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:

• a client profile tab with personal and case information;
• a place to upload documents;
• a client communication tool that enables you to converse with clients and store those conversations securely, like a chat function with automatic text notifications;
• conversation tracking and analytics;
• 24/7 client and attorney access to the portal;
• a billing tab to download and send invoices and a place for online payments; and
• a calendar populated with appointments, deadlines, and court dates, plus the ability to send reminders.

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:

• gathering business intelligence,
• forecasting and managing legal spend,
• sourcing and coordinating third parties,
• managing knowledge and information,
• optimizing their organizational structure and workforce,
• ensuring work and projects are assigned strategically, and
• selecting technology to improve automation of work and increase firm oversight.

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

• Compensation for timekeepers is often made up of many different components. In your experience, what factors drive compensation?
• 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?
• How do reports differ based on who they are intended for?
• How do you track origination? How do you handle it when someone leaves the firm? Do originations ever change?
• Where do your roles overlap and how can different roles involved with origination support each other?
• 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?
• What is your best advice for someone evaluating their law firm compensation model?

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.

What is legal operations?

Legal operations is everything that it takes to run a law firm aside from the actual practice of law. It encompasses strategic planning, legal project management, financial oversight, and legal industry expertise.

The goal of legal operations is to improve law firm performance. Legal operations experts cover a broad range of fields, including data analytics and reporting, engineering, finance, and marketing. Operations professionals work with law firm management to choose the right legal technology, identify and manage risks, and monitor compliance. And above all else, their goal is to deliver value, whether that’s through keeping costs down or increasing productivity and efficiency.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="in_container" full_screen_row_position="middle" column_margin="default" scene_position="center" text_color="dark" text_align="left" overlay_strength="0.3" shape_divider_position="bottom" bg_image_animation="none"][vc_column column_padding="no-extra-padding" column_padding_position="all" background_color_opacity="1" background_hover_color_opacity="1" column_link_target="_self" column_shadow="none" column_border_radius="none" width="1/1" tablet_width_inherit="default" tablet_text_alignment="default" phone_text_alignment="default" overlay_strength="0.3" column_border_width="none" column_border_style="solid" bg_image_animation="none"][vc_column_text]The seemingly sage advice to “run your law firm like a business” misses the mark. Law firms are businesses. They exchange services (and sometimes goods if they’ve productized their services) for money. They also meet the standard definition of a “business,” which is an organization engaged in commercial or professional activities.

So why have so many law firms resisted the idea of acting like the businesses they are?

Some lawyers claim it’s because the law is a noble profession. But, it’s more likely that law school doesn’t teach them how to run a business. Many aren’t well-versed in financial principles. They don’t value measurements and metrics.

For too long, lawyers have focused on practice, not process. But in recent years, clients have forced law firms to take a hard look at the numbers, their productivity, and their operational efficiency. With competition at an all-time high and clients demanding better service at a lower cost, it’s essential for law firms to rethink their business model.

Enter legal operations.

How has legal operations evolved over the years?

In the late 1980s to early 1990s, legal operations was a fledgling concept among in-house counsel, with corporate legal departments primarily focused on managing outside counsel.

Over time, that focus shifted. By the mid-2000s, corporate law departments were starting to look to legal operations for strategic insights into their outside counsel spend and risk profile.

In the last 20 years, the role of legal operations has become much more prominent, helping organizations manage complex legal issues and retaining the services of legal service providers to drive efficiency and lower costs. These issues continue to be focal points today, along with one more: establishing a culture of continuous improvement.

Today’s clients continue to place pressure on law firms to deliver competitive pricing and better service. In response, firms are striving to maximize their resources so they can do more with less. Now, law firms have adopted much of this mindset, looking for ways to reduce costs, automate processes, and drive greater efficiencies.

What are the key functions of a legal operations role or team?

The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) has identified 12 key legal operations functions. Though CLOC envisioned these practices would be implemented by in-house legal teams, most apply to legal operations roles in law firms today.

