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They’ve given you a mission.

You have to increase the firm’s hourly billings by a minimum of 10 percent in three hour’s time. What would your answer be? Where would you start?

Could you do it?

Many general litigation firms are facing an incredible amount of pressure. More and more they’re expected to deliver incredible results – all while being handicapped by clients and court officials.

The handicap: A sign of disruption or desperation?

There’s an alarming trend that’s gaining traction.

The Great Restraining.

Morris Ratner, Professor at UC Hastings College of Law, mentions this in the Fordham Law Review. There’s a continuing shift of authority away from lawyers and towards courts and clients.

The reason?

Courts and clients are eager to control litigation costs.

It’s… unexpected.

Ratner goes on to explain:

“The shift has been accomplished in part via an unbundling of “cases” into “tasks,” by virtue of which courts and clients have greater opportunities to demand that each task adds sufficient value to justify its cost.”

He continues…

“That judicial management involves unbundling “cases” and converting them into “tasks,” from motion practice to discovery, where the judge prioritizes and sequences each task to find the most efficient route to a resolution, e.g., by dispositive motion or settlement.

“Clients looking to control legal spending are [also] unbundling legal work to assign tasks, rather than cases, to individual lawyers or firms, applying procurement principles to source legal projects to the most cost-efficient providers. These same forces have increased the prevalence and commitment to litigation budgets and have pushed flat and other “value based” pricing into a variety of litigation settings. Both mechanisms better align the financial interests of lawyers and clients while facilitating client input into the tasks undertaken to achieve litigation aims. The result is an erosion of the traditional division of authority between lawyer and client along the means-ends continuum”

This seems unreasonable.

But is it really? Is it a sign of disruption, desperation or something else? Perhaps this is simply disruption, a change in the way clients do business with litigators.

Change could be good.

But the fact of the matter here is these changes aren’t good. They strip firms with the autonomy and trust they need to advocate on their client’s behalf. Clients don’t see it that way of course. These cost-conscious clients are simply doing what they can to minimize financial requirements while maximizing their results.

Are they though?

Are they really maximizing the results they’re able to achieve by simply “unbundling” cases?

Not at all.

The assumptions clients make here is a faulty one. That the parts (tasks) are equal to the whole (cases). But this is far from accurate. You know it and I suspect your clients know it.

The case is greater than the sum of its tasks

It’s common sense.

Top performing litigation firms, they focus on cases in its entirety. There’s a massive amount of nuance, background information, history and strategy to be gleaned from these cases.

A piecemeal approach isn’t the answer.

So why bother then? Why would courts and clients choose to take an approach that’s far more likely to produce lower quality work and inferior results?

Poor realization.

Wait a minute here. Isn’t poor realization the firm’s problem? Why would courts and clients be focused on realization?

They’re not.

Not directly at least. They’re focused on the symptoms of a poor realization rate. What are the client-side symptoms of poor realization?

1. An expectations mismatch. Your client has a desired budget or price range or they expect a specific rate. They miscalculate the amount of time and effort it takes to resolve their matter properly. Naturally, they’re surprised when they see your invoice, impacting realization rates.
2. Clients are dissatisfied. They believe you failed to follow their billing guidelines. As a result, they’re dissatisfied with your work on their matter. They’re unhappy with the amount of value your firm delivered in comparison to the value they’ve paid (in cash) to your firm.
3. A failure to communicate. Clients have asked for more help than their budget allows. Their occasional inflexibility, their unwillingness to negotiate, it’s created a bit of a mess. They’re now desperate for you to resolve their matter but they’re unwilling, for whatever reason, to pay for your team’s continued help and support. Often times they’re also unwilling to bend on the rigid terms they’ve decided to adhere to.
4. Inaccurate time tracking. Are your employees tracking all (billable, non-billable) of their time? Are they tracking it accurately? Poor time tracking means less-than-ideal realization rates. These poor habits produce time leaks (e.g. an associate completes 12 hours of work but only reports 8) which leads to under or overbilling.
5. Poor systems and procedures. Have clients received their invoices? Are they aware of your payment terms or client expectations? Do you have follow-up systems and procedures (e.g. phone calls, payment reminders, late fees, etc.) to deal with delinquent clients? Is it easy for clients to pay you for your work/time?

These are the broad strokes.

I’ve covered these realization issues in detail in a series of posts designed to illuminate the problems clients typically deal with.

It’s a quandary.

Even if your firm works on a contingency basis (i.e. many personal injury firms), you still need to track your time and bill appropriately.

Why?

You need answers to very specific questions.

• Was this case, matter or set of tasks profitable for the firm? Why or why not?
• How do we improve firm profitability and quality of work/outcome?
• Was under/overbilling a problem?
• Did we have trouble collecting our fees from clients in a timely fashion or at all?
• Did they receive invoices and statements at the appropriate time?
• How many invoices were flagged/rejected by clients?
• How many write-offs/write-downs did we issue to dissatisfied clients?
• How did these write-offs/write-downs affect our realization rate?
• Are we tracking all of our billable/non-billable time?
• What is the firm’s utilization rate?
• Is our utilization rate optimized around best practices?
• How do we handle unruly clients who refuse to settle/negotiate but then balk at our invoice?
• Do we know which clients or type of client is most profitable for the firm?
• Which practice areas or subcategories are most profitable/satisfying for the firm?

