Maine Law Practice Management

Many law firms still operate with pen - and - paper time and billing system s ; but, that’s like a recipe for losing money.   Of course , there’s no time like the present to change your ways, and recapture more of the money you make.   There are two moves you can apply, in short order, to revise your time and billing practices , that will combine to change your (work) life: (1) Move to a single-entry system for billing; (2) Get a law practice management software system in place.  The first maneuver is something that lawyers are traditionally reticent to do, because it seems to place more work in their laps : rather than handwriting time capture notes and submitting them to a secretary, attorneys are instead inputting their own time capture data into a time capture software directly .  That process only happens once (not twice, like when you write down your time, and then have your secretary convert it to another system), and thereby reduces the likelihood f...

Over the course of the last four years, law firms have become more comfortable with online solutions .  And, lawyers have started to mov e as many analog processes as they can to digital processes.     Law firms that are used to, or only willing to, manage in-person events have been required to reconsider that stance.  It’s time to rethink every process in your law firm to c reate online option s for what have traditionally been offline events.  Every offline transaction you utilize in your law practice, can be shifted to an online transaction.  And, if you’re not making those moves now, the question is when will you?  If you didn’t mak e the transition to a modern law practice during a global pandemic, then when will you?     It was important even before the coronavirus changed everyone’s life to offer law firm clients digital alternatives -- now, it’s essential.       . . .     If you’re struggling with the t...

Imagine if Henry Ford had tried to create massive efficiency within the automotive industry, and just hired people, before he started building assembly lines.  It would have been a disaster.  At that point, one of the greatest innovations of the 20th Century becomes just another Hindenb u rg disaster.     Yet, law firms try to do this all the time!  They onboard staff and associates without any sort of processes or workflows in pla c e.  That’s part of the reason why law firms, especially small law firms, tend to shy away from the hiring process: they’ve had bad experiences -- because they can’t effectively onboard new employees , because those new employees are dropped into the middle of a hurricane.     Imagine now a world in which you built the assembly line first.  As a solo or small firm business owner, you too should add the processes before you hire.  And, in the process of doing so, you will also ramp up your own personal eff...

There are legal consumers out there who don’t want you, you know.     There is a subset of DIY legal consumers that want legal information, advice and services -- but, they don’t want to pay a lawyer for those items, because they think that lawyers are too expensive, and because they think that they can do a passable job on their own.   In certain instances, they’re probably right -- on both counts.   At the point at which most lawyers understand that , the common reaction is to throw up one’s hands, and assert that such clients aren’t wanted by law firms, either .  For other attorneys, it’s a reason to gripe about services like LegalZoom and RocketLawyer , that provide documents to legal consumers, as well as links to lawyer ly advice.     Very few attorneys take the middle way, and decide to sell products and alternat iv e services to DIY clients.  Most attorneys will complain about a service like LegalZoom; but, those same attorneys won’t c...