Here is a list of the typical functions:

1. Business intelligence: Using data to make better decisions, including using data analytics to identify opportunities to optimize firm processes and workflows and to focus the practice on understanding clients’ needs.
2. Financial management: Developing budgets and forecasts to improve predictability and encourage the responsible usage of resources.
3. Vendor management: Choosing and onboarding the right service providers, negotiating fair pricing models, and performing due diligence on prospective vendors.
4. Information governance: Creating policies for sharing and retaining information, managing data security, and ensuring compliance.
5. Knowledge management: Giving lawyers and staff access to accurate, up-to-date information for matters and firm business as well as capturing the knowledge of team members.
6. Organization optimization and health: Creating a firm culture based on clear values, building a pipeline of leadership talent, and strengthening teams by creating a hiring strategy designed to recruit a mix of skills and perspectives.
7. Practice operations: Assigning work strategically so everyone is using their skills and working at the top of their capabilities.
8. Program/project management: Enabling the firm to lead firmwide initiatives, such as setting new policies or directing projects and programs, and managing change without distracting from the firm’s core work.
9. Service delivery models: Creating a sourcing model that matches the right work to the right resource.
10. Strategic planning: Prioritizing projects that align with market trends, client needs, and competitive forces.
11. Technology: Transforming manual or repetitive processes with automation, finding new ways to solve problems, and integrating tools to improve client work and firm oversight.
12. Training and development: Equipping employees for success with effective onboarding and engaging employees with continuing development opportunities.

All of these functions may be combined within a department, or they may be carried out separately under the oversight of a legal operations manager.

What challenges do legal ops professionals face? How can these be solved?

The biggest challenge that legal operations professionals face is change management. The law is a system based on precedent and law firms are no exception. Lawyers are generally change-averse and prefer to maintain the status quo. It’s hard to convince lawyers that they need to do something differently, especially if what they’ve always done seems to still be working.

Other challenges include budgeting and resource allocation. Law firm leaders are often reluctant to add budget items or headcount to new initiatives, especially if they’re still skeptical about the value that a legal operations team can provide.

Tackling these challenges will require you to establish a business case for a legal operations role or team. If you can quantify the payoff in terms of time saved (automating manual processes with technology), dollars saved (optimizing vendor pricing), and client satisfaction (knowledge sharing and more efficient staffing), you’ll be more likely to convince firm leaders that legal operations is worth the investment.

Recruiting a strong leader with a finance background, technological acumen, and legal experience, whether as a practicing attorney or as a leader in another firm, can lend the department credibility. And, of course, getting quick wins on small projects early can prove value and increase the likelihood of buy-in on more ambitious projects.

How does legal operations increase efficiency?

Legal operations helps law firms drive efficiency across the board.

Between timekeeping, billing, and accounting, law firms have a lot to manage financially. That’s not even including client demands for lower rates and alternative fee arrangements! Legal operations can help firms build financial models that help choose optimal fee arrangements that please clients while yielding a profit. They can also compare firm vendors and help structure competitively priced deals.

In other words, legal operations helps law firms create more value.

On the operational front, legal operations rescues overworked staff from a variety of tasks, including contract management, knowledge management, and data governance. Legal operations professionals can help firms choose the right solutions to capture and track information to ensure nothing falls through the cracks, empowering lawyers and other staff to do more with less.

Law firms are known for being reactive. But, legal operations allows firms to adopt a more proactive approach. For example, legal operations can use data analytics and reporting to predict the right course, set reasonable goals and metrics, and develop a long-term strategic plan to improve the firm’s market position.

Can legal operations software be used to improve performance?

Law firms often invest in solutions serially, looking to solve one problem at a time, but with legal operations software, the key is to find a comprehensive solution that can evolve along with your law firm.

Effective legal operations software for law firms should handle solutions such as e-billing, timekeeping, accounting, matter management, document management, reporting, and client portals. The more interconnected these systems are, the more intelligence they deliver, and the better your firm’s results will be. It’s even better if the legal operations platform integrates with other systems, allowing firms even greater insight into matters and projects while enabling seamless client service.

