“Teamwork. The clients want their outside lawyers to work together as a team—for the right hand to consistently know what the left hand is doing. There are a few pockets of effective collaboration out there, but no firm consistently gets it right firmwide.” David Burgess, the Publishing Director of The Legal 500.

David is right. Lawyers tend to try to go at it alone, and that rarely gains exceptional results.

It is essential to consider how legal management systems can help you develop a high performing legal team in your firm.

This article will cover the benefits of creating a high performing team and building it using legal management systems.

Why is a high-performing legal team critical?

An optimized legal management system leads to a law firm where solicitors are efficient, collaborative, and motivated to get results and drive profits.

Here are two benefits of having a high-performing legal team:

1. Reduction in employee turnover

It is no secret that the law industry has the highest turnover rates in the world. According to a JD Match and Right Profile report, the top 400 law firms in the world lose roughly $9.1 billion annually. The cost of this turnover is high because it compromises morale, forfeits hundreds of hours of training, affects a law firm’s reputation, and causes the clients to be suspicious or unhappy whenever a lawyer leaves.

With these statistics, it becomes evident that law firms must prioritize a legal management system that upholds a good work culture to retain their best employees.

2. Boost productivity and efficiency

A survey ALPMA/McLeod Duminy Salary and HR Issues revealed that young lawyers want recognition, transparency in salary calculations, regular and timely performance feedback, and a better understanding of the business of law. But most importantly, they want career development and meaningful work. If they do not see it, they have no reservations about moving on to find it.

A proper legal management system will enable you to build a culture where your employees can focus on their work in a meaningful way because it allows for direct feedback, team collaboration, fee tracking, and access to the management team.

How to Build a High Performing Legal Team Using Legal Management Systems

1. Encourage team collaboration

Good team collaboration ensures that every case is handled well and concluded on time. Employees who say they feel like part of a team are 2.3 times more likely to be fully engaged at work than those who are not.

Law firm owners must capitalize on technology to boost productivity. Millennials expect their direct reports to use technology for problem-solving. They see technology as a way to get more work done and to communicate with the team.

Law firms of all sizes can use legal tech like CoreMatter. This legal management system will enable everyone to be connected and updated with the latest Client or Matter developments, billings, and work-in-progress. Also, each user, depending on their roles, will have specific access to perform their work. As the firm’s owner or partner, you will know exactly how your team is performing.

2. Speed up Approvals and Disbursements

A law firm owner or partner is expected to support their staff with provisions and systems to achieve their goals. They must trust that every team member can responsibly complete tasks on time.

But many law firm owners face the problem of an inefficient system that sometimes delay approvals and cash disbursements.

Improper systems and lack of provisions cause employee burnout.

So how do law firm owners and partners avoid that? They should explore legal technology. CoreMatter’s Matter Approval and Disbursement Voucher Claims Approval modules help law firm owners and partners handle, assess, and manage matters and costs all from one phone app. At a glance, you can have an overall view on matters, financial status, and progress. These reports will help you or your partners decide and give approvals at just a click of a button.

3. Communicate directly with your team

“Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

The number one rule in communication is that everyone should be able to voice their thoughts and ideas. When you feel like some of your solicitors are not contributing enough to the discussions, empower them with the legal tech platform to voice their concerns so that your team can collectively solve or discuss it.

You can use CoreMatter’s powerful Memo module, which allows all users to write their notes, thoughts, ideas, status, updates, reports, and more. CoreMatter beats WhatsApp because all confidential matters remain on one app. It also enables the entire law firm to view every team member’s calendering system regardless of whether it is on Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar. Open communication will boost morale and accountability among all team members.

A Tool To Retain The Best Talents

A law firm’s performance is synonymous with the quality and capabilities of its talents. It is crucial for law firm owners and partners to get serious about attracting and retaining good employees. While good HR practices and the appointment of a “Well-Being Director” may help boost morale, the legal management system will ultimately keep all employees within the law firm engaged.

CoreMatter is the cloud legal practice management, accounting, and billing system that will help you and your employees succeed. At a fee of only USD29.99 per user/ month, it comes with other useful features like multiple timers, departmental accounting, and cloud access. All you need to do is to sign up and download the app.

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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.