Maine Law Practice Management

Law firms tend to let their hardware run . . . and run . . . and run – until it can’t run no more .   Most often law firm hardware breaks down, wheezing .  Now, I don’t want to say that attorneys are cheap; so, let’s call them ‘ thrifty ’ , instead .  But, the fact of the matter is that, the longer you run old hardware, the more susceptible you are to data security issues, spiraling repair costs and efficiency downgrades .  It actually makes more sense ( and, it’s cheaper – for a whole host of reasons) to replace your hardware more often, on a regular schedule – and, this is a lot easier (and less expensive) to do in an environment where law firms are using less and less hardware, given the adoption of cloud software.     Take the example of an old laptop; and, I’ve seen law firms running computers that are over a decade old .  One of the problems with that strategy, which is ostensibly cost-saving , is that the computer is slower than a ...

Lawyers make ad hoc decisions about business management , all the time .  But, those decisions are often wrong – because they’re built on false assumptions about how the business works .  Attorneys often overestimate how much money they make, and underestimate how much money they pay out, in terms of case expenses and overhead .  That leads to a lot of disappointment, as you might imagine.   But, there is a pathway to make better decisions about how to run a law firm – and, as it turns out, the data’s right there in front of you .  Most law firms are using case management software or accounting software, which is where law firm financial data is arrayed .  The majority of attorneys capture that information for tax and billing purposes only ; but, they don’t use it for anything else .  But, each of those systems include custom reports and useful dashboards , that can provide you insight into the financial health of your law firm .  W...

It’s always been important for law firms to archive the entire set of communications between attorneys, staff and clients (and leads).     And, that’s become easier to do, over time, as technology has advanced .     The cloud made it easier to access that data across devices and in different places ; it also democratized the buy-in and continuing costs for law firm technology, so more law firms could access it.   Case management software, as a relational database, allowed for attorneys to capture data across systems, and organize it via matters.     Customer relationship management software exists, in part, so that attorneys can aggregate lead data.     Even texting, typically done on lawyers’ own smartphones, has made it into the official record, as it were – because there are now business texting applications, and many softwares are building in text messaging as a feature.     This is important for two main reasons .  ...