Comprehensive legal operations software solutions help law firms save time, reduce costs, and improve client service. Some of the ways that law firms can use legal operations software to enhance their performance include the following:

• Automating workflows to eliminate time-consuming manual processes
• Creating real-time dashboards to give 24/7 visibility into matter status and firm performance
• Reviewing bills before submitting them to clients for compliance with outside counsel guidelines and other rules
• Facilitating information retrieval and collaboration with knowledge management tools
• Improving decision-making with clear and consistent reporting data and analytics

Strong law firms can use the efficiencies generated by legal operations software to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. With the right legal operations tools in place, firms can improve their client service and deliver greater value.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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:

• Tech innovations have made the transition to virtual easier to navigate
• Reduced overhead costs
• Increased work schedule flexibility
• Improved mobility
• The extensive use of client portals for client interactions
• Promoting a safer working environment for firm members

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:

• Easier adherence to social distancing norms
• Effective utilization of space
• Improved productivity
• Cost savings

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.

A successful attorney-client relationship begins with the client intake process. Not only does it formally introduce the client to the firm’s procedures and requirements, but it also helps firms identify potential issues that could cause delays during representation.

A lot of firms operate with unsystematic onboarding procedures that vary from one client to the next, and these bad habits can thwart successful client relationships.

Improving the client onboarding process requires both efficiency and simplicity.

With the right tools and the following tips, law firms can create a client onboarding experience that is quicker and hassle-free.

Pre-Screening Process

With a pre-screening process, law firms evaluate potential matters to identify any issues before the onboarding process even begins, saving valuable time and resources.

This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including:

• A mandatory client intake form on the firm website that clients must complete prior to their first appointment
• An automated data-gathering email initiated at the client’s first contact with the firm, requesting preliminary information about their case
• A legal practice management system that includes conflict checking features

Standardized Data Collection System

Organization is key to simplifying the onboarding process, so you need a standardized system that repeats the same general procedures for each client’s onboarding experience.

This may involve such tools as:

• Pre-printed forms tailored to the firm’s specific areas of practice
• Preliminary review of completed forms by a support staff member to ensure accuracy before initial attorney review
• An intake checklist to track the progress of all initial agreements, acquisition of all necessary information, and payment of all required fees
• Standard intake questions designed to expediently secure adequate information from clients during the onboarding meeting

Remote Capabilities

While some clients may prefer to meet in person, others do not have the time or ability to come into the office for an intake meeting. Remote onboarding capabilities provide clients with the convenience and accessibility that they appreciate, demonstrating a commitment to client service and respect for your clients’ time.

You benefit from remote onboarding capabilities by starting the client relationship on a positive and efficient note. For example, when coming into the office for an intake meeting, a client may forget to bring important information that is needed for their case. However, when meeting remotely, they can participate from a location where they have access to all relevant documents and records, effectively avoiding potential delays in the initiation of representation.

Calendaring

No attorney wants to start their representation of a client by missing the first court appearance, but that is exactly what can happen as a result of inadequacies in the client intake process.

That is why calendaring should be a regular part of your onboarding process. When clients come in with court dates or deadlines already in place, those should be immediately added to the firm calendar to ensure that they are not missed while all onboarding forms are reviewed.

Tracking New Clients

Law firms need a practice management system that allows them to store all onboarding and client information in a centralized location that helps keep track of both new and existing clients.

These platforms help ensure that nothing falls through the cracks between onboarding and initiation of work. Consider the following:

• When notes are taken by different firm members during the various steps of the onboarding process, it can lead to disorganization. Electronic notes are easy to use, trackable, and accessible to everyone working on the matter. When used correctly, they help to promote the provision of quality representation.
• Some legal practice management systems allow firms to set reminders or alerts for specific actions on a case. For instance, firms can set a reminder for a client that requires a callback following onboarding or for a client that needs to provide additional documentation. Having these safeguards in place helps streamline the representation.

Efficient client intake begins and ends with the systems and tools that law firms implement. The right legal practice management software can prove instrumental to handling this important start to legal representation, thereby enhancing clients’ experience at your firm.

Describing a criminal defense legal practice as busy is a serious understatement. On a daily basis, these firms handle countless criminal matters, many with some pretty high stakes. When dealing with something as serious as a person’s freedom, criminal law firms need systems in place that help them provide stellar legal representation. That includes maintaining client files in an organized manner, staying ahead of critical deadlines, and invoicing with the highest level of efficiency.

This blog will take a dive into the features criminal defense practices need and why they're important.

