a legal practice. Particularly within a large firm, collaboration plays a major role in meeting client expectations, so firm administrators must weigh the potential loss of camaraderie that may result from these office decisions.

Promoting Flexibility

Flexibility has evolved from being an added bonus to an absolute necessity. As law firms redefine the physical law office, they do so with an eye towards the future and the potential for another business interruption in the months or years ahead. The pandemic has made it painfully clear that law firms need systems that allow for quick pivoting to meet unexpected circumstances.

Firms are accomplishing this goal in a number of ways, each requiring its own level of elasticity. A one-size-fits-all model does not exist because every firm has its own dynamics. Employee satisfaction, specific practice area needs, client expectations, technology, and policies all play a role in how firm leaders and administrators incorporate flexibility into their office planning.

Risk assessment is a standard aspect of practicing law, but that term has taken on a whole new meaning as a vital component of office decision-making. Leaders must assess potential hazards within the office and implement strategies to address them. That includes adding safety measures, such as more frequent cleanings and space dividers, to the office environment.

This also means evaluating the needs of individual firm members, especially those who are more vulnerable to illness due to age or underlying conditions. Within a flexible work environment, firms may allow these members to continue virtual work or implement other social distancing policies within the physical office.

Flexibility at your law firm should also include the ability to quickly pivot in the event of another shutdown or some other interrupting occurrence. This includes ensuring that the right technology is in place to support virtual law firm operations and that your employees are adequately trained in what steps to take should another interruption occur.

The Takeaway

Law office flexibility will require some experimentation as leaders struggle to adapt to evolving needs. Data analysis regarding space usage and employee feedback should be an ongoing part of the process.

Now, more than ever, it is important to be adaptable in all aspects of your business, including financially and operationally. The right legal technology tools can support virtual and hybrid work while ensuring both productivity and client confidentiality.