Does this really matter?

Shouldn’t your focus, as an attorney, be focused on the advocacy, on serving and protecting your client’s best interests?

Absolutely.

Here’s the issue with that motivation.

Poor time tracking & billing practices = poor advocacy

You’ve read that right.

If you’re like most other attorneys, you struggle with volume. You struggle to (a.) attract the kind of clients/cases you need (b.) you struggle to produce the amount of billable work (or efficient work), your firm needs to survive.

It’s a common problem.

I’ve mentioned this before. Attorneys lose six to eight hours a day on non-billable work. They’re paid for (less than) 30 percent of their time. How do you ensure your firm is the exception to this unpleasant rule?

Just follow two simple strategies.

Best practice #1: Optimize firm utilization rates

Your utilization rate is a reflection of your firm’s productivity and billing efficiency. The higher your utilization rate, the more efficient your firm. Here are two ways to calculate this:

1. Billable hours/ total # of hours recorded in a particular time period= utilization rate (e. 25 billable hrs/50 hrs total= 50% utilization rate)
2. Billable hours / fixed # of hrs per wk = utilization rate (e. 15 billable hrs / 40 hrs per wk = 37% utilization rate)

If you’re losing time to non-billable work you’ll need to make some immediate changes.

• Automate, delegate and outsource non-billable work, wherever possible (Read: Ultimate Guide to Automation for Lawyers).
• Remove yourself as much as possible from scheduling meetings or appointments. From time tracking, billing and invoicing (via automatic time tracking). From sales, marketing, client intake and follow-up. Bookkeeping and accounting. Client support, etc. From non-billable work in general.
• Optimize your utilization rates: Your financial goals and billable targets. Administrative and business development tasks. Your team’s performance and work ethic. Client expectations and communication.

Solo firms have a utilization rate of 25 percent. Firms with four to seven attorneys 40 percent. Firms with 10+ attorneys 50 percent. Aim for a 70 percent utilization rate to start. You’ll want to chip away at this slowly, optimizing your firm-wide billable to non-billable ratios.

Best practice #2: Optimize your firm’s realization rates (consistently)

Realization is next.

Your realization rate is a measurement of the amount you bill vs. the actual amounts you collect. What most fail to realize is that there are actually three realization formulas you’ll need to monitor closely.

1. Billing Realization Rate
2. Collection Realization Rate
3. Overall Realization Rate

I cover these details in depth here in the Optimized Law Firm’s Guide to Realization. These realization metrics are incredibly important because they help litigation law firms identify:

• The underlying cause of poor realization rates and sluggish cash flow (e.g. micro or macro causes)
• Whether their problem is internal (e.g. employees, habits, policies and procedures) or external (poor clients, an inability to pay, unmet expectations, poor communication, etc.)
• Specifically where they should begin to make important improvements
• How to make these important improvements

Here’s the core reason realization is so significant to boosting profitability. Firms are able to keep their fingers on the pulse of their billing and time tracking efforts.

Revenue falling?

If you’re consistently monitoring realization you’ll know. Employees neglecting their time sheets? You’ll hone in on these key details immediately. Are you under or overbilling clients? You’ll be able to identify the who, why, when and how much.

Best practice #3: Remove billing/time tracking performance barriers

Time tracking, when it’s done manually, is tedious and miserable. When this happens, time tracking becomes a to-do item attorneys work to avoid. If you’re a regular reader, you know why this is a problem.

• You lose 10 percent of billable time if you record time the day of, once a day
• You lose 25 percent if you wait 24 hours to record your time
• You lose 50 percent if you wait one week

There are lots of attorneys who choose to “reconstruct” their time at the end of every month (or two). These attorneys lose 55 to 70 percent of their time entries!

Remember my comment earlier?

When I mentioned most attorneys are paid for 30 percent of their time? This is why utilization and realization are so important. It sets the tone for your time tracking and billing protocols.

A better alternative?

Make time tracking automatic. Automatically convert appointments into time entries. Use software to automate the time tracking, billing and invoicing processes. Work to eliminate spreadsheets, manual calculations and post-it notes.

Make time tracking a habit.

Best practice #4: Provide strong attorney/support incentives

The keyword here is “easy.”

You’ll want to provide those around you with a strong set of motivators. Scolding and cajoling aren’t effective motivators, especially if you’re looking to attract and retain top talent.

No, you need a system.

With the right system, you make things easy and difficult, all at the same time.

Here’s what I mean.

You make it easy for:

• Employees to do the work you’ve asked them to do, the way they need to do it
• Clients to pay early/on time
• Clients and employees to find the information they need at any given time (via document management)

You make it hard for:

• Employees to go against established boundaries and guidelines
• Clients to pay late or not at all
• Clients and employees to find the information they’re not supposed to have access to

Finally, you reward the behaviors you want, you reject the behaviors you don’t want. How do you reward the behaviors you want?