Calendar Management

It is not uncommon for a busy criminal defense practice to simultaneously handle hundreds of criminal matters, all in varying stages of completion. This equates to a calendar full of preliminary hearings, discovery due dates, court appearances, and filing deadlines. Keeping up with a calendar this full can be virtually impossible without the right tools in place. Further complicating matters, even a single missed deadline can have detrimental consequences for the client, as well as the law firm.

Legal practice management software can ease the burden of managing multiple criminal law attorney calendars through the integration of intuitive calendaring tools. Individual attorneys can easily keep track of their own deadlines and appearances, while the criminal law firm administrator can keep an eye on the entire team’s upcoming schedule. Here are some calendaring features that particularly benefit criminal law practices:

• Calendar view options that let firm members easily choose between personal, team, or firm-wide calendars.
• Seamless calendar syncing between the legal practice management software and integrated platforms like Office 365.
• The ability to set deadlines and event reminders.
• Convenient sorting options allow firms to group events and tasks by client, matter, status, or responsible firm member.
• Statute of limitations deadline tracking and reminders.

Streamlined Intake

The urgency of a criminal law matter often requires a speedy commencement of representation. New clients typically come in feeling as though they have the weight of the world on their shoulders, and they expect immediate assistance. They may need a speedy bail motion filed or they may already have a court appearance scheduled for the following day.

These constant and urgent demands mean that criminal defense law firms need the ability to onboard new clients quickly without the delays that can come from inefficient processes. When it comes to criminal matters, clients don’t have a moment to lose and neither do their attorneys.

With legal practice management software that streamlines the intake process, law firms can quickly get clients onboarded so that the important work of representation can begin. For instance, automated conflict checks can be extremely useful within a busy criminal defense practice. This tool help firms efficiently scan all of their matters for potential conflicts of interest so attorneys quickly know whether they are able to take on a case.

Website intake integration is another useful tool for expediting the intake process. With this resource, firms can collect necessary client data directly from an intake form that was completed through the website. This saves firm members the time of recollecting information that the client has already provided.

Once the intake process is complete, representation can begin. Criminal attorneys can get their clients up to speed on the game plan by providing them with access to everything they need to know. By using a legal practice management system that includes client portal features, firms can quickly make new clients aware of upcoming court dates, discovery needs, and billing details.

Client Communication

As previously stated, criminal clients are often in the midst of extremely stressful situations and they need the assurance of knowing that their attorneys are diligently working on their behalf. The best way to accomplish that goal is through consistent client communications. Criminal defense law firms need tools that help them achieve a client-centered experience.

Client portals are useful tools for providing clients with the information they need. Firm members can quickly upload regular information and clients can independently access their account any time of day or night. This not only promotes client communications, but it also maximizes efficiency. Instead of calling into the firm with their questions, clients can simply log in to get most of the information they commonly need.

Other practice management software features that help with client communications include mobile texting tools and conversation tracking resources that track communications directly into a matter for easy reference when needed. With an automated time capture feature, criminal defense law firms can also easily track time spent on communications to promote accurate billing.

Firm Collaboration

When handling complex criminal matters, law firms often distribute individual tasks among several members of the firm. This type of divide and conquer strategy needs legal practice management software that lends itself to team collaborations with such innovative tools as:

• Chatting features that allow for easy and trackable communications between team members.
• Automated case flow tools that automatically assign matter tasks.
• Team calendaring to keep all members up to date on matter deadlines.

• Remote access capabilities so that team members can securely access necessary case files and documents when working remotely or within a different office location from other team members.
• A workflow system that automatically updates documents and data so that the entire team has the most accurate and up-to-date versions.
• A central location to store all notes related to a matter.

Document Management

A criminal defense attorney who shows up to court with a disorganized and messy case file is an attorney who loses the confidence of their client. Disheveled case files make it difficult to locate necessary information, especially under the pressure of a crowded courtroom. This is why it is imperative that criminal defense law firms maintain their files in an organized manner and document management tools help get that done.

Document management systems save criminal defense law firms countless hours by streamlining the competitive tasks of document creation and filing, along with searching for relevant information. They also allow firms to share documents with clients and collect documents from clients through a secure platform. Firms that already utilize a document management system like NetDocuments can benefit from a law practice management system that offers complete NetDocuments integration.

