Maine Law Practice Management

Most law firms are distributed businesses, at this point , to some degree .  T he way that people work has be en changed forever.  That, in part, means that working from home will become more accepted in the law firm environment, and a larger part of every lawyer’s workday.   What the pandemic has exposed is that there are significant advantages to working from home , many of which are centered around cost savings, including: the reduction of a physical office footprint, the move to cloud services and a reduction in commuting costs and times for employees and staff.     One of the reasons that law firms have not more fully engaged remote work/distributed workforces, is because there are no rails around that process.  So, it makes sense, now more than ever, for law firms to develop formalized work from home policies, as part of their larger policies and procedures manuals.  (Of course, if your law firm doesn’t already have a policies & procedures...

For years, law firms have been able to access reduced overhead expenses, across a number of categories, including office space .  But, that cost reduction can extend to technology and staffing, as well -- especially since technology upgrades often lead to workflow automation, which often reduces the size of staff, or focuses existing staff on more important, less rote tasks.   Yet, all those advantages have existed for law firms for years, and they have been reluctant to take advantage, for whatever reasons.  Even now, many attorneys remain resistant to change their decisionmaking to reflect the realities of a modern, virtual l egal practice .     There’s also this: With unprecedented economic pressure in place, the vast majority of law firms will start to virtualize, which carries with it reduced office space requirements, reduced staffing needs and more flexible technology.   So if your law firm doesn’t modernize, you’ll be swamped by those who do. ...

Lawyers tend to manage in place.  They oversee staff by walking around the office, to randomly check in on people, like Lumberg from ‘Office Space’ .  They can also be vicious micromanagers.  It’s understandable to an extent, of course; if someone in the office screws up in a major way, it’s the attorney’s license that’s on the line.  I get it.  But, there is a better way; and, a way that is becoming increasingly necessary for law firms .   In the current environment, law firms are managing distributed workforces on the fly.  Sometimes , there’s no more physical office available to be occupied , to walk around in .  No more coworkers in your physical presence to hover over.  So, what do you do now ?     It’s time to finally rely on technology to manage your law firm.  Managing a remote staff is about creating task-based, time-sensitive workflows , in order to keep an eye on each employee’s progress on each case, without b...

When it comes to engagement agreements, law firms often practice a ‘less is more’ philosophy.  Doing what is ethically required in terms of identifying rates and scope of representation covers what you need to tell your clients; but, it may not be all that you want to tell your clients.  M odern law firms, as well as modern legal consumers, can also focus on important additional clauses.  For instance, modern legal consumers may want to know about the technology a law firm uses, as well as the data security principles to which it adheres.  Modern legal consumers expect that type of transparency from data and software companies; and, as law firms become more technically viable moving forward, there are going to be more similarities than differences between those two (seemingly wholly different) business models.     If this sounds like a thrilling (well, maybe not) new endeavor, you can start by including a technology clause into your fee agreement. ...