• Provide early bird discounts
• Create a membership system that rewards your best clients with access to exclusive benefits (e.g. software, services, additional support, etc.)
• Offer vanishing rewards (e.g. exclusive meet and greets, prestigious awards, access to relevant kingmakers) to clients who pay their invoice by # date (a one-time reward for each month)
• Craft irresistible offers for clients who’ve made [#] payments early
• Invite employees and/or clients to events/connections with thought leaders, key influencers or power brokers (e.g. entrepreneur lunch with a key influencer, client workshop with a government regulator, etc.).
• After service support (e.g. bankruptcy clients rebuilding their credit within 90 days).

The sky’s the limit.

Act ethically and honorably, do what it takes to incentivize the behavior you want. Reject the behaviors you don’t want. Give your employees, partners and clients the opportunity to produce the results you need.

You can do it. You can increase your firm’s billables

Many general litigation firms are facing an enormous amount of downward pressure. More and more they’re expected to deliver incredible results – all while being handicapped by clients and court officials.

It’s The Great Restraining.

Courts and clients are eager to control litigation costs. They’re “unbundling” cases and converting them into “tasks,” from motion practice to discovery.

But a piecemeal approach isn’t the way.

It’s about optimizing and incentivizing your billing and time tracking protocols. Improving your utilization and realization rates. Creating a series of best practices you can use to produce the results your litigation firm needs.

You have a mission.

Increase the firm’s billings by a minimum of 10 percent in three hour’s time.

You can do it.

With the right approach and a focus on time tracking and billing best practices you’ll have the skill set you need to improve your firm’s performance on demand.

Now’s your chance.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with practice management software. You may have a general idea about why it’s important.

Now’s the time to strike.

The ABA’s legal technology report 2017 found many firms already use practice management software. At first glance, this doesn’t sound like an opportunity. It sounds like saturation.

Why “practice management” isn’t what it seems

There is a surprising secret here.

When it comes to software, the term “practice management” has a very broad definition. What does that mean exactly? It means 57% of those surveyed in the above report consider Microsoft Outlook and effective practice management tool.

Outlook is indispensable.

But it’s not a practice management tool. Yes, Outlook has email, calendaring, and contacts functionality. But Outlook lacks the timekeeping, billing and accounting functionality firms need. It’s missing the document, project and matters management your firm needs.

It’s not a dedicated tool.

It was never intended to be. It’s an ad hoc solution that’s adapted to meet the needs of attorneys and growing law firms. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not advocating that you abandon Microsoft Outlook altogether.

It’s actually the opposite.

I’m advocating that you augment Microsoft Outlook with a true practice management solution that performs the way your firm needs it to.

But why?

Why would your family law firm need a practice management solution?

You already know the answer to this problem

Non-billable work.

That phrase snaps everything into perspective, doesn’t it? If you’re like most law firms, your associates are spending (wasting) a significant amount of billable time on non-billable work.

It’s an unpleasant reality.

Furthermore, your employees hate filling out timesheets so they do their best to delay the inevitable. When they finally fill out their timesheets, they’re often wildly inaccurate. As a result, firms struggle routinely with under and overbilling.

But wait, there’s more.

You’re expected to wrangle with document management and retention headaches. You’ll need a client portal to communicate privately (and securely) with clients. You’ll need your associates to fill their timesheets out accurately and on time (which is difficult).

It’s too much to carry.

Yet that’s exactly what many family law firms are attempting to do right now. They’re attempting to manage all of their non-billable work on their own.

It’s soul crushing.

The good news here is that it’s also completely unnecessary.

You need help carrying your burdens

You work so hard.

You’re spending a significant amount of time on essential minutia. On the important non-billable work that needs to be done but absolutely shouldn’t be done by timekeepers in your firm.

It’s worse for you.

It’s difficult and stressful enough for attorneys in standard practice areas like business, tax or real estate law. It’s far worse for you because you’re dealing with emotional volatility. You’re seeing clients (and/or their loved ones) at their worst.

It’s high stress all the time.

Typically, there is a significant amount of emotion and hostility involved. Client expectations are high. Often times clients are facing a significant downside. The pressure on you to perform is constant, never-ending.

This is why you need help.

Client trauma + essential minutia = burnout

The research bears this out.

• Stress, Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, and Other Emotional Realities in the Lawyer/Client Relationship: A Panel Discussion
• Secondary Trauma and Compassion Fatigue when Working with Clients in Crisis
• Do Not Make their Trauma Your Trauma: Coping with Burnout as a Family Law Attorney
• Vicarious Traumatization: The Corrosive Consequences of Law Practice for Criminal Justice and Family Law Practitioners

Those practicing family law have a unique fight on their hands. It’s the fight against compassion fatigue, vicarious and secondary traumatization. The research shows it’s a consistent and distressing problem for those in your practice area.

It’s not easy.

But you can be successful, with the right tools.

Do the right tools relieve your burdens?

They should.