Preparing the best criminal defense for clients requires appropriate management and organization of matter files. Document management features help criminal defense law firms digitize volumes upon volumes of documentation for improved workflow, organization, and legal industry compliance.

The Takeaway

Law practice management software gives criminal defense firms the tools they need to navigate a case from intake to payment using a centralized hub. Comprehensive case management, combined with integrated billing and accounting tools, keeps law firms on top of their numerous responsibilities. By automating many of the repetitive tasks that come with running a criminal defense practice, law firms can maximize productivity and remove the roadblocks that can hinder them from delivering on their promises of top-notch representation.

Any human resource (HR), firm administrator, or back-office professional working within a law firm environment can affirm that firm culture creates its own set of distinct challenges. Regulatory guidelines and industry standards require considerations not often seen within other business industries. While most big law firms maintain an HR department to address these complexities, HR issues often wind up on a law firm administrator’s long list of duties.

This blog will take a look at eight unique HR challenges commonly experienced by law firm administrators.

1. Finding the Best Legal Talent

Law firms constantly compete with one another to attract new talent. With such a high level of competition, firms need financial incentives, like aggressive compensation packages and new hire bonuses, to stand out from the crowd. While administrators typically don’t make compensation decisions, they do have significant influence to craft a workplace culture that attracts new talent. Legal professionals want to work in an environment where they feel heard and appreciated. By implementing policies that address this desire, law firm administrators can help their firms attract quality new hires.

In recent years, younger law school graduates have also voiced a preference to work with firms that have taken public stances on social issues and actively support initiatives that they find important. These candidates want to feel good about where they choose to work, and some of them are even willing to forgo larger salaries to meet this philosophical need.

Recognizing this growing trend, administrators can take steps to highlight their firm’s philanthropic efforts during the recruitment stage. Whether it's pro bono representation or direct financial contributions, charitable information should be highlighted when recruiting.

2. Workplace Diversity

Over the past year, the lack of diversity within law offices has garnered a lot of attention, with increasing criticism about the industry’s lack of racial, ethnic, and gender inclusion. Traditional recruitment efforts to find and secure new associates often create applicant pools that are far from diverse, so this is where firm administrators should start when seeking to address the issue.

For instance, administrators can suggest that firms expand their recruitment efforts to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and job fairs that focus on promoting diversity. By casting a wider net, firms can better position themselves for the consideration of a more diverse candidate pool.

Administrators can also take steps to revamp their firm’s recruiting processes and minimize bias. Tools like blind recruiting and diverse hiring committees promote diversity and help law firms meet their goals.

In addition to finding the best diverse talent, law firms also need strategies to keep them. Sustained law firm diversity requires an environment where all attorneys feel welcomed and valued. Firm administrators can promote this culture with policies such as:

• Clear standards for the treatment of all employees
• The provision of diversity and inclusion training
• Mentoring opportunities for minority firm members
• The creation of a diversity committee that provides leadership with valuable feedback

3. Retain the Top Legal Talent

Getting talent into the firm only represents half of the challenge. Competition among law firms not only exists at the first-year associate level, but also drives lateral hires. Traditionally, law firms have been seen as long-term commitments, with associates working for years to reach the partner track. But increasing numbers of law firm attorneys are choosing lateral movement to a different law firm over tradition.

For law firm administrators, this means crafting strategies to keep firm attorneys happy and satisfied in their current positions. Here are some suggestions:

• Identify what drives lateral movement between law firms. For some attorneys, it may be dissatisfaction with the workplace environment. Others may feel stagnated with no opportunity for professional development or upward movement.
• Maintain competitive compensation. Money is the top motivator behind the lateral attorney movement. Consider whether the compensation paid to your firm’s top talent is comparable to industry standards. If it isn’t, communicate your concerns to firm leaders and advocate for better compensation packages.
• Maintain a satisfying firm culture. Attorneys want to work where they feel appreciated. By establishing a workplace environment that promotes those feelings, administrators can better position the firm to keep high-performing attorneys, as well as valuable legal support staff. Offerings like flex time and remote work options can be useful. But firm administrators also need to ensure that the culture consistently feels inclusive and welcoming.

