Solomon Wong, the owner of Wong & Co, was thinking about what to discuss with his colleagues at his law firm’s management meeting next Tuesday. Although he was satisfied with the law firm’s growth, Solomon found himself worried about setting a new strategic direction for his firm. Thoughts raced in his mind, “How will we track our fee earners as we expand?” “How can we ensure compliance within the other countries as we service cross-border clients?”
Rising law firm owners like Solomon have a success-driven mindset. They place importance on proper legal practice management because they know it will make the firm more prosperous and profitable. On the other hand, the lack of best practices may result in lower profits and higher costs. Hence it is vital to understand what it takes to ensure excellent legal practice management.
This article will explore five best practices for legal practice management to help you flourish in today’s world.
Best Practice 1: Comply with Standards
As a growing law firm, complying with legal industry standards of various global organizations such as Bank Negara Malaysia or the Philippines BIR VAT systems is vital. Failure to comply with standards and rules can potentially cause a law firm to be liable for disciplinary proceedings. You should implement internal processes and professional requirements to ensure no compromise when it comes to compliance.
Best Practice 2: Reduce costs
Do you compare the cost of having in-house lawyers versus external lawyers? Streamline the cost of your annual legal education or electronic legal research? Monitor the type of documents that are being printed? It’s hard to notice where unnecessary costs can occur and even harder to scrutinize the firm’s every expense, but this is a necessary step to improve your bottom line. Take a balanced and step-by-step approach to managing your costs.
Best Practice 3: Manage deadlines effectively
We get it. The long hours and endless paperwork are stressful. Sometimes, your social life gets affected, and you may even miss important family events. But adequately managing appointments and schedules are crucial for your firm. If your team does not follow the schedule, they may miss filing the appeal in the given time. Ensure that you keep track of your entire team’s activities and place priority into planning and scheduling. It will also free up your time so that you can plan and live a more balanced lifestyle.
Best Practice 4: Track Your Fee Estimates
Some attorneys hesitate at the idea of keeping track of their time on every case. It feels cumbersome, and sometimes unforeseen circumstances arise. However, rather than quoting an amount based on how your colleagues handled a similar client, it is better to find a way to track your time spent on a case effectively. It will enable you to obtain a reasonable fee from your clients.
Best practice 5: Ensure that your accounting system is efficient
“Law firms are terrible at billing,” shares Alex Dimitrief, General Electric’s counsel. Mr. Dimitrier adds, “their two biggest problems are transparency and timeliness.” He’s right. Keeping effective billing and accounting records is crucial to comply with legal requirements and provide transparency to clients. Without it, there could be payment difficulties. Either ensure that your accounting department is efficient or look into software to help your accounting team work better and faster.
If you feel that these legal management best practices are expensive and time-consuming to implement, we are here to prove to you that it is not. Besides, implementing these best practices will help you improve your law practice’s efficiency, manage staff better, reduce costs, grow your bottom line, and comply with standards.
All you need is powerful and affordable legal technology like CoreMatter, a cloud legal practice management, accounting, and billing system without any contractual obligations, no additional upgrade costs, and no strings attached. You don’t even have to buy new computers or technical gear. It’s also very user-friendly and easy to use.
At a fee of only USD29.99 per user/ month, your firm can get all of the best practices above automated and optimized for your law firm’s success. And this service is precisely what Solomon Wong opted for to help improve his law firm’s efficiency.
“CoreMatter is a dream come true for all small and medium-sized firms – it is not only economical, but it maximizes billing efficiency. The prompt response and competency of its technical support team make CoreMatter a completely reliable system.” ~ Solomon Wong, the owner of Wong & Co.
If you schedule a demonstration now, you will receive one (1) month of usage free upon the service activation. Just click on https://corematter.biz/signup/ to sign up.