Your management burdens should disappear. That’s what good software does. Good software eliminates your problems. Great software eliminates your problems, simultaneously teaching and correcting your team without your direct, day-to-day involvement.

Great isn’t enough.

Great software requires an amazing team alongside it. When your team runs into trouble, get stuck on a routine issue or simply needs to ask a few “foolish” questions, they’re going to need help. Who will they run into? A customer support rep who simply can’t be bothered with their mundane problem or a consummate professional that’s looking for a chance to add value?

This should be your long-term focus.

Let’s be honest here. You not really looking for a software solution, are you? That’s the last thing you need right now. You’re looking for a solution to your problems. You’re looking for consistent results. Let’s say you’re in the market for practice management software.

Where do you start?

You’re interested in the results we’ve just discussed. What specifically should you be looking for?

Requirement #1: The feature set you need

Notice I didn’t say the feature set you want. It’s important to focus on the core set of features you need to manage your firm successfully.

What does this mean?

You’re looking for primary features such as…

• Accounting and reporting: Immediate and on-demand access to accounting data including but not limited to: outstanding balances, work-in-progress, aging reports and more. You should be able to access reports outlining profit per employee/partner, profitable practice areas and more.
• Calendar/docketing: You’ll need a simple and straightforward way to keep track of your appointments, meetings, events and court proceedings. Your software should work with common platforms like Microsoft Outlook.
• Client portals: The vast majority of your clients are going through an emotionally turbulent time. They’re going to want clear and consistent communication from you. The client portal gives you a significant degree of control over the amount of time and access the client has to you and the employees in your firm. This separation gives you the ability to focus your attention on your client’s matter rather than emotional support. Remember, it’s about the advocacy.
• Document management and retention: Many large firms rely on on-premise software. As a result, employees who are out of the office are typically unable to access the documents or data they need. Additionally, the search capabilities and user rights management protocols of most document management tools are poor. This means most employees are saving confidential client data to their personal Dropbox accounts. Ideally, your document management solution handles three specific areas for you: (1.) Storage, retention and access (2.) Security and user rights management (3.) User access and version control (to avoid creating duplicate content).
• Matter, project and task management: Who’s doing what and when? Which employees are the most productive? Are tasks being completed on time? Are client matters handled proficiently? This feature should provide you with a real-time, comprehensive view of what’s being done for each client or matter at any given time.
• Online payments: The easier it is for your clients to pay your invoice, the more likely you are to be paid fully and on time. You should be able to bill, invoice and receive payment through a single, unified system. Technical prowess and financial expertise should not be a prerequisite.
• Time and expense tracking, billing, invoicing: Automatic time tracking is a must. Manual timekeeping is expensive and inaccurate leading to billable leakage and under or overbilling. Time tracking should be initiated with the push of a button and completely hands-free. You should be able to record billable and non-billable time. Separately track internal non-client time, and track staff, contractors and consultants for precision accuracy.
• Compliance and performance requirements: You should be able to reconcile Trust and IOLTA accounts without a secondary application. You should have full access to the UTBMS litigation code set.
• Data security: Cybercriminals are aggressively targeting law firms’ data. Data breaches are becoming routine for solo and small firms. Your practice management software should be secure. Your data should be secure both in-transit and at rest. Look for 256-bit encryption and SSAE 16 (SOC 1) compliance.

Secondary features such as…

• Mobile accessibility: Your team should have access the full feature set, your data and tools both in and outside the office. If your team relies on automatic timekeeping in the office they shouldn’t devolve into manual timekeeping when they’re on the road. Your team should have access to the same suite of tools whether in-house, on the road or out of the country.
• Online and off-line access: You’ve just lost internet access but there’s work to be done. Can you still track your time automatically? The answer should be a resounding yes. You should be able to consistently access core features of your application whether you’re online or off.
• Data migration: Your practice management provider to offer a straightforward method to migrate your data. If migration is a challenge, your providers should be willing to help you migrate key portions of your data over to their platform at no cost to you.
• Third-party integration: Your practice management software needs to integrate with the tools you’re already using. It should integrate with the tools you’re already using e.g. Microsoft Outlook, QuickBooks, Box, Stripe, PayPal, and others. There should be a clear roadmap or plan to follow for future integrations and upgrades.

More importantly, these features need to be implemented thoughtfully. Some providers eschew hard requirements. They claim to provide firms with customization and flexibility as a compelling value-add. You should be free to run your firm your way, they say.

This increases risk and liability to your firm.

How?

Customization, when mismanaged creates legal liability. Remember the user rights example I shared earlier? The one where associates saved confidential client data to their Dropbox accounts?

That came from too much flexibility.

Your practice management provider should (a.) Have the feature set your family law firm needs (b.) be able to explain their specific implementation of those features providing you with a limited amount of flexibility and (c.) show you (and your team) how to use those features.

Requirement #2: Verify performance, vet customer service

What happens when you call for help?

Can you reach a real person when you call? How long does that take? When can you connect with someone via live chat? When you do connect with customer support how do they treat you?

You’ll need to ask questions.