4. Technology Resistance

Legal tech innovations are constantly improving law office management and the practice of law. From legal practice management and document production to legal research and court document filing, advancements in technology have swept through the legal industry.

Unfortunately, many law firm administrators find it difficult to implement these new technologies due to resistance from firm members. Some senior attorneys may not want to change their current methods of getting tasks done. They may fail to recognize any value in implementing new technologies.

Addressing this resistance can be done through HR policies that require a certain number of tech training hours each month. Administrators can also consider peer training programs between more advanced and less advanced firm members. Law firms have a duty to stay abreast of standard legal industry technologies and firm administrators must stress this duty as an HR responsibility.

5. The Stress of Legal Practice

The practice of law is notoriously stressful. On a daily basis, attorneys work under tight deadlines to produce results that are free from error, beneficial to their clients and sometimes even life-changing. While attorneys stress about their outcomes, staff members stress over hovering attorneys and their long list of tasks.

Together, all of this creates an extremely stressful environment, where late hours and poor work-life balance become the norm. This leads to depression and anxiety, which are widespread problems among attorneys. Mental health issues cost law firms substantial amounts of money, so it is in the firm’s interest to address these concerns.

While administrators cannot do much about court timelines and demanding clients, they can implement policies that seek to address the amount of stress experienced by law firm members. Administrators should consider policies such as:

• Mentorship programs and shared experiences that promote camaraderie and prevent negative feelings of isolation.
• Mental health self-assessment tools for firm members
• Requirements that firm attorneys and legal support staff take their regular vacations and work reasonable hours.

Praising attorneys for working early and staying late only exacerbates an already stressful situation. An unhealthy work environment can diminish productivity and leave attorneys feeling burnt out.

6. Continuing Education Requirements

Attorneys have a requirement to earn a certain number of continuing legal education credits each year. In most business environments, HR takes on the responsibility of tracking employee education efforts. However, within a law firm, CLE also comes along with reporting requirements. Particularly within a large firm, this can quickly become an all-consuming task. For this reason, many firms choose to have a dedicated staff member to track and report CLE efforts. This individual may fall under the supervision of HR or the firm administrator.

In addition to CLE requirements, continuous education may also include such things as professional development training for improved client contact, marketing techniques for improved rainmaking, and courtroom demeanor presentation skills. Law firm administrators may also implement training for legal support staff in the form of court filing rule updates and technology training.

7. Firm Hierarchy

The reporting structure of a law firm can be extremely convoluted and tricky to maneuver. The lines of supervision often overlap, creating an environment ripe for potential conflicts. For example, attorneys supervise the work of their support staff. However, those staff members report to HR for personnel needs. With this dynamic in place, a simple vacation request can become a big problem. While HR may approve the request, the supervising attorney may reject it due to a pressing case deadline.

Another unique characteristic of law firm hierarchy is the status system that commonly exists. Founding partners, shareholders, and top rainmakers often make up the leadership level of the firm. Non-equity partners fall a little below them, followed by attorneys, then legal support staff, and administrative support staff – in that respective order.

Under circumstances like these, it can be hard to identify where the HR department fits in and what power they have to effectively carry out their duties free from interruption. This creates a situation where law firm administrators routinely walk a fine line between HR and firm management.

8. Outsourcing Law Firm Tasks

Outsourcing has become a common practice within the legal community as law firms look for ways to offer a high quality of service while cutting costs. For instance, when a big case walks through the door, law firm leaders and administrators may find it more efficient to bring on contract attorneys and paralegals rather than pulling their existing staff from other client matters.

While outsourcing can promote profitability for the firm, it can present some challenges on the HR side. Firm administrators must ensure that contract workers remain in compliance with confidentiality and qualification. Even as temporary staff, these legal professionals must meet all professional requirements.

The Takeaway

Law firm HR duties often spill over into management and administration. As such, law firm administrators need to consider HR challenges and be prepared to address them as needed.

