LEAP Legal Podcast

Be obsessive about customer service. Don’t allow clients to walk into your firm to be rudely greeted or left waiting for an appointment. So many firms overlook client service. Providing exceptional client service is a simple way to seize a tremendous competitive edge. Make it easy for clients to read their documents securely, to interact with the firm online, to pay you, and to have the questions quickly answered.

Understanding your expenses is easy. Understanding the financial dynamics of matters is tricky. Good firms know how much profit they can make per matter type, allowing them to find the right blend of work to be profitable. If you can have every lawyer record what they are doing when they do it, you could unlock up to 30% profit, just from unrecorded or forgotten billings. This is what successful firms do to maximise their financial position.

A partner who once claimed, “I won’t train my staff because they might leave”, saw his law firm go broke, because you need good support staff to support your work. Don’t be dismissive about your support staff. After all, they are the single biggest expense after your partners. Recruit the best possible people. Give them a career path. Work with them to maximise their work life in favour of your law firm. You will be less stressed as a result.

Wells Fargo started life as a stage coach company. Now it is one of the most well-known banks in North America. Too often, law firms turn away technology, claiming, “No, our system gets the job done.” The mistake? No firm trying to run on decade old computer systems stays competitive. To succeed, firms must compete through constant innovation and new technology.

How will your clients pay you? Don’t skirt around this issue. Look intensely at the payment process. Look at the terms of the retainer agreement. Bills cannot sit serenely on window sills waiting for the right wind to blow. Send them, ensure you get paid, and if you are not, stop work. Good firms establish systems from the start to ensure they get paid.

Don’t live in fear of compliance. If you build a well-organised, disciplined business, with standard procedures and processes, compliance will be a natural consequence of the firm doing good work.

Efficiency is a choice. Law firms that choose to be efficient provide the fee-earners - the lawyers - with all the tools and technology they need for a productivity boost. But you need buy-in from enthusiastic employees to succeed.