With a good provider, it’s easy to get your data in and out of the platform. But not without considerable disruption to your business. Asking questions, verifying service quality ahead of time gives you the confidence and clarity you need to see their service for what it truly is.

Which questions need answers?

• Are support reps knowledgeable and clear?
• How often are your questions answered completely and concisely?
• Are support teams patient and kind or are they condescending and rude?
• How long do you have to wait for help or a reply to your support ticket?
• What do other customers say about the product?
• How do support teams handle “dumb” questions?
• Will support reps import your clients for you?
• Do they bill you for extra training, service or support?
• Are you consistently forced to rearrange your schedule around their needs?
• Do they have training-aids available at any time?
• How do they respond when you’re at your worst emotionally?

You’ll want to verify and validate the service you’ll receive before you become a customer.

Requirement #3: Ease of use

Your practice management solution should be easy to use. It shouldn’t be a headache or hassle for new associates and support teams.

The software should be intuitive.

There should be contextual clues and built-in training aids. These training aids should show your employees how to use the software appropriately. Yes, training should be readily available but this isn’t really ideal, is it? In an ideal scenario, your employees should be able to get started immediately. They should be able to figure things out fairly quickly on their own.

When this happens your software disappears.

It becomes a solution to your firm’s problems. Your software should perform beautifully without requiring a great deal of customization or flexibility.

It should just work.

It should perform immediately, generating the results you need without a significant investment of time or energy.

Now’s your chance to relieve your burden

Most firms aren’t on board yet.

As we’ve seen, the term “practice management” has a very broad definition. Almost 6 out of 10 surveyed considered Microsoft Outlook an effective “practice management” solution.

Outlook is indispensable.

But it’s not a practice management tool. It’s an ad hoc tool that’s been co-opted by the industry. Like many other practice management tools it works, but it’s just not good enough.

You deserve better.

If you’re like most firms, you lose a significant amount of billable time to essential minutia. What’s worse, your practice area keeps you under an incredible amount of stress.

Client trauma + essential minutia = burnout.

The right tool relieves (some) of your burdens. It frees you from the essential minutia most attorneys struggle with on a daily basis. An ideal practice management solution frees you from these headaches. It gives you the consistent results your firm needs to grow.

But only if you know what to look for.

Now you do. It all comes down to questions. Asking the right questions     gives you the data you need to identify your ideal solution.

This isn’t simply a software problem, it’s a software + service problem.

Identify the right provider, one that delivers the software + service you need. You’ll find you have the opportunity and support your firm needs to pull ahead of your peers.

Have you missed the blind spots that affect your firm’s realization metrics? They’re easy to miss. In fact, when it comes to collection realization rates, our attention tends to be squarely focus on one thing.

Getting clients to pay.

This is natural and somewhat unavoidable. We’re supposed to asses these metrics. Realization metrics should be viewed as part of the story rather than becoming the whole story.

We’re conditioned to focus on what we can see

We’ve sent out our invoices.

Did our clients pay it? How many of our clients paid our invoices? How many paid early or late? How many are chronic late payers?

These are great questions to ask.

But they leave us with a lopsided view of the full picture.

Why?

There are disaster zones lurking in our blind spots, ravaging our realization rates and profitability. And, because they’re in our blind spots, they’re essentially impossible to fix. The adage, while cliché, is true in this case.

Knowing truly is half the battle.

Let’s take a look at three of the blind spots affecting your firm’s realization metrics.

Blind spot #1: A lack of understanding

What did they agree to?

Do your clients know specifically what they agreed to when decision-makers decided to hire your firm? Did key decision makers share the memo with everyone else on their team?

Or, is there something else going on?

Imagine that, as a corporate attorney, clients have signed on to have you handle a specific matter. You, decision-makers and your point of contact are all in agreement.

Accounting is not.

They received a very different set of instructions from someone in their company with authority to override your agreement.

Perhaps not knowingly.

But, your realization rates have been affected all the same. How do you handle this?

You communicate.

You let the appropriate teams know: (a.) what your original agreement is/was and when it was signed. (b.) that a specific decision maker approved your request (easily confirmed with a friendly cc).

It’s a win.

Here’s why. If there’s any foul play this flushes duplicity out into the open. If it’s an innocent mistake, it’s easily corrected and the accounting department learns to trust you and your firm.

It’s simple to do but it’s not always easy.

Blind spot #2: Clients are unwilling to pay

The reasons are plentiful.

Maybe you didn’t follow their billing guidelines. Or, they’re unhappy that their invoice doesn’t match expectations.

Assessment isn’t as helpful here.

A focus on metrics gives you the “who” and “what.” The clients who have paid vs. those who haven’t.

It doesn’t give you the “why.”

You can’t improve your firm’s realization rates without understanding the why. The why gives you context. It exposes the deeper underlying problems behind your client’s resistance.

Two interesting things happen when you make it a habit to search for the why.

1. Your realization metrics lose prominence. This is a very good thing. Answering the why shows you that, while realization rates are important, the specifics of your situation should take priority.
2. Your collection realization rates go up. As you begin to identify and address the why, your relationships with clients begin to change. Clients realize you’re eager and willing to take their concerns seriously. They see that you’re willing to commit to self reflection.