In an environment where the business side of practicing law equals the importance of the provision of client services, legal operations have emerged as a driving force behind law firm administration. Evolving from the combination of various support and administrative tasks, legal operations are the processes and activities that help legal departments efficiently serve clients by applying business and technical principles to the delivery of legal services. While commonly used in the discussion of in-house legal departments, the concept can also be applied to law firms, particularly those that routinely provide corporate legal services as outside counsel.

The Evolution of Legal Operations

Many corporate-centered law firms currently face the challenge of shrinking corporate budgets even as service demands increase. Meeting this challenge, while simultaneously providing clients with stellar service, requires a greater focus on legal operations. Through strategic planning, project management, and technical innovations, legal operations help law firms streamline their financial responsibilities so that attorneys can place their focus on the actual practice of law.

Over the last few decades, corporate law firms and legal departments have been expected to shift their focus from solely advising business clients to driving value for them. They have been charged with streamlining services and managing operations more in line with business clientele. In doing so, firm administrators have placed a significant focus on analyzing current firm practices and making necessary adjustments, including the reorganization of processes and procedures for cost savings and greater operational efficiency.

While legal operations have been part of the legal industry for decades, it is still a relatively new concept that is continuously evolving. The following trends will likely impact legal operations over the coming years.

1. Increasing Importance of Data Analytics

As law firms pursue greater cost savings in the provision of legal services, reporting and data analytics serve as a driving force. Firms will increasingly rely on reporting to provide information about the effectiveness of administrative and legal service procedures. From financial reports like accounts receivable to administrative data like attorney profitability and matter management budget reports, data analytics arm firm administrators with the information they need to make strategic decisions about the firm’s direction for greater profitability.

Scaling Up with Legal Technology

Legal technology innovations will continuously play an integral role in helping law firms and legal departments streamline procedures and scale-up in response to growth. While legal technology isn’t new to the industry, service providers constantly introduce new and innovative solutions for meeting the specific needs of legal practices.

Much of the buzz around legal technology has centered on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years. Through the use of algorithms and machine learning, many law firms currently use AI to streamline a variety of law firm procedures, including legal research, the performance of due diligence, document review, and even some forms of legal writing. But even with the increased use of AI, law firms have a more valuable tech tool when scaling their processes for growth.

Every law firm needs a practice management system at the center of its legal operations platform. These tools support the foundation of the firm, providing administrative systems and client matter management, as well as the data and reporting functions that firm administrators need for informed decision-making. The right practice management system promotes efficient law firm operations along with quality client experiences. From client relationship management and the efficient movement of matters to e-billing and document management, practice management software serves as a catalyst for streamlining operations and driving efficiencies within the law firm.

2. Alternative Legal Service Providers

Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) have provided traditional law firms with some unexpected competition as clients increasingly choose these cost-effective options. ALSPs are nontraditional providers that offer legal clients assistance with a variety of services, from legal research to litigation support. Increasing numbers of corporate counsel and law firm clients have turned to ALSPs for their technical innovations and specialized expertise at lower costs.

However, though ALSPs have been largely seen as competition to traditional law firm representation, law firm administrators increasingly recognize the value in these services. Not only are they consulting with these entities about the latest legal technologies, but they are also choosing to implement ALSP offerings into their own provisions of service, creating a sense of collaboration rather than competition.

3. Increased Use of Alternative Fee Arrangements

Alternative fee arrangements have gained considerable momentum throughout the legal community over the last decade. An industry firmly entrenched in the billable hour has begun offering a greater variety of pricing options, including fixed fees and customized hybrid billing arrangements.

Clients prefer these options because they offer a more transparent provision of service, providing a greater understanding of the total cost of their cases. Law firms have found value in these arrangements because they are easier to budget for and provide greater billing predictability. With alternative billing, law firms can provide their clients with affordable and efficient legal services.

Although the legal community remains hesitant about the widespread usage of alternative fee arrangements, many of the latest legal technologies have been equipped with tools to properly track and manage these options. As a result, these arrangements will likely affect legal operations managers in the year ahead.

Legal Operations will Continuously Evolve

As in-house legal departments and large corporate law firms seek to meet the immediate needs of a changing legal environment, legal operations will continuously play a major role. Firm administrators will identify new methods and tools for streamlining firm operations, saving costs, and providing clients with top-notch service.