This creates a virtuous cycle.

Clients begin to realize that your interests are directly aligned with theirs. If the team you’re working with is fair and reasonable, your realization rates will begin to climb.

This is vital.

But it’s also a frequently ignored detail.

Blind spot #3: Inaccurate employee data

Are your employees tracking all of their time? It’s easy to assume your employees are tracking most of their time accurately. Sure, they hate filling out timesheets, but they’ve done it consistently.

Why would there be a need to think otherwise?

Because it’s not true. How do we know?

Time leaks.

This is a failure to produce or accurately record billable time. This immediately results in over or under-billing. An associate performs a particular task but they don’t fill out their time sheet until the end of the day or the end of the week. They completed 12 hours of work but only report 8.

In fact, the longer your associates wait to record their time, the more inaccurate your realization rates will be.

• You lose 10% of your billable time if you record time the day of, once a day.
• You lose 25% if you wait 24 hours to record your time.
• You lose 50% if you wait one week.

Imagine making 50 percent more simply by recording your time as-it-happens?

Can you see what the data is screaming?

The 2018 Report on the State of the Legal Market states realization rates are well below 85 percent. This means firms are losing 65 to 85 percent of the revenue that rightfully belongs to them!

It’s a financial disaster hiding comfortably in your blind spot.

The best way to fix the problem?

Set up automatic time tracking. Create firm-wide habits to ensure (a.) timekeeping is accurate and (b.) you’re capturing all of your time. It’s an instant and simple way to improve collection realization rates.

This shows you the whole story.

You’ll gain valuable insights in to your top performers and your laggards, your efficiency as a firm and the things you’ll need to do to improve.

Improvement means shifting our focus

Metrics can be deceiving.

When it comes to collection realization rates, our attention tends to be squarely focus on one thing.

Getting clients to pay.

We’re conditioned to focus on the details we can see. We hunt for the “what” but we neglect the “why.” These blind spots affect your firm’s realization rates.

Don’t miss this.

Focus on the whole story. Analyze the what, but pursue the why. Reach out to your clients, study your employees. Do this consistently and you’ll boost your firm’s collection realization rates, one client at a time.

Smart lawyers leverage technology to minimize those monotonous tasks that just aren’t an efficient use of time.

There are opportunities everywhere to streamline the efficiency of your firm, but you need to know where to look.

If you’re like most attorneys, you’ve got too many responsibilities and still find yourself spending your valuable time on tasks that can be automated.

The work is piling up.

Sometimes it feels like it’s just you. As if you’re the only one that’s struggling to get all of these menial repetitious tasks done.  But it isn’t.

Lawyers everywhere have too much to do and too little time

They’re all drowning in work.

The research is actually painfully clear. If you’re a knowledge worker, your brain maxes out at four to six hours of work. Per day.

That’s right.

Research of the Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson confirms this. Ericsson is the author of the famous study on the 10,000 hour rule. Alex Pang shares extensive research on this in his book “Rest: Why you get more done when you work less.” Sara Robinson at Salon, shares additional research on our brain’s four hour time limit.

Here’s the problem.

Lawyers waste four to six hours on non-billable work

It’s something I’ve mentioned before.

Lawyers lose four to six hours every day to non-billable work. Why is that a problem? Attorneys are spending their mental energy on tasks they could automate or outsource. They’re wasting their most productive hours of the day on low value work.

It gets worse.

Lawyers are routinely putting in 2,500 hours annually. Firms are demanding 3,000 billable hours annually. Your peers and partners may expect you to become a “work martyr.”

Unreasonable? Yes.

But it’s just as unreasonable to give your most productive hours away. These non-billable tasks aren’t as important as billable work but they still need to get done.

There’s no way around it.

Actually, there is. It’s automation. With the right approach you can automate, semi-automate, outsource and delegate your non-billable work.

The kind of tasks lawyers should use automation, but don’t

Some to-dos are tedious.

They’re repetitive. They eat up a significant amount of your time, creating a never-ending stream of confusion and distraction. Make no mistake, these tasks are necessary.

It’s just not necessary for you to do it.

With the right approach and a bit of automation, you can win a significant amount of your productive time, back. It takes a bit of work upfront but that’s the good news. The work is frontloaded and easy to integrate.

Which tasks?

1. Schedule meetings and appointments
2. Automate tasks and deadlines
3. Automated time tracking to simplify billing and invoicing
4. Client intake and follow up
5. Automate document assembly
6. Bookkeeping
7. Client support
8. Review management

1. Scheduling, meetings and appointments

“When do you want to meet?” That’s how it starts. Then you and your client or co-worker haggle back and forth over a time that works best for everyone.

This is wasteful.

Here’s how you can eliminate the hassle of scheduling, setting meetings and appointments yourself, for good.

First, head over to Calendly and sign up for an account. It’s free and best of all, it integrates with Outlook, iCloud and Google Calendar. I’d recommend a premium account as this gives you more helpful features.

Next, set up your account.

There are several tutorials on YouTube you can watch to get things setup quickly. Here’s one you can use to get started.

You’ll want to integrate Calendly to your calendar, complete your settings, set your availability and create your first event. You’ll want to set blackout dates, block out time and confirm things are set just the way you like it.

All set? Good.

Finally, you’ll want to create an email signature in your email client. Adding this will funnel email recipients to schedule a meeting, call or event with Calendly.

One last thing.

This part is easy but it takes discipline. Funnel everyone, and I mean everyone – co-workers, partners, clients, vendors – anyone who wants your time – through Calendly. Use this as your main point of entry for anyone and everyone that wants to meet with you.

It’s easy.

When they try to schedule a meeting via email. Send them your Calendly link. When they try to stop by in person give them your Calendly link. Some people will try to go around your system. It’s your responsibility to say No.

2. Automate tasks and deadlines

A missed deadline is embarrassing.

But it’s inevitable if you rely on old school strategies and tactics. Post it notes, excel files and email reminders aren’t a good way to manage your law firm.

There’s a better way.

According to David Allen, Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. Practice management software gives you a simple and straightforward way to Get Things Done.

With task manager, you can create workflows that get the tasks you need to accomplish out of your head and into a trusted system that will remind you about the work that needs to be done.

It’s a simple and straightforward way to automate tasks 

3. Automated time tracking to simplify billing and invoicing

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you were able to track your billable hours automatically? It seems attorneys as a whole struggle to get this right. Automatic time tracking would simplify the billing and invoicing process, wouldn’t it?

With the right time tracking software you can.

With Bill4Time, you’re able to track your billable hours automatically.

Here’s how it works:

Here’s why this matters.

You’ll be able to define time tracking based on your fee arrangements or type of task. You set things up initially, outline your billable hours, travel time and activity. Then you determine whether your time is billable or not.

It’s web and app based.

But time tracking takes place on the server. That’s worry-free tracking. Close your browser accidentally, your smartphone died prematurely? No problem, you continue to track your time. Need to make changes to your time? You can edit your entry in a few clicks.

This makes it simple and easy for clients to pay.

4. Client intake and follow-up

What happens when a prospective client reaches out to you on your website or via your ads? If you’re like most attorneys, you waste a significant amount of time with prospects who aren’t ready to sign an agreement. You or someone in your firm reaches out prematurely.

This is terrible.

There’s a better way. Here’s what you can do to automate prospective client and new client intake. You’re probably wondering how.

With email automation.

Here’s how the strategy works in a nutshell.

• Determine who your clients are and what they want.
• Map out your intake process.
• Create content that guides clients through your intake process.

Sounds pretty simple.

I’m going to use MailChimp, a bulk email service provider, for our example here but you should choose the platform/provider that works best for you. Choose carefully, as changing your mind is difficult once this is setup. If you already have an email service provider just use that.

Okay.

First, head over to MailChimp and sign up for an account. They offer free, pro and premium email marketing services for busy professionals.

Here’s how you do it.

Next, create a client intake workflow.

This could be as simple as:

(1.) contact form > (2.) request a phone consultation (via Calendly)  >  (3.) ask intake questions > (4.) request in person meeting > (5.) ready to sign agreement

You’ll need workflows for:

1. Marketing content (e.g. whitepapers, guides and ebooks)
2. Contact form requests to qualify or disqualify prospective clients
3. New client workflows once your client signs on the dotted line
4. Prospects who complete workflows 1 or 2 but don’t sign up (e.g. legal newsletter)

Here are a few examples you can use to create your own workflows. All set with these workflows? You’re ready for the next step.

Content.

You’ll want to create a personalized email message for each step of your workflow. You’re going to take these messages and turn them into an autoresponder sequence. Here’s a blog post outlining how you do that. Here’s a short tutorial if you prefer to watch.

Not sure what an autoresponder is?

It’s a series of emails that are automatically delivered over a set period of time. It’s similar to a mail merge that’s delivered to as many prospects as you need, as often as you need.

Isn’t this a guide to automation?

What’s with all the extra work? The work here is frontloaded. It’s set and forget work you can use to maximize your productivity.

5. Automate document assembly

Legal documents can be tedious and repetitive.

Inexperienced attorneys make a common mistake. They waste a significant amount of time inserting the same clauses into their agreements and documents over and over and over again.

It’s counterproductive and unnecessary.

Wait a minute.

The documents and agreements you’re drafting need to have the right data. How are you supposed to add the data you need if you’re not allowed to “waste time?”

With Macro templates.

Macro templates enable you to quickly create documents, forms and updated content automatically. With macro enabled templates, you’re able to draft high quality agreements and documents. You’re able to insert the data you need when you need it.

Here’s how you do it.

Here’s a few additional primers that cover macro enabled templates in more detail.

Here’s how you can work with text variables.

Use these advanced tips to create what you need automatically.

6. Bookkeeping

Accounting isn’t a pleasant to-do item for many attorneys.

Law firms typically struggle with hiring, training, managing and retaining bookkeepers. Solo, small and even large firms struggle with the bookkeeping aspects of legal work.

This creates issues with cash flow.

What if there was a way to automate bookkeeping for your firm? With Bill4Time you can track:

• Payments and expenses
• Balances and payment activity
• Outstanding balances
• Credits and debits
• Balance adjustments

First, create a free trial account. Once you’re signed in click your username > settings. Then follow the instructions below to setup your account.

Second, setup payment processing. You can automatically connect your account with payment processing providers like PayPal and Stripe. What if you need to share data with your accountant? Bill4Time integrates with accounting apps like Quickbooks.

Here’s how you do that.

These accounting details are automatically tracked/updated via the time tracking, invoicing and billing features in the app. This automates the important bookkeeping aspects your firm needs to remain profitable.

7. Client support

You should always be available.

Always.

It’s the secret desire your clients have. When a new problem rears its ugly head at 2am they want reassurance from you. It’s not really appropriate though, is it? It also sets a dangerous precedent.

You aren’t always available.

What if you were? What if someone from your business could be available 24/7/365 to handle a large portion of your client concerns?

It’s possible.

How? With Chatbots.

Chatbots give you the opportunity to handle client support issues that crop up from time to time. What if there’s an emergency? Your Chatbot can help you screen these messages, separating them from the non-urgent details that can wait.

What if clients have a routine question?

Your Chatbot can handle it so you can get the downtime you need to come back refreshed and ready to work.

This is all fairly new though.

How do you go about making something as sophisticated as a Chatbot work for your firm?

First, head over to TapRight Chatbot and create a free account. Enter your work email, then confirm your email address, choose your plan and then login.

You’ll need to make a list of your:

• Client’s concerns and objections
• Common client support problems
• Emergency situations
• Responses to each situation

These details aren’t particularly complicated but they do take a bit of thought and upfront preparation. All set with your list? You’re ready to create your Chatbots.

Next, create your bot. Here’s how you do it.

Follow the video tutorials in each step to create a bot that works well with your clients.

Once your Chatbot is created you can use/integrate them with:

• Your website(s)
• Facebook messenger
• Customer service platforms like HelpScout
• MailChimp
• Your favorite CRM tool in Zapier
• Or any other app in Zapier
• Phone, SMS, voicemail, video and WhatsApp via Twilio

Why does this matter? Your Chatbot gives you the opportunity to segment and sort through prospective clients. Instead of spending your time carelessly, you’re sorting prospects and clients based on a variety of factors including.

• Need
• Urgency
• Motive
• Intent

This gives you and your support teams the chance to focus on the work that matters at any given time.

8. Review management and marketing

Reviews attract clients.

Amazing five star reviews act as magnets. They draw more of your clients in to your business.

You know why.

Social proof. Your clients expect you to say you’re amazing (you are). But they don’t want to hear it from you. They want to hear it from your clients. Imagine the effect 1,000 five star reviews would have on prospects? Especially when compared with attorneys who have 10 or 12 reviews?

In their eyes you’re legendary.

Is it possible to automate or semi automate review management?

Absolutely.

Head over to TapRight and create a new Chatbot. Next, head over to Twilio and create a free Twilio account and API key. If you don’t know how to code you’ll want to reach out to your web developer for help.

Here’s how you do it.

Finally, head to Zapier and create a free account if you haven’t already. Zapier is a bridge that’s going to allow you to connect your TapRight Chatbot to Twilio phone and voice services.

Here’s how you create what Zapier calls a “Zap.”

Here’s what you want your Zap to do.

1. Use your Chatbot to send clients a review request SMS message with a link [Here are 40 free SMS templates you can use].
2. Send clients to a review site that’s specific to your needs (e.g. Avvo, Google, Facebook or Yelp).
3. Add clients to a MailChimp autoresponder sequence. An email sequence for those who left a review and an SMS sequence for clients who ignored you.
4. Add the clients who ignored you to an autoresponder or triggering event follow-up sequence.
5. Make an irresistible offer to clients that declined your offer.

If you’re using a review management platform like Grade.us you can create an autoresponder sequence directly in their review management app. You’ll want to make sure that your messages are tagged appropriately whether you’re using an email service like MailChimp or a platform like Grade.us.

Lawyers everywhere have too many menial tasks that can be automated

Most lawyers are exhausted and overworked. They’re spending an incredible amount of time and energy on tasks that should be automated. They’re wasting their most productive hours of the day on low value work.

Lawyers need to automate.

The pressure is on. The demands on your time grow each year. Your clients, partners, co-workers and peers expect more from you.

Lawyers are routinely putting in 2,500 hours annually. Firms are demanding 3,000 billable hours annually. Your co-workers and partners may expect you to become a “work martyr.”

Unreasonable? Yes.

But it’s just as unreasonable to give your most productive hours away. These non-billable tasks aren’t as important as billable work but they still need to get done.

There’s no way around it.

Actually, there is. It’s automation. With a systematic approach you can automate, semi-automate, outsource and delegate your non-billable work.

Do it well and you’ll find the hours you have each day